NOTES ON THE ARMAMENTS OE BATTLESHIPS. S 



extensive. There is obviously room for difference of opinion in regard to 

 such matters and the proper method is to trust to experience when attempt- 

 ing to reach a decision. When tested on a proof ground, with guns and 

 targets fixed and ranges known, the percentage of hits to rounds fired will 

 undoubtedly become greater at long range as the caliber of guns is increased. 

 These conditions, of course, do not represent those which would occur in 

 a sea fight, between fleets or between single ships, moving rapidly in rela- 

 tion to one another, and commonly in circumstances which will be accom- 

 panied by rolling or pitching of the gun platforms. It is not possible in 

 peace time to imitate all the conditions of war ; in particular the disturbing 

 influences which necessarily arise when a warship is fired at by an enemy 

 while making an attack cannot be represented. But there is in existence 

 a considerable body of information based upon "battle-practise" at long 

 ranges. These facts have not been published in detail nor are they likely 

 to be. The writer has, however, been assured by naval officers of great 

 experience possessing full and accurate information of this kind, who have 

 carefully analysed results of firing at very long ranges, that the percentage 

 of hits to rounds fired obtained with 6-inch guns under service conditions 

 at sea compares favorably with and is not inferior to the percentages obtained 

 with guns of larger caliber. Furthermore he has good reason for the belief 

 that actual trials do not confirm the objection raised to "mixed" arma- 

 ments on the ground that the simultaneous discharge of guns of different 

 calibers must be accompanied by diminished efficiency in the control of fire 

 and in the proportion of hits to rounds made by guns of diff'erent calibers. 

 If these conclusions be true — and the writer is convinced that they are 

 so — then it is unquestionable that even at long ranges the secondary arma- 

 ments of battleships will be capable of delivering a "hail of fire" against 

 an enemy, and of exercising an important influence on the result of an action. 

 Published accounts of naval engagements during the Russo-Japanese 

 war also emphasize the importance attaching to attacks made by efficient 

 and well -handled secondary armaments carried by Japanese ships. It 

 is probable that the deep-laden condition of Russian ships at Tsushima 

 tended to increase sensibly the prejudicial effects of fire from the lighter 

 guns of the Japanese fleet ; but after making full allowance for this feature 

 it appears proven that considerable danger must always attend the exten- 

 sive damage to unarmored superstructures which quick-firing guns of 

 moderate caliber can inflict even at long range. What the "volume of 

 fire" from such guns involves in damage done to signalling apparatus, 

 control appliances and the general working of a ship in action. Captain 

 Semenoff has graphically described. What it may do in making ships 



