December 12, 1914. 
LAND AND WATER 
dinxtofarea of/rozen-irv har Sours 
MAP TO I£LUST£ATE TUB KE3TRICTI0N.S OF THE RUSSIAN FLEET USUSS 
HEAVILY HELPED BY ICEBBEAIiERS. 
that tlieir local police force had been so efficient that no 
burglaries had taken place! 
It leads one to think of the public scoffing at the old pro- 
verb, " Prevention is better than cure." There should surely bo 
enough wiseheads in this lan'd to realise that there is no chance 
of airing and taking advantage of a di&ease whicJi has been 
prevented. Faced with the critics of this type, there are 
times when one could wish that our Navy were less efficient 
than it is. It is having to pay heavily for the fact that 
it is efficient. 
The British public trained in picture palaces v.-auts 
" Trafalgars." It is totally unable to realise that the biggest 
thing our Navy can possibly achieve isi to have no big battle 
at all. The main ingredient for a Trafalgar is an enemy 
who thinks he has a sporting chance, and fights accordingly. 
But the real main issue to-day is to convince the enemy tliat 
he had bett-er sit tight and not take risks, lest he gets badly 
hurt. 
THE HIGH SEAS GENERALLY. 
Here also (to date) nothing has happened. As suggcatcd 
last week the ultimate result of the battle o2 Chile has been 
that — for the reasons suggested — Germany has lost all her 
facilities for recoaling, etc., her corsairs on the West Coast of 
South America. 
Commerce destruction and fuel are matters which are 
closely allied. Admiral Cradock is dead, and with him the 
crews of the Good Ilope and the Monmouth are likewise dead. 
But the doom of von Spee and his squadron is also certain. 
Since the battle o2 Chile we have not heard (to date) of vo'» 
Spee. In due course we shall probably hear of something 
against our merchant ships. But it wUl not last. Sooner 
or later he will be brought to book and destroyed. Admiral 
Cradock gave his life and the lives of his men to see to it 
that there should be no more neutral bases. Von Spee may 
die fighting, or he may tamely accept internment in a neutral 
harbour. This much is a toss up. But we may take it as an 
absolute certainty that von Spee, his ships, and his men 
are doomed to destruction or internment. 
The thing that they are after cannot be done. They may 
survive a ■week longer instead of a week less, but their ulti- 
mate fate is as certain as was the fate of the Eniden, for 
reasons previously indicated. They are equally and entirely 
in the category of " No can do." 
THE MODERN MILITARY ZEPPELIN. 
ITS CHARACTERISTICS, CAPABILITIES, AND ARMAMENT, 
By L. BLIN DESBLEDS, 
Lecturer in Aeronautical Engineering to Uu Polytechnic, London ; Special Lecturer at tlie Universities of Sheffield, and of Bridol ; 
at Uu Mandtesler School of Technology ; Thi lioi/al Military Academy, tyoolwich ; Examiner in Aenonautics for the Fdhwsliip 
Examination of the Society of Engineers. 
THE actual military value of the Zeppelin airship 
is generally, and quite justifiably, a complete 
puzzle to the man-in-the-street. He vaguely re- 
members reports, published prior to the war, of 
achievements performed by that type of aircraft; 
he has a vivid recollection of many, and sensa- 
tional, disasters to its credit; he has read, in a dispatch re- 
cently sent home by Sir John French, that, at the front, the 
Zeppelin airship is conspicuous by its absence, and, almost 
siJDiultaneously, he hears of the feverish ac'tivity prevailing in 
the Zeppelin workshops. The newspaper correspondents give 
glowing accounts of the ease with which Zeppelin airships are 
brought down by artillery and by infantry fire; but the Ger- 
man confidence in their worth remains unabated. Almost 
©very arficle, that has appeared either in the technical or in 
the lay Press, has refused to find any military value in tiie 
German dirigible, yet the Admiralty, who seem to have charge 
of the aerial defence of the country, continues to take strict 
and elaborate precautions against a possible airship raid. 
Let it bo said at the outset of this article, which purports 
to explain the military capabilities of the Zeppelin airship, 
that there is nothing which is mysterious or which is not 
known about that type of vessel. Much that has been written 
about it is due to ignorance, and, it must be confessed with 
shame and sadness, much of the ridicule to which the Zeppelin 
ainship has been subjected in some recent articles is prompted 
by jealousy, a jealousy which has existed since the fir.st day 
•when tlie blue sky was navigated by two distinct classes of air- 
craft — the lighter-than-the-air class of vessels, to which air- 
shii)s belong, and the heavier-lhan-the-air class, of which, up 
to the present, the aeroplane is the only practical represen- 
tative. 
There ia a not unimportant consideration which may b« 
here mentioned with regard to those two classes of aircraft, 
as it will greatly help to estimate their relative values, inas- 
much as it brings in the psychological factor which, as we have 
lately had numerous examples, is always of importance when 
deeds of valour and courage are concerned. It is a notewortliy 
fact that, whenever a gallant aerial act is performed by means 
of an aeroplane, the name of the man piloting the machine is 
sent, by the trumpet of Renown, to the remotest corners of tlio 
earth. This is as it should be. But when the gallant deed ia 
performed by the crew of an airship we hear much about the 
airship itself and very little about the aeronauts. This is 
not as it should be. It is a matter of regret that the name of 
the brave man who a little while ago climbed the scantlings 
which form the support of a propeller-shaft and repaired a 
broken propeller of one of our airships, while aloft, was not 
given in the Admiralty report which made the feat known to 
the world. 
The man-in-tlie-street could, without any hesitation, name 
a score of aviators made famous by the report of their deeds, 
but could not, even if he searched his memory, find the name of 
a single airsliip pilot. This fact, lo a certain degree, explains 
why the public has taken a greater interest in the prowo-ss of., 
aviators and the capabilities of their machines than they have 
in the various and gradu.il developments of the airship. It is, 
therefore, no wonder that, to-day, the man-in-tho-street is 
quite out of touch with the stage of evolution the airship has 
reached, and he has no idea at all \vh.-\t a modern military 
Zeppelin can, or cannot, do. 
It is not a matter of pure sentiment tiiat causes tho 
Germana to-d.ay to have confidence in tJie military value of 
their Zeppelin airships. Their confidence is not without 
n* 
