Fighting Power of our Navy.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 897, 10 May 1889, Page 10

Fighting Power of our Navy.

Colburn’s United Service Magazine. We see in our merchant vessels a constant increase in size to gain greater speed, steadiness, and capacity, an example which the Italians have, in this respect, wisely followed; and to gain the advantages wo seek we shall likewise have to go in the same direction. It will be doubtless expensive, but will be cheaper in the eud, for large ships are not likely to become obsolete either in this or in the beginning of the next century.. Unlike very large guns, large ships possess a far more reliable strength than small ; and instead of reauiring more time to deliver their destructive blows, as guns do, are speedier, steadier, and far less easily injured. We already have torpedo-boat catchers, hut we now want ship catchers, vessels equally well adapted for a fleet < r squadron engagement as to fight any commerce destroyers. EFFECTS OF HEAVY GUNS AND ARMOUR. Experience has shown that weights carried at great heights above the water-line, although counterbalanced by armoured uuder water decks, tend to produce deep rolling ; and perhaps no better example could be given of this effect than is to te found in the rolling of the Colossus when in company with the Imperieuse. The former vessel, with her hesvily armoured turrets protecting her big guns, and thiok armour over a portion of her hall, rolled twice or more as deeply as the latter. The hull of the Imperieuse was immersed so much that her armour appears to have been below the water-line, and hence the weights above it were much smaller than those of the Colossus. Bearing this in mind, and remembering the importance of a steady platform in a naval battle, the following suggestions are made with regard to armourplating the large ships as necessary for securing the safety of our commerce, and our high position as a great maritime power. PROPOSED ARMOUR-PLATING ARRANGEMENTS, Well-baoked steel armour of about 5 or inches at the water-line, and rising to the upper deck at 4 inches in thickness, and ending about 4J feet below the water-line at 1 inch, with a taper forward and aft to 3 or 3£ inches, would, it is believed, form a good practical protection to the guns and gunners; and when combined with an arched deck over engines and boilers (similar to that of the Italia and Lepanto, but above the waterline) would prove an efficient defence against quick-firing and other guns, excepting the heaviest ordnance. Between the arched steel protective-deck of about 1 £ inch thick (suitably stiffened by backing) and the side coal should be stowed, which, should projectiles hit on the out aide, would materially diminish the force of their blow. The arched deok, flattened on the crown, and stretching both forward and aft, would materially stiffen the ram-bow and the whole ship, as well M strengthen the stern; it

should be sufficiently high above the waterline to assist the flotation of the ship when pierced by projectiles. LARGE EXPLOSIVE SHELLS. Granting that the suggested well-backed steel armour will, as it is most probable, safely withstand the explosive effect of large capacity dynamite and Melinite shells striking against it (which the continuity of the well supported armour would materially help), the slow and irregular discharges of an enemy’s only partially protected barbette guns may be disregarded by the powerful British cruiser, which if well handled would materially delay if not altogether silence tbeir fire. SPON SONIN G. The battle-worthy ships above proposed should have properly sponsoned ports, with turntables within, as shown in Engineer of January IS67 tl which, like the rest of the sides, would be covered with armour. The larger guns might be from 30 to 40 tons (but on no account to exceed 50 tons in weight), and be mounted bo as to be quickly withdrawn within one port or run out of another by means of the turntables, which can be easily arranged so as to hold the guns safely in the roughest weather. The disadvantages that may result in action from the want of a wide command of training in the guns not mounted at the broadside iu sponsons, should the motive-power fail, seems to have been overlooked, for the battle-ships would then be dependent upon their unprotected secondary batteries, which can neither fire ahead nor astern. INCREASE OF MACHINERY. The rivalry in big guns has occasioned the importance of simplicity and the desirability of minimising the number of engines (using these, so far as possible, to assist the labour of the crew, and not to dispense with it, as may be safely done in a factory) to have been, overlooked, and hence our ships have become floating hob houses, and thiß overheating not only effects the health of the crew, hut likewise quickens the powder combustion, And. deteriorates tb© quick-firing ammunition. , The big gun has monopolised the armour needed by its smaller brethren, and although easilv Injured (in one or more connections), and itsffire so slow that well-handled weapons and high explosives might dsatroy great part of the unarmoured sides of the ship carrying it, between its discharges, yet this huge monster continues to render the whole arrangement of battle-ships subservient to it. , The big turret, or barbette gun, when wotked by two or three men, just as the Nasmyth’s hammers have long been handled in the workshop by one maD, looks so pretty, that it is now considered, especially by the inexperienced, as the acme of perfection in gunnery ; but the great liability of all such coßtly and complicated machinery to become disabled in a hotly contested naval tight appears to have been overlooked, for no secondary plan is provided for even the 47-ton guns, which can be readily worked by manual appliances, and fired accurately at the rate of about one round in two minutes. SECONDARY ARMAMENTS. Greatly improved fighting arrangements might be readily effected in these, and were the example of America to be imitated in calling for designs, it would be found that we need not go out of England for plans, nor adapt the crude notions of far leas mechanical nations. Were the talent and energy of our citizens to be as fully utilised as they might be for the general good, we should soon find that our nation would become quite as far ahead iu engines of war as she is happily in engines of peace. With an empire united by means of wise measures which would develop the latent patriotism which largely exists, and cultivating the deepest reverence for Him who is the ruler of all, our country would long enjoy that peace and prosperity which the lamented Prince Consort believed had been firmly established when the first Great Exhibition was held in London.