ARMOUR FOR MODERN FIGHTING SHIPS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12945, 13 October 1902, Page 6

ARMOUR FOR MODERN FIGHTING SHIPS.

(Cassier's Magazine.) No armour afloat can any longer be relied upon to keep out the projectiles of the heaviest naval guns. But if guns now overmatch all practical armour, and continue to increase in power, as they halve in the past, more rapidly than armour increases in resistance, will they not cause armour for ships to be abandoned and' become obsolete, as gunpowder drove out of use armour for men? The argument that armour for ships of war will, in course of time, become obsolete is usually based upon a supposed analogy of the case of ships with that of men. Since the development of small arms resulted in the abandonment of armour for men, why will not continued advance in the power of ordnance render it useless to armour ships'/ As a matter of fact this analogy is a false one, and for two reasons: (1) A man's strength is limited, while a ship's carrying power depends wholly upon her size, and may be made as great as we please. (2) Men, being highly organised animals, are usually disabled by a 'wound in any part of the body, and consequently must be completely covered with armour to bo really protected, while ships, over a large percentage of their area, may be pierced through and through without suffering serious damage, and so need protection-.only over a few vital parts. Again, even if the power of guns be so great as to render it useless to attempt to keep out their armour-piercing projectiles from any part of the ship, still an enormous advantage would result from the use of armour which kept out explosive shell. A solid bullet is enough if it hits a maUj but a great many solid shot of the largest size may enter a" ship without putting her out of action. But even recognising the faict that the best armour will no longer keep out the explosive shell of the heaviest naval guns, a little consideration will show that bv keeping .out projectiles of the smaller calibres armour renders a service of great value. Taking, for example, the batteries of the latest United State* battleships, it can be shown by simple calculation that, of all tho projectiles fired in any period of time only 1.1 per cent will be of 12in calibre, and only 3.9 per cent, of Bin calibre-, while 13.1 per cent will be 6iu; about 33 per cent will be 14-ponndersi, and abount 49 per cent will be 3-pounders. In other words, armour which will defeat the 14-pouhder shell, two or three inches, at fighting range, will keep out 82 per cent of all the projectiles fired by a battleship, and armour capable of stopping the 6in shell, say, 6-iin thick, will keept out over 95 per cent. In fact, when we consider that few projectiles will strike normally, and that fighting ranges, now great, are likely to.increase rather than diminish, we may safely say that under any probable future, conditions armour from six to seven inches thick will keep out fully 95 per cent of all projectiles which such a battery as that just referred to can fire against it. __________