NOTES ON THE ARMAMENTS OF BATTLESHIPS. 17 



with those employed more than thu'ty years ago when increase in the weights 

 and cahbers of naval guns was made with great rapidity. The arguments 

 then prevailed for a time; and history is, in this particular, now repeating 

 itself. iVt that period in the British Navy we passed from 12-inch breech- 

 loading guns weighing 45 tons and firing projectiles of 714 pounds, to 13.5-inch 

 guns weighing 67 tons and firing 1,250 pound projectiles, ending with guns 

 of 16.25 inches caliber weighing no tons and firing 1,800 pound projectiles. 

 Within a few years experience then induced a return to 12 -inch guns and 

 for a long period no larger caliber was used, but great and continuous improve- 

 ments were made in guns, projectiles and explosives. Behind the reversion 

 to more moderate calibers stood the conviction, based on actual visage and 

 experiment, that the 12 -inch caliber was sufficiently large for all practical 

 purposes, whether armor-perforation or shell-power was considered; and 

 that, on the whole, for a given expenditure of weight on the principal gun 

 armament of a battleship the 12 -inch gun furnished the best combination 

 of adequate numbers and individual power. It has been stated recently 

 that the chief reasons for abandoning the larger calibers were to be found 

 in the difficulty encountered in making such guns or in loading and 

 working them. As one who was intimately concerned with the matter the 

 writer denies that these were the real causes of return to the 12-inch caliber. 

 The subject was fully discussed by the Admiralty in 1888, when the designs 

 for battleships of the Royal Sovereign class were under consideration, 

 and it was then decided to make the change as soon as possible; but no 

 satisfactory design for 12 -inch guns was then available and consequently 

 the 1 3. 5 -inch caliber was used once more. At the same time action was 

 taken to obtain a new and satisfactory design of 12 -inch gun, and as soon 

 as it was available it was adopted in the Majestic class (1892). 



Twelve-inch guns of the latest design are much more powerful weapons 

 than their predecessors of twenty years ago; their projectiles are capable 

 of penetrating at very long ranges the thickest hull armor fitted on the 

 sides of existing battleships. As regards armor perforation, it is generally 

 admitted that no increase in caliber is required. Although their trajectories 

 may not be so fiat as those of larger guns, practise made at sea with 12 -inch 

 guns at very long ranges is undoubtedly excellent. For the same approxi- 

 mate total weights of guns, ammunition, gun-mountings and mechanisms, 

 and protecting armor it is possible to provide for five pairs of 12 -inch guns 

 as against four pairs of 13.5-inch guns. In other words, if equal rapidity of 

 fire is assumed to be obtained by guns of the two calibers, for each ten 

 rounds delivered by the 12 -inch guns only eight rounds would be delivered 

 from the 13. 5 -inch. It is improbable that in actual service equal rapidity 



