INTEREST IN THE WORKING OF MODERN WAR SHIPS.
The puzzle that was troubling every naval authority as well as every statesman in the civilized world, at the outbreak of the war between the United States and Spain, was what would be the results of a conflict at sea between the floating fortresses which now serve as battle-ships. Since navies reached their modern form there had been no war in which the test of the battle-ship was complete. Lessons might be learned and opinions formed and prophesies made from the action of battle-ships in the war between China and Japan, the war between Chili and Peru, and from the disasters which had overtaken the Maine in the harbor of Havana and the Victoria in her collision with the Camperdown, as well as the wreck of the Reina Regente and others. But in all these, combine the information as one might, there was insufficient testimony to prove what would happen if two powers of nearly equal strength were to meet for a fight to a finish.
Whatever was uncertain, it was known at least that there would be no more sea fights like those of the last century and the first half of this, when three-deck frigates and seventy-four-gun men-of-war were lashed together, while their crews fought with small arms and cutlasses for hours. Those were the days when "hearts of oak" and "the wooden walls of England" made what romance there was in naval warfare, and the ships of the young United States won respect on every sea. In the fights of those days the vessels would float till they were shot to pieces, and with the stimulus of close fighting the men were ready to brave any odds in boarding an enemy's craft. It was well understood that the changed conditions would make very different battles between the fighting machines of to-day.
That a naval battle between modern fleets, armed with modern guns, would be a terribly destructive one both to the ships and to the lives of those who manned them, was conceded by all naval authorities. The destructiveness would come not only from the tremendous power and effectiveness of the guns, but also from the fact that the shell had replaced the solid shot in all calibers down to the one-pounder, so that to the penetrating effect of the projectile was added its explosive power and the scattering of its fragments in a destructive and death-dealing circle many feet in diameter.
MODERN GUNS AND PROJECTILES.
The modern armor-piercing shell, made of hardened steel, and with its conical point carefully fashioned for the greatest penetrating power, has all the armor-piercing effectiveness of a solid shot of the same shape, while its explosiveness makes it infinitely more destructive. For the modern shell does not explode when it first strikes the side or armor of an enemy's ship, but after it has pierced the side or armor and has exhausted its penetrative effect. The percussion fuse is in the base of the shell, and is exploded by a plunger driven against it by the force of the impact of the shell on striking. The time between the impact of the shell and its explosion is sufficient for it to have done its full penetrative work.
It first must be understood that all modern guns on ships-of-war are breech-loading and rifled, and that the smooth bore exists only as a relic, or to be brought out in an emergency for coast defense, when modern guns are not available. From the thirteen-inch down to the four-inch, the guns are designated by their caliber, the diameter of their bore, and the shot they throw, while from that to the one-pounder they take their name from the weight of the shot. Everything below the one-pounder is in the machine-gun class.
The base of rapid-fire work is the bringing together in one cartridge of the primer, powder, and shell. When the limit of weight of cartridge, easily handled by one man, is reached, the limit of rapid-fire action is also reached; and, although the quick-moving breech mechanisms have been applied abroad to guns of as large as eight-inch caliber, such guns would rank as quick, rather than rapid firing, and would require powder and shot to be loaded separately.
On the modern battleships the function of the great guns is the penetration of the enemy's armor, either at the waterline belt or on the turrets and gun positions, while that of the rapid-firers is the destruction of the unarmored parts or the disabling of the guns not armor protected. The six, three, and one-pounders direct their rain of shots at the turret portholes, gun shields, or unprotected parts of the ship, having also an eye to torpedo-boats, while from the fighting tops, the Gatlings rain a thousand shots a minute on any of the crew in exposed positions. With such a storm of large and small projectiles it would seem to be rather a question of who would be left alive rather than who would be killed.
The guns in use in the United States navy are the 13-inch, 12-inch, 10-inch, 8-inch, 6-inch, 5-inch, 4-inch, 6-pounders, 3-pounders, 1-pounder, Hotchkiss 37 mm. revolver cannon, and the machine guns. In the following table is given the length and weight of these guns, as well as of the shell they carry:
Length Powder weight
of gun, charge, of shell,
GUNS. feet. pounds. pounds.
One-pounder 5.1 .3 1
Three-pounder 7.3 1.7 3
Six-pounder 8.9 3.0 6
Fourteen-pounder 11.6 8.0 14
Four-inch 13.7 14.0 33
Five-inch 17.4 30.0 50
Six-inch 21.3 50.0 100
Eight-inch 28.7 115.0 250
Ten-inch 31.2 240.0 500
Twelve-inch 36.8 425.0 850
Thirteen-inch 40.0 550.0 1,100