TORPEDO-PROOF MONSTERS
As for the 18-inch guns, they were put to another use. Early in the war the British had need for powerful shallow-draft vessels which could operate off the Flanders coast and attack the coast fortifications that were being built by the Germans. The ships that were built to meet this demand were known as monitors, because like the famous "monitor" of our Civil War they carried a single turret. These monitors were very broad for their length and were very slow. At best they could make only seven knots and in heavy weather they could not make more than two or three knots.
To be made proof against torpedoes these boats were formed with "blisters" or hollow rounded swells in the hull at each side which extended out to a distance of twelve to fifteen feet. The blisters were subdivided into compartments, so that if a torpedo struck the ship it would explode against a blister at a considerable distance from the real hull of the ship and the force of the explosion would be expended in the compartments. The blisters were the salvation of the monitors. Often were the boats struck by torpedoes without being sunk.
Unfortunately, this form of protection could not be applied to ordinary vessels, because it would have interfered seriously with navigation. The blisters made the monitors very difficult to steer and hampered the progress of a ship, particularly in a seaway.
With ships such as these the British bombarded Zeebrugge from a distance of twenty to twenty-five miles. Of course, the range had to be plotted out mathematically, as the target was far beyond the horizon of the ship, and the firing had to be directed by spotters in airplanes.
At first guns from antiquated battle-ships were used in the monitors; then larger guns were used, until finally two of the monitors inherited the 18-inch guns of the Furious. A single gun was mounted on the after deck of each vessel and the gun was arranged to fire only on the starboard side. No heavily armored turret was provided, but merely a light housing to shelter the gun.