842 
THE 80-TON GUN. 
THE 80-TON GUN. 
BY 
MAJOR E. MAITLAND, R.A., 
ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT ROYAL GUN FACTORIES. 
The contest carried on for so many years between guns and armour- 
plates, between attack and defence, entered on a new phase in the 
latter half of 1873. Up to that period the guns had so far succeeded 
in getting the better of their tough antagonists, that many, even of 
our foremost engineers and shipbuilders, began to talk of the advisa¬ 
bility of giving up the application of iron plates to ships altogether, 
and to advocate the building of rapidly-moving vessels, unfitted to 
withstand the attack of heavy shell, but furnished with torpedoes and 
perhaps rams. The Eussians, however, were hard at work on a ship of 
tremendous power—the “ Peter the Great ”—which was to carry a 
very powerful armament, and to be protected by 20 ins. of iron. The 
Italians were moving in the same direction, and the Germans were 
laying the foundation of an iron-clad navy, constructed with all the 
latest improvements. It was certain that we possessed no guns which 
could pierce 20 ins. of iron, under the most favourable circumstances; 
and if it proved to be practicable to set afloat efficient vessels defended 
by such a mass of metal, there could be no doubt that the ships were 
getting the better of the artillery. 
The Admiralty, at this juncture, proposed a design for a new turret- 
ship to carry four guns capable of piercing 20 ins. of iron, firmly 
backed, at 1000 yds. ; and H.M.S. “ Inflexible,” now in a forward 
state at Portsmouth, and the 80-ton guns—of which she will carry 
four—are the results of this proposal. 
The armour-piercing capability of guns is a question involved in 
muck obscurity. A very great number of rounds has been fired at 
Shoeburyness against targets constructed to represent the sides of 
iron-clads, but no entirely satisfactory data have been established. 
Major W. H. Noble has put forward an empirical formula which 
appears to give fairly approximate results when the guns are not very 
large and the plates not very thick, and Lieut. English, E.E., has 
published some highly intricate calculations of the work required to be 
done by the shot in penetrating armour. These calculations possess 
great ingenuity, but can scarcely be said, at present, to rest on any but 
a theoretical basis. The same may be said of the methods in use on 
the Continent, where no experiments at all equal in importance or 
extent to ours have been carried out. 
Thus, when the Director of Naval Ordnance applied to the War 
Office in 1873 for a design for a gun which should penetrate 20 ins. of 
iron, strongly backed, at 1000 yds., he propounded a problem whose 
solution could only be approximately estimated; and the consequence 
was that opinions were extremely conflicting. 
Ultimately, it was decided that the gun should weigh about 80 tons, 
