BATTLE OF SANTIAGO. 
335 
be done then we shall be delighted. 1 think Colonel Porter is working in the 
right direction for that, and I think if he is successful in it we shall have some 
very good cruisers. If foreigners can do it we ought to be able to doit too (applause). 
The Chairman: —lieutenant Chamberlain opened his remarks by saying 
that the Spainards should not have come out of the harbour of. Santiago by day, 
and he laid down certain rules. I understand that he would like—I presume 
from some brother naval officer—a criticism on the statement. Will any naval 
officer favour us with his views upon that ? 
Commander Kerr :—If you come out of a port wanting to run away you 
would naturally rather not be seen and shot at. That is a truism if the only 
object is to run away ; but why on earth the Americans tried to shut the Spaniards 
in Santiago, and why the Spaniards tried to get out is a thing I dont understand, 
because as long as Cervera was inside, Santiago could not fall. That is not 
merely my humble opinion, but it is the opinion of the American officers who 
were there. The American troops had been there months and months, and they 
could not get in while the Spanish fleet was there and in a very short time 
longer they would have to leave on account of sickness. So the funny 
thing is that the Americans who wanted Cervera out should have shut him in, 
and that Cervera who wanted to stay in should have come out (laughter). 
Major A. D. Seton, Forfar and Kincardine Artillery Militia :—Colonel Jocelyn 
and gentlemen : 1 speak with regard to the question of projectiles and armour— 
a subject which I have studied closely. We want to keep out the largest number 
of projectiles, but how far can we go in the thickness of armour? With quick- 
firing guns we seem to have come back to the state we were in at the time of the 
bombardment of Sebastopol when nearly every ship that went into action was 
set on fire by shells. At Sinope the Turkish ships were all destroyed, and all 
through the war, every ship that was subjected to heavy shell fire suffered 
severely. The result of these experiences was the introduction of floating 
armoured batteries. Following them came La Gloire built by the French, and 
other early armour-clads which were practically armoured ail over. In those 
days all the armament was what we now call secondary armament. Then the 
weight of the guns was increased and then the thickness of the armour, alternate¬ 
ly, like a game of ‘ beggar my neighbour,’ till the limit was reached in the 111- 
ton gun and ships of the Inflexible type. In the action between the Huascar and 
the Shah and Amethyst , the first ship was only armoured at the extremities with 
some 2-inches of soft iron but 90 per. cent, of the shell glanced off her, or 
burst outside, shewing the great value of even this feeble protection. It should be de¬ 
termined by experiment where the mean lies in the balance between guns and 
armour. The maxinum gun to consider would be one of 6 or 8 inches which 
appears to be the limit of the calibre of quick-firing guns. Dead metal need 
not be considered ; but the shells must be. With quick-firing guns there will 
be an enormous number of shell fired of small calibre. The moral effect of 
shell bursting between decks is terrific. In one of the disputes between Chili 
and Peru a few years ago, a shell got into the battery of the Almiralte Cochrane 
and, exploding, also blew up a charge of powder that was coming up to one of 
the guns; it did a great deal of mischief and frightened the gun crews so that 
they ran up on deck and some jumped overboard (laughter). The French have 
developed the idea of extensive protection by a large area of thin side armour 
to a great degree in one of their cruisers the JDupuy de Lome , which is 
completely sheathed in steel about 4-|-inches thick. Of the great value of such 
protection in action we have before us a very instructive illustration in the manner 
in which the Christobal Colon , survived for so long, under the Americans fire which 
so speedily disabled the Vizcaya , Oquendo and other less well protected ships. 
