94 MILITARY AND TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS 
ARMAMENT. 
As long as the gun continues to be the major weapon, the main function of 
the battleship will be to provide the best possible platform on which to bring it into 
action. Our guns should possess greater power and destructive effect than those 
of our most probable enemy, and, since they are now no larger, we must allow for 
even greater calibers than we have heretofore used. While it is true that in pene- 
trative effect the 14-inch gun at probable battle ranges can pierce any armor that 
it is practicable to mount in a ship, still, if we accept the principle of maximum 
destructive effect, we are led almost inevitably to a 16-inch caliber. Such a gun is 
well within the limits of the present state of the ordnance art, and possesses 30 per 
cent more destructive effect than the present 14-inch gun of our most probable 
enemies. The rapidity of fire of the larger gun can be made sensibly equal to that 
of the smaller, and the heavier weight of projectile will allow us to adopt a rela- 
tively low muzzle velocity by means of which both erosion and dispersion will be 
diminished. Such a gun possesses a materially greater range, and the priority of 
gun fire thus gained constitutes a material advantage.* It also possesses a greater 
probability of hitting at long range, and one of the most significant lessons of the 
European war has been that engagements have been fought and decided at 16,000 
yards—a range nearly 3 miles greater than our past estimate of probable battle 
range. 
There is a further reason why we, of all nations, should adopt the larger cali- 
ber. Such a gun materially increases displacement and cost. When the present 
war is over we shall be the richest of nations, and therefore best able to afford the 
outlay incident to the adoption of the larger gun. Politically, therefore, this may be 
highly advisable, because of the depressing financial effect on possible enemies 
similar to that occasioned by the construction of the Dreadnought class by England. 
Disposition and Number of Battery.—Bearing in mind the value of concentra- 
tion of armament and having decided the caliber of the main battery, we come to 
the best arrangement of the guns. 
This is largely a function of the battle formation, and until such time as ‘this 
shall seem to be logically other than line ar column of divisions, or simple column, 
our centerline vertical-echelon disposition seems best. The question of just how 
many guns can be advantageously mounted is hardly subject to abstract determina- 
tion, but it must be quite plain that there is a point at which, after considering the 
other elements of a design, more guns would only result in a positive loss of effi- 
ciency. From a purely constructional point of view, this point has been reached 
with the four-turret centerline mounting. So overwhelming, however, are the ar- 
guments in favor of maximum possible concentration, and so great a length must be 
provided to obtain the desired speed, that it will probably be best to add one more 
centerline turret. This is particularly necessary if the 16-inch caliber be adopted, be- 
*See Baudry, “The Naval Battle,” p. 116. 
