Warships and their story

by R. A. Fletcher

FRENCH CRUISER “DANTON.”

Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea.

It will have been seen from the dimensions quoted of the various cruisers mentioned that they are longer in proportion to their beam than the battleships, the additional length being necessary to give them greater speed. There was launched at Elswick in 1895, for the Argentine Government, the protected cruiser Buenos Ayres, which was very narrow for her length. Though 424 feet over all, she was only 47 feet 2 inches in beam, by 22 feet in depth. Her displacement was 4,500 tons. Her normal speed was twenty-three knots, and under forced draught twenty-four knots. Like all the warships built on the Tyne for South American States, she was heavily armed. One of the most heavily armed ships of her size early in the present century was the Japanese cruiser Tsushima, launched in 1902, but she has been surpassed by the later vessels of the Japanese navy in speed, coal capacity and armament, the latest, which are not yet completed, though only classed as protected cruisers of 4,035 tons, having a coal capacity of 750 to 1,000 tons, and carrying two 6-inch guns, ten 4.7-inch, and two 3-inch guns, all quick-firers, and two machine guns.

A vessel which attracted considerable attention when she was begun in 1902—at various other times since when changes in her plans have been suggested to meet the views of French naval experts, or the theories of successive Ministers of Marine, a tinkering process from which she has not been the only sufferer on the other side of the Channel—until she was completed in 1908, is the Ernest Renan cruiser. The length of time which has elapsed between the laying-down and the completion of some French vessels has seen them surpassed by newer types from other shipyards, notably British, even before they have been commissioned. But this is not the case with the Ernest Renan, which, apart from the Dreadnought cruisers, is an exceedingly powerful ship, and a great credit to her builders at St. Nazaire. She is rather narrow, being only 70 feet 6 inches beam, with a length of 515 feet, and her draught is 26 feet 9 inches. She is more effectively protected than many a battleship of a few years earlier, having an armoured deck 2 inches in thickness, an armoured belt varying from 6¾ inches to 4 inches, while above the water-line belt she carries armour varying from 5 inches to 3 inches in thickness. Her armament is remarkably varied, including, as it does, four 7.6-inch guns, twelve 6.4-inch guns, twenty-one 1.8-inch guns, and two 1.4-inch guns, besides two submerged torpedo tubes. Her main gun positions are protected by 8 inches of armour, and her secondary armament by 5 inches of armour.

CHAPTER IX

GUNS, PROJECTILES AND ARMOUR

The introduction of direct shell fire at Sebastopol was a most important advance in the science of attack, and was followed soon afterwards by the adoption of elongated instead of circular projectiles, the French leading the way. Both for solid shot and explosive projectiles, it became necessary to increase the range and accuracy. To do this the windage had to be reduced as much as possible and the barrels of the guns were rifled in order to give the projectile a certain amount of twist on its axis.

Rifled breech-loading guns were proposed by Major Cavalli, of the Sardinian artillery, and by Baron Warendorff, of Sweden, and experiments were made with the weapons in this and other countries. A great deal of difficulty was found in adopting rifling for heavy guns, owing to the much greater strain imposed upon the metal, and the difficulties were still further increased when it became necessary that ordnance should be produced of very large calibre and able to throw heavy projectiles with high velocities. One way in which it was sought to get over the difficulty was by reducing the charge of powder considerably, and as the form of the newer projectiles was different from that of the old spherical projectiles, and the windage was as far as possible eliminated, it was found that this plan gave the desired result. Wrought iron and steel replaced cast-iron and bronze, though a few cast-iron rifled guns were strengthened with steel hoops. Wrought iron was adopted for gun carriages, and steel or chilled iron for armour-piercing projectiles.

Sir Henry Bessemer manufactured the first gun that was ever made of malleable iron without a weld or joint, and though he showed that guns could be made of steel, the Admiralty, with its then fondness for the things of the days that were, decided to continue making its guns of iron. But when the bore of the iron gun showed cracks, the Admiralty decided on the insertion of a steel tube, and tied it with a piece of iron.