70 DETAILS OF NAVAL DESIGN FROM JUTLAND. 
Our analysis of the personal accounts and reports of the battle of Jutland has given 
data on the question of fires and fire fighting, steering gears and their performance, turrets, 
the resistance of armor gratings and splinter protection, gas penetration of interior spaces, 
and the performance of torpedo nets. In every case the evidence has come from the men 
who were right on the spot. They were the men who have to work with the materials which 
we ship designers and shipbuilders give them, and in this case it was no idle opinion ex- 
pressed as to whether such and such a piece of apparatus could do the work under probable 
battle conditions. Here the battle existed, and the apparatus either worked or it did not 
work, and the record is plain to read. 
For these reasons it seems that the conclusions drawn above are of great value to all 
directly concerned in, or interested in, the design and building of naval vessels. The sub- 
jects considered are not many, but only those were treated on which good evidence exists 
and from which sound conclusicns could be drawn. It may be that further search, particu- 
larly of the German libraries, will disclose other personal accounts of this most interesting 
battle. If so, our knowledge of the performance of the details of design under battle con- 
ditions can be extended just so much further. If this be done, and the lessons learned put 
to practical use, I feel strongly that our warships of the future should be just so much the 
better able to meet the tasks for which we build them, but which we hope will never come. 
DISCUSSION. 
THE CHAIRMAN :—Gentlemen, you have heard this paper No. 2, entitled “Details of 
Naval Design from Jutland,” by Commander Howard. The paper is now open for 
discussion. 
ProFEssor W. Hoveaarp, Member (Communicated) :—In peace time designers of 
warships are guided by theory and experiments and by the experiences obtained in ordinary 
service, in maneuvers, target practice and sometimes through accidents, but to a development 
on this basis there attach many uncertainties which can only be dispelled by the experiences 
of war. Seen in this aspect, naval actions may be regarded as full scale experiments and, as 
such, form the only reliable source of information on many questions of design. It is there- 
fore of the greatest importance to analyse naval warfare from this point of view. The be- 
havior of ships under the stress of war service, their suitability for the particular duty to 
which they are assigned, the damage which they suffer in action and their behavior under 
various forms of attack—all these points should be carefully studied and an attempt made to 
draw conclusions which may be useful in the design of new ships. Such an analysis is by no 
means an easy matter. The experiences of battle are often misleading and may even at times 
appear to be contradictory. This is explained by the fact that the complex conditions which 
surround naval actions are rarely similar. The result depends not only on the material but 
also on the human element and on the physical conditions of weather and light. These fac- 
tors intermingle and often obscure one another. 
