RETURN TO THE MONSTER GUN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11127, 16 November 1907, Page 3 (Supplement)

RETURN TO THE MONSTER GUN.

NEW DREADNOUGHT'S BATTERY. ' LONDON, Sept. 28. With the layin-down of the fifth and sixth Dreadnoughts at Portsmouth and Devonport a few weeks hence, a fresh revolution iri naval construction will have taken place. It is now an open secret that- in these two ships and m the third ship of the same class, which is to be built by conti'act, • the l-2in gun, which has for nearly twenty years been the stand weapon bf the British and many other foreign Navies, will be -abandoned and replaced by the far larger and more powerful 13.5in gun. The new battleships, according to reports which we believe' to be well founded, will carry eight of these monster guns apiece. All the guns will be so disposed that they can fire on either broadside, so' that each of the new Dreadnoughts can engage with eight 13.5in pieces, where the present Dreadnoughts only bring 12in guns to ; bear. The old 13-sin gun mounted m the ships of the Royal Sovereign class was m every possible respect inferior to the new guns which are now being manufac. tured. The old gun was 35ft m length; the new one will be over 50ft, and will be longest gun m the world. The old gun fired a shell weighing 12501 b through lOin-of Kru'pp steel at 3000 yd s; the riew gun will pierce 20in or thereabouts at .that range. .. In rapidity of fire the new gun will, of course, be vastly superior. ' Such perfection has now been attained m British ordnance that it is not the time taken m loading, but the necessity of allowing ihe metal of "the gun to cool that limits the number of. shots' delivered m a given tiriie. Thus th© 9.2in gun, weighing-over thirty tons, can .be loaded six times m the minute. It cannot be, fired at that rate, because the gun would get red hot.. ■ .; - , " ' ;•"",-. z-y \ The return of the monster gun is'; a startling feature of naval evolution. During the last eighteen years naval designers have been steadily increasirig the number of 12in and smaller guns mourit"ed m the warship. They have riot increased the calibre of the main armament. Nothing afloat will be proof against the new Dreadnought's 13.5 guns.