“Armament.—The main battery, which consists of twelve 6-inch breech-loading rifles, all on centre-pivot mounts, with two-inch segmental steel shields, is arranged on sponsons so as to obtain the greatest possible arc of fire. The forecastle, the poop, and the bridges have been as much as possible availed of to shelter the guns. The two guns forward and the two guns aft converge their fire a short distance from the ends of the ship, and the broadside can be concentrated within 100 feet of the side. Four above-water torpedo-tubes are provided on the berth-deck, and two direct ahead under-water torpedoes in the bow. The secondary battery is composed of four 47-millimetre revolvers, four 57-millimetre single-shots, two 37-millimetre revolvers, and one short Gatling. The coal capacity is 850 tons. The complement of men 300....
“To appreciate what is required to make nineteen knots an hour at sea, we have only to remember that the Umbria and Etruria are 500 feet long, with more than 12,000 tons displacement and 14,500 indicated horse-power, ordinarily making 18½ and on special occasions 19 knots an hour. Now, to increase her speed to 20 knots an hour, the Umbria would require about 19,500 horse-power, which means 5000 extra horse-power for the extra knot. For a second extra knot would be required about 6000 horse-power more, making about 25,000 horse-power necessary to develop a speed of 21 knots.”
Gun-boats Nos. 3 and 4 are to be copies of gun-boat No. 1. No designs for the floating batteries and the torpedo-boat have been published. The Stiletto is one of the famous Herreshoff boats, and is now being tested in consequence of a favorable report made by a board of officers. On July 23, 1886, with a total displacement of twenty-eight tons, she made an average of 22.12 knots as the mean of four runs over the measured mile in a rough sea and fresh wind, and on July 30th she attained an average of 22.89 knots. These were excellent results for a boat ninety feet in length, and promised that the type, with certain modifications, was equal to greater demands. The trial data of this year have not yet been published, though it is unofficially reported that her performance was equally as creditable.
UNITED STATES NAVAL ARTILLERY.
From the time of the introduction of cast-iron cannons in 1558 until a comparatively late period, development in naval artillery proceeded at a very slow rate. The security that was attained by the adoption of cast-iron was so great, as compared with the danger attending the use of the more ancient artillery, that the new guns were regarded as fully supplying all the demands of a suitable battery. The guns were muzzle-loaders, making the manipulation simple, the previous rude attempts at breech-loading being abandoned. The number of calibres that were introduced was very numerous, partly to suit the weight of the batteries to the ships, and partly to accommodate the fancy of the time for placing in different parts of the ships guns varying much in size and destructive effect. The general character of the batteries and the multiplication of calibres can best be illustrated by noting the armament of two typical ships of the seventeenth century.
BRONZE BREECH-LOADING CANNON CAPTURED IN COREA, AGE UNKNOWN.
The Royal Prince, a British ship built in 1610, carried fifty-five guns. Of these, two were cannon-petronel, or 24-pounders; six were demi-cannon, medium 32-pounders; twelve were culverins, 18-pounders, which were nine feet long; eighteen were demi-culverins, nine-pounders; thirteen were rakers, 5-pounders, six feet long; and four were port-pieces, probably swivels. These guns were disposed as follows: on the lower gun-deck, two 24-pounders, six medium 32-pounders, and twelve 18-pounders; on the upper gun-deck the battery was entirely of 9-pounders; and the forecastle and quarter-deck were armed with 5-pounders, and the brood of smaller pieces which swelled the nominal armament.
The Sovereign of the Seas, built in 1637, in the reign of Charles I., was unequalled by any ship afloat in her time. She mounted on three gun-decks eighty-six guns. On the lower deck were thirty long 24-pounders and medium 32-pounders; on her middle deck, thirty 12-pounders and 9-pounders; on the upper gun-deck, “other lighter ordnance;” and on her quarter-deck and forecastle, “numbers of murdering pieces.”