NOTES ON THE ARMAMENTS OF BATTLESHIPS. 7 



Twenty-six years ago the writer, in conjunction with the late Lord 

 Armstrong, worked out a design for a vessel in which ammunition of the 

 special kind mentioned was provided for guns of 5 -inch to 6-inch caliber 

 for use against torpedo craft. It has been reported recently that experi- 

 ments have been made with shrapnel fired from 12 -inch guns as a possible 

 means of repelling torpedo attacks. If this be true the principle advocated 

 has been carried to an extreme which will not commend itself generally, 

 but the experiments constitute a virtual confession that 3 -inch guns are 

 not sufficiently powerful to deal effectively with modern torpedo vessels. 

 That view of the matter has been confirmed by the adoption of 4-inch and 

 4.7-inch guns instead of 3-inch in ships of recent design; while 6-inch guns 

 are now recommended for defense against torpedo vessels in quarters where 

 3 -inch guns were advocated four or five years ago as the only auxiliary 

 armament required. The compass has been "boxed " in a very short time, 

 and without any war experience to justify the change of opinion. 



The main reason for preferring a caliber of about 6 inches is that expe- 

 rience proves projectiles of about 100 pounds weight to be the maximum 

 which can be "man-handled" continuously and rapidly; while accuracy 

 of fire even at long range can be combined with rapidity of discharge and 

 remarkable effectiveness against the lightly armored, unarmored and 

 vulnerable points of warships. Personally, I have always maintained the 

 view that these quick-firing guns, their crews and tlie supplies of ammuni- 

 tion, should have a reasonable amount of armor protection against the fire 

 of similar guns carried by an enemy. In designs for which I was responsible 

 more than twenty years ago, in which the earliest 6-inch quick-firing guns 

 were mounted, such protection was provided. Nothing that has since 

 occurred has shaken that conviction, and my opinion remains fixed that 

 the secondary armament should be not merely available for use in repelling 

 torpedo attacks but should be used in battle and be regarded as a valuable 

 auxiliary to the heavy guns. The disposition of the 6-inch guns should 

 be of a character that will effectively fulfil both these functions. It is not 

 difficult to secure that result in designing warships, and to place the 6-inch 

 guns so that they shall not be hampered or interfered with by the fire of 

 the heavy guns, provided that the number of the heavy guns carried in a 

 ship is not made excessive. 



TH^ NUMBEIR OP HEAVY GUNS TO BE MOUNTED. 



Turning to the consideration of what constitutes a reasonable number 

 of heavy guns for the principal armament of a modern battleship, it will 



