Our Helpless Coast Defenses 



IN one hun- 

 dred years 

 of naval 

 warfare the 

 range of guns 

 has increased 

 twelve times, 

 the weight of 

 broadsides 

 twenty times, 

 the speed of 

 firing twenty 

 times and the 

 weight of pro- 

 jectiles eighty 

 times. The 

 most powerful 

 weapons at 

 present mount- 

 ed on a battle- 

 ship are the 

 fifteen-inch 

 guns of the 

 Queen Eliza- 

 beth, England's 

 famous super- 

 dreadnought. 

 They can hurl 

 sixteen-hun- 

 dred- pound 

 shells from one 

 end of Man- 

 hattan Island 

 to the other — 

 a distance of 

 fifteen miles. 

 The Queen 

 Elizabeth could 

 standoff nearly 

 two miles be- 

 yond the range 

 of our largest 

 twelve-inch 

 coast defense 

 rifles at Sandy Hook and destroy the fort. 

 And we — we could do nothing. The 

 splashes from our shells would be 

 seen by the officers on shore — evidences 

 of our inferiority. 



Making a Fonrteen-inch Gun Hit 

 Harder 

 The performance of the fifteen-inch 

 guns mounted on the latest English super- 



The gun crew of a twelve-inch mortar in one of our 

 coast-guard forts. These squat guns fire a heavy 

 projectile high in the air, and are able to do great 

 damage during an engagement. The shell at long 

 ranges rises three or even five miles in the air and 

 drops almost perpendicularly on its target 



dreadnoughts 

 ha\e stirred 

 the ingenuity 

 of our naval 

 ordnance 

 experts. For 

 our new battle- 

 ships, the 

 California, 

 Mississippi 

 and Idaho, 

 fourteen-inch 

 guns of forty- 

 fi\'e-caliber 

 were specified. 

 The caliber of 

 a gun is simply 

 its muzzle 

 diameter divi- 

 ded into the 

 length; a six- 

 inch gun of 

 fifty caliber is 

 t w e n t y - f i \' e 

 feet long. Ob- 

 viously these 

 fourteen-inch 

 guns would be 

 at a disad\an- 

 tage if opposed 

 by the fifteen- 

 inch guns of a 

 Queen Eliza- 

 beth. Accord- 

 i n g 1 }• , their 

 length has been 

 increased to 

 fift\" calibers. 

 Because the 

 gun is longer, 

 the powder is 

 able to give the 

 shot an addi- 

 tional push, as 

 it were. Rear-Admiral Joseph Strauss, 

 Chief of Ordnance of the United States 

 Navy, gives it as his opinion that "these 

 guns, although of less caliber and weight 

 than fifteen-inch guns now mounted 

 abroad, are capr.ble of |)cnetrating the 

 hea^'iest side armor at oblique impacts 

 and at the greatest effecti\e battle range, 

 and give us the advantage of flatter tra- 

 jectory with greater volume of fire due to 



400 



