NOTES ON THE ARMAMENTS OF BATTLESHIPS. 9 



of protective material and mountings has been carried too far. Actual 

 trial will determine whether or not it is possible to maintain the same rapidity 

 in loading and firing individual guns in a triple turret as can be obtained 

 when two guns are mounted in one turret, and Italian naval authorities 

 before deciding in favor of triple turrets probably satisfied themselves on 

 this point. Italy has made many successful new departures in warship 

 design, and will work out this problem thoroughly. The results will have 

 great interest for all engaged in warship construction; but even if they 

 prove satisfactory under peace conditions and as to rate of fire, only war 

 experience can determine the crucial point as to the risk of simultaneous 

 disablement of three guns mounted on a single turntable. The approxi- 

 mate allowance hitherto made for triple as compared with twin turrets 

 is understood not to exceed an increase in diameter of about ten per cent. ; 

 in some cases it has been less. Obviously it would be reasonable in triple 

 turrets to make provision for stronger armor protection and for larger 

 margins of strength in machinery and structure in order to meet special 

 risks, and to lessen the possibility of disablement in action. If this were 

 done the relative weights involved in the triple as compared with the 

 twin arrangement would be considerably increased. 



In passing one may remark that there is always a danger lest the desire 

 to keep down weights of protective materials on heavy-gun stations should 

 lead designers to accept relatively weakened structures and supports to 

 armor and smaller clearances between fixed structures and revolving parts 

 than would afford reasonable provision for safety and for continued efficiency 

 in working when heavy blows are delivered, in action, upon the armor 

 forming barbettes, shields or turrets. This feature in design has always 

 received close attention in my own practise; and the dimensions and weights 

 of structures, armor and mechanisms have not been reduced, nor have any 

 known or probable risks been accepted, in order to minimize weight. Having 

 regard to the vital importance of the continued efficiency of heavy-gun 

 armaments, and to the enormous weights and cost involved in installing 

 and protecting such armaments even when dimensions are minimized, it 

 seems preferable to err on the side of large margins of safety rather than to 

 seek the irreducible minimum — the determination of which is not an easy 

 matter, even for those most fully informed as to the results of peace experi- 

 ments and past naval actions. 



For more than twenty years the heavy guns of most battleships con- 

 tinued to be four in number, and in nearly all cases they were mounted in 

 pairs on the center line of the deck at the two important positions above 

 described. In connection with the introduction of the latest types of 



