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December, 1916 livery may seriously cripple the bat- tleship, and more than one may put the ship out of action. The old Marne in Havana harbor is an example of the destructive effect of an under- water explosion. Speed is next to be considered as a means of offense. It can well be conceived that under certain circum- stances speed is a most valuable ad- junct to the offensive power of a bat- tleship. It means arriving speedily at the scene of action, the overtaking of an enemy, and the choice of the weather gage, all valuable assets for the battleship, but where we empha- size speed in excess of 21 knots at the expense of armament and protec- tion of the vessel we are departing from the true battleship. It is possible to conceive a cruising battleship with such heavy guns lightly protected, and such tremendous speed that she can keep out of range of the slower vessel with more protection and less calibre ‘of guns, and deliver her blows with impunity. This may look well on paper, but it is entirely possible to arm the slower vessel with the larg- ‘est calibre guns. Then the usefulness of the swifter but lightly protected vessel as a first class battleship ceases. I fully believe the United States is right in adopting a speed of: about 21 knots and putting the difference of weight into protection. It seems to me to be a fallacy that the most efficient protection that can be given to a ship is the protection furnished by its own powers of offense. This has been ably argued by some of the leading experts, especially in England, but the answer seems to be found in a fewer number of equal calibre guns, but so well protected as to: be able to reply with full vigor to the first onslaught of the vessel with a greater number of guns with little or no pro- tection. It was the expectation of artil- lery experts that with the present ac- curacy of gun fire and firing “in salvo”, an engagement between bat- tleships will be settled in less than 10 minutes. The staying power, then, is to be found in armored protection to the primary battery and vital parts of the vessel. If this theory is well founded, the engagement will be over before a _ship’s torpedoes can be brought into action, and the value of torpedo craft during an action of such short duration very much lessened. Features of Defense This brings us to the features of defense. It is obvious that to have a perfect fighting machine we must be able to protect our motive power, our ammunition and supply of same, our guns and the stability of the THE MARINE REVIEW vessel, portions must be sufficient in area and thickness to have our vessel a floating fort capable of fighting its guns and of being maneuvered at will, even after the habitable portion ‘has been swept or laid open to the sea by gun fire. sideration of the moment of inertia of the plane of flotation included with- in the armored area, and which may be considered as remaining intact af- ter the most severe fighting. Taking, then, a four-turret battle- ship carrying ten to twelve 15-inch guns as its primary battery, and hay- Big 35-Knot Scouts The new scout cruisers will be the first scouts, designed for that work alone, to be added to the navy. The old light cruisers SALEM, CHESTER and BIRMINGHAM, known as scout cruisers, have not the speed necessary for a modern sea picket. The scouts will make a sustained speed of 35 knots an hour. They will look like big destroyers and be nearly six times as large as the greatest torpedo craft, displacing 7,100 tons and having a length of 550 feet. The mass of machinery necessary to drive them at express train speed will be covered by light armor. Each cruiser will carry eight long range 6-inch rifles, two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns and four torpedo tubes. The most striking new features of the ships will. be the installation of catapult devices which will permit the launching of hydroaeroplanes in any weather. Each scout will be fitted to carry four aircraft to extend her range — of observation. | ing sufficient power to give a speed of 21 knots, it would seem that the main armor belt should extend to and include the foremost and aftermost barbettes protecting our turret gear and ammunition supply, and should be at least 15 feet in depth. Forward and abaft these points the armor should extend to the bow and stern in the form of a waterline belt. At the top of the main belt should be worked the main protective deck car- ried flat across the vessel; below, at a height of about three feet above the load line, should be worked a splinter deck turning down at the sides to meet the armor shelf. The slopes of this deck should be of considerable thickness to take care of shell frag- ments. it may be of interest to dwell for a few moments on the development and application of the turtle back or protective deck to war vessels. As mentioned earlier in the paper, the Stevens battery incorporated this feat- > In other words, the armored This means a careful con-. 427 ure, but before this a lieutenant in the United States navy, by the name of Hunter, invented an armored deck with the sides sloping down at the sides of the vessel below the water- line. Development of Foreign War Ships In the development of foreign war vessels this system was adopted for the protection of the magazines and machinery of protected cruisers and in some cases sole reliance for pro- tection to the vital portion of the vessel was placed in decks of this sort for ships of large displacement and heavy artillery. Later on, this prin- ciple was applied to battleships, the idea being that if the projectile pene- trated the belt armor the armored deck would stop the fragments of shell or deflect the solid shot. The accepted method of the present day is to work a flat deck of armor at the top of the main deck and a sloping deck not more than one and one-half inches thick on the slopes as'a splinter deck. It has been proposed to work the main belt in two thicknesses having a space between filled with wood, the outer thickness to be two or three inches and the remainder of belt in one thickness; the object is for the outer belt to receive the first shock of capped shell and the second or main thickness to deflect the shell which would be decapped by the out- er armor. The barbettes and conning towers would begin at the main ar- mored deck and be. carried as high as the design would require. We would then have an armored raft with forts formed by the turrets and barbettes, the armor absolutely protecting ma- chinery, magazines, ammunition sup- ply, steering gear, guns, commander’s position and means of interior com- munication, and the stability of the vessel. The rest of the vessel could be shot away and yet the fighting ma- chine be intact. We are, however, still in danger from torpedo attack. To guard against this, internal armor is fitted abreast magazines and ma- chinery corresponding about to the limits forward aft of the deep belt of external armor, extending from the inner bottom to the splinter deck. The space between the armor and the outside plating (which should be as - great as practicable) is divided in cel- ular compartments. From attack by torpedo boats our defense lies in the auxiliary battery of rapid fire guns of sufficient size to sink the small craft. These gun positions should be unarmored, that is, not protected by armor, for armor commensurate with the size of guns would be smashed