102 MILITARY AND TECHNICAL CONSIDERATION 
Armament Gauge,” is of an entirely different order from that of either of its component 
parts, and must be a fundamental principle in future battleship design. A commander 
whose vessel possesses this advantage will be in perfect control of the situation, since he can 
accept or refuse battle at will and can fight at ranges where the enemy’s fire is ineffective. 
It is clear that only the wealthiest nations can afford to build a fleet of battleships fulfilling 
these conditions. The Queen Elizabeth, at the time she was constructed, was a good ex- 
ample of this ideal. Her speed was about four knots higher than that of contemporaneous 
battleships, and her 15-inch guns were more powerful and had a longer effective range than 
those of any other navy, but the principle was departed from in the Royal Sovereigns, 
which were designed for 21 knots only. I do not mean, however, to recommend very fast 
battleships. The element of speed as a dominating factor ought to be represented in battle- 
cruisers, but I do believe that those who can afford to do so should give their battleships a 
somewhat higher speed than that of probable enemies. Even a superiority of one knot com- 
bined with somewhat more powerful guns is sufficient to establish the Speed-Armament 
Gauge, which characterizes the offensive type of battleship, usually the victorious type, at 
which designers should aim. 
Divisibility of the Forces——At any given time navies are limited by financial considera- 
tions to a certain aggregate displacement of their battleship fleet. At the same time, strategic 
and tactical considerations demand a certain divisibility of the fleet, 7. e., a certain number of 
units, and thus a limit is imposed on the displacement of the individual ship. In many 
smaller navies this limit is long since reached, but in case of the United States, in spite of the 
great claims to divisibility, it need hardly be considered as yet. 
Size in Relation to the Risks Incurred by Accidents and Losses.—Even if all the tech- 
nical and military advantages claimed for large ships are admitted, it remains to be shown 
that the chances of loss and disablement, measured on a percentage basis in a fleet of a given 
aggregate displacement, does not increase with the size of individual ships. Evidently, the 
larger the ships and the smaller their number, the more serious is a mishap to each one unit; 
and it is of the utmost importance to investigate whether this concentration of risk is jus- 
tified. 
Every ship, however large, is exposed to certain dangers of navigation, of which the 
most important are those due to grounding and collisions, which may result in temporary 
disablement or total loss. All ships, moreover, are liable in the ordinary course of service, 
to be put out of commission by breakdowns in machinery and appliances, necessitating 
shorter or longer visits to ports where repairs can be carried out. In time of war there is 
to be considered in addition the dangers incidental to attack by artillery, torpedoes and mines, 
and the increased liability to breakdowns due to the more intense service. Considering first 
the dangers of navigation and the chances of breakdowns of the matériel, the frequency of 
such mishaps must be directly proportional to the number of units; or, what comes to the 
same, the percentage absences or losses in a fleet, whether measured in tonnage or in units, 
must be the same in case of small as in case of large ships. If, in a squadron of eight ships, 
one ship is liable to be disabled during a certain period of time, it is probable that two out of 
a squadron of sixteen ships of half the size would be disabled in the same period. The per- 
centage loss will be the same in either case. 
It may be argued that larger vessels are more liable to run aground than smaller on ac- 
count of their greater draught, and that they are more exposed to collisions due to their in- 
ferior maneuvering qualities, but these drawbacks are probably more than offset by the fact 
that a smaller number of larger vessels can be better equipped for navigation both as regards 
