WOODEN WARSHIPS AGAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 173, 22 July 1903, Page 3

WOODEN WARSHIPS AGAIN.

Makaroff, a Russian admiral, and designer of the icebreaker Yermak, in a lecture at St. Petersburg, on "Battleships and Unarmoured Vessels." gave the preference to the latter. In the days of smooth bore guns, he said, the armour was a real protection, but since then the improvement in guns and projectiles had far outstripped the improvement in armour, so (hat the latter was no longer invulnerable to a projectile striking it at right angles, or at from 10 to 15, or even 20 degrees less than that. In place of one battleship of 9000 tons, he would build at the same cost three unarmoured vessels of 3000 tons each armed with as heavy guns, and given as great speed and radius of action as the larger ship, but with the advantage of not having- to carry between them 1800 tons of dead weight of armour. The battleship might readily sink one of such vessels, but could she sink the three, before being sent herself to the bottom? Experience gives no definite reply, but the British battleship Victoria, though ably commanded; could not withstand the shock of a touch of cold steel delivered by a vessel moving only at the speed of six knots, and it is improbable that the quicker-moving and explosive shell and torpedo would be. less effective; the fully-armoured eaison representing a section of the French battleship Henri IV. did not survive the explosion under it of a single torpedo charge. The British Admiralty doe 3 not let all be known about the experiments! with the Belleisle, but what is known is not favourable to the use of armour. Enough use is not more of torpedoes, because too much is expected of them. In the case of gun fire, 20 to 25 per cent, of hits is considered satisfactory, and it should be the same in the case of torpedoes. He did not share the French enthusiasm about submarine boats; divers were agreed that nothing could be seen distinctly under water at a distance of more than 20yds. The vessels he advocated should be quite unprotected, and carry their guns on deck. A light protection only delayed the shell sufficiently to cause it to explode within the 'protected vessel. The lecturer was loudly applauded by his audience of distinguished naval and military officers.