ARMOUR AND ITS ATTACK BY ORDNANCE. 
91 
(nearly 3 inches in all) fixed on steel beams 4 feet apart. Tlie range 
was 3773 yards (2*14 miles). The angle of elevation was 58° and of 
descent 61°. An 28 cm howitzer (lT02-inch) and 24 cm (9’45-inch) 
mortar were used. The latter piece attacked from a range of 3554 
yards (2 miles), angle of elevation 60°, and descent 63°. About 7 per 
cent, of hits were made with the howitzer, and 5 per cent, with the 
mortar. The projectiles were of chilled-iron, weighing478 and 269 lbs. 
respectively, and went clean through the target and buried themselves 
about 6 feet 6 inches in the ground. 
Experiments have also been made by Canet in France and by Italy Different 
on vertical attack of decks, to say nothing of Shoeburyness, 1 2 which deck attack, 
need not be here given. 
These experiments on the perforation of decks have demonstrated 
that most steel decks could be perforated if struck with armour- 
piercing projectiles. The question is, could they be thus struck ? 
Success appears to depend on the ship being anchored and on the 
projectile falling clear of all machinery and other massive material 
above the armoured deck. Common shells would act in the higher 
region of the ship with larger bursting charges, and might prove more 
destructive. The howitzer and bed used in Krupp’s second trials 
weighed about 70 tons, and appears to be a more costly weapon than 
is generally devoted to vertical fire. 
Decks may be attacked in two other ways, namely, by plunging and 
by curved fire. The former is seldom possible. A ship’s deck is often 
constructed to resist the same projectile glancing on it at 10° that 
the side armour resists direct, consequently nothing is gained till the 
falling angle exceeds 10°. At 1000 yards range a command of over 
500 feet would be required to give an angle of depression of 10°, and 
few guns are placed as high as this. At long ranges, however, especi¬ 
ally with guns of old type, projectiles may have an angle of descent 
exceeding 10°. This becomes a kind of curved fire attack, and is no 
doubt the best one under some circumstances, although it is seldom 
that the armoured deck itself would be struck for reasons above given, 
and thus common shell would be the projectile generally used. 
Use op High Explosives. 
In the summer of 1887, 3 a trial w r as made in America of the effect Graydon’s 
of a 7-inch Graydon steel shell, charged with 2’3 lbs. of dynamite, dy s n hei]! te 
made up in small pellets, each enclosed in paper saturated in paraffin. 
The shell was lined with asbestos to prevent the conduction of heat 
and consequent premature explosion. The projectile weighed 122 lbs. 
Three rounds were fired at a half turret, with a 14-inch wall made up 
of two thicknesses of wTought-iron, and a 3-inch roof. The first shell 
was fired wdthout a fuze. It burst, however, on impact with violence, 
lifting off the turret roof. The second and third rounds were fuzed 
and also burst. The general effects produced are shown in Figs. 19 
and 20 herewith. The perforation in the first two rounds hardly ex- 
1 At Shoeburyness, plates, not inade-up decks, were attacked. 
2 See “ Engineer,” February 22nd, 1889, given from U.S. “ Information from Abroad.” 
