NOTES ON THE ARMAMENTS OF BATTLESHIPS. 13 



exist only "on paper," and their utilization in action would involve serious 

 risks to the structure, armament or personnel of the ships in which the 

 guns are mounted. 



& 



OBJECTIONS TO LARGE NUMBERS OF HEAVY GUNS. 



One is led to inquire, in present circumstances, whether it is possible 

 to discover a reasonable basis for fixing the maximum number of heavy 

 guns which should be carried by a battleship. It has been previously 

 stated that the number of heavy guns actually carried in ships built since 

 1905 varies from eight to thirteen per ship, ten or twelve being carried by 

 most ships, and the stations varjdng from four to six. Although it is not 

 possible to lay down hard and fast rules, or to reach any general agreement, 

 certain considerations may be mentioned, which must be kept in view by 

 all designers of warships. For instance, whenever heavy guns are mounted 

 in positions near the middle of the length of a ship it is unavoidable that 

 spaces shall be found for the installation of the magazines, shell rooms, 

 ammunition supplies and gun-working machinery in a region mainly appro- 

 priated to the propelling apparatus and stowage of fuel. This juxtaposition 

 of features essential to the efficiency of the principal armament and of those 

 upon which efficiency of propulsion depend, involves considerable difficulties 

 upon which one need not dwell. Experience on a large scale proves the 

 need for special precautions in order that magazines may be kept cool and 

 deterioration of the ammunition prevented; in not a few instances these 

 magazine spaces make difficult the communications between compartments 

 of the hold occupied by the propelling apparatus, or interfere with the 

 efficient control and working thereof; while the arrangements for transport- 

 ing coal from the bunkers to the stokeholds are rendered inferior in efficiency 

 to those which exist in ships wherein the spaces assigned to engines, boilers, 

 bunkers, are not broken up by magazines and shell rooms. It is also 

 admitted that in ships which have five or six heavy-gun stations, the deck 

 arrangements, the stowage and handling of boats and other matters inci- 

 dental to every-day work and general convenience are all less satisfactory 

 and convenient than are the corresponding features in ships where no heavy 

 guns are mounted in the central portions of the length . In the last-mentioned 

 vessels less difficulty is experienced in dealing with magazine temperatures, 

 or in arranging for powerful secondary armaments, which shall be thoroughly 

 efficient and practically free from risk of interference being caused by the 

 fire of the heavy guns. It may be argued that these inconveniences and 

 objections are relatively unimportant, that they have been and can be 



