THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
177 
I have shown that each gun has a distinct duty to perform, 
a distmot tas eac ^ doing something which cannot be done by the other, 
duty. m and therefore guns at high altitudes and guns close to the 
waters edge are both necessary; and I now proceed to 
consider whether a gun in an intermediate situation can do work distinct 
from either of these—whether a special duty can be assigned to it; or, 
failing this, whether it is capable of excelling either high or low guns 
in any one of their peculiar functions. Because, if it does so, such a 
gun might be well worth mounting; but if a gun in this intermediate 
position has no advantage of any sort over either the high or low guns, 
and possesses disadvantages peculiar to itself, why not at once move it 
to either the high or low line ? Want of space cannot be pleaded, for 
there is ample room for any number of guns in either of the lines I 
have chosen. 
I can discover no special advantage for the gun 6 , nor 
mediategun e. have I ever heard one stated, over either guns a or a>, taken 
separately; and it cannot be worth while to mount the gun 
in its intermediate position unless it in a greater degree combines the 
advantages of guns a + w, than the disadvantages of guns a + w ; 
otherwise, having no peculiar advantages and plenty of space, it would 
be better to place it in one of the two lines of guns I have detailed. 
Its fire is not horizontal (a) ; nor is its height sufficient to 
of° m im 0 S with ena ^^ e ^he ran g e of its moving target to be accurately and 
guns™andw. rapidly ascertained (m ). It holds about a mean position, as 
to distance from its target—a mean, in fact, between advan¬ 
tage ( b ) of the gun <o and disadvantage {v ) of the gun a. It can fire with 
little greater rapidity than the gun a, for its axis has to be brought 
nearly horizontal after each round, entailing the second operation (see C'.) 
It partakes of disadvantage (w) and loses advantage (<?, A.) 
Its projectile strikes the ship's plates at a*n angle, to some extent losing 
advantage [cl), and partaking of disadvantage (I.) (A careful study 
of past experiments, with a view to seeing at what angles the projectile 
would penetrate the armour opposed to it at all at given ranges, with a 
calculation of the angles at which projectiles from intermediate guns 0 
would strike a ship’s armour-plates or deck at such ranges, might 
determine how much it loses of the advantage (d), and it might probably 
be found to possess all the disadvantages (u ); but not having calculated 
this, I can form no opinion.) 
It would be in an intermediate position with regard to ( e ) and (.r), 
and this may be left out of account. 
Its fire is too plunging to be available for night attacks, losing the 
advantage (/) but holding.to disadvantage (^); to say nothing of the 
danger of firing by night over the heads of the artillerymen in the lower 
batteries. 
It entirely loses the great advantage (n), of seeing on to the decks of 
vessels, unless indeed they are so close as to enable the gun <o to pene¬ 
trate their plates—a course which it is highly improbable they would 
adopt, as it would give the higher guns an almost certain chance of 
sinking them, to say nothing of the difficulty a ship in action experiences 
in manoeuvring in shallow water, 
