CHAPTER XXXVIII
.
STRENGTH OF THE OPPOSING SQUADRONS AND ARMIES.
Growth of the White Squadron in a Single Decade--Progress of Our Navy a Gratifying Ode after It Was Fairly Started--How the United States Stands in Comparison with the Other Nations of the World-- List of Ships in the American Navy--List of Ships in the Navy of Spain at the Beginning of the War--Interest of All Countries Centered on the Result of Our Naval Battles--Modern Guns and Projectiles--The Armies of the Two Combatants--Coast Defenses of the United States.
Three elements enter into the fighting efficiency of nations at war: the strength of their navies, the strength of their armies and the condition of their coast defences. For the first time in many years general attention of the people of the United States was centered upon these conditions when the outbreak of hostilities began to threaten. Inasmuch as it was an admitted fact that most of the fighting would be done at sea, or at least that the efficiency of our fleets would be the most important factor, most of the attention was directed to a study of the navy.
The constructions of what we call the new navy of the United States, "the white squadron," which has placed us sixth in the rank of the naval powers of the world, instead of so far down that we were scarcely to be counted at all, has all been done in less than twelve years. It may be that to stand sixth in rank is not yet high enough, but the progress of a single decade certainly is remarkable.
After the Civil War, when hostilities on our own coast and complications abroad seemed to be at an end, the care of the navy was abandoned and ships were sold with scarcely a protest, almost as entirely as had been done eighty years before, at the end of the Revolution. There was even less reason for this policy, because in 1785 the country was poor and needed the money the ships brought, while in the twenty years following the Civil War there was no such excuse of national poverty. By 1885 there was no United States navy at all worthy the name, for the wooden vessels on the list, with their obsolete guns, were of no value whatever in the event of hostilities with a foreign power that had kept up its equipment with rifled guns and ironclads.
The movement to repair the decay began when, in 1881, Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt appointed the first advisory board, presided over by Rear-Admiral John Bodgers, "to determine the requirements of a new navy." This board reported that the United States should have twenty-one battleships, seventy unarmored cruisers of various sizes and types, twenty torpedo boats, five rams and five torpedo gunboats, all to be built of steel. The report was received by Congress and the country with the attention it merited, but to get the work started was another matter.
POLICY OF THE ECONOMISTS.
The economists had been praising the policy of idleness in naval construction, claiming first that we were at peace and did not need to spend money on expensive vessels and, next, that naval construction was in an experimental stage and that we should let the European nations go to the expense of the experiments, as they were doing, and when some result had been reached, take advantage of it, instead of wasting our own money in work that would have to be thrown away in a few years.
When the country became convinced that a navy was needed, it was found that we could not follow out that pleasant little theory. Our naval authorities could not obtain the facts and the experience they wanted from other nations, and our shipyards could not build even one of the armored ships. We could not roll even the thinnest of modern armor-plates, and could not make a gun that was worth mounting on a modern vessel if we had it.
The shipyard of John Roach did the first work on the new navy, and during Secretary Chandler's term of office built the Chicago, the Boston, the Atlanta and the Dolphin. Instead of battleships, the first of the fleet were third-rate cruisers. Armor-plate was bought in a foreign market, and we actually went abroad for the plans of one our largest cruisers--the Charleston.
In 1885 the navy department came under the administration of Secretary William C. Whitney, and it was beginning with his years of service that the greatest progress was made. While our shipyards were learning to build ships, the gunmakers and the makers of armor-plate were learning their craft too, so that progress was along parallel lines. In 1886 the sum of $2,128,000 was appropriated for modern rifled guns. The first contract for armor-plate was signed in 1887. Since that time the plants for construction have been completed and armor-plate equal to the best in the world turned out from them. Ten years of apprenticeship have taught us how to build whatever we need to carry on naval warfare.
TAKES THE RANK OF SIXTH.
By 1894 the United States had risen to the sixth among the naval powers of the world, the first ten and their relative strength expressed in percentage of that of Great Britain being as follows:
Great Britain 100 United States 17 France 68 Spain 11 Italy 48 China 6 Russia 38 Austria 5 Germany 21 Turkey 3
Since that time the relative position of the leaders has not materially changed, although some estimates are to the effect that Russia and Italy have changed places and that Spain has gained slightly on the United States. Of the ones at the foot of the procession all have dropped below the station assigned them, by the advance of Japan, which has come from outside the file of the first ten and is now eighth, ranking between Spain and China. The estimates are based on a calculation of all the elements that enter into the efficiency of the navies, such as tonnage, speed, armor, caliber and range of armament, number of enlisted men and their efficiency. Such calculations cannot be absolute, for they cannot measure at all times the accuracy of the gunnery of a certain vessel. The human equation enters so prominently into warfare that mathematical calculations must be at all times incomplete. Americans will be slow to believe, however, that they are at any disadvantage in this detail, whatever their material equipment may be.
The following table shows the strength of the navy of the United States. In that part of the table marked "first rate" the four ships placed first are first-class battle ships, the Brooklyn and New York are armored cruisers, the Columbia, Olympia and Minneapolis protected cruisers, the Texas a second-class battle ship and the Puritan a double-turret monitor. Among the second-raters all but the Miantonomah, Amphitrite, Monadnock and Terror (monitors) are protected cruisers. The newly bought boats, New Orleans and Albany, belong in this class. The third-raters are a heterogeneous lot, consisting of cruisers, gunboats, old monitors and unprotected cruisers. Of the fourth raters, Vesuvius is a dynamite ship, the Yankee and Michigan are cruisers, the Petrel, Bancroft and Pinta are gunboats and the Fern is a transport. The remaining classes of the table are homogeneous. The government has recently purchased numerous tugs and yachts not accounted for in the table:
FIRST RATE.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
Iowa 11,340 18 12,105 Steel Indiana 10,288 16 9,738 Steel Massachusetts 10,288 16 10,403 Steel Oregon 10,288 16 11,111 Steel Brooklyn 9,215 20 18,769 Steel New York 8,200 18 17,401 Steel Columbia 7,375 11 18,509 Steel Minneapolis 7,375 11 20,862 Steel Texas 6,315 8 8,610 Steel Puritan 6,060 10 3,700 Iron Olympia 5,870 14 17,313 Steel
SECOND RATE.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
Chicago 4,500 18 9,000 Steel Baltimore 4,413 10 10,064 Steel Philadelphia 4,324 12 8,815 Steel Monterey 4,084 4 5,244 Steel Newark 4,098 12 8,869 Steel San Francisco 4,098 12 9,913 Steel Charleston 3,730 8 6,666 Steel Miantonomah 3,990 4 1,426 Iron Amphitrite 3,990 6 1,600 Iron Monadnock 3,990 6 3,000 Iron Terror 3,990 4 1,600 Iron Lancaster 3,250 12 1,000 Wood Cincinnati 3,213 11 10,000 Steel Raleigh 3,213 11 10,000 Steel Atlanta 3,000 8 4,030 Steel Boston 3,000 8 4,030 Steel
THIRD RATE.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
Hartford 2,790 13 2,000 Wood Katahdin 2,155 4 5,068 Steel Ajax 2,100 2 340 Iron Canonicus 2,100 2 340 Iron Mahopac 2,100 2 340 Iron Manhattan 2,100 2 340 Iron Wyandotte 2,100 2 340 Iron Detroit 2,089 10 5,227 Steel Montgomery 2,089 10 5,580 Steel Marblehead 2,089 10 5,451 Steel Marion 1,900 8 1,100 Wood Mohican 1,900 10 1,100 Wood Comanche 1,873 2 340 Iron Catskill 1,875 2 340 Iron Jason 1,875 2 340 Iron Lehigh 1,875 2 340 Iron Montauk 1,875 2 340 Iron Nahant 1,875 2 340 Iron Nantucket 1,875 2 340 Iron Passaic 1,875 2 340 Iron Bennington 1,710 6 3,436 Steel Concord 1,710 6 3,405 Steel Yorktown 1,710 6 3,392 Steel Dolphin 1,486 2 2,253 Steel Wilmington 1,392 8 1,894 Steel Helena 1,392 8 1,988 Steel Adams 1,375 6 800 Wood Alliance 1,375 6 800 Wood Essex 1,375 6 800 Wood Enterprise 1,375 4 800 Wood Nashville 1,371 8 2,536 Steel Monocacy 1,370 6 850 Iron Thetis 1,250 0 530 Wood Castine 1,177 8 2,199 Steel Machias 1,177 8 2,046 Steel Alert 1,020 3 500 Iron Ranger 1,020 6 500 Iron Annapolis 1,000 6 1,227 Comp Vicksburg 1,000 6 1,118 Comp Wheeling 1,000 6 1,081 Comp Marietta 1,000 6 1,054 Comp Newport 1,000 6 1,008 Comp
FOURTH RATE.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
Vesuvius 929 3 3,795 Steel Yantic 900 4 310 Wood Petrel 892 4 1,095 Steel Fern 840 0 0 Wood Bancroft 839 4 1,213 Steel Michigan 685 4 365 Iron Pinta 550 2 310 Iron
TORPEDO BOATS.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
1-Gushing 105 3 1,720 Steel 2-Ericsson 120 3 1,800 Steel 3-Foote 142 3 2,000 Steel 4-Rodgers 142 3 2,000 Steel 5-Winslow 142 3 2,000 Steel 6-Porter 0 3 0 Steel 7-Du Pont 0 3 0 Steel 8-Rowan 182 3 3,200 Steel 9-Dahlgren 146 2 4,200 Steel 10-T. A. M. Craven 146 2 4,200 Steel 11-Farragut 273 2 5,600 Steel 12-Davis 132 3 1,750 Steel 13_Fox 132 3 1,750 Steel 14-Morris 103 3 1,750 Steel 15-Talbot 46 1/2 2 850 Steel 16-Gwin 46 1/2 2 850 Steel 17-Mackenzie 65 2 850 Steel 18-McKee 65 2 850 Steel 19-Stringham 340 2 7,200 Steel 20-Goldsborough 247 1/2 2 0 Steel 21-Bailey 235 2 5,600 Steel Stiletto 31 2 359 Wood
TUGBOATS.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
Fortune 450 0 340 Iron Iwana. 192 0 300 Steel Leyden 450 0 340 Iron Narkeeta 192 0 300 Steel Nina 357 0 388 Iron Rocket 187 0 147 Wood Standish 450 1 340 Iron Traffic 280 0 0 Wood Triton 212 0 300 Steel Waneta 192 0 300 Steel Unadilla 345 0 500 Steel Samoset 225 0 450 Steel
SAILING SHIPS.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
Monongahela 2,100 4 0 Wood Constellation 1,186 8 0 Wood Jamestown 1,150 0 0 Wood Portsmouth 1,125 12 0 Wood Saratoga 1,025 0 0 Wood St. Mary's. 1,025 0 0 Wood
RECEIVING SHIPS.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
Franklin 5,170 4 1,050 Wood Wabash 4,650 0 950 Wood Vermont 4,150 0 0 Wood Independence 3,270 .6 0 Wood Richmond 2,700 .2 692 Wood
UNSERVICEABLE.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
New Hampshire 4,150 .6 0 Wood Pensacola 3,000 0 680 Wood Omaha. 2,400 0 953 Wood Constitution 2,200 4 0 Wood Iroquois 1,575 0 1,202 Wood Nipsic 1,375 4 839 Wood St. Louis 830 0 0 Wood Dale. 675 0 0 Wood Minnesota 4,700 9 1,000 Wood
UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
NAME Displacement Guns in indicated Hull (tons) main battery horsepower
Kearsarge 11,525 22 10,000 Steel Kentucky 11,525 22 10,000 Steel Illinois 11,525 18 10,000 Steel Alabama 11,525 18 10,000 Steel Wisconsin 11,525 18 10,000 Steel Princeton 1,000 6 800 Comp Plunger 168 2 1,200 Steel Tug No. 6 225 0 450 Steel Tug No. 7 225 0 450 Steel Training ship. 1,175 6 0 Comp
SPAIN'S NAVY IS A WEAKER ONE.
Spain's navy is decidedly weak when compared with that of the United States. A mere glance at the two tables will be sufficient to show the difference. Spain's list of unarmored cruisers is long, but four of our battle ships or swift, modern, armored cruisers could blow the lot out of the water. In torpedo boats we compare favorably with Spain. In one respect Spain is stronger, that is in her six speedy torpedo boat destroyers. This table accounts for every war ship Spain has, to say nothing of the few antique merchantmen of the Spanish liner company which can be turned into cruisers.
FIRST-CLASS BATTLE SHIPS.
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Pelayo 9,900 22 17.0 Steel Vitoria (inefficient)7,250 0 11.0 Iron
OLD BATTLE SHIPS.
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Numancia 7,250 10 11.0 Iron
FIRST-CLASS ARMORED CRUISERS.
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Carlos V 9,235 28 20.0 Steel Cisneros 7,000 24 20.0 Steel Cataluna 7,000 24 20.0 Steel Princess Asturias 7,000 24 20.0 Steel Almirante Oquendo 7,000 30 20.0 Steel Maria Teresa 7,000 30 20.0 Steel Vizcaya 7,000 30 20.0 Steel Cristobal Colon 6,840 40 20.0 Steel
SECOND-CLASS ARMORED CRUISERS.
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Alfonso XII 5,000 19 20.0 Steel Lepanto 4,826 25 20.0 Steel
UNARMORED CRUISERS.
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Reina Christina 3,520 21 17.5 Steel Aragon 3,342 24 17.5 Steel Cartilla 3,342 22 17.5 Steel Navarra 3,342 16 17.5 Steel Alfonso XII 3,090 23 17.5 Steel Reina Mercedes 3,090 21 17.5 Steel Velasco 1,152 7 14.3 Steel C. de Venadito 1,130 13 14.0 Steel Ulloa 1,130 12 14.0 Steel Austria 1,130 12 14.0 Steel Isabel 1,130 15 14.0 Steel Isabel II 1,130 16 14.0 Steel Isla de Cuba 1,030 12 16.0 Steel Isla de Luzon 1,030 12 16.0 Steel Ensenada 1,030 13 15.0 Steel Quiros 315 0 0 Iron Villabolas 315 0 0 Iron ---- 935 5 0 Wood
TORPEDO BOATS. [Footnote: Armed with two and four torpedo tubes, six quick fire and two machine guns.]
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Alvaro de Bezan 830 0 20.0 Steel Maria Molina 830 0 20.0 Steel Destructor 458 0 20.0 Steel Filipinas 750 0 20.0 Steel Galicia 571 0 20.0 Steel Marques Vitoria 830 0 20.0 Steel Marques Molina 571 0 20.0 Steel Pinzon 571 0 20.0 Steel Nueva Espana 630 0 20.0 Steel Rapido 570 0 20.0 Steel Temerario 590 0 20.0 Steel Yanez Pinzon 571 0 20.0 Steel
GUNBOATS. [Footnote: There are eighteen others of smaller size, which with the above were built for service in Cuban waters, and are now there.]
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Hernon Cortes 300 1 12.0 Steel Pizarro 300 2 12.0 Steel Nunez Balboa 300 1 12.5 Steel Diego Velasquez 200 3 12.0 Steel Ponce de Leon 200 3 12.0 Steel Alvarado 100 2 12.0 Steel Sandoval 100 2 12.0 Steel
TORPEDO BOAT DESTROYERS.
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Audaz 400 6 30.0 Steel Furor 380 6 28.0 Steel Terror 380 6 28.0 Steel Osada 380 6 28.0 Steel Pluton 380 6 28.0 Steel Prosperina 380 6 28.0 Steel
SMALL TORPEDO BOATS.
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Ariete 0 0 26.1 Steel Rayo 0 0 25.5 Steel Azor 0 0 24.0 Steel Halcon 0 0 24.0 Steel Habana 0 0 21.3 Steel Barcelo 0 0 19.5 Steel Orion 0 0 21.5 Steel Retamosa 0 0 20.5 Steel Ordonez 0 0 20.1 Steel Ejercito 0 0 19.1 Steel Pollux 0 0 19.5 Steel Castor 0 0 19.0 Steel Aire 0 0 8.0 Steel
GUN VESSELS (SO-CALLED).
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
General Concha 520 0 0 Steel Elcano 524 0 0 Steel General Lego 524 0 0 Steel Magellanes 524 0 0 Steel
BUILDING.
(Battle ship.)
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
---- 10,000 0 0 Steel
(Armored cruisers.)
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
---- 10,500 0 0 Steel Pedro d'Aragon 6,840 0 0 Steel
(Protected cruisers.)
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Reina Regente 5,372 0 0 Steel Rio de la Plata 1,775 0 0 Steel
(Torpedo boats.)
Five of Ariete type and one of 750 tons.
LINERS FOR CONVERSION.
NAME. Tonnage. Guns in Speed in Hull. Batteries. knots/hour.
Magellanes 6,932 0 17.0 Steel Buenos Aires 5,195 0 14.0 Steel Montevideo 5,096 0 14.5 Steel Alfonso XII 5,063 0 15.0 Steel Leon XIII 4,687 0 15.0 Steel Satrustegui 4,638 0 15.0 Steel Alfonso XIII 4,381 0 16.0 Steel Maria Cristina 4,381 0 16.0 Steel Luzon 4,252 0 13.0 Steel Mindanao 4,195 0 13.5 Steel Isla de Panay 3,636 0 13.5 Steel Cataluna 3,488 0 14.0 Steel City of Cadiz 3,084 0 13.5 Steel
INTEREST IN THE WORKING OF MODERN WAR SHIPS.
The puzzle that was troubling every naval authority as well as every statesman in the civilized world, at the outbreak of the war between the United States and Spain, was what would be the results of a conflict at sea between the floating fortresses which now serve as battle-ships. Since navies reached their modern form there had been no war in which the test of the battle-ship was complete. Lessons might be learned and opinions formed and prophesies made from the action of battle-ships in the war between China and Japan, the war between Chili and Peru, and from the disasters which had overtaken the Maine in the harbor of Havana and the Victoria in her collision with the Camperdown, as well as the wreck of the Reina Regente and others. But in all these, combine the information as one might, there was insufficient testimony to prove what would happen if two powers of nearly equal strength were to meet for a fight to a finish.
Whatever was uncertain, it was known at least that there would be no more sea fights like those of the last century and the first half of this, when three-deck frigates and seventy-four-gun men-of-war were lashed together, while their crews fought with small arms and cutlasses for hours. Those were the days when "hearts of oak" and "the wooden walls of England" made what romance there was in naval warfare, and the ships of the young United States won respect on every sea. In the fights of those days the vessels would float till they were shot to pieces, and with the stimulus of close fighting the men were ready to brave any odds in boarding an enemy's craft. It was well understood that the changed conditions would make very different battles between the fighting machines of to-day.
That a naval battle between modern fleets, armed with modern guns, would be a terribly destructive one both to the ships and to the lives of those who manned them, was conceded by all naval authorities. The destructiveness would come not only from the tremendous power and effectiveness of the guns, but also from the fact that the shell had replaced the solid shot in all calibers down to the one-pounder, so that to the penetrating effect of the projectile was added its explosive power and the scattering of its fragments in a destructive and death-dealing circle many feet in diameter.
MODERN GUNS AND PROJECTILES.
The modern armor-piercing shell, made of hardened steel, and with its conical point carefully fashioned for the greatest penetrating power, has all the armor-piercing effectiveness of a solid shot of the same shape, while its explosiveness makes it infinitely more destructive. For the modern shell does not explode when it first strikes the side or armor of an enemy's ship, but after it has pierced the side or armor and has exhausted its penetrative effect. The percussion fuse is in the base of the shell, and is exploded by a plunger driven against it by the force of the impact of the shell on striking. The time between the impact of the shell and its explosion is sufficient for it to have done its full penetrative work.
It first must be understood that all modern guns on ships-of-war are breech-loading and rifled, and that the smooth bore exists only as a relic, or to be brought out in an emergency for coast defense, when modern guns are not available. From the thirteen-inch down to the four-inch, the guns are designated by their caliber, the diameter of their bore, and the shot they throw, while from that to the one-pounder they take their name from the weight of the shot. Everything below the one-pounder is in the machine-gun class.
The base of rapid-fire work is the bringing together in one cartridge of the primer, powder, and shell. When the limit of weight of cartridge, easily handled by one man, is reached, the limit of rapid-fire action is also reached; and, although the quick-moving breech mechanisms have been applied abroad to guns of as large as eight-inch caliber, such guns would rank as quick, rather than rapid firing, and would require powder and shot to be loaded separately.
On the modern battleships the function of the great guns is the penetration of the enemy's armor, either at the waterline belt or on the turrets and gun positions, while that of the rapid-firers is the destruction of the unarmored parts or the disabling of the guns not armor protected. The six, three, and one-pounders direct their rain of shots at the turret portholes, gun shields, or unprotected parts of the ship, having also an eye to torpedo-boats, while from the fighting tops, the Gatlings rain a thousand shots a minute on any of the crew in exposed positions. With such a storm of large and small projectiles it would seem to be rather a question of who would be left alive rather than who would be killed.
The guns in use in the United States navy are the 13-inch, 12-inch, 10-inch, 8-inch, 6-inch, 5-inch, 4-inch, 6-pounders, 3-pounders, 1-pounder, Hotchkiss 37 mm. revolver cannon, and the machine guns. In the following table is given the length and weight of these guns, as well as of the shell they carry:
Length Powder weight of gun, charge, of shell, GUNS. feet. pounds. pounds.
One-pounder 5.1 .3 1 Three-pounder 7.3 1.7 3 Six-pounder 8.9 3.0 6 Fourteen-pounder 11.6 8.0 14 Four-inch 13.7 14.0 33 Five-inch 17.4 30.0 50 Six-inch 21.3 50.0 100 Eight-inch 28.7 115.0 250 Ten-inch 31.2 240.0 500 Twelve-inch 36.8 425.0 850 Thirteen-inch 40.0 550.0 1,100
HOW THE BIG GUNS ARE USED.
The 14-pounder, although not included in the navy armament, is given for the purpose of comparison, since it is with guns of this caliber that some of the Spanish torpedo-boat destroyers are armed. The largest gun as yet mounted on our largest torpedo-boats is the 6-pounder, while a single 1-pounder is the gun armament of the ordinary torpedo-boat. The Hotchkiss revolver cannon is not given in the table because its caliber, etc., is the same as that of the 1-pounder, and, in fact, the latter has superseded it in the latest armaments, so that it is now found only on the older ships of the modern fleet. The machine guns are not given because their effective work is practically the same. The Gatling is of 45-caliber, and uses the government ammunition for the Springfield rifle.
A look over the table shows some general principles in the matter of powder and shell used. The powder charge is about half the weight of the shell, while the length of the shell is a little over three times its diameter.
To attain its extreme range a gun must be given an elevation of about fifteen degrees. The greatest elevation given any of the guns on shipboard is about six degrees. This limit is made by two factors--the size of the portholes or opening in the turrets for the larger guns, and the danger of driving the gun backward and downward through the deck by any greater elevation. The practical range of the great guns of a ship, the ten, twelve, and thirteen-inch, is not, therefore, believed to be over five or six miles, and even at that range the chances of hitting a given object would be very small. A city could, of course, be bombarded with, effect at such a range, since a shell would do tremendous damage wherever it might strike, but a city to which a ship could approach no nearer than say seven miles would be safe from bombardment.
The muzzle velocities given the shells from the guns of the navy are something tremendous, while the muzzle energy is simply appalling. The shell from the thirteen-inch gun leaves the muzzle at a velocity of 2,100 feet a second, and with an energy of 33,627-foot tons, or the power required to lift one ton one foot. From this velocity the range is to 1,800 feet a second in the one-pounder, although from the three-pounder at 2,050 feet it averages about the same as the thirteen-inch. The five-inch rapid-fire gun has the greatest muzzle velocity at 2,250 feet. The muzzle energy is, of course, small in the smaller guns, being only twenty-five-foot tons in the one-pounder and 500 tons in the fourteen-pounder.
The power of penetration has already been given in a general way, but the power of penetration of steel is much greater. At its muzzle velocity the thirteen-inch shell will penetrate 26.66 inches of steel, the twelve-inch, 24.16 inches; the ten-inch, 20 inches, and the five-inch, 9 inches. The one-pound shell bursts in piercing one-fourth and nine-sixteenths-inch plates, scattering its fragments behind the target.
It may be interesting to note that the cost of one discharge of a thirteen-inch gun is $800, and that when a battleship like the Massachusetts lets loose her entire battery, both main and secondary, the cost of a single discharge is $6,000.
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