12 NOTES ON THE ARMAMENTS OF BATTLESHIPS. 



ably occurring in the relative bearings of ships in action — to develop end-on 

 fire to a reasonable extent. The compromise represented in the Michigan 

 class now secures wider acceptance and is likely to become more generally 

 adopted. 



No difference of opinion exists as to the necessity for giving the largest 

 possible arcs of horizontal command to the fire of heavy guns, so that in action 

 they may be kept bearing on an enemy for the longest attainable periods as 

 his relative position rapidly changes. When this principle is applied in 

 working out the disposition of guns for a new warship one soon encounters 

 numerous as well as serious limitations and finds that the difficulties in 

 securing large arcs of training increase with increase in the number of gun 

 stations. In many cases the attempt to mount a large number of guns and 

 to give to each gun considerable arcs of training has involved serious risks 

 of injury being inflicted on neighboring guns and their crews, when fire is 

 delivered at or near the extremes of assumed arcs of training. Attempts 

 are made, of course, to minimize or to prevent such risk of injury; but 

 so-called ' ' safety appliances ' ' are usually of a delicate and elaborate nature 

 and not unfreciuently are intended to be automatic in action. One may be 

 permitted to doubt whether, in the heat of action, these appliances will 

 always fulfil their intended purpose; and it appears desirable when arrang- 

 ing armaments, to secure practical non-interference of gun with gun, even 

 if that course involves a decrease in the number of heavy guns mounted in 

 a ship of given dimensions, or an increase in the dimensions of ships intended 

 to carry a given number of guns. 



In discussions of warship designs the relative merits are commonly 

 assessed on the basis of what has been accomplished on particular dimensions 

 and displacement. That method of comparison may be and often is carried 

 to unreasonable lengths, no account being taken of the drawbacks and 

 dangers involved in cramming many guns into ships. Freedom of action 

 for each gun-crew, and a sense of security from interference arising from 

 the fire of adjacent guns, are essential factors in the estimation of real fight- 

 ing efficiency, even in days when the control of gtm-fire from central stations 

 is so much in vogue. Statistical statements may give to a ship so many 

 guns and certain assumed arcs of command ; but it is necessary to consider 

 thoroughly what would happen if these guns were fired at tlieir assumed 

 extreme arcs of training before a true estimate can be formed of the efficiency 

 of an armament. The limits of really safe training are often found in practise 

 to be considerably less than the extremes embodied in published descrip- 

 tions, and the results of firing trials cause narrower limits of training to 

 be accepted. No good purpose is served when large arcs of command 



