QUICK-FIRING GUNS IN HARBOUR DEFENCE. 
293 
to answer best for these purposes, the latter, therefore, requires to be 
supplied with the same weapons. 
It must now be well known to every Coast Artilleryman that for his 
purposes common shell is the most useful projectile, armour-piercing 
shot ranking next in efficiency. The Coast Artillery question of 
“ choice of projectile " only becomes complicated when dealing with 
armoured ships. Even in this case authorities such as Captain Orde 
Browne give it as a maxim, that far more destruction is wrought upon 
an armoured ship by sending a live shell into the unarmoured parts, 
than by trying (usually with small prospect of success) to force a mass 
of dead metal , as an armour-piercing projectile is, through the armour 
into the vitals. Modern war-ships without exception present a very 
large unprotected area, and their secondary armament has either very 
slight protection, or is surrounded merely by a thin skin of iron or 
steel which would just serve to burst common shell effectively, and 
increase the havoc with its own fragments. Thus it seems that a well- 
directed fire of common shell at an armoured vessel's unprotected 
parts must result in the almost immediate silencing of all guns nob 
behind armour, and in such considerable destructive effect on the ship 
herself, and her crew, that for her own safety she must speedily with¬ 
draw from the contest. The greater the number of these projectiles 
that can be poured in in a given time, the sooner will the above results 
be obtained, and the greater will be the demoralizing effect on the 
crew; so here again quick-firing guns appear to be the most suitable 
ordnance to employ. 
And the above argument in favour of the use of quick-firing guns 
in Harbour Defence of course applies all the more strongly in the case 
of unarmoured vessels. Indeed, at a station far removed from an 
enemy's base, which would therefore be liable to attack by his cruisers 
only, it is conceivable that the heaviest guns required would be a few 
6-inch quick-firers. 
Against the older broadside ships, which are armoured all over with 
some five or six inches of iron, it would seem that armour-piercing 
projectiles would have to be used in preference to common shell. 
Naval men declare that a few Palliser shot making clean holes through 
a ship are not of much account; but if with the aid of the 6-inch and 
4*7-inch quick-firing guns we could manage to convert the few into 
many they might possibly alter their opinion. Further, provided 
penetration can be secured, an armour-piercing projectile, passing 
through a plate whose thickness approaches the maximum power of 
the gun, will break up almost as destructively as a common shell. 
Whilst we are considering the value of the employment of armour- 
piercing projectiles it may not be amiss to recall to mind that a 6-pr. 
quick-firing gun, at a short range, has rendered a new-type gun 
unserviceable by striking it on the chase; and the Inchkeith experi¬ 
ments in 1884 have shown of what excellent target practice this piece 
is capable : so that we may fairly expect good effects by firing quick- 
firing guns at the exposed armament of modern barbette ships. 
Captain H. J. May, R.N., in the course of two very interesting 
lectures on “ The Naval Attack of a Coast Fortress," delivered lately 
Common 
Shell. 
Armour- 
Piercing 
Projectiles, 
Probable 
Forms of 
Attack. 
