IRONCLADS IN ACTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVI, Issue 9, 1 July 1898, Page 27

IRONCLADS IN ACTION.

DESCRIBED BY EXPERTS. There are few landsmen, and not a great number of those who ' "-o down to the sea in ships ' that properly realise what takes place on a modern battleship previous to and during an action. The sea-fight at Manila has given some idea of the powers of destruction that lie in a modern ship of war ; but there it was a battle between the lighter ships— mer.e cruisers and gunboats— of the Spaniards and the far heavier and better-armed vessels of the United States. The battleships of the two powers have yet to meet in action. It is moreover, quite within the range of possibilities that out of the tangled complications in East and West there may arise a bi"-o- e r war which will bring all the fierce reserve energy ot the great battleships of some of the first-class powers to bear upon each other. So much hangs upon a modern fight at sea that every detail of such gigantic struggles have a perennial interest for the general reader. A writer in the New York Tribune gives many particulars which . especially at the present time, cannot fail to be of interest to every' reader of the N Z. Tablet.

The first things, said he, to be remembered by the people on shore who may ere long be reading of a sea-fight between tw o modern iron-clads, is that modern vessels will fight under way. There is no longer any grappling of two ships, for one or both of them will be destroyed before they can come to such close quarters, or else one of them will be helpless and will have struck her colours. All steam will be put on the moment that the two combatants descry each other on the far horizon. Then the monsters will begin to switch themselves about in the water and lash the waves, and the great frames will tremble with the engines' vibrations. A late trial of the Cincinnati in battle trim occupied ten minutes going and coming over a measured distance, with a floating target at a distance varying from three-quarters of a mile to a mile and an eighth. Her whole battery was fired as many times as possible one of the 5-inch guns being discharged thirty-six times in the ten minutes, and the others nearly equalling this rapidity. She was a flying cloud of smoke and flame. The ship herself was not visible gunners could often only guess at the position of the target or had to wait a few seconds for a little momentary rift in the cloud to take advantage of it. As a matter of fact, the target was completely wrecked, owing to the skill of the officers and gunners' mates. Here let it be said that the lateral sighting of a great gun is more important than the vertical. Get your muzzle working on a line with a target which is parallel with the horizon before you try to train the gun up and down.

The suppressed energy which is apparent in the very frame of a vessel when she sights an enemy is her quick response to the brains on board of her. Could a spectator be poised in mid-air above two battleships approaching each other, he would be struck by the similarity of actions of the human beings aboard them both. What seemed a moment ago an idle 500 men, in harmory with the inert monster they inhabit, spring into a living independent organism like the works of a watch.

' Clear ship for action !' is the command of the executive officer m modern battle every one must expect injury or destruction • he who does not had better not go to sea in a modern ironclad. Some will excape death, but not many. In the engagement between the Peruvian ironclad Huascar and the Blanco Enoalada only fifty of the Huascar's crew were uninjured out of 200. One hundred were killed and fifty wounded. And so if Uncle Sam's executive officers give this command next week or next month the fearful seriousness of it will be felt to the core of every man who hears it,

Continuing the survey of the inner, human life of the ships, the spectator would first note the bugle-call, an 1 the subsequent Instantaneous rush to his appointed station of every officer and man. Ine great end in view is the quickest possible use of the weaponthrowing power. The magazines and the breeohes of the great guns are the centres of action. The conning-tower. or little round room made of metal a foot thick, with slits for observation, is the centre of thought, for the captain stands there with his aid and directs the battle by means of speaking tubes and electricity. *irst of all, the decks are cleared of every obstacle that would embarrass the rapid passage of ammunition from the magazines to the guns All ships are full of objects that arc to be thrown overboard before going into action. Tanks of turpentine, alcohol varnish_ carboys of acid, must all fly over the side. Then the ship' b nose is to be attached to all connections, and when action has begun the steam pump is started and kept running. All movable bulkheads and lockers which might interfere with the working of any portion of the battery are put out of the way. Only those ladders which are absolutely necessary are left in places, the other being hung over the side or carefully packed apart. All compasses and binnacles except one are pent below. Hammocks are furled ; awnings are wetted and used in certain exposed places as barricades or shields, but it is not expected they will do much against modern bullets.

THE BRAINS BEHIND THE GUNS. Each great gun and small gun has its officer and group of men behind it to work it. Its big iron covering, like a large hood, shields some of the men (but not all) from the fire of the enemy They must expect their own death or that of their opponents. All the ammunition hoists are immediately put to work. Shell and charges are hurried like lightning to every breach-loading gun. Boxes of ammunition are whisked up aloaft into the fighting tops of the military masts. The endless mechanisms of the great guns and their turrets must be set going like a flash, whether by steam, hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical power. The lower decks being dark, are often whitewashed, if there be time to do so. in order to make all objects on them more visible. Cots or chairs are rigged for lowering the wounded below, where the surgeons' operating tables are covered with lint and steel instruments. The engineers are below, doing their human best with the ships' fires, and if a shell should reach one of their boilers Heaven help them ! And now, with the big crew on the upper deck separated into small groups behind the various guns, all expectant, training the glistening brass sights on the enemy— the centre of the opposing mass near the water is the best place to aim for— the battle is on the point of beginning. Uniforms are not worn with neatness cr precisions on these occasions. Some men are stripped to the waist and officers are in their shirt sleeves. The ships have approached within the radius of accurate fire, and the command is given for the battle to begin.

All this description will fit, with small changes in detail, the exercise known as ' Clear ship for action !' in all modern navies, and what appears an invincible preparation on one side is exactly reproduced on the other. The skill of the marksmen must determine who will emerge as victor from the coming great clash

WHEN GIIEEK MEETS GREEK. Thus far for the deadly preliminaries of a deadly struggle. A grim picture of the actual conflict, as given by a naval expert, appeared some time ago in the Cnited Service Magazine. The description -was fully borne out by the great naval 'battle of the Yalu between China and Japan. Even the fight at Manila was sufficiently dreadful, although no big ironclad was engaged. Mr. H. W. Wilson, the writer in the United Service Magazine, thinks that the Trafalgar of the future will last 10 minutes "and no more. His description of what will take place is, in all reason, sufficiently awesome as may be seen from the following extracts :— The curtain is raised and the tragedy begins. The period of the end-on attack will occupy from two and a- half to three minutes, according to the speed with which the two fleets advance. They are not likely to exert their extreme power for several reasons— to keep some reserve for an emergency ; to avoid bread-downs, which are always possible when forced draught is employed; to relieve the stokers of the ten ible discomfort of screwed-down stokeholds, and to allow older and slower ships to keep their place. They will in all probability approach one another at a combined speed of something like 28 knots an hour or even less. The two and a-half or three minutes that elap&e before the fleets nuet will be minutes of the most extreme and agonising tension ; in them the fate of the battle may be decided.

The compartments forward in that terrible blast of fire will be blown away or riddled like sieves. Watertight doors will be useless when there are no watertight walls. It is true that the armoured deck will protect the ship's vitals, but who can say what will be the effect of losing her end / She will probably be able no longer to maintain her speed, but drop out of the line, if she does not sink deep in the trough of the sea :md slowly founder. Meantime what is the general effect of the fire that is being directed on her / The whole ship will be covered with debnx ; her appearance will be rapidly transformed by the loss of her funnels and the destruction of the superstructure and upper works. The rain of melinite shells which will be poured from guns firing smokeless powder will wreck all parts of the ship outbide the heavy armour. In three minutes six (Jin guns can dischatge 72 projectiles. If 20 per cent, of these strike the target their effect on it will be mobt destructive. It is during this period that powerful bow fire will be of the greatest importance, enabling the captain to get the most out of his ship. Woe to vessels which are weak in this respect.

Ships like the ' Benbow ' or ' Baudin ' where the barbettes are insufficiently supported, the explosion of shells under them may bring them down with their weight of 700 or 800 tons. If once they give way, the armoured deck cannot support them, and they

may be expected to go clean through the bottom of the ship involving her destruction in their downfall. The result of the destruction of the funnels seems to have escaped notice The draught would fail, the ship be filled with smoke, and the decks no*, improbably set on fire.

The extinction of the electric light may ba looked for, and the ship s interior will be plunged into darkness*. The work of the captain will be rendered 10 times more difficult than ever, from the wreckage of the chart-house above him and the hail on theconnin^tower itself. If the guns in the auxiliary battery are not well protected from a raking fire and isolated by splinter-proof trave^es the carnage amongst the men there will be awful. One melinite shell might render it untenantable, as the fumes, quite apart from the effects of the explosion, are suffocating. But supposing all goes well, the big guns will be discharged at five or six hundred yards. What the effect of the detonation of their huge shells in the ship will be it is hard to picture. They will probably, like the explosion of a powder magazine, reduce the already wrecked ship to a hopeless chaos, destroying all her organisation and the nerve thread that conveys the captain's orders to the engine-room. Evt nif the armour resists the blow the shook to the ship will be terrific. Striking the turret of an ironclad one ol these projectiles would probably, if it did not hurl it overboard, stun or kill every man in it and wreck all its complicated mechanism.

The moment of collision is now at hand. The ships wrecked smoking and dripping with blood, are close to one another. Funnels and masts have been swept away. The ships have come through the wreath of smoke that shrouded them at the discharge of the heavy ordnance. The first stage of the encounter is over, and the survivors of the terrible slaughter are driving the battered hulls, low in the water, at one another. Some again are halting in this charge or falling behind, their captains dead or steering gear deranged. Such ships are the certain prey of their opponent's rams.

Mr. Wilson concludes by saying that the engagement, other things being equal, will be decided by the superiority of numbers. Ine loss of life will be very heavy, both from the foundering of ships and the slaughter of shells. He suggests that it might be well to build ships armed entirely with six and eight-inch quick firing guns, which penetrate at 1000 yards any armour of 12 inches and under.