CHAPTER X

WARSHIPS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Two classes of vessels stand forward prominently as the products of the twentieth century. One is the _Dreadnought_, or all-big-gun one-calibre type of battleship, the other is the submarine. The fact that both are the result of the slow developments of centuries does not render them the less the products of the last few years. Both are untried in battle, and they are regarded as preparing the way for the introduction respectively of surface and under-water warships, the power of which is conjecturable only. Associated with both is the torpedo. The dream of a submarine which shall travel faster than a surface vessel of the same size is never likely to be realised, provided that the surface vessel is built for speed also, for the simple reason that the vessel travelling on the surface has only about a third of its surface in connection with the water, whereas the submarine has its whole surface submerged, and has three times as much friction against the water to overcome. Hence, a lightly armed, very fast vessel is regarded as likely to play an important role in the navy of the not distant future, and finds its representative in the destroyer of to-day.

The submarine and the destroyer owe their existence to the battleship’s greatest enemy, the torpedo. All three vessels carry that weapon, and any two of them may combine against the third. The spar-torpedo was such an unsatisfactory weapon at best that it had either to be abandoned, save under most unusual circumstances, or improved out of all recognition. The possibilities of the torpedo itself were so great as to compel its retention, and the startling proposition was made that torpedoes should be fired by under-water guns at a distant ship. The blowing up of the _Albemarle_ in the American Civil War showed what could be accomplished by a small fast steam launch. If this could be done with a spar-torpedo, how much more destructive would a torpedo be which could be directed against a hostile vessel from a small fast launch which could approach to within an effective range, and then turn and make a rush for safety from the gun-fire which might be brought to bear in her direction. Several torpedoes of one kind and another have been designed, but they have all had to give way to the Whitehead torpedo. The inventor is stated to have derived his idea in 1864 from a fire-boat designed by an Austrian officer, who thought of loading a small boat with explosives, to be fired by a pistol connected with protruding spars which should strike the vessel attacked, while the fire-boat itself was to be propelled by a screw driven by clockwork. Whitehead improved on this by making his boat of iron, and able to travel under water for a short distance at a speed of six knots. Its explosive was a few pounds of dynamite. By 1870 he had improved this to a torpedo having a speed of eight knots, a range of 400 yards, and a charge of 76 lb. of gun-cotton. The modern Whitehead torpedo is a wonderful piece of mechanism, so wonderful that to the ordinary spectator it seems almost endowed with intelligence. To see it lying in its cradle ashore it is simply a beautifully polished smooth steel cylinder. The fore end is blunt and with an innocent-looking steel spike projecting from the centre of its rounded front, but it is this spike which strikes the object aimed at and causes the ignition of the explosive an inch or two behind it in the head of the cylinder. The torpedo has a fine run aft for about a third of its length, and at the after end are two vertical and two horizontal rudders, and two screws revolving in opposite directions. It is some time since compressed air was adopted as the motive power. The efficacy of the compressed cold air has been increased to an extraordinary degree by the introduction of an apparatus for heating the air. A torpedo fitted with a heater can travel over double the distance at a given speed and the same expenditure of air that a torpedo without a heater can. “If a torpedo be run for the same distance with a heater as a similar torpedo without a heater, a 100 per cent. gain of power would be realised by increasing the speed, and at a range of 2,000 yards this increase is from 26 knots to 33.5 knots, the highest which has ever been realised with a torpedo over a range of 2,000 yards.”[56] The newest form of torpedo is that in which hot air instead of cold air is used.

[Illustration: A TORPEDO. DISCHARGED FROM A DESTROYER, TRAVELLING BY ITS OWN ENGINES TOWARDS AN ARMOURED BATTLESHIP.]

In the case of the latest pattern 18-inch Whitehead torpedo, a speed of 28 knots for 2,000 yards, or 34½ knots for 1,000 yards when using the ordinary cold air, has been obtained. For longer distances, such as 3,000 and 4,000 yards, the speed is proportionately less, falling to about 20 knots for the 4,000 yards range. When using the heater, “the same torpedo maintains a speed of over 40 knots for 1,000 yards, 37 knots for 2,000 yards, 30 knots for 3,000 yards, and 27 knots for 4,000 yards. The speeds are quite extraordinary, as they represent exactly 100 per cent. more power from the engines, and it is further pointed out that the heater is extremely small, simple, and burns any ordinary lamp oil, and is capable of being fitted to practically any existing type of torpedo. The Admiralty has never been slow to adopt improvements in the torpedo armament of the fleet, and for years Great Britain has led in the matter of submarine tubes for firing torpedoes.”[57]

The explosive carried, usually gun-cotton, weighs 200 lb. An ingenious arrangement of gyroscope, valve and pendulum causes the torpedo to remain at the required depth, and to return to it if it should be diverted from it.

There have been several attempts to solve the problem of directing torpedoes by means of wireless telegraphy. The great drawback, however, has been that the receiving apparatus which the torpedo had to carry was outside it and must appear above the surface of the water, and was, therefore, liable to be sighted and shot away. The same objection has been raised to the equipment of submersible torpedo boats with “wireless.” Of recent years a torpedo has been contrived which the inventors claim can be directed by wireless telegraphy, and as there seems no reason why the principle applied cannot be improved and extended to submarines and submersibles, the utility of these under-water craft may be augmented to an inconceivable degree. The “Actinaut” is the name of the torpedo, and the jet of salt water which it ejects serves not only to indicate the position of the torpedo, but is an “indestructible receiver for the electric waves.”[58]

SUBMARINES

Submarine warfare and exploration are no new ideas, but in the past as in the present, the great difficulties have been to ensure the provision of sufficient power for rapid propulsion, and to keep the air pure enough for the crew to breathe for a long journey under water.

Efforts at submarine warfare seemed to have been made many centuries ago, but none of the contrivances then used had any fighting value, and were more interesting as freaks than in any other capacity. It is unnecessary to attempt even to summarise all the schemes which early and late inventors evolved to render possible under-water attacks upon an enemy’s fleet. The problem was as fascinating seven or eight hundred years ago as at the present time. Most of the alleged mediæval inventions probably never got beyond the imaginative or paper stage, and however wonderful the inventors’ theories or written descriptions may have been, even when embellished with weird illustrations showing the contrivance at the bottom of the sea, it is not recorded that any of the submarines achieved any actual success whatever. One of the earliest submarine descents which is supposed to have been made was that of Alexander the Great, who is mendaciously represented to have been lowered to the bottom of the sea in a glass barrel, too small for him to stand up in, with a smoky oil lamp or two, and an animal which might have been a dog or a cat (it is difficult to say which the artist intended) for company, the circumstances being such that he could not have failed to be asphyxiated in a very short space of time. It appears, too, that he wore a crown and his royal robes on that occasion, so that he evidently visited Neptune in state.

As early as the year 1190 a man is said to have constructed a diving boat of leather. Numerous suggestions were made to enable men to go under water in order to bore holes through the sides of an enemy’s ships, which, considering the thickness of the planks, must have been a somewhat laborious undertaking. The Barbary corsairs are stated to have used some sort of submarine explosive against the ships of their opponents, but this explosive or combustible was most likely Greek fire.

William Bourne, who served in Queen Elizabeth’s navy, is said to have had a submarine boat which could have been made useful, but there are no records in existence to show that the experiment ever took place. An interesting feature of the suggestion was that he proposed to sink or raise the vessel by admitting and expelling water. About the middle of the seventeenth century, a Dutchman is said to have invented a boat which travelled under water from Westminster to Greenwich, and it is even asserted that it carried passengers, in addition to twelve men at the oars, and that the air in the interior of this vessel was purified by a “chymicall liquor.” A Royal Warrant, dated June 29th, 1626, ordered the delivery of “360 fforged iron cases with fireworkes, 50 water mynes, 290 water petards, and two boats to conduct them under water, for H.M. special service to goe with the fleete.”

Two worthy friars of the Order of Minims turned from their spiritual contemplations to devise a submarine, and they appear to have been the first to suggest that it should be built with both ends alike, and pointed so that it could move either end foremost; it was to be given wheels to move along the sea floor, and to be propelled by oars. It was even to carry guns, to be fired through holes in the side. Another inventor in the seventeenth century waxed so enthusiastic over his submarine, that, besides pointing out its advantages in all manner of possible and impossible circumstances in time of war, he represented that it should be used for submarine hunting parties, who might have great sport shooting the fish as the boat went along. A Frenchman named De Son, built in 1663, at Rotterdam, a vessel about 72 feet in length, circular, and running to a cone at each end, by which he promised, but did not perform, great things. A few years later a boat was designed by the Abbé Borelli to travel under water, his idea being that the boat should rise or sink according to the amount of water admitted through holes in the hull to skins provided for the purpose. Bushnell, an American inventor, had a vessel he called the _Turtle_, which seems to have been shaped more like an egg. It floated at the surface of the water with the pointed end downward, and had a small screw propeller, jutting out at one side. On the opposite side of the body of the vessel was a magazine containing about 150 lb. of powder. This magazine was detachable from the inside of the ship, and was fastened by a rope to a powerful screw which the inventor intended to drive into the hold of the opposing warship, and then make the best of his way to safety, leaving the magazine attached to the screw. He was more anxious to find someone to make the attack on the British ships than to do it himself.

[Illustration: THE “HOLLAND” SUBMARINE.]

[Illustration: THE “GOUBET” SUBMARINE.]

Probably the first really successfully designed submarine was that of Robert Fulton, the American, who submitted his plans of the _Nautilus_ to the French Directory in 1797. His first boat was tried experimentally on the Seine in 1800. His next boat had iron ribs, and was copper-sheathed, and was shaped like a very long egg; it was fitted with a small hinged mast and a bat-wing sail, so that it could be used for surface navigation if necessary. He made a few descents in the Seine with success, but at no time stayed under water more than twenty minutes. Still, the experiment was held to be sufficiently promising for the boat to be tried at Brest, where he failed in his attempts to do any damage to the English ships of war. A preliminary experiment, before that against the English, was successful. On the British side, a so-called catamaran was contrived, by which it was intended to blow up the French ships at Boulogne. The catamaran consisted of a framework in which one man should sit immersed up to his arm-pits, and should paddle himself along under cover of darkness, and tow a floating box of powder to be exploded by clockwork in so many minutes, this affording him time to paddle away in safety. This floating mine or torpedo was to be fastened under the counter of the wooden man-of-war. Fulton is supposed to have had a hand in this, but the attack when it was made ended in an absolute failure, the catamarans making the attack being mostly blown up, while those vessels against which it was directed suffered no harm whatever. Upon his return to America, Fulton constructed a submersible called the _Mute_, which was to fire “Colombiads,” or under-water guns. Her inventor died during the course of her trials, which, however, did not reveal anything to show that the boat would have been other than an absolute failure as a warship. Though the British and the French naval authorities were strongly opposed to submarine warfare for a variety of reasons, American inventors continued their experiments. A diving boat passed under the British 74-gun ship _Ramilies_ three times, and at last got close under the vessel, and tried to fasten a clockwork mine to it by means of a screw after the plan Bushnell adopted, but the screw broke. Other attempts were made, and as there were then no means of discovering when a submarine attack was intended, the British officer in command placed a number of American prisoners on board his ships and notified the American Government that if any of the ships were blown up, the American prisoners as well as the crew would go with it. What was known as an American torpedo-pilot was really a large boat covered from end to end with a curved iron deck, above which was a small pilot-house or look-out chamber, which also served as a ventilator; the boat was propelled by paddle-wheels, and travelled so low in the water as to be practically awash, and towed a mine behind her. Some of these mines or torpedoes contained as much as six barrels of gunpowder. An Englishman named Johnson designed a submarine or diving boat in which he was to have rescued the ex-Emperor Napoleon from Saint Helena, but Napoleon’s death intervened.

Various inventions were tried at one time and another, and the misfortune is that in many cases the first experiment proved to be the last, for the contrivances were the inventors’ coffins. Some of these fatalities were unquestionably due to the submarines being made to descend too low, when they gave way under the enormous pressure of the water.

The first effective submarine designed for war purposes was a cigar-shaped boat constructed by an American shoemaker named Phillips. The boat was built of iron and carried a colombiad, which could be fired through a port in the iron plating, and also a couple of torpedoes or mines. Numerous experiments with this boat were successful, but Phillips descended once too often.

A German named Bauer invented a diving boat, which scared the Danes badly in the war between Denmark and Prussia in 1848-50. At its second voyage it descended too far, but Bauer and his two companions escaped through the scuttle. Thirty-six years later the boat was fished up, and is now in the Naval Museum at Berlin. Failing to get any more money in Germany, and being suddenly dropped in Austria after the Court and Government had given him much encouragement, he came to England, where the Prince Consort became his patron. He designed a submarine, but his plans were altered by some of the leading engineers, ship-builders, and statesmen, who, whatever their skill in surface navigation and diplomacy may have been, knew next to nothing of submarine navigation. The consequence was that his boat as altered to suit their views was a failure, and the discredit was cast upon Bauer. Still believing that he was right, he betook himself to the United States, but the American Government, probably finding that the local supply of inventors and submarines was a long way in excess of the demand, turned a deaf ear to all his suggestions. He went back to Europe, and the Russian authorities authorised him to construct his _Sea Devil_ which, after numerous experiments, was sunk under circumstances never fully explained. He managed, however, in one of his trips with her, to enter Sebastopol harbour, to the great dismay of a Russian sentry who, seeing him gliding by night in a standing position along the surface of the water, took him for a ghost, dropped his rifle, and ran. The loss of his boat has been attributed to an order of the Russian Government that it should be deliberately sunk to get it out of the way.

The French boat _Plongeur_, launched at Rochefort in 1863, was cigar-shaped with the upper side flattened, and was driven by an engine deriving its power from compressed air. She was too long for her width to be of much use, and had no stability.

The first Confederate _David_ has already been alluded to, and the Southerners were so pleased with the success that they ordered another. In five experiments the second boat sank five times, and drowned altogether thirty-five men. Before she went down the next time it was determined that she should attack one of the Federal warships. She was directed against the _Housatonic_, then one of the fleet blockading Charleston. The _David_ was being navigated along the surface of the water instead of beneath, and her scuttles were open. The little vessel’s spar-torpedo struck the warship in line with the magazine. Nothing was ever seen of the _David_ afterwards, nor of her crew. The _Housatonic_ went down, but nearly all on board were saved.

Though the _Davids_ proved as destructive to themselves as to the enemy, they demonstrated as nothing else could have done that a small boat approaching noiselessly under cover of darkness could destroy by means of mines or torpedoes a hostile ship.

The most inappropriately named submarine was the _Resurgam_, invented by an English clergyman named Garrett, for during an experiment off the Welsh coast, in 1879, it never returned to the surface after diving.

The first submarine as a locomotive engine of warfare was invented by John P. Holland, and it is to his boat, known as the _Holland the First_, that all the modern submarines and submersibles owe their parentage. It was a one-man affair, just big enough to allow him to sit down in it and work with his feet the paddle arrangement that turned the propeller shaft. It carried five small torpedoes, which could be placed outside through a chamber in the dome or conning tower, and were discharged by electricity. This marked the introduction of one of the means which made modern submarine vessels possible, for until it was discovered how to use electricity in this way, a clockwork arrangement was the only reliable method by which a torpedo could be exploded. The application of electricity rendered it possible to eject the torpedo a considerable distance from the ship, comparatively speaking, and by means of connecting wires discharge it when thought advisable. This vessel was only 16 feet in length. The second _Holland_, built in 1877, was only 10 feet long. A small gas or oil engine was introduced to drive the screw propeller of a third submarine built by Holland two years later. This boat was 31 feet long, 6 feet in diameter, and cigar-shaped. The experiments he conducted with it showed that it was impossible to depend on ordinary vision when travelling in any depth of water on account of the darkness. She carried a pneumatic gun discharging a 9-inch projectile, the range of the weapon being 130 feet. It was not until 1884 that Holland’s fourth boat appeared. In the following year he tried again with a rather larger vessel, 40 feet long and 7 feet in diameter, often called the _Zalinski_, because it was fitted with pneumatic guns of the type invented by an American army lieutenant of that name. Again there was a long silence in regard to Holland, until he submitted the designs of his seventh boat--the sixth was planned but never built--to the American Government, which had decided to adopt the under-water torpedo boat as a definite part of the navy. The _Holland the Seventh_, as designed and launched, was to be 85 feet long, of 100 tons displacement, and to carry three torpedo tubes and two steel armoured gun turrets. The Holland Company had meanwhile designed a vessel they considered much superior, and the Government consented to adopt it in place of No. 7. She was something like a porpoise, and above a semi-cylindrical hull carried a flat-sided superstructure, which has been one of the distinguishing features of the Holland type of submarines from that day to this. Her aerial torpedo was to carry 100 lb. of gun-cotton. After discharging it she was to dive, approach the vessel she sought to destroy, and fire her Whitehead torpedo. If this missed, she was to go under the vessel and discharge her after submarine gun immediately after passing underneath. The _Holland_ was altered and improved, and when the French announced that they had become possessed of types of submarines and submersibles upon which dependence could be placed in time of war for destroying an enemy’s vessels, the British Admiralty abandoned the attitude of scepticism and watchfulness combined it had maintained for so long, and ordered five boats from the Holland Company for experimental purposes. The experiments which were made with these boats resulted in the Government becoming possessors of what were known as the A class of submarine.

[Illustration: BRITISH SUBMARINE A13. _Photograph by E. Sankey, Barrow._]

[Illustration: BRITISH SUBMARINE C22. _Photograph by E. Sankey, Barrow._]

Very little has been revealed of the details of modern submarines, for if there is one subject more than another upon which the admiralties of the world are agreed, it is that they should not let one another know the secrets of the mechanism of these under-water craft. That, at least, is the theory, but it is very questionable if all the governments are not quite well informed as to the constructional details of each other’s submarines, and probably know almost as much about them as they do about their own. The experiments at Barrow and elsewhere with the Holland boats and their successors have been responsible for the introduction of several classes of submarines, every one of which embodies improvements upon its predecessor. The five boats built for Great Britain at Barrow, in 1902, were 63 feet 4 inches in length by 11 feet 9 inches breadth, by 12 feet 1 inch depth, and had a surface speed of ten knots and a submerged speed of seven knots. The A class, which appeared in 1902, began with a vessel of 180 tons displacement, and 100 feet in length by 12 feet 8 inches beam. Larger vessels of this class were built from 1904 to 1907 of 204 tons displacement, but varying considerably in dimensions. The B class of 313 tons submerged displacement was introduced in 1903-4. These vessels were 135 feet by 13 feet 6 inches, and had a cruising speed of fourteen knots and a submerged speed of nine knots. The C class, which resembled the B class in many particulars, appeared in 1906-7, as did also the D class, but the latter were of 500 tons submerged displacement and of fifteen knots cruising speed. The five boats built on the Holland designs were each propelled by a 4-cylinder 190 h.p. petrol engine besides an electrical engine of 70 h.p. The armament was an 18-inch torpedo tube in the bow, and each carried five torpedoes. These vessels were divided into seven compartments. The deck was 31 feet 4 inches by 4 feet 5 inches. There were two diving rudders at the stern, and the conning tower, of 32 inches diameter, was formed of 4-inch armour. The A type, the first of which sank in March, 1904, off Spithead, had a 12-cylinder 600 h.p. gasolene engine. The B type had engines of 850 h.p., and could carry 15 tons of fuel structurally, and were provided with a forward superstructure. The D type have heavy oil engines, and can carry 15 tons of fuel. Yet another and more advanced type of submarine is stated to be under consideration and possibly under construction. It is to be larger, according to report, than any existing submarine, and is to carry a gun, which it will come to the surface to discharge. Is this to be the forerunner of a new cruiser, to be equally at home and equally dreaded, whether it be operating at the surface or beneath the waves, advancing stealthily upon its foe?

The Japanese, when they decided upon importing some submarines from this country, had two specially built at Barrow. It was not thought advisable to send them under their own power, or in tow of tugs, to the Far East, so a special vessel was built for their accommodation. For two-thirds of her length her main deck could be removed and her bottom was constructed to permit of the two submarines lying side by side. In order to get them on board, this steamer, which was called the _Transporter_, was sunk in dock at Liverpool, the submarines were floated into place and the water was pumped from the dock, and, of course, from the steamer also. As it subsided, the submarines were carefully adjusted in their cradles, and when this work had been completed, the _Transporter_ with her strange cargo returned to Barrow in order to be prepared for the voyage to Japan.

[Illustration: SUBMARINE D1, WITH WIRELESS TELEGRAPH MAST. _Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea._]

[Illustration: LAUNCH OF U.S. SUBMARINE “NARWHAL.” _Photograph supplied by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co._]

[Illustration: FRENCH SUBMARINE “X.” _Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea._]

It is necessary, however, to consider what other nations have done in connection with the submarine, long before the _Holland_ was adopted by the British Admiralty. A Swedish inventor, Dr. Nordenfeldt, who had given a great deal of attention to the subject, was attracted by Mr. Garrett’s method of what was called “bottling up” the steam engine, so as to permit of the vessel diving under water. The first _Nordenfeldt_ was cigar-shaped and 64 feet long, and was remarkable in one respect, for she was the first to carry a tube for discharging Whitehead torpedoes. She underwent in the presence of Royalty a fairly successful trial on the first day, and was ultimately purchased by the Greek Government. In 1887 Dr. Nordenfeldt and Mr. Garrett designed boats with screws placed on top, for regulating the ascent and descent, and the torpedo tube of each was carried at the outside of the bow instead of inside. One of these boats was taken by Mr. Garrett to Constantinople, where she was put through numerous evolutions in the presence of the Sultan himself and the greater part of the population of that city. The engineer and Mr. Garrett understood their work perfectly, but the same could not be said for the Turkish crew who were told off to be drilled in its manipulation. They knew nothing of submarines and did not want to learn, and maintained their obstinacy to the utmost. The trials took place in June, 1887. The Turkish boatmen simply would not keep out of her way, until one of them navigated his empty barge too close to the _Nordenfeldt_, whose revolving propeller knocked such a large hole in the barge’s bottom that it was as much as the boatman could do to get it to the shore to save it foundering. After that the _Nordenfeldt_ was allowed more room. The first time, so far as navigation was concerned, she was tried she was a success, but directly her stability was altered by the discharge of her Whitehead torpedo from the bows, her trim was changed very materially, and it was even thought possible that she might go down stern first. However, the Turks bought her and added her to the collection of naval purchases of which they could make little use. A later submarine was built by Nordenfeldt, but proved no more stable, horizontally, than the other. It was purchased by the Russian Government, and was lost on the way to the Baltic.

The French have seemed to find an extraordinary fascination in submarine navigation. It was very great before Jules Verne published his fascinating romance, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” and became even more enthusiastic than ever. Of the early French experiments it is not necessary to say much. One of the first of the reliable French submarines was the _Goubet_, 10 feet in length, 6 feet high and 3 feet wide. This vessel was succeeded in the estimation of the French naval authorities by the _Gymnote_, which proved as remarkable a forerunner of a type as the _Dreadnought_ did of the new type of battleships, and, like the _Dreadnought_, she has been steadily superseded by improvements upon her design. The _Gymnote_ was designed by M. Gustave Zédé, although the credit of suggesting her in the first instance is sometimes ascribed to M. Dupuy de Lôme. She was launched in September, 1888, and was cigar-shaped. She displaced about 50 tons with dimensions of 59 feet in length, 6 feet in depth, and 5 feet 7 inches in breadth, and her electrical motor was supplied with the necessary power from a large installation of accumulators. Her conning tower was telescopic, and she had a periscope to enable her commander to take observations without coming to the surface; she was one of the first vessels, if not the first, to be fitted with a periscope or optical tube, the principle of which is that a mirror placed at a certain angle above the tube has its reflection reproduced by another mirror placed entirely parallel to it at the bottom of the tube. She carried two Whitehead torpedoes. M. Zédé planned another submarine which was launched in June, 1893, and its electrical installation nearly poisoned its crew owing to the fumes given off. Another _Goubet_ followed, but was so slow that the Government rejected her. Since then, especially in the last few years, the French Government has gone in for a singular variety of these vessels. Some of them have undergone marvellous tests with conspicuous success. But none have attempted such a feat as two British submarines have accomplished, viz., from England to Hong Kong. They were towed part of the way, and escorted all of it, but their own power was not allowed to be idle.

[Illustration: THE “TRANSPORTER.” _Photograph supplied by Messrs. Vickers, Ltd._]

[Illustration: U.S. GUNBOAT “PADUCAH.” _Photograph supplied by the Gas Engine and Power Co._]

It is now attempted to propel French submarines by Diesel engines for surface work, and by electric motors for underwater work; the result of the experiment is not known at the time of writing.

The Russian Government is said to favour submarines of the Lake pattern, so named after its American inventor, of which a great deal is thought; and America is said to have adopted both Holland and Lake submarines. One Lake boat was provided with wheels, and went on a submarine motor tour along the New England coasts, and Mr. Lake finally offered to demonstrate the usefulness of his vessel by finding and cutting the cables of the mines protecting one of the American ports. This was more than the American Government could allow, so he had a cable laid across a harbour mouth, and having found it, severed it.

The Italian authorities have modified the Holland and French plans to suit their own ideas, and though their boats are said to have given excellent results, singularly little is known about them.

All makes of submarines and submersibles have to return to the surface at fairly frequent intervals to renew the supply of fresh air, and have to approach it at even more frequent intervals in order that the navigating officer may see what are his surroundings at the surface, and, in time of war, whether it would be safe for him to bring his vessel up. The difficulty of finding his way about without revealing his whereabouts by exposing the periscope to view is one of the greatest the commander of a submarine has to meet, but it would be futile to say that the ingenuity of scientific inventors will not overcome even this difficulty.

TORPEDO BOATS AND DESTROYERS

When the _Iris_ was given a speed of 18½ knots, many declared that the limit in speed, with a due regard to safety, had been attained. Much the same was said when Mr. Thornycroft brought out the _Lightning_ in 1876, the first real torpedo boat ever built for the British Navy, which had a speed of 18½ knots. Now, however, the speed has been more than doubled, and the sea-going qualities of the vessels are so much better that there is scarcely room for comparison. In 1873 the same firm built for the Norwegian Government a small steamboat intended to be employed in torpedo work only. The _Lightning_ was 87 feet over all, with a displacement on her trials of 28½ tons; now torpedo boats are a hundred feet or so longer.

[Illustration: THE EARLIEST EUROPEAN TORPEDO BOAT. BUILT FOR THE NORWEGIAN GOVERNMENT IN 1873. SPEED 18 KNOTS. _Photograph supplied by Messrs. J. Thornycroft & Co., Ltd._]

[Illustration: FIRST BRITISH TORPEDO BOAT, “LIGHTNING.” SPEED 18 KNOTS. BUILT IN 1876. _Photograph supplied by Messrs. J. Thornycroft & Co., Ltd._]

[Illustration: H.M. TORPEDO BOAT NO. 79, BUILT IN 1886. _Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea._]

[Illustration: H.M.S. “VULCAN.” _Photograph by E. Sankey, Barrow._]

A small torpedo boat built for the Russian Government by Messrs. Yarrow, in 1879, was considered to be the most formidable vessel of her class afloat. Her speed was 22 knots, and on 10 tons of coal it was estimated that she would be able to steam 800 miles at a speed of 10 to 12 knots. Her stem was formed to be a sharp ram, and from the conning tower to the stem she had a hood over her deck to throw off the water she might take over her bows. The two launching tubes for her Whitehead torpedoes were on either side of the bows. The theory was that the first torpedo should break through the nets or other guards, and that the second torpedo, discharged a few seconds later, should pass through the gap thus made in the ship’s defence and attack the hull itself. A comparatively recent invention is a contrivance to be carried on the nose of the torpedo to cut through the net.

Torpedo boats had to have their “parent ship,” or ship to which they could go for any repairs to be made when at sea. The parent ship was necessarily a floating torpedo boat factory, and, if the torpedo boat were not too large, could hoist her on board and repair her as effectually as if she were in dry dock or on the slips ashore, and lower her again to the water when the work was finished. The _Vulcan_, of 6,620 tons displacement, was launched in 1889 to undertake these duties, and also act as a laboratory in connection with the mining service. She had two powerful hydraulic cranes for hoisting in and out torpedo boats, of which she carried six on her deck for the assistance of the fleet she might accompany, and also had two counterbalancing barges and steam pinnaces. In order that she might be able to protect herself she was equipped with twenty quick-firing guns. Several “parents” or floating repair ships have been added to the Navy of recent years, and every one of them is as modern as science and money can make her.

Having a large fleet of cruisers and battleships, it has been the British policy of late years to arm them with a powerful secondary battery, especially designed to meet torpedo attack. It is not touching upon international or diplomatic questions to state that the very preponderance of the British fleet has rendered the risk of invasion of these islands exceedingly small, and the resources of this country have been, and are, so vast, that the much-debated two-power standard--in spite of the numerous and contradictory estimates of comparative naval strength based upon it--has, on the whole, been maintained.

If the theoretical British frontier be the coast-line of a possible opponent, it is evident that vessels which can steam to an enemy’s coasts and destroy his torpedo boats there are of greater use than the torpedo boats which can only operate along the coast-line, or venture to cross the seas in fine weather. This has been set forth as one reason why the British Admiralty of recent years has preferred destroyers to the smaller vessels.

The introduction of rapid-firing guns of great power and range is claimed by some naval authorities to have reduced very materially the effectiveness of the torpedo boat. Its speed has been doubled in a few years, but it is contended that with the improvement in guns this has been more than neutralised by the greater size it has been necessary to give the torpedo boats in order to provide sufficient space for the machinery and retain the vessel’s sea-going qualities, as the increased size renders the vessel easier to hit. It must be remembered, moreover, that the anti-torpedo boat armament of a modern warship can fire as many as a hundred shots a minute, or several times as many as when torpedo boats were added to the world’s fleets.

[Illustration: HIGH-SPEED SEA-GOING TORPEDO BOAT OR GUNBOAT, PROPELLED BY INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES. SPEED 23 KNOTS. _Photograph supplied by Messrs. Yarrow & Co., Ltd._]

[Illustration: U.S. DESTROYER “LAWRENCE.” _Photograph supplied by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co._]

Some of the Continental powers have been quick to appreciate the value of the torpedo boat as propelled by internal combustion engines, among the most noteworthy examples being those built and engined by Yarrow for the Austrian Government. The “E,” for instance, is 60 feet in length by 9-feet beam, and has a draught of 2 feet 8 inches. She has three screws, and her five sets of these engines give her a speed of 22¼ knots, in spite of her diminutive size, and her radius of action at 11 knots is three times what would be obtainable with vessels of the same size propelled by steam. Another, of the same length, has attained a speed, when light, of 25½ knots, and of 24 knots with a load of 3 tons, and her radius of action at full speed is 250 miles. A somewhat larger vessel from the same makers is 100 feet in length, with a beam of 13 feet 6 inches, and her internal combustion engines give her a speed of 23½ knots. The advantages, and they are very great, claimed for all boats propelled by powerful engines of this type over those propelled by steam engines, are that as the vessels have no funnels there can be no flaming from funnels, with its risk of betrayal of the vessel’s whereabouts; that only half the engine-room staff is required, and that the range of action is three times what it would be under steam.

The development of the torpedo boat as a means of offence soon made it necessary for a means to be devised of defeating them. The torpedo gunboat was accordingly designed, the idea being that it should be able not only to act as a small cruiser, scout or gunboat, but by reason of its superior size, armament, and sea-going qualities should hold the torpedo boats in check. One of the earliest of these was the French _Bombe_ launched in 1885. She was of 395 tons displacement, and was intended to have a speed of 18 knots, but being lightly constructed, proved a slow boat whenever there was the suspicion of a sea on. England followed suit with the _Rattlesnake_ and others, of 550 tons, but they also failed to maintain their designed speed of 19½ knots. Improved gunboats followed, which, however, were not considered to be equal to the duties required of them, especially as by 1902 torpedo boats were built to travel at a speed which would leave the gunboats far behind.

This left the way open for the appearance of the torpedo boat destroyer, which has been described as the result of the failure of the gunboat to perform its second purpose satisfactorily.

The destroyer was designed to be able to overtake torpedo boats by superior speed, to be of larger dimensions, and therefore able to maintain her speed in rougher weather than the torpedo boat could, and to be sufficiently powerfully armed to sink a torpedo boat or hostile destroyer by gun-fire. The destroyer was also to carry torpedoes, it being desired to take advantage of the great speed to deliver torpedo attacks upon cruisers and other large ships as occasion offered. The earliest British destroyers were the _Daring_ of 237 tons, in 1893 the _Hornet_ of 240 tons, and the _Ferret_ of 250 tons, built respectively by Thornycroft, Yarrow and Laird, all three boats having a speed of 27½ knots; and about two years later the Palmer firm built at Jarrow the _Janus_, _Lightning_, and _Porcupine_ of equal speed. With Thornycroft’s _Boxer_, in 1894, the speed was brought up to 29 knots; and in the same year the _Desperate_, 280 tons, and the _Quail_, 305 tons--two odd names to be associated--were the pioneers of the destroyers of the 30-knot type, many of which attained to 32 knots. These were turbine boats, but the _Albatross_ by Thornycroft, with reciprocating engines, also attained 32 knots in 1899. The last 30-knot destroyer had her engines fitted with forced lubrication on a special system, which overcame the difficulty of oiling the engines satisfactorily for running at the high speed necessary and was the first destroyer in the British Navy to be thus equipped.

[Illustration: STERN VIEW OF H.M.S. “SYLVIA.” 30-KNOT DESTROYER, WITH COAL-BURNING WATER-TUBE BOILERS. _Photograph supplied by Wm. Doxford & Son, Ltd., Sunderland._]

No further advance of a sensational character was announced until the _Star_ was launched from Palmer’s yards, and she was surpassed very shortly afterwards by the performance of the little steamer _Turbinia_. This vessel was only 100 feet in length, and of 44½ tons displacement. The engines of the Parsons type of turbines, with which it was fitted experimentally, received the cold shoulder, which seems to be the fate of all innovations that do not come into the world through official channels. But the owners of this vessel and the proprietors and inventors of the engines adopted a method of compelling recognition as daring as it was successful. The occasion chosen was the naval review held in honour of the diamond jubilee of the late Queen Victoria, and shortly before the Royal Yacht arrived to pass between the rows of warships, this turbine steamer shot into the fairway and went at her utmost speed from one end to the other of the lines of steamships and the finest assemblage of warships the world had ever seen, and there was not in the whole British Navy one destroyer or torpedo boat present that she could not outdistance. Thousands of spectators witnessed the exploit, and the success of the turbine engine was assured from that moment.

The remarkable development in steamship propulsion this vessel heralded was represented in less than ten years by the fastest and largest steamships in the world, and the largest and fastest and most powerful battleships afloat. The builders’ estimate of the power of her rotary engines was that for every ton of the machinery 72 h.p. should be developed, and though this seems to have been accomplished in the _Turbinia_, equally satisfactory results have not been attained in the large seagoing destroyers fitted with turbine engines, but the results were in advance of those obtainable with reciprocating engines.

It was not, however, until 1900 that the first turbine-driven war vessel was added to the fighting force of the Navy. The Admiralty had not been idle, and as the result of numerous tests and inquiries made the great experiment which brought about the revolution in the propulsion of the world’s fighting ships. The mercantile marine led the way, the Allan line being the first to have Atlantic liners equipped with turbines. The Government watched the experiment carefully, and in spite of opposition from some influential quarters decided to try how turbines would act in a destroyer. This was the _Viper_, of 390 tons displacement. The hull and boilers were by Hawthorn, Leslie and Co., and the engines were by the Parsons Turbine Company. She astonished everyone by attaining a speed of 36.6 knots when running light, and from that time onward the development of turbines for warships has been one long series of progress.

The destroyers of the River class, begun in 1903 and completed in 1906, had displacements varying from 540 to 590 tons, but the speed of all of them was about 25½ knots. These were followed by the coastal destroyers, designed, as their name indicates, to operate as destroyers along the coast against any hostile torpedo boats, but now classed as torpedo boats. In the latter capacity their guaranteed speed of 26 to 27 knots would stand them in good stead, but as destroyers they were soon outclassed. Some of them were provided with turbines.

[Illustration: H.M. TORPEDO BOAT DESTROYER “SWIFT.” OIL FUEL. _Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea._]

[Illustration: H.M.S. “WEAR.” _Photograph supplied by Palmer Shipbuilding Co., Ltd._]

The announcement that the Admiralty favoured a speed of 33 knots evoked a chorus of disapproval. The Admiralty was supposed to have become obsessed by a craze for speed, to which everything must be sacrificed. All the old objections which had done duty at every increase of speed for years, and had been proved to be ill-founded, were revived, brought up to date, and launched against the Admiralty proposals. Again it was contended that a vessel travelling at that speed must inevitably founder if she should unfortunately bury her nose in a wave, and that the violent alternation of stresses as she travelled in a rough sea must cause her to break her back or buckle her decks without more ado. But the _Mohawk_, in 1907, came and conquered, much to the delight of everyone except those whose prophecies, as usual, were upset, and not only attained a speed of 34½ knots, but accomplished it in fairly rough weather in the wintry month of November of that year, and proved her soundness of construction and the possession of excellent sea-going qualities. An objection, which at first was supposed to be serious, was that to attain such a high speed her consumption of fuel would be so great that her radius of action would be greatly restricted. The contract under which the _Mohawk_ was built by White, at Cowes, contained the stipulation that she should maintain a speed of 33 knots for six hours; at her trials, however, she averaged 34½ knots. Her consumption of oil fuel on this occasion was 64¼ tons, and as she is fitted to carry 148 tons, her radius of action at this enormous speed is 435 knots, and at 14 knots, which is known now as the cruising speed, she is estimated to cover 1,500 miles. Though 270 feet in length she is only 25 feet beam. She is constructed entirely of high tensile steel, the tensile strength ranging from 37 to 40 tons per square inch. Her three screw propellers are driven by turbine engines, and it has been found that with oil fuel she can attain her full speed in less time than would be possible were her furnaces fed with coal. Her armament consists of three 12-pounder rifled quick-firing breech-loading guns, two of which are forward and one aft, and two revolving tubes on deck for firing 18-inch torpedoes. Another of the class, Thornycroft’s _Tartar_, made 35.678 knots on the measured course, an almost equal speed on the six-hours’ run, while the highest speed she showed was 37.037 knots, thereby establishing a world’s record.

The same year saw the launch of the _Swift_, at Birkenhead. She has a displacement of 1,800 tons, and is the largest and fastest destroyer yet constructed. She is of a special type, a class by herself; her turbine engines of 30,000 indicated h.p. give her a speed of 36 knots, and for armament she carries four 4-inch guns and two torpedo tubes. Not far behind her in dimensions and speed is the Japanese _Kaifu_, but a Russian destroyer building at the Putilov yard in Russia is to be of 1,300 tons, but with engines as powerful as those of the _Swift_, is expected to prove fully as fast, if not faster.

The ocean-going destroyers, built in 1909, have displacements varying from 880 to 1,000 tons, and a speed of from 33 to 34 knots, a typical example being the _Maori_, built by Denny at Dumbarton. The new naval force for the Australian Commonwealth includes some very fine destroyers, among which may be mentioned the _Yarra_.

A tendency has been manifest in some of the later destroyers to provide better all-round fighting and sea-going qualities than were possible in vessels like the _Swift_, in which speed was all-important. The _Beagle_ and _Acorn_ are considered to be good representatives of the compromise.

The bunker capacity of destroyers being very limited, and their consumption of fuel large, it is evident that the scope of their operations must be considerably restricted. At no time is it possible for them to be more than fourteen days away from their coal base. In case of necessity they might coal at sea, if coal storeships accompany the fleet to which they are attached. The adoption of oil fuel, which can be stored in the double bottom, may increase the range at which these vessels can operate, and if, as is expected in the near future, destroyers driven by internal combustion engines are adopted, their range of action will prove more extensive still.

[Illustration: H.M. TORPEDO BOAT DESTROYER “TARTAR.” TURBINE DRIVEN, SPEED 35 KNOTS. _Photograph supplied by Messrs. J. Thornycroft & Co., Ltd._]

[Illustration: H.M. TORPEDO BOAT DESTROYER “MAORI.” _Photograph supplied by W. Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton._]

German and British rivalry in the production of faster destroyers and torpedo boats has resulted in the production of two types, each peculiarly suitable to the country to which it belongs; the British vessels have been designed rather for the offensive, on the principle perhaps that the truest defence is the swiftest attack, while the German boats have become torpedo boats rather than destroyers, and though capable of performing the duties of both roles, are considered by British experts to be less destroyers than the British boats, which are admittedly destroyers first and torpedo boats afterwards. By 1909 the tonnage of the British destroyers had reached 950 tons, the speed being 27 knots. In that year, too, the Admiralty standardised its vessels instead of leaving the contractors to design their own craft. Oil fuel was tried in the small boats of these classes in the British Navy in 1904 and for three years subsequently, but was dropped, only to be taken up again in 1909, in which year Germany also experimented in this direction. The armament of the British and German ships shows that the destroyers of the latter are meant to be torpedo boat destroyers, though it is contended that they could be more heavily and effectively armed still than they are without interfering with their sea-going qualities and speed. The British boats have probably the greater gun power, while the German torpedo boats have the better torpedo power.

The scouts were a class introduced early in the present century, intended to combine the advantages of a fast gunboat with the speed of a small cruiser and the activity of a commerce destroyer. One of the best examples is the _Adventure_, launched in 1904, of 2,940 tons, whose engines of close upon 16,000 h.p. under forced draught give her a speed of 25.4 knots. She is, moreover, powerfully armed for a vessel of her lightness and speed, as she has ten 12-pounders and eight 3-pounders. The Americans in 1907 brought out the remarkable scout cruiser _Salem_, built by the Fore River Company. She was a 24-knot vessel, and though only of 4,640 tons displacement fully loaded, was given a freeboard of 34 feet at the stem, 19 feet 8¼ inches amidships, and 21 feet 6 inches at the stern, or higher than that of any vessel then in the American navy, in order to give her excellent seagoing qualities in all weathers, and a wide range of stability. She was built of steel throughout, carried two torpedo tubes, and is heavily armed.

The crushing defeat of the Russians by the Japanese in both the naval engagements of the war was brought about by the superior long-range firing of the Japanese, whose big guns played havoc with the Russian vessels.

The Battle of Tsushima resulted in the “all-big-gun one-calibre battleship of high speed.” How this came about has been admirably demonstrated by Lieut.-Commander Simms, of the United States Navy, and chief of the American naval artillery department, in a remarkable report on the battle and its influence on shipbuilding.

“Experiments have shown,” he wrote, “that it is exceedingly difficult to hit an enemy at long range when the range is changing rapidly. This is, of course, not true at short range, but at long ranges half the danger spaces--those at which the gun sights must be set in order to hit--are so small, say 50 yards. The bearing of these facts on naval tactics is very important, since it means that, generally speaking, you cannot make many hits at long range while you are manœuvring. Conversely, you will not receive many hits at such a time, because, when at short ranges, the most dangerous position in which a ship can place itself is end-on to the enemy. It is usually assumed that this is equally true at all ranges; but this is not the case, provided the rate of change in fire is rapid.... From the point of view of the theory of gun-fire alone it would be unwise to think of building a man-of-war of any type having more than one calibre of gun in her main battery. In other words, it may be said that the abandonment of the mixed battery ships in favour of the all-big-gun one-calibre ship was directly caused by the recognition of certain fundamental principles of naval marksmanship developed by gunnery officers.”

[Illustration: U.S. SCOUT “SALEM.” _Photograph supplied by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co._]

[Illustration: U.S. CRUISER “MAINE.” _Photograph supplied by the W. Cramp & Sons, Ship and Engine Building Co., Philadelphia._]

There was no great heralding by trumpet-blast the arrival of the _Dreadnought_. The true significance of this vessel only became understood by degrees. The Admiralty kept its secret well: indeed, it may be doubted if an Admiralty secret has ever been so well kept before. A short paragraph in the papers was all that was vouchsafed for the edification of the public or the naval experts of other nations. It was known that a warship to bear the historic name of _Dreadnought_ was to be launched, but the public took it for granted that it was an addition to some “programme” or other, and regarding modern battleships as too wonderful and too full of mechanism to be comprehended by ordinary mortals, was content to accept that much, and leave the rest to the experts. But the naval experts of the other powers were astounded when they learnt the march that Great Britain had stolen upon them. They appreciated to the full the importance of the new era in warship building which had been inaugurated, for they saw that England had a lead which they could not overtake, and that with her splendid resources she would be able to accept any challenge for rivalry for first position which any power might offer. The _Dreadnought_ meant that any other warship afloat was already rendered out of date. Her gun-fire, as much by its weight as by the range of her guns, would enable her to pick and choose where and when and how she would fight, and her speed would enable her to prevent any ship, however powerful, from shrinking from a combat if the _Dreadnought_ thought fit to insist upon one. It was even recognised that she was a match for two or three of the most powerful ships that could be brought against her, for her big guns would be equal to theirs in hitting power, and their smaller guns would be ineffective at the range at which she could fight. Again, by concentrating a portion of her fire upon one of her antagonists she would be able to crush it, and then turn her attention to the other two with the odds as represented by gun-fire distinctly in her favour. Some enthusiastic adherents of the _Dreadnought_ even went so far as to assert that she was equal to half a dozen _Lord Nelsons_, but the more extreme views of this nature were rather severely criticised. It was not only in the number of big guns that the _Dreadnought_ exceeded all previous ships, but in their penetrative quality also. Compared with those of the _Majestic_ they are of about fifty per cent. greater power.

Lieut.-Commander Simms, however, was by no means the only one or the first to hold the views explained in his report. They were entertained by many authorities in other countries, and especially in England, and the recognition by this country of the importance of the theory led to the secrecy with which everything connected with the _Dreadnought_ was invested.

One notable change introduced with the _Dreadnought_ was that she had no intermediate or secondary armament. She carried ten 12-inch guns as her main battery, and some smaller guns to repel torpedo attack, but whereas the _Lord Nelson_ had twenty-nine anti-torpedo boat guns the _Dreadnought_ had but five, depending rather upon her smaller armament of twenty-four 3-inch quick-firers (12-pounders), and in addition she had five under-water torpedo tubes.

[Illustration: H.M.S. “DREADNOUGHT.” _Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea._]

A Parliamentary Paper issued at the time described the arrangement of her guns as follows:--

“In arranging for a uniform armament of 12-inch guns it became at once apparent that a limitation to the number of guns that could be usefully carried was imposed by considerations of the blast effect of the guns on the crews of those guns adjacent to them. It is obviously uneconomical to place the guns in such relative positions that the blast of any single gun on any permissible training should very seriously hamper the use of one or more of the remaining guns. While it is recognised that broadside fire is held to be the most important in a battleship, all-round fire is also considered of great importance, since it lies in the power of an enemy to force an opponent who is anxious to engage to fight an end-on action. In the arrangement of armament adopted six of the guns are mounted in pairs on the centre line of the ship; the remaining four guns are mounted in pairs on the broadside. These eight 12-inch guns--80 per cent. of the main armament--can be fired on either broadside, and four or possibly six 12-inch guns--or 60 per cent. of the main armament--can be fired simultaneously ahead or astern.

“In view of the mobility of modern torpedo craft, and considering the special chances of torpedo attack toward the end of the action, it was considered necessary to separate the anti-torpedo boat guns as widely as possible from one another, so that the whole of them should not be disabled by one or two heavy shells. This consideration led the committee to recommend the numerous and yet widely distributed armament of 12-pounder quick-firing guns of a new design and greater power than those hitherto carried for use against torpedo craft. In order to give the ship sea-going qualities and to increase the command of her forward guns a forecastle is provided giving the ship a freeboard forward of 28 feet, a higher freeboard than has been given to any modern battleship. The main armoured belt has a maximum thickness of 11 inches, tapering to 6 inches at the forward and 4 inches at the after extremity of the vessel; the redoubt armour varies in thickness from 11 inches to 8 inches; the turrets and fore conning tower are 11 inches thick, and the after conning tower is 8 inches thick. The protective deck varies from 1¾ inches to 2¾ inches in thickness. Special attention has been given to safeguarding the ship from destruction by under-water explosion. All the main transverse bulkheads below the main deck--which will be 9 feet above the water-line--are unpierced except for the purpose of leading pipes or wires conveying power. Lifts and other special arrangements are provided and give access to various compartments. Mobility of force is of prime necessity in war. The greater the mobility the greater the chance of obtaining a strategic advantage. This mobility is represented by speed and fuel endurance. Superior speed also gives the power of choosing the range. To gain this advantage the speed designed for the _Dreadnought_ is twenty-one knots.”

Turbines were decided upon because it was held that their adoption conferred certain advantages which more than counterbalanced their disadvantages. Compared with reciprocating engines, they were said to be lighter, to have a less number of working parts, to work more smoothly and be more easily manipulated, and to be less liable to breakdown. They were claimed also to show a saving in coal consumption at high powers, and to require less boiler-room space and a smaller number of engineers to look after them. Another important consideration was that turbines could be placed lower in the ship. The point which chiefly occupied the committee was the question of providing sufficient stopping and turning power for quick and easy manœuvring. A series of experiments with pairs of sister ships, fitted respectively with reciprocating and turbine engines, and also at the Admiralty experimental works at Haslar, influenced the Admiralty in their decision in favour of turbines. The _Dreadnought’s_ bunker capacity is 2,700 tons, with which she could steam 5,800 sea miles at economical speed, or 3,500 sea miles at 18½ knots, due allowance being made for extra consumption in bad weather, and for a small quantity being left in the bunkers. Oil fuel was not taken into account in estimating the ship’s radius of action, but a considerable quantity was arranged for and would, of course, greatly increase her effectiveness in this respect.

Another innovation in this remarkable ship was in the rearrangement of the principal officers’ quarters. Hitherto they had been accommodated as far as possible from the conning tower, where their most important duties were performed, but in this ship the admiral’s and captain’s quarters are placed on the main deck forward, near the conning tower. The officers’ quarters also are placed forward, both on the main deck and on the upper deck. Ample accommodation for the remainder of the crew is available on the main and lower decks aft.

Space does not permit--and to attempt it would be out of place in a book of this character, which does not profess to do more than indicate the general lines upon which the world’s warships have developed--of a detailed account of all the ships which have followed the _Dreadnought_. Some idea of the wonderful progress that has been made may be obtained from a comparison of the _Dreadnought_ herself and one of her latest successors, the battleship _Orion_, in the matter of armament. The _Dreadnought_ could fire on the broadside eight guns of 12-inch calibre, throwing projectiles of 850 lb. weight, her weight of broadside being 6,800 lb. The _Orion_ has ten guns on the broadside having a calibre of 13½ inches, and throwing projectiles of 1,250 lb. in weight, the weight of broadside being 12,500 lb. Now, if we take the ships intended to be able to take their place in the line of battle since 1906, we find the evidence of development to be equally startling. The dimensions of the _Lord Nelson_ and _Agamemnon_ have already been referred to, and are of exceptional interest in this connection as showing the type of vessel the _Dreadnought_ superseded. This vessel herself was exceeded slightly in displacement by the _Bellerophon_, _Temeraire_, and _Superb_, which had sixteen anti-torpedo boat 4-inch guns, as against the twenty-seven 12-pounders of the _Dreadnought_. The _St. Vincent_, completed in 1909, and her sisters the _Vanguard_ and _Collingwood_, completed in 1910, are 500 feet in length by 84 feet beam, and have a displacement of 19,250 tons, and engines of 25,400 h.p.; their armoured belt is 9¾ inches thick amidships, tapering fore and aft to 6½ inches, while the armour of the barbettes is 11 inches in thickness, and the protective deck is 2¾ inches. They have the same number of big guns and torpedo tubes, but the number of the 4-inch anti-torpedo guns was increased to twenty, and they also had six Maxims. In 1911 the _Colossus_, _Hercules_ and _Neptune_ were launched, and showed a very great advance on those immediately before them. Their length was increased to 510 feet, and they were 86 feet in the beam and of 20,250 tons displacement, and their engines developed 25,000 h.p. Their armour was more powerful, as their water-line belt amidships was 10 inches thick, tapering to 8 inches forward and 7 inches aft; their armament was the same. These three ships were given conning towers with 11-inch armour. There were also launched in 1911 the _Orion_, _Thunderer_, _Monarch_, and _Conqueror_, built respectively at Portsmouth, Blackwall, Elswick and Dalmuir. These four vessels are so much larger and heavier than preceding ships of the all-big-gun type that they have been claimed as inaugurating another class. They carry ten 13.5 inch guns, which include the famous “12-inch A,” in five barbettes, all of which are on the centre line of the ship. These four vessels are each 545 feet in length between perpendiculars, and 584 feet over all, and have a beam of 88 feet 6 inches. The weight of the _Orion_ at launching was about 8,000 tons, and her estimated load displacement is 22,500 tons. Her engines, developing 27,000 shaft h.p., are Parsons turbines, driving four shafts and screws, each having a turbine for ahead and astern, the ship having a nominal speed of 21 knots, which is expected to be exceeded. She has eighteen water-tube boilers, and can carry, besides 2,700 tons of coal, 1,000 tons of oil in her double bottom tanks. Her armour varies from 12 inches to 4 inches. Under ordinary circumstances the arrangement adopted for the guns would restrict their direct ahead and astern fire very materially, and in order to overcome this difficulty and double the gun-fire ahead or astern, the second and fourth pairs of guns are raised to fire above the others. Besides increasing the effectiveness of the end-on fire, it will also add materially to the weight of the broadside fire, as, the guns being on a different level, there will be less of what is known as the interference of one pair of guns with another, and the air will become clear the sooner so that the gunners will be able to take a more accurate aim than would otherwise be possible. There are also sixteen anti-torpedo 4-inch guns.

[Illustration: H.M.S. “NEPTUNE.” _Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea._]

[Illustration: H.M. SUPER-DREADNOUGHT “COLOSSUS.” _Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea._]

The _Orion_ has about 2,000 tons more displacement than the _Neptune_, and this has enabled her to carry the heavier guns. She has one elevated tripod mast which is provided with wireless telegraphy apparatus. Her two funnels are of more than usual height, and steam is generated in a series of water-tube boilers. To summarise, by way of contrast, the armament arrangement of these ships, it may be said that the _Dreadnought_, the three _Bellerophons_, and the three _St. Vincents_ have six 12-inch guns in three turrets on the middle line of the ship, and two in a turret on either wing. The _Neptune_, _Colossus_, and _Hercules_ have their wing turrets _en echelon_, so that ten guns can be trained on either side. The _Orions_ have all their guns on the centre line of the ship. Which of these systems is the best has been keenly debated. Experiments in gun-fire are being carried out to ascertain it, but the true test can only be warfare, and even then much will depend on the circumstances of the battle and on the men behind the guns.

The _Hercules_ was the first of her class to be given only one mast. Of the centre-line turrets, one is forward and the other two are aft, and of these two the foremost can fire over that aft of it. This arrangement of the turrets makes it possible for ten of these immense guns to be fired on either broadside. There are also twenty 4-inch quick-firers and three submerged 21-inch torpedo tubes. Her maximum coal capacity is 2,700 tons and she can also carry oil fuel in her double bottom. She is a sister vessel to the _Neptune_ and _Colossus_. These three vessels are protected against attack by aerial warships.

Like all the rest of the _Dreadnoughts_, the _Neptune_ was constructed in unusually quick time, only two years elapsing from the laying of the keel until she was ready for being commissioned. She has been described as a 30 per cent. improvement on the _Dreadnought_, but the rapidity of her construction made her a cheaper vessel than the other, her cost per ton of displacement working out at £86.85, as against £101.29 for the _Dreadnought_.

The _Monarch_ took the water with a launching weight of about 11,500 tons, a record for a warship, after having been just a year on the stocks. This weight included the main structure, the boilers, funnels, funnel uptakes, casings, and a large quantity of auxiliary machinery and armour. Her eighteen boilers weighed 23 tons each, and her two funnels, which are 53 feet high above the upper deck, weigh 18 tons apiece. The deck-houses and bridges were also in place, and she was in other respects in a forward condition. The whole of the work was carried out in 220 working days. This shows what can be done in the private ship-building yards of this country. Builders of warships now find it more economical to put as much work as possible into the hull before launching it, modern dockyard methods rendering this comparatively easy. A great boiler is raised bodily and lifted into position without trouble, and even items weighing 20 to 30 tons or more are lifted and deposited where wanted with no more trouble than if they weighed so many hundredweights.

Mention has been made in earlier pages of such splendid vessels as the _Hood_, _Trafalgar_, _Nile_ and _Royal Sovereign_, all of which in their day, not so long past, were considered to be unsurpassed, and by some to be unsurpassable. Their fighting efficiency is as great as the day they were launched, yet these and many others, equally good vessels, have been removed from the list of the Navy as obsolete and ere long will retire ingloriously to the scrap-heap. All these vessels have been launched since 1890, and however much one may deplore that such fine ships should be discarded, there is no denying that they are hopelessly outclassed by the _Dreadnoughts_, and that a dozen of them would not be a match for one of the latest _Orions_. Yet more than one of them was hailed as the last word in battleships, and there were some who asserted that they would prove to be the last big armoured ships to be built, as torpedo craft and protected cruisers would constitute the navies of the future. But that prophecy was made before the Battle of Tsushima was fought, and the lessons it taught were learnt.

Protests by naval men against the relegation of these ships to the lists of the useless have been frequent, and it has been contended that some of these fine old battleships could have been sent to the Colonies to act as harbour-defence vessels. But the Colonies have shown no disposition to be satisfied with anything under the best that money can buy, and they have contended that if a ship be out of date it is no use to them, especially as any hostile power sending a ship out against them would probably send one of the best and newest and most powerful.

The compound armour produced in 1879 enabled the thickness of armour carried to be reduced to 18 inches, and proved equal to the attacks of the 80-ton gun of the period, but was ultimately beaten by heavier guns and improved projectiles. All-steel armour was introduced in 1890, and was followed in 1892 by the super-carburising and subsequent chilling of the face of plates made of nickel steel. Five years later steel plates were made yet harder, until the 9-inch plate of the modern battleship was equal to a 13-inch plate of the early hardened type; or a 20-inch compound plate of the ’eighties, or a 26-inch wrought-iron plate of the ’sixties.[59]

The modern 12-inch gun, it has been pointed out, with a muzzle velocity of 2,859 feet per second, can penetrate the thickest armour on any of the ships of the _Majestic_ class at a range of 12,700 yards; the ships of the _Duncan_ class would suffer at about the same range; that of the _Ocean_ class would be penetrated at 13,350 yards; and that of the _Formidables_ at over 11,000 yards. The broadside water-line belt of any of these ships could be perforated by the same gun at any range up to the limit of observation. On the other hand, the primary guns of the ships of the classes named could only perforate the water-line belt of the _Dreadnoughts_ at from 7,000 to 9,000 yards range, the former being the range of the _Oceans_ for this purpose. The modern ship could smash the others without receiving a hit in return. Even if they did succeed in getting close enough to use their heavier guns and the 6-inch guns as well, they would be exposed to the risk of a much severer blow in return. This is not the only consideration. Rapidity of gun-fire has to be taken into account. The _Majestic’s_ four 12-inch guns can only fire six rounds each in ten minutes or twenty-four rounds in all in that time, and the other three classes named could fire forty rounds per ship in a ten minutes’ action. The _Dreadnoughts_ of 1906-7 could reply with 120 rounds, and the latest type of _Dreadnought_ with 150 rounds, using the 12-inch guns, and of course the disparity would be even greater with the newest guns.[60]

[Illustration: BRAZILIAN BATTLESHIP “MINAS GERAES,” SHOWING DECK AND SUPERIMPOSED TURRETS. _Photograph supplied by Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd._]

The rapidity of fire of the large guns has been greatly increased of late years, and compared with the destructive effects inflicted by some of the guns they have superseded, notwithstanding that the changes were not brought about without encountering some opposition, the new guns are held to have justified their selection to the fullest. The experiments made in firing on old battleships have shown what the guns then considered sufficient could accomplish, and as the muzzle velocity and muzzle energy and the other scientific data could all be calculated to a nicety, and the effects on certain constructions of armour when struck by projectiles of certain shapes and weights could be estimated approximately and verified by actual experiment, it became really a question for the gun-makers whether they could produce a weapon which, at the range at which modern actions at sea are likely to be fought in the future, would be able to penetrate the heaviest armour which could be placed on a battleship of known displacement. This problem has exercised the artillerists of all nations with naval aspirations, particularly those of Great Britain, Germany, Italy and the United States, and of recent years Japan. Austria has usually been content to follow the lead of Germany in this respect, and the other powers, such as the South American States, China, and the smaller European States, have had to content themselves with the advice of the experts in the gun-manufacturing countries, except when political necessities and diplomatic pressure have regulated their choice for them, to the financial advantage of the vendors. Some of the most powerful warships afloat have been designed by private firms, notably those built at Barrow, or on the Tyne, or at Liverpool, for the South American States, the _Minas Geraes_ and her two sisters being conspicuous examples. These vessels have each twelve 12-inch guns, twenty-two 4.7 quick-firers, and eight 3-pounder quick-firers, and four torpedo tubes. Their displacement is 19,250 tons, their horse-power indicated 24,500, and their speed 21 knots.

The other nations made up their minds that they must follow the lead that England had set, and have _Dreadnought_ ships as good as hers or better. The naval architects of the powers have since been engaged in a struggle to surpass each other and England in particular. The name-ship has been so much improved upon in recent designs that she is as inferior to the last of the super-_Dreadnought_ battleships as the displaced pre-_Dreadnoughts_ were to her.

One American legislator, unaware of the historical significance of the name of the _Dreadnought_, suggested at Washington that the United States should “go one better” by building the “United States warship _Skeered-o’-Nothing_,” with thirty or forty guns--a few big guns more or less apparently did not matter to this naval humorist--and let England see that there was a flag called “Old Glory” which could also brave the battle and the breeze. The suggestion was a sample of that peculiar humour, now, happily, almost moribund, in the Great Republic, and usually estimated at its proper value; it was taken seriously, however, in some quarters, and it was shown to be impossible to build a vessel which should carry forty guns larger than those of the _Dreadnought_, and be faster.

[Illustration: U.S.S. “NORTH DAKOTA.” _From a Photograph by permission of the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., U.S.A._]

Modern American battleships have attracted more than ordinary attention by the daring character of the innovations the naval architects of that country have not hesitated to introduce. The armament of the _Kearsarge_ and _Kentucky_ was extremely powerful, and its arrangement was unique. There were two turrets with walls 13 inches thick, each containing two 13-inch guns; and above each of these turrets was a smaller turret with 9-inch walls, in which were two 8-inch guns. This gave two two-storeyed turrets with four guns to each; either pair of guns could be fired independently of the other pair, but they could not be aimed independently, and when it was necessary to turn the turret all four guns had to go with it. This experiment, though apparently excellent in theory, did not prove satisfactory in practice, and the designs for subsequent vessels which were to have had similar turrets were altered. Other nations have not taken kindly to the idea, and have not adopted it, and too many objections have been raised to the proposal that the upper and lower turrets should be constructed so as to revolve independently of each other for this plan to be given serious trial. Some of the American vessels have been fitted with what are known as lattice masts, or miniature Eiffel towers. It is claimed for them that they are of great strength for their weight, and that they are less likely than the military mast or the tripod mast to be utterly destroyed by gun-fire. The naval authorities of the other powers are interested but not converted.

When the _Dreadnought_ was launched, the Americans replied with the ships of the _Delaware_ class, of 20,000 tons and carrying ten 12-inch guns. The French had done very little for some time in the building of big ships, seeming to prefer smaller ships in greater number, but they too fell into line and built the _Danton_ and others. The _Danton_ was built in four years, which contrasts favourably with the seven years spent on some French ships.

Germany, in constructing her modern fleet, had to bear in mind that the waters round her coasts are rather shallow, but she has produced some splendid ships of great fighting power and high speed. She has some ships under construction more powerful than any at present in her navy, and one of these--the cruiser _Moltke_--is expected to be quite as good as anything England or America can show.

So great has been the demand for _Dreadnoughts_, that at the beginning of this year, for Great Britain alone, there were built or building no fewer than twenty-two, and arrangements had been made for laying down five more; while for foreign powers there have been constructed, or were still in the builders’ hands, up to January last, the enormous total of sixty. The average cost of these vessels has not been much short of a couple of millions sterling, and some have cost fully £2,300,000. The _Dreadnought_ type has admittedly not reached its maximum development yet, and it may well be asked, where is it to stop? At present battleships of a somewhat smaller type are being advocated.

What will be the type of the battleship of the future? Revolutionary as have been the developments in the nineteenth century, great as have been the changes in the last twenty-five years, marvellous as has been the adaptation of scientific discoveries and appliances to the means for conducting naval warfare, it would be an idle boast for anyone to say that he can see finality. The dream to render war impossible by the introduction of some dread weapon has been entertained by many inventors, but never a one of them has seen its fulfilment. When steam-driven armoured warships were proposed, there were not wanting those who declared that henceforth fleets of wooden walls were doomed, and that naval war would become an impossibility. Yet the wooden walls have passed away, the nations unanimously adopted the newer methods, and the contingency of naval war must ever be provided for. The heavily armoured iron ship, carrying few guns of enormous power, came; and when at last it was found that were the armour made much thicker the ship would sink under the weight of her own protection and armament, and that guns could be constructed to smash that armour, again the hope was entertained that the limit had been reached, that naval warfare had become an impossibility, and that the world’s highways on the vast and beautiful ocean should be devoted solely to the purposes of commerce and peace. But science had already come to the rescue and dispelled the illusion before it was half-formed. Steel, at first gradually and then wholly, took the place of iron in the building of ships, the production of guns, and the manufacture of projectiles. Steel itself has been improved since it was made possible by the Bessemer process, and Harveyised steel, Krupp steel, and steel toughened with nickel or chrome or tungsten, or by what is known as the Simpson process, have all been tried and have all proved their value. The science of ballistics has made equal progress, and the development of the resources of marine engineering are little short of the miraculous. And the end is not yet!

There are guns in existence which at their maximum elevation will hurl a projectile weighing not far short of three-quarters of a ton a distance of 25 miles, and the projectile itself contains an explosive charge more powerful and destructive than the heaviest charge which could be placed in the heaviest gun which was fought in the Battle of Trafalgar. The whole fleet which bombarded Alexandria would be no match for the latest _Orion_, and the _Orion_ herself at no very distant date will be removed from the list of effective ships as obsolete, or as having only a doubtful fighting value. Scientific development cannot be arrested, and the only hope is that some day the inventions for war purposes will have become so terrible that the dream of inventors that they have made war impossible will be realised. In the meantime, science is seeking to surpass all its present achievements. The marine steam engine, of whatever type, will give way to the internal combustion engine of a type which will surpass all the existing machinery as surely as the best turbines are ahead of the old compound engines. The battleship of the future will have an armament surpassing in effective range and penetrative power anything at present afloat, and an armour as far in advance of the present steel armour as that is ahead of the compound armour it but lately supplanted. The adoption of the internal combustion engine will mean the removal from the ship’s deck of the obstructions which now find a place there. With no furnaces, there will be no funnels. An armoured citadel, flush decked from end to end, has been prophesied as a coming type in the early future, with one mast for signalling purposes and to convey the wireless telegraphy apparatus, the necessary ventilators, and the conning towers as the only breaks in the smoothness of the deck. Submarine signalling, already in extensive use in warships and the mercantile marine, is being improved beyond all comparison with what it was a few years ago, and if the wireless apparatus be shot away it will still be possible for a ship to signal by the other method over a distance of some miles. Moreover, submarine signalling will enable an admiral to judge how an enemy’s fire may be affecting a distant ship of his own squadron. Size will be another feature of the coming battleship, for in size lies one of the chief protections from the attack of the most insidious and most to be feared naval weapons of the present, as well as the future. The submarine ship will launch its torpedo at a greater range as the propelling machinery of the torpedo is strengthened, and, granted that the aim is true, the only hope the great warship will have of surviving the explosion of the under-water weapon will lie in the number of compartments into which her dimensions will permit of her hull being subdivided or her double bottom to accommodate, thereby restricting the area of the damage and limiting the inrush of water.

The torpedo itself is destined to play a part more important than has yet fallen to its lot in war. Not only will it be launched from the tubes of the battleship or cruiser or destroyer at the distant foe, but it will be dirigible, controlled and steered by wireless telegraphy, and extra speed, or counter explosion, or gun-fire, or the disablement of the vessel sending it forth will alone be the means of rendering it ineffective. Torpedo nets may be of value when ships are at anchor or travelling slowly, but not at any other time.

The submarine will not be the only danger to be guarded against from an unexpected quarter. The aeroplane and airship will play their parts in the next naval war. Experiments have already been tried in starting a flight of an aeroplane from a platform at the bows of an American warship, and this being accomplished, it is not too much to anticipate that aeroplanes for purposes of observation or attack may become part of the equipment of every battleship or large cruiser. The flying machine will drop its bomb on the deck of the attacked vessel, if the aviator has the good fortune to aim sufficiently straight, but whether the dropped explosive will do much harm will depend on whether the deck is comparatively flat as at present, or is curved like the modern protective deck, or has a bomb-proof turtle back covering it entirely. Will the battleship of the future, then, be an immense cylindrical-backed hull, with one mast or none, innocent of funnels, leaving no trace of smoke behind her, and rushing at a speed of a railway train as she belches forth with almost unerring precision terrible explosives at a similar enemy so far distant as to be barely discernible on the horizon? Are we to see cruisers as much faster than the battleship, as the present cruiser is than the present _Dreadnought_? If, as is asserted to be possible, the battleship of twenty years hence will attain a speed of 30 knots under internal combustion engines, armed with weapons showing a corresponding advance in power and range and penetration, will the cruiser of that time cover its 40 or 45 knots, and the destroyer hurl itself forward at even greater speed to explode its torpedo, also correspondingly more destructive and deadly than now, at its foes? Will the aeroplane enable the whereabouts of the submarine to be more easily detected than now? It sounds like a confusion of ideas that such a thing should be suggested, but it is a well-established fact that it is possible to see further into the open sea from a height above it than when close to the surface. If the cruising aeroplane can detect and reveal the submarine to the battleship, the submarine will be robbed of half its terrors, and if the aeroplane can drop an explosive sufficiently near to the submarine it is not improbable that the career of the latter will be terminated instantly. The same fate may await the submarine as the result of the aeroplane signalling its whereabouts, for recent experiments have shown that it is possible for a warship to sink a submarine by gun-fire, even when the latter is several feet under the surface, the victim in this case being the ill-fated A1. Thus, it is not at all improbable that the under-water craft may find the swift aeroplane its greatest and most to be dreaded enemy. The aeroplane will be attacked by other aeroplanes, and aerial navies may yet be seen “grappling in the central blue,” fighting their battles on their own account and so high among the clouds as to be almost out of reach of the guns which might be directed against them. Are these ideas but visions and day dreams? It is impossible to say. Yet they have one and all been enunciated by naval experts and strategists. Whether these are the lines upon which the navy of the not distant future will operate, time alone will show. Events point in their direction. But one thing is assured, and that is that, marvellous as have been the developments in the last twenty-five years, it will indeed be strange if the developments of the next twenty-five years do not surpass them.

INDEX

Adherence to sail after adoption of steam, 120, 122

Admiralty: Adoption of steam power and iron armour, 146; builds its first steamer, 89; attachment to wooden ships, 256; first iron steamship, 99

Advance towards _Dreadnought_ gun arrangement, 251

Advice boats, 59

Aeroplane _v._ Submarine, 329; and warships, 329

African war canoes, 24

Alexander the Great’s State visit to Neptune, 289

Alexandria, Bombardment of, 214 _et seq._; the defences, 215; British ships’ weight of broadsides, 216; damage caused by British fire, 217-9; Egyptian and British losses, 218

“All-big-gun” one calibre ships (_see_ _Dreadnoughts_)

All-round fire, 164 (_see_ _Dreadnoughts_)

America: first modern cruisers, 223; frigates, 60, 105, 124; navy, 60, 61; turret-ship’s Atlantic voyage, 188; warships sold to Europe, 189

American Civil War: _Atlanta_ sunk by _Weehawken_, 134; _Albemarle_ (Confederate ram) sunk by improvised torpedo boat, 134; _Tennessee_ (Confederate) designed as ironclad ram, 134; battle with Union fleet, 135; _David_, 136; _Ironsides_ attacked by, 136; improvised gunboats, 137; innovations, 104; “tinclads,” 137 (_see also_ _Alabama_, _Merrimac_, _Monitor_)

Ammunition tubes, 174; hoists, 277

Ancient Egyptian warships, 2, 3, 4

Antiquity of naval warfare, 2

Anti-torpedo boat armament: rate of fire, 304

“Anti-war shell,” 268

Arab dhow, 33, 37

Archers on shipboard, 19; fighting tops for, 41, 48

Armour: _Agamemnon_ (1906) 8-in. armour equal to 12-in. four years earlier, 253; _Hercules’_, impenetrable, 159; value of, proved at Lissa, 157; concentration of, at sides, 119; increased thickness, 162; French, 163; _Warrior_, _Devastation_ and _Hercules_ compared, 162, 163; _Inflexible’s_, 2 ft. thick, 176; limit, 176; belts, 165; Armstrong-Whitworth competition, 275; on deflective principle, 242; targets, 275; steel and iron compared, 267, 277; developments, 321; _Rossia’s_ in Japanese battle, 259; tests with H.M.S. _Ruby_, 100; iron plates superposed, 100; rolled armour plates for Crimean War, 100; steel, 20 inches thick, 246; compound belt, 18 inches thick, 247; Harveyised steel, 247, 248

Armour-cased screw frigate, 194

“Armour-patched” ship, 121

Armour plate experiments, 183, 266, 268, 269, 270; “impregnable armour plating,” 269; Italian experiments at Spezzia, 276

Armour plates: _Warrior’s_ costly, 118; tests, 118; _Black Prince’s_, 121; _Glutton’s_, 183 (_see_ Armour _and_ Artillery)

Armoured bow citadel, 148; bulkheads, 119, 148

Armoured frigates, 118, 181

Armoured ships (_see also_ Floating Batteries): French Emperor decides to use against Russian forts, 109; French floating batteries, 109, 110; first iron-clad citadel ship in Europe, 109; similar floating batteries built by British, 110; objections to retention of, after Crimean War, 115; Royal Commission (1858) reports French building four iron-plated ships, 117; _Gloire_, battleship, converted to armoured frigate, 117; Britain’s reply with the _Warrior_, 118

Armstrong breech loaders, 148

Armstrong, Sir W., 274

Artillery: Chinese, 35; firearms introduced into western Europe, 39; cannon introduced, first used in naval warfare, early guns, method of mounting, chambers for, 40; brass guns, 48; heavy Russian at Sinope, 106; ditto at Sebastopol and Cronstadt, 107; rivalry between guns and armour, 108; 150-pounders, 300-pounders, 152; 12½-ton gun, 158; 80-ton gun, 176; 100-ton guns, 178; 111-ton guns, 245; 12-inch guns, 247, 277, 282, 283; 13½-inch guns, 247; 15-inch guns, 282; 6-inch quick firers, 247; quick firers introduced, 274; breech loaders, 148, 244, 265, 270, 271, 275, 269; hydraulic machinery, 171, 174; loading by machinery, 174, 278-81; guns loaded at any elevation, 278-81; rifling: polygonal, 274; increasing twist, 274; difficulties attending, 265, 270, 274, 275; Whitworth rifled gun, 267; Whitworth hexagonal, 171; windage, 265, 274; cast-iron rifled guns, 265; wrought-iron rifled guns, 265; steel rifled guns, 265, 266; malleable iron gun, 266; smoothbores rifled, 275; uniform rifling, 283; Bessemer steel guns, 266; steel tubes, 266; steel guns adopted for the Navy, 266; muzzle-loading rifled gun, 176; competitive experiments with Armstrong and Whitworth guns, 267, 275; Whitworth gun range, 268; British Government declines competition between muzzle loader and Whitworth breech loader, 269; pivoted guns, 126, 175, 273; Armstrong-Woolwich gun, 164, 153, 271, 272; Dahlgren, 126, 131, 189, 190; adapted to Paixhan system of shell firing, 126; Hontoria, 227; Stockton-Ericsson, 128, 139; Parrott, 137; Paixhan, 110, 126; Rodman, 159, 190, 269, 270; Mackay, 270; Fraser’s cheap construction muzzle-loading, 271; French and English methods of working big guns, 277-8; manufacture, 282; underwater guns, 292; columbiads, 292-3; hexagonal bore, 270; energy, 270, 272; dimensions, 272-3; wire guns, 273; rapid fire, 273, 274, 279; turntable, 159; heavy guns in barbettes introduced, 244; sponsons, 96, 126; blast, 249; 46-ton wire gun more powerful than 110½-ton gun, 249; record weight of discharge prior to _Dreadnoughts_, 177; Spezzia experiments, 178; anti-torpedo boat guns, 176, 248; greater security through breech loading, 280; superiority of 12-inch gun over those prior to 1906, 252; range of _Dreadnought’s_ guns, 262; 25-miles range, 268; length in proportion to calibre, 283

Assouan (Syene) Expedition, 3

Australian bark canoe, 23

Austrian fleet at Lissa, 153

Auxiliary steam: three-deckers, 105

Ballingers, 43

Baltic and Crimean campaigns, 104, 114, 115; Sea of Azof, 113

Banked ships, 7

Barbary pirates, 74

Barbette ships of high displacement, 248; freeboard, 247

Barbettes and turrets, 244

Barton, Sir Andrew, and family, 49

Basket-work boats, 6, 15

Basket-work shields, 6

Battle between steam fleet and sailing fleet, 106

Battles: Acre, 94; Copenhagen, 64; “Glorious First of June,” 64; La Hogue, 59; La Rochelle, 40; Lissa, 152; Ramming at, 153, 155, 157; Losses, 156; Migdol, 4; Min River, 224; Navarino, 64; Sinope, 106; Sluys, 40; Trafalgar, 64; Tsushima, 238-9 (_see also_ _Huascar_, _Merrimac_, _Monitor_, American Civil War, Spanish American War)

Battleship of the future, 328-31

Battleship-cruisers, 254, 255, 261, 262

Battleship’s greatest enemy, 285

Beardmore and Sons, 252

Beardmore, Mr., on armour progress, 253

Beginning of the English Navy, 44

_Bellatorium_ (fighting castle), 20

Beresford, Lord Charles, and Egyptian gunner, 218

Bessemer, Sir Henry, 266

Betts, Hanlon and Hollingsworth, 123

Bilge keels, 120

Biremes, Triremes, etc., 7 _et seq._

Blakely shells in war, 198

“Blast” of great guns, 249

Blockade runners, 141

Boilers: Belleville, 260; watertube and cylindrical in combination, 260

Bomb vessels, 58

Boulton and Watt, 89

Bow armour, 147

Box or central battery, 119, 121

Brazil-Paraguay War (1865), 198

Brazilian gun experiments, 269

Breastwork monitors, 183

Breastworks, 164

Breech-loading guns in European ships, 195 (_see_ Artillery)

Britain’s first iron screw steamer, 94

Britain’s reply to United States monitors, 162

British naval resources, 62, 303

British Navy begun, 44

British-built monitors for Holland, 192

Broadside ironclads, 147, 148, 153

Broadside or central battery ships, 212

Broadside ships, 174, 243

Brooke, Commander, 127

Brooklyn Navy yard, 104

Brown, Sir John, 276

Brunel, I. K., 89

Buchanan, Commander Franklin, 128

Built canoes, 30

Bulkheads: armoured, 174, 120; iron-plated, 121

“Busses,” 20

Cammell (Sheffield), 179

Cancelli, 6

Canet, M., 277

Cannon, demi-cannon, 74

Carronades, 75

Catamarans, 30, 291

Cavalli, Major, 265

Cellular double bottoms, 152

Central armoured citadel, 178

Central battery, 148, 174, 175, 243

Central battery and double turret combined, 244

Central box battery ships in action, 203

Central hexagonal box battery (Mackrow system), 194

Cervera, Admiral, 230-2

Charles II.’s navy, 58

Chatham Islands catamarans, 30

Cheeses (Dutch) as cannonballs, 76

Chili-Peruvian War: Peruvian fleet, 203; Chili’s modern ironclads, 203; how the Chilians fought and lost the _Esmeralda_, 205; naval battles of the war, 203-7

Chilian Revolution: Rebel _Esmeralda_ (1884), 208; fight between _Blanco Encalada_ and _Almirante Lynch_ and _Almirante Condell_, 209-10; sulking of the _Blanco Encalada_, 210

Chinese artillery, 35

Chinese war junks, 35

Chino-Japanese War, 234-5

Cinque ports, 51

Circular ships, 180

Citadel, central armoured, 178

Citadel-ships (_see_ Floating Batteries), 109, 119

Classifications, 57, 59, 62

Coal supply for warships, 181, 183, 185

Coast defence ships, 161, 182

Cochrane, Admiral, and Chili, 88

“Cogs,” 43

Coles, Capt., 146, 150, 160-1

Combination of central battery and barbettes or turrets, 174

Commerce destroyers, 256

Complete protective steel deck, 258

Composite vessels, 185

Conning towers, 166

Contest between guns and armour, 283

Copper: fastenings, 62; sheathing, 256

Coracles, 15

Cordite, 273

Corvettes, 256

Cost of warships: Queen Elizabeth’s time, 57; present day, 250, 251

Crimean campaign, 104, 114, 115

Cruisers: Classified, 255; duties of, 253; last British with square sails, 254; retention of sails advocated, 254; cruiser-battleships, 254, 255, 261, 262; in Russo-Japanese War, 254; great speed of _Dreadnought_-cruiser, 255; steel and iron, wood sheathed, 257; first protected cruiser, 208, 258; armoured cruisers, 258, 260, 261; protected cruiser preferred by Admiralty, 258; protected cruisers, 259; armoured replace protected cruisers, 260; “Town” class, 261; cruisers developed from battleships, 261; belted cruisers, 261; powerful Japanese, 263; fast German, 253

Crusades, 20

Culverins and demi-culverins, 74

Cupola ship, 194

Danes, 16

Decked Western vessel (first), 18

Decks: nickel steel, 260; plated, 164, 165; protective, 146, 164

Denmark introduces turret system, 151

Denny (Dumbarton), 310

Depressible guns, 84

Destroyers, 285; why necessary, 305; requirements, 306; earliest British, 306; famous builders, 306; increasing speed, 306; first turbine destroyer, 308; coastal destroyers, 308; for Australian Commonwealth, 310; fighting and sea-going qualities, 310; fuel consumption and range of action, 310; British and German rival types, 310-1

Ditchburn and Mare, 94, 99, 118

“Double-built” ship, 54

Double canoes, 24, 29

Double turret and central battery combined, 244

_Dreadnought_: Why designed, 240; revised gun arrangements, 245; forerunners of, 251; hitting power at long range, 252; _Dreadnought_ cruisers, 262; how all big gun one-calibre ships came about, 312; secrecy as to the _Dreadnought_, 313; fighting value compared with other types, 313; absence of secondary armament, 314; official description, 314-5-6; turbines, 316; radius of action, 316; officers’ quarters forward, 316; armament and broadside, 316; _Orion’s_ armament and broadside, 316; other super-_Dreadnoughts_, 317-9; arrangement of turrets and guns, 319; other nations adopt the type, 325, 326; _Invincible’s_ speed, 253, 255

Dromons built at Southampton, 43

Dudgeon, J. and W., 148-50

Dudgeon’s twin screws, 242

Duels between warships: _Merrimac_--_Monitor_, 128 _et seq._; _Alabama_--_Kearsarge_, 141; Anglo-American, 61; between armoured and wooden ships, 205, 206 (_see also_ _Huascar_, etc., 205-7)

Dug-outs, 21, 24, 29, 32

Dyak head-hunters’ canoes, 34

Dynamite gun, 224

Earlier and later _Dreadnoughts_ compared, 261

Early four-masted ship, 44, 47

East India Company, 76, 91

East Indiamen, 77

Elder, John, inventor of circular ships, 181

Elevated platforms, 20

Elongated shell (Stevens’), 86, 87

Elswick, 178, 179, 258

Engagement between fleet and barge, 199

English and French guns compared, 277

Ericsson, John, offers _Monitor_, 128; and British Admiralty, 92, 131, 138; guns, 93, 128, 139; offer to France, 110 (_see also_ _Monitor_)

Engines: Side-lever superseded by direct acting, 101; American oscillating beam engines, 101; necessity of placing machinery below the water level, 102, 103; Penn’s oscillating cylinder, 102; Maudslay’s double cylinders, 102, 107; horizontal engines, 103; Penn’s trunk engines, 103; supersession of trunks by high-pressure steam, 103; surface condensation, 104; compound engines, 104; cylindrical boilers, 104; Maudslay’s “Siamese” engine, 98; improved vertical compound engine, 179; internal combustion, 304; turbines, 262, 307, 308

Eskimo kayak, 23

Euphrates boats, 6, 15

Evans, Admiral Robley D., 232

Extravagant theories, 145

Fairbairn, 100

False bows and sterns, 184

Farragut, Admiral, 134, 135, 139

Fighting castle, 20

Figure-head hinged as gun-port, 185

Fijian canoe, 30

Firearms introduced by Moors, 39

First armour-plated ship to enter Pacific, 192

First automobile torpedo fired in war, 201

First British warship with Harveyised steel armour, 248

First Clyde-built steam frigate, 100

First ironclad built at Hull, 204

First iron-screw British steamer, 94

First iron sea-going propeller steamer constructed in United States of America, 123

First iron warship, 91

First iron war steamer in action, 91

First modern protected cruiser, 208

First protected cruiser, 258

First sea-going ironclad, 118

First steam warship to round Cape Horn, 88

First steel battleship for British Navy, 244

First twin screw ocean-going ironclad, 150

First war steamers in battle, 95

Floating batteries, 109, 110, 111; armament and sails, 111; given two screw propellers, 111; wooden-built and armoured, 112; iron-built, 112; French attack on Kinburn forts, 112; victory of armoured batteries, 112; armour unpierced, 113; Admiral Popoff’s floating fortresses, 180

Floating castle, 175

Floating hells, 76

Forced draught invented, 86

Fore River Co., 311

Forty-banked ships, 7

Franco-Prussian War: Fight between gunboats _Bouvet_ and _Meteor_, 211

Freeboard, 163; raised by sunk forecastle, 164; high, 252

French and Dutch two-and three-deckers, 57

French Emperor and Ericsson, 109

French rifled breech-loading guns, 275

Frigates, 57, 59, 91, 95

Fulton, Robert, 82, 291

Galleys first with guns, 42

Garrett, 299 (_see_ Submarines)

German warships for Turkey, 74

Germany’s modern Navy begun, 194

Gibson’s Report on the Navy (1603), 72

Gokstad ship, 16

Grappling irons, 6

Great ships, 43

Greater space between decks, 55

Greek fire, 11, 39, 289

Greeks as warship builders, 7

Grenville, Sir Richard, 206

Griffiths’ propeller, 125, 147

Gunboats, 241; shallow river, 90; in action, 113

Gun carriages, improvements in, 119, 126 (_see_ Carronades)

Gunfire at Tsushima: Japanese effective range, 237; Russians’ shorter range, 238; proportion of Japanese hits over Russian, 238; concentration of rapid fire, 238

Gunfire, modern: range, rapidity and weight, 322, 323; discharge, 281; internal pressure, 281; Sir Andrew Noble’s experiments, 281

Gunports: Too near water, 49 higher, 147, 252

Head-hunters’ war canoes, 26, 31, 34

Henry V., naval progress under, 43

High displacement barbette ships, 248

High freeboard barbette type, 247

Hogging and sagging, 10

Howitzers, 189

_Huascar_: Dimensions, armour and armament, 201; mutiny, 201; duel with British cruisers _Shah_ and _Amethyst_, 201, 202; surrender to Peruvian Government, 202; re-boilered, 203; rams and sinks _Esmeralda_, 205; nearly torpedoes herself, 204

Human heads fired from cannon, 73

Human trophies on war canoes, 25

Hurricane at Samoa: H.M.S. _Calliope’s_ struggle for the open sea; six American and German warships wrecked, 257

Iliad catalogue, 2

Importance of accurate gunfire, 158

Improvised warships, 114 (_see_ American Civil War)

Increased range of gunfire, 194

Indian war canoes, 22

Infernals, 58

Internal combustion engines, 304

Iron armour, 83

Ironclad, first ship designed, 81

Ironclad rams in action (_see_ _Tennessee_, _Merrimac_, _Monitor_; _also_ _Terribile_ and _Formidabile_), 153

Ironclads, conversion from wooden ships, 146; first European in action, 152

Iron-framed vessels, 138

Iron shipbuilding advocated, 90

Iron war steamers: H.M.S. _Trident_, first ever built, 99

Italian fleet at Lissa, 152

Japanese: Junks, 37; protected galleys, 37; modern ships: first ironclad frigate, 233; first built by Japan, 234 (_see_ _Tsushima_)

Kane, Captain, 257

Keel, steel built, 165

Kinburn, 108; problems created by failure of attack, 108; inauguration of the struggle between guns and armour, 108; French Emperor favours small ironclads, 109

King Alfred’s ships, 17

King Charles’s ships (1633), 55

Laird, J., 90, 91, 99, 306

Last British paddle frigate, 97

Last British single turret ship, 246

Last British wooden battleship, 116

Legendary expeditions, 2

Letters of marque, 48

Lime dust as missile, 20

Limit of thickness of iron armour, 176

Lowering bulwarks, 151, 172

Low freeboard ships, 160, 244

Maudslay’s, 98, 102, 116

Machine guns, 284

Machines for hurling stones, 39, 40

Main deck battery divided, 174, 175

Malay: Pirates’ dug-outs, 32; fighting decks, proa, 33

Mediterranean and Atlantic coast vessels compared, 16

_Merrimac_: Steam frigate, 125; visit to England, 124; dimensions, 125; boilers and engines, 125; equal of any European vessel, 125; system of construction, 125; sail area, 125; heavy armament, 126; peculiar gun mountings, 126; burnt by Federals, 127; raised, altered and refitted by Confederates, 127; railway-iron armoured casemate, 127; her destructive trial trip, 128; duel with _Monitor_ and gunboats, 128, 131, 132, 133, 137; scuttled by commander, 133

Military mast, 166

Millwall Ironworks, 122

Modern guns and ships in war, 236

Modern heavy artillery construction, 282

_Monitor_: Ericsson’s tender, 128; officials’ interference with plans, 129; derision and abuse, 129; change in naval construction inaugurated by, 129; as ram, 129; Admiral Porter’s advocacy, 130; peculiar shape, 131; narrow escape, 131; why name chosen, 131; armament and armour, 131; duel with _Merrimac_, 128, 131-3; steering gear and anchor out of reach of hostile fire, 133; lost in rough weather, 133

Monitor: in Prussian-Danish War, 151; coast defence, 182; double turreted, 151, 153; craze for, 144

Mortar boats, 114

Napier, Sir C., 90

Napoleon I., proposed rescue from St. Helena, 293

Naval artillery: Later developments, 273

Naval corruption, 221

Necessity of armour protection, 146

New Georgia canoes, 31

New Guinea Lakatoi, 29

New Zealand (Maori) war canoes, 25 _et seq._

Noble, Sir A., 281

Nordenfeldt, Dr., 299 (_see_ Submarines)

Number of rowers in banked ships, 9

Oblong iron forts on steam rafts, 199

Old ships re-armed, 243

“One-ass power,” 15

Oscillating paddles, 81

Outriggers, 24, 25

Paddles: Boxes and wheels, objection to, 81, 97; frigates with, 96, 97, 106; gunboats in action, 113; trials against screws, 98; war steamers with, 95; war junks with, 35; sponsons extended to carry cannon, 97

Palliser, Major, 274

Palmer’s, 306

Parodus, 6

Passengers called on to fight, 77

Penn, John, and Sons, 103, 178

Pett, Phineas, 54, 57

Phœnicians’ connection with Britain, 15; war galleys, 6

Pickled human heads, 49

Pioneer of modern battleship, 244

Portholes, invention of, 42, 49; plated ports, 120; reduced size, 120; diagonal plates, 125

Privateers, 140

Projectiles: Armour-piercing, 265, 273; Bessemer steel, 267; Dutch cheeses, 76; flat-headed, 268; human heads, 73; anti-war shell, 268; Palliser, 164, 269, 274; Whitworth, pointed and cylindrical, 274; studded, 277; steel, 268; stone cannon balls, 40; solid and hollow shot, 126; resistance of armour to, 322-3; lead-coated, 274; velocity, 272; weight, 274; elongated shell, 85, 86

Propellers: Adjustable, 123; advantages, 148; Dudgeon’s, 148; Ericsson’s screw, 92; Griffiths’, 125, 147; Smith’s, 92; Mangin, 122; twin screws, 138, 148, 173; adoption by Admiralty, 150; first British twin screw ironclad, 150; twin screw in United States of America, 125

Proposal to subject _Cerberus_ to gunfire with crew on board, 184, 185

Protected ships (Japanese), 37

Queen Elizabeth and Navy, 50, 51; second embassy to Turkey, 53

Rafts, 21

Railway locomotives as marine engines, 106

Raleigh, Sir Walter, as critic, 55

Ram, 5, 6, 7, 10, 119, 172, 190, 205

Ramberges, 44

Range-finding tower, 259

Rapid building, 192, 247

Ratings, 57, 59

Recessed ports, 150, 172

Reed, Mr., afterwards Sir E., 195

Remarkable French ironclads, 190-1

Rennie, J. and G., 94

Report on Royal Navy (1552), 50

Resistance of armour to projectiles, 322-3

Robinson and Russell, 98, 113

Russell, Scott, 90, 120

Russo-Japanese War: Russian fleet’s departure for the Far East, 236; British trawlers or Japanese torpedo boats, 236; Russian fleet’s slow speed, 236; going to destruction, 236; Japan’s ships’ superior speed, 237; Russians reach Japanese waters, 236; sudden Japanese attack, 237; Russian ships overloaded and filthy, 237; Japanese gunnery superior, 237; Russians defeated in two hours, 237; Admiral Togo’s objects, incidents of the battle, 239-40

Russo-Turkish War: Value of torpedo to Russians, 200; powerful Turkish fleet, 212; Turkish ships torpedoed, 212-3; naval encounter, 214

Ruthven’s hydraulic propulsion, 186; experiments, 187-8

Sailers converted into steamships, 105

Sailing warships with attendant steamers, 95, 107

Sakers, 74

Samoan war canoe, 26

Samuda, 194, 233

“Sappy timbers and rotten planking,” 241

Scouts, combination of gunboat, cruiser and destroyer, 311; English and American, 311

Sea-fights of the Crusades, 14

Sea-going turret ship, 193

Secondary armaments, 251, 252, 303

Semmes, Capt. R., 140

Seppings, Sir R., 65

Serpentines, 45

Seventeenth century cannon, 74

Screws (_see_ Propellers)

Shark’s-mouth rudders, 149

Shields of basket work, 6, 15

SHIPS MENTIONED: _Aaron Manby_, 90 _Abyssinia_, 183 _Achilles_, 172 _Acorn_, 310 _Actinaut_, 288 _Active_ (1822), 89 _Admiral Popoff_, 180 _Adventure_, 60 _Adventure_ (scout), 311 _Affondatore_, 153 _Agamemnon_ (1853), 105 _Agamemnon_ (1906), 252, 317 _Agincourt_ (1865), 122, 167 _Alabama_, 141 _Albatross_, 185 _Albatross_ (1899), 306 _Albemarle_ (Confederate), 134, 286 _Alecto_, 98 _Alexander III._ (Russian), 238 _Alexandra_, 174, 216 _Almirante Cochrane_, 203, 296 _Almirante Condell_, 209, 210 _Almirante Lynch_, 209, 210 _Amethyst_, 201 _Amphion_ (1895), 253 _Antelope_ (Queen Elizabeth), 52 _Archimedes_, 92 _Arethusa_ (1895), 253 _Ark Royal_, 52 _Arrogant_, 103 _Arminius_, 194 _Ascension_ (Queen Elizabeth), 53 _Assar-i-Chevket_, 214 _Assar-i-Tewfik_, 212 _Ataka Maru_, 37 _Atlanta_ (Confederate), 133 _Atlanta_ (United States), 222 _Audacious_, 173 _Avni-Illah_, 212 _Azazieh_, 212 _Bacchante_, 256 _Baltimore_ (United States), 224, 225, 227 _Bangor_ (United States), 123 _Barfleur_, 260 _Basilisk_, 99 _Battle Animal_, 5 _Beacon_, 216 _Beagle_, 310 _Bellerophon_ (1865), 148, 163, 172 _Bellerophon_ (1907), 317 _Belier_, 163 _Beloved of Amon_, 5 _Benbow_, 245 _Berenguela_ (Spanish, 1865), 198 _Birkenhead_, 99, 100 _Bittern_, 216 _Black Eagle_, 102 _Black Galley_, 51 _Black Prince_ (1860), 129, 158 _Black Prince_ (1904), 261 _Blanco Encalada_, 203, 296 _et seq._ _Bolivar_ (Venezuelan), 173 _Bombe_ (1885), 305 _Bonaventure_, 52 _Borodino_ (Russian), 238, 239 _Boston_ (United States), 222, 227 _Boxer_, 306 _Brilliant_ (36-gun frigate), 60 _Brooklyn_ (United States, 1862), 140 _Brooklyn_ (United States, 1895), 233 _Buenos Ayres_ (Argentine), 263 _Cabral_ (Brazil), 199 _Caledonia_ (1794), 64 _Caledonian_, 172 _Calliope_, 257 _Camperdown_, 245 _Canopus_, 250, 260 _Captain_, 160, 161, 183 _Caracon_, 46 _Castilla_ (Spanish), 227 _Centurion_ (1897), 248 _Cerberus_, 183, 184, 185, 243 _Charleston_ (United States), 223 _Chesapeake_ (United States), 60, 61 _Chicago_ (United States, 1883), 222 _Christopher Spayne_, 43 _Collingwood_, 317 _Colombo_ (Brazil), 199 _Colossus_ (1882), 244 _Colossus_ (1911), 318, 320 _Columbia_ (United States), 225 _Comet_ (1821), 89 _Commerce de Marseilles_ (French), 63 _Comus_, 257 _Concord_ (Spanish), 228 _Condor_, 216 _Congreve_ (French), 109 _Conqueror_ (1882), 244 _Conqueror_ (1911), 262, 318, 319 _Constant Warwick_, 57 _Constellation_ (United States), 60 _Constitution_ (United States), 60, 61 _Courageux_, 58 _Covadonga_ (Chilian), 197, 205, 206 _Cressy_, 261 _Cristobal Colon_ (Spanish), 232 _Cushing_ (United States), 224 _Cygnet_, 216 _Dandolo_ (Italian), 152, 177 _Danton_ (French), 325 _Dantzig_ (Prussian), 98 _Daring_, 306 _Dartford_, 261 _David_ (Confederate), 136, 294 _Decoy_, 216 _Delaware_ (United States), 325 _Demologos_, 82 _Desperate_, 306 _De Tygre_ (Dutch), 193 _Devastation_ (1869), 161 _et seq._, 176, 243 _Dévastation_ (French, 1854), 109 _Devonshire_, 260 _Diamond_ (1874), 256 _Dictator_, 138 _Dolphin_ (United States), 222 _Don Antonio de Ulloa_ (Spain), 229 _Doncaster_, 81 _Don Juan_ (Austrian), 153 _Dover_, 93 _Drache_ (Austrian), 153 _Drake_ (1902), 260 _Dreadnought_ (_Caledonia_), 64 _Dreadnought_ (Queen Elizabeth), 52 _Dreadnought_ (turret), 244, 240, 171, 176 _Dreadnought_ (1906), 240, 313-321 _Druid_, 185 _Duilio_ (Italian), 152, 177 _Duncan_, 250, 261 _Dunderberg_, 189 _Duke of Wellington_, 105 _Dupuy de Lôme_, 259 _Dwarf_, 94 “_E_,” 304 _Edinburgh_, 244 _Edward_, 47 _Elburkah_, 90 _Elizabeth Jones_, 52 _Encounter_, 103 _Esmeralda_ (1865), 197 _Esmeralda_ (1883), 258 _Erebus_ (1854), 112 _Ernest Renan_, 263 _Essex_, 60 _Faid Gihaad_, 97 _Far East_, 150 _Ferdinand Maximilian_, 153, 155 _Fingal_, 133 _Flora_, 148 _Foo-So_ (Japanese), 233 _Formidabile_ (Italian), 153 _Formidable_, 250 _Foudroyant_ (French), 109 _Fulton the First_, 82 _Furor_ (Spanish), 232 _Fury_, 171 _Gabriel Royal_, 49 _Garry Owen_, 91 _Gem of the Ocean_, 225 _George_, 51 _Glatton_ (1854), 111 _Glatton_ (1869), 161, 182 _Gibraltar_ (_ex Sumter_), 141 _Gloire_ (French), 117-20 _Glorious in Memphis_, 5 _Gorgon_, 95 _Goubet_, 300 _Grappler_, 76 _Grace de Dieu_, 44 _Great Britain_, 93 _Great Dragon_, 17 _Great Eastern_, 93 _Great Harry_, 44, 45, 46, 47, 50 _Greenock_, 101 _Guadeloupe_, 91 _Guerriere_, 61 _Gymnote_, 300 _Habsburg_, 153 _Handig Vlug_, 241 _Hardy_, 274 _Hartford_ (United States), 136 _Hatteras_, 141 _Hebe_, 149 _Hebe_ (French frigate), 96 _Hecate_, 90 _Hecla_, 90 _Hector_ (1860), 147, 172 _Heiligerlee_ (Dutch), 192 _Helicon_, 172 _Henry_, 57 _Henry Grace de Dieu_, 44 _Hercules_ (1866), 158, 173, 195, 243 _Hercules_ (1911), 318 _Hibernia_ (1790), 62 _Holigost_, 43 _Holland_, 295 _et seq._ _Holy Ghost_, 44 _Hood_ (1897), 247, 248, 321 _Hornet_, 306 _Housatonic_, 294 _Huascar_, 200 _et seq._ _Imperieuse_ (1881), 258 _Inconstant_ (1869), 181, 257 _Indiana_, 232 _Independencia_ (Peru), 202-206 _Infanta Maria Teresa_, 230, 232 _Inflexible_ (1876), 175-8, 216, 241 _Inflexible_ (1907), 261 _Invincible_, 58 _Invincible_ (1876), 216 _Invincible_ (1907), 253 _Iowa_, 233 _Iris_ (1878), 253 _Iron Duke_, 173 _Ironsides_, 136 _Janus_, 306 _Jesus_, 43 _Kaifu_, 310 _Kaiser_ (Austrian), 153 _Kaiser Maximilian_, 153 _Katahdin_, 222 _Katherine_, 57 _Katherine Forteless_, 50 _Kearsarge_, 141 _Kearsarge_ (second), 225 _Kentucky_, 225 _Key-ing_, 35 _King Edward VII._, 251 _King George_ (Greek), 194, 212 _Kniaz Suvaroff_, 238, 239 _Krokodil_, 192 _Kron Prim_, 194 _Lady Nancy_, 114 _Lave_ (French), 109 _Leander_, 257 _Leicester_ (galleon), 53 _Leviathan_, 58 _Lightning_ (1823), 89 _Lightning_ (1876), 302 _Lightning_ (1894), 306 _Lion_ (Queen Elizabeth), 52 _Lion_ (15th century), 49 _Liverpool_, 261 _Long Serpent_, 18 _Lord Clyde_, 147 _Lord Nelson_, 314, 317 _Lutfi-Djelil_, 213 _Magdala_, 183 _Magenta_ (French), 191 _Magnificent_, 248-50, 261 _Mahmoudieh_, 212 _Maine_ (1886), 224, 226, 255 _Majestic_, 248-50, 262, 314, 322 _Maori_, 310 _Marie de la Cordeliere_, 45 _Mary_, 173 _Mary Florence_, 207, 208 _Mary Rose_, 49, 50, 52 _Mastiff_, 274 _Megæra_, 99 _Merchant Royal_, 53 _Mercury_ (1878), 253 _Mermaid_ (1842), 94 _Merrimac_, 124 _et seq._ _Messoudiye_, 175, 212 _Miantonomoh_, 189 _Minos Geraes_, 324 _Minin_, 179 _Minneapolis_, 225 _Minotaur_ (1865), 122, 147, 148, 158 _Minotaur_ (1906), 261 _Mohawk_, 308 _Moltke_, 326 _Monarch_ (1868), 159-61, 183, 216, 244 _Monarch_ (1911), 318-20 _Monitor_, 92 (_see_ Index) _Monkey_, 89 _Mouette_ (French), 113 _Mrs. Grand_, 50 _Mute_, 292 _Nahant_, 133 _Naugatuck_, 137 _Nautilus_, 291 _Nemesis_, 91 _Neptune_, 103 _Neptune_ (1911), 318-20 _Niger_, 99 _Nile_, 244, 246, 321 _Nix_ (Prussian), 113 _Nonpareil_, 52 _Northumberland_ (1865), 122, 147, 148, 243 _Novelty_, 92 _Novgorod_, 180 _Numancia_ (1864), 192, 197, 230 _Ocean_, 172 _O’Higgins_, 208 _Old Ironsides_, 61, 136 _Olympia_, 227 _Onondaga_, 190 _Oquendo_, 230 _Oregon_, 226, 233 _Orel_, 238, 239 _Orion_, 317, 318, 321 _Orkanieh_, 212 _Osliabya_, 239 _Osmanieh_, 212 _Pallas_ (armour plate), 172 _Pallas_ (36-gun frigate), 60 _Pelayo_, 230 _Penelope_ (1843), 96 _Penelope_ (1867), 150, 216 _Peter the Great_, 179 _Phæton_ (1897), 254 _Phœnix_ (British), 95 _Phœnix_ (Stevens’), 82 _Plongeur_, 294 _Pluton_, 232 _Powerful_, 259 _President_ (United States), 60 _Prince_ (Prince Royal), 54 _Princess Royal_, 262 _Princeton_, 92 _Prinz Eugen_, 153 _Quail_, 306 _Queen Mary_, 262 _Rainbow_, 52 _Raleigh_, 227 _Ramillies_, 292 _Rattler_, 98 _Rattlesnake_, 305 _Recruit_, 113 _Re d’Italia_, 152 _Re de Portogallo_, 152 _Regent_, 45, 49 _Reina Cristina_, 227 _Renown_ (1897), 248, 260 _Research_, 172 _Resurgam_, 295 _Retribution_, 106 _Rhadamanthus_, 90 _Rio de Janeiro_, 262 _Rising Star_, 88 _Roccafortis_, 20 _Rochambeau_, 189 _Rolf Kraake_, 151 _Rossia_ (1896), 259 _Royal Louis_, 58 _Royal Sovereign_ (1783), 63 _Royal Sovereign_ (1861), 146, 243 _Royal Sovereign_ (1897), 247, 248, 321 _Royal William_, 94 _Rupert_, 244 _Rurik_ (1894), 259 _Rurik_ (1906), 259 _Salamander_ (Austrian), 153 _Salamander_ (Prussian), 113 _Salamander_ (1832), 89 _Salem_, 311 _Sans Pareil_, 245 _Sapphire_ (1874), 256 _Scorpion_, 172 _Scourge_ (United States), 124 _Sea Devil_ (Russian), 294 _Seraing_, 186 _Shah_, 201 _Shannon_, 61 _Shannon_ (1853), 105 _Shenandoah_ (Confederate), 140, 143 _Ship of Pharaoh_, 5 _Simoom_, 99 _Skeered-o’-Nothing_ (United States), 324 _Southfield_, 164 _Sovereign_, 45, 49 _Sovereign of the Seas_, 55 _Speedwell_, 51 _Star_, 306 _Stromboli_, 95, 114 _St. Vincent_ (1909), 317 _Submarine A1_, 296 _Success_, 76 _Sultan_, 103, 167, 173 _Sumter_ (Confederate), 140 _Superb_ (1875), 175, 212, 216, 243 _Superb_ (1908), 317 _Superbe_ (French), 58 _Swift_, 309 _Swiftsure_ (Queen Elizabeth), 52 _Tartar_, 309 _Taureau_, 163, 190 _Temeraire_ (1876), 174, 216, 244 _Temeraire_ (1907), 317 _Tennessee_ (Confederate), 134 _Terribile_ (Italian), 153 _Terrible_ (steam frigate), 97 _Terrible_ (1895), 259 _Terror_ (1854), 110 _Texas_, 224, 225, 233 _The Pitt_, 76 _Thetis_, 113 _Thunderbolt_, 233 _Thunderer_ (1869), 162, 171, 176 _Thunderer_ (1911), 318, 319 _Tonnante_, 109 _Trafalgar_ (1886), 246, 321 _Transporter_, 298 _Trident_, 99 _Trinity_, 44 _Trinity Royal_, 43 _Triumph_ (1578), 51, 52 _Triumph_ (1903), 251 _Trusty_ (1854), 111 _Tryeright_, 51 _Tsushima_, 263 _Turbinia_, 306 _United States_, 60 _Valorous_, 97 _Vanguard_ (1512), 52 _Vanguard_ (1871), 173 _Vanguard_ (1909), 317 _Vesta_, 214 _Vesuvius_, 95 _Vesuvius_ (United States), 224 _Victoria_ (Peruvian), 198 _Victoria_ (Spanish), 230 _Victoria_ (1859), 116 _Victoria_ (1887), 245, 246 _Victory_, 52 _Ville de Madrid_, 198 _Ville de Paris_, 62 _Viper_, 188 _Virginia_, 124 _Vixen_, 188 _Vizcaya_, 230 _Vladimir_, 106 _Von der Tann_, 253 _Vulcan_, 303 _Wampanoag_, 256 _Warrior_, 118, 147, 243 _Warspite_ (1881), 258 _Waterwitch_, 186 _Weehawken_, 134 _Weser_, 113 _Whang-Ho_, 35 _Wyvern_, 172 _Yarra_, 310 _Yorktown_, 223 _Ysabel Segunda_, 96

Shortland Island Canoes, 31

Simms, Lieut.-Commander W. S., U.S.N., 237, 312, 314

Slaves as rowers, 11

Sloops, 59

Solomon Island Canoes, 30, 31

Ship of 1486-50, 41

Ship construction: Longitudinal, 120; transverse, 120; longitudinal watertight bulkheads, 171; brass stern and rudder post, 182; bracketed frames, 163; sunk forecastle, 163 (_see_ Freeboard)

“Ship of the Future,” 193

Ships with banks of oars, 7

Siamese native warships, 38

Soft-ended barbette ships, 244

Spanish-American War, 227 _et seq._: American Pacific fleet, 227; Spanish naval force at Manila, 227; American and Spanish fleets compared, 228; Battle of Manila Bay, 228-9; destruction of Spanish fleet, 229; American Atlantic fleet, 230; Spanish fleet, 230; Admiral Cervera’s complaints, 230; Spanish dash from Santiago; destruction of Spanish fleet, 230-3; Admiral Sampson’s 4th July present to the nation, 231

Spanish Armada, 51

Spur gearing, 98, 101, 103

Sponsons as gun platforms, 97

Speed, 202, 236, 237, 238, 239, 253, 302; rapid firing guns and increased speed, 304; of destroyers, 306; with turbines, 308; objections to high speed, 308; _Invincible_ and _Von der Tann_, 254; former’s speed, how obtained, 255; speed retarded by marine growths, 257; importance of, in armoured cruisers, 260; turbine engines, 262; length, beam, and speed, 263, 264

Stanhope, Lord, 87

Steam rotated circular fort, 86

Steel: adopted by United States of America, 222; protective deck, 146; supplanting iron, 179, 181; gradual adoption in warships, 241; early steel warship, 241; advantages over iron, 243; heavy armoured steel ship, 244; first battleships for British Navy, 244; single-turreted battleships, 246; armour 20 inches thick, 246; Harveyised steel armour introduced in British Navy, 248; _Renown_ 10-inch armour stronger than _Royal Sovereign’s_ 18-inch armour, 248; hulls, wood sheathed, 259; nickel steel armoured deck, 261; chrome, 276

Steering gear: protection, 133, 159; lack of protection, 153; first warship with steam steering gear, 123

Stevens’ floating battery, 83, 84; ironclad ram, 138

Stitched canoes, 30; planks, 21, 28

Stockton, Commodore R. F., 84, 128

Superiority of _Dreadnoughts_ over pre-_Dreadnoughts_, 262

Swivel guns on paddle steamers, 126

Symonds, Captain, 173

Symonds, Sir W., 66

Submarines: Hindrance to great speed, 285; early experiments, 288-90; diving boat of leather, 289; friars as inventors, 290; Abbé Borelli’s experiments, 290; Bushnell’s American turtle, 291; Fulton’s _Nautilus_, 291; catamarans with floating mines, 291; Fulton’s _Mute_, 292; fatal experiments, 293; Philipp’s cigar-shaped, 293; first iron, 293; Bauer’s submarines, 293; he visits England and America, 293-4; _Sea Devil_ sunk, 294; _Davids_ show possibility of torpedo boats, 295; Garrett’s _Resurgam_, 295; Holland’s boats, 295-6; adoption by Admiralty, 296; Classes A to D: dimensions and engines, 297-8; Japan’s submarines, 298; steamer sunk to receive them, 298; steam-engine “bottled-up,” 299; Nordenfeldts, 299; first to carry Whitehead torpedo, 299; Turks and Nordenfeldt, 299; French experiments with submarines, 300; periscope, 300, 302; British submarines’ voyage: England to Hong Kong, 301; engines for, 301; “Lake” submarines, 301; submarine motor tour, 301; submersibles, 302

Tahitian Pahi, 30

Tatnall, Commodore J., 132, 134

Tatnall, Midshipman Joseph: examination, 221

Targets (_see_ Armour, Artillery)

Tegethoff, Admiral, 154

Thames Ironworks, 118, 194

Thorneycroft’s, 302, 306, 309

Ting, Chinese Admiral, 234-5

Togo, Admiral, 237

Torpedoes: Spar, 285, 286; torpedo possibilities compel recognition, 286; American Civil War, 286; Whitehead torpedo, 286; range and speed of modern torpedoes, 287; torpedo explosives, 288; steering by “wireless,” 288; cellular double bottoms as protection against, 152; employment at Mobile, 139; French experiments, 151

Torpedo boats: Destruction of _Albemarle_, 134; British and French experiments, 151; in Russo-Turkish War, 214; first British, 302; parent ships, 303; guns to repel attack by, 303-4; internal combustion engines, 304

Torpedo gunboats, 305

Torpedo nets, 303

Torpedo tubes, 177, 249

Trials of H.M.S. _Devastation_ (1873), 167

Triple canoes, 29

Tryon, Admiral Sir George, 245

“Tumble-home,” 42

Turret gunboats, 193

Turret rams, 177

Turrets: Double-turreted ocean-going full-rigged ship, 159; Captain Coles’s system, 146; revolving, 146; disposition of, 146-60; _v._ broadside system, 151; double-turreted monitor, 151; _Monarch_ and _Captain_, 161; _en echelon_, 244; oval, 277; pear-shaped, 174; Popoff’s, 180; leaky American, 131; Russian ships, 179; turrets on spindles, 131, 163; Captain Coles’s revolving rollers, 163; superposed turrets, 225; American twin turret, 225

Twentieth century ships, 285

Twin-screw steamer (1805), 81

Twin screws (_see_ Propellers)

Two-deckers, etc. (_see_ Ratings)

Ulysses’ ships, 1

Unarmoured ends (_see_ Armour, Concentration of)

United States’ modern navy, 219; “Antiquated and rotting ships,” 219; America unprepared for naval war, 219-20; Navy in 1879, 220; advisory board, 1881, 222; steel adopted, 222; ram _Katahdin_, 222; Congress recommendations, 222; first vessels of new navy, 223; Europe’s amused interest, 223; 16-knot vessels, Europe’s profound interest, 223; the White Squadron, 223; _Charleston’s_ chase of filibusterer _Itata_, 224; second-class battleship _Texas_, 224; _Maine_, 224; dynamite gunship, 224; first armoured steel torpedo boat, 224; first modern United States built cruiser, 224; imported armour, 225; superimposed turrets, 225; _Maine_ blown up, 226; _Oregon’s_ wonderful steaming feat, 226; inventiveness, 225 (_see also_ Spanish-American War)

Upper-deck battery, 173

Vickers, Sons and Maxim, Ltd., 259, 281

Vikings, 16

Waling pieces, 10

War junks with paddle wheels, 35

Warendorff, Baron, Sweden, 265

Warships built in private yards, 61, 62

Warships of the Crimea and Baltic, 105, 106, 115

Watertight compartments, 121

West Indiamen, 77

When to shoot, 73

White (Cowes), 309

Whitehead torpedoes, 213

Whitworth, Sir Joseph, 267, 276

Windward position (first manœuvre for), 19

Winslow, Capt., 141

Wooden walls’ last battles, 64, 139

Wooden warships converted into ironclads, 146, 147

Will war be impossible?, 268

William the Conqueror’s ships, 18

Yarrow, 303, 306

Yellow, metal, 268

Zalinski, Lieut., U.S.N., 224

Zédé, Gustave, 300

PRINTED BY CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LONDON, E.C.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Evelyn’s Memoirs.

[2] Bohn’s Library.

[3] “Life in Ancient Egypt,” by Adolf Erman.

[4] “A History of Egypt under the Pharaohs,” by Dr. H. Brugsch Bey.

[5] “Nile Gleanings,” by Villiers Stuart.

[6] “Life in Ancient Egypt,” by Adolf Erman.

[7] Paper on the Viking ships, by Mr. N. Nicolaysen, President of the Christiania Antiquarian Society.

[8] “The New Zealanders,” by George French Angas.

[9] “Maori Art,” by A. Hamilton.

[10] “Eastern Pacific Lands,” by F. W. Christian.

[11] “Canoes of the Solomon Islands,” by C. M. Woodford, F.R.G.S.

[12] “Borneo and the Indian Archipelago,” by F. S. Marryat.

[13] “Borneo and the Indian Archipelago,” by F. S. Marryat.

[14] The model is in the United Services Museum.

[15] Fincham’s “Naval Architecture.”

[16] John Rous (died 1491) MS. in the Cottonian Library.

[17] Derrick’s “Rise and Progress of the Royal Navy.”

[18] Grafton’s description in Sir W. L. Clowes’ “History of the Royal Navy.”

[19] Harrison’s “Description of Britain,” printed in 1577, and quoted by Hume.

[20] Mosque.

[21] “Queen Elizabeth and the Levant Company,” by Rev. H. G. Rosedale, M.A., from Hakluyt Papers. 1904.

[22] Sir W. L. Clowes’ “History of the Royal Navy.”

[23] “Encyclopædia Britannica,” 9th Edit.

[24] The diameter of this and other guns referred to in this section is that of the bore.

[25] Chesney’s “Observations on Firearms.”

[26] “Asiatic Register of the Progress of Shipbuilding in the Territories of the East India Company.”

[27] Appleton’s “Cyclopedia of American Biography.”

[28] “The Progress of the City of New York during the last Fifty Years,” lecture by Charles King, President of Columbia College.

[29] H.P. is used here and subsequently to indicate horse-power.

[30] “The Marine Steam Engine,” by Sennett and Oram.

[31] Appleton’s “Cyclopedia of American Biography.”

[32] _Illustrated London News_, 1843.

[33] “Naval Development of the Century,” by Sir N. Barnaby; and “Two Centuries of Shipbuilding.”

[34] _The Artizan_, Sept., 1855.

[35] “The Encyclopædia Britannica.”

[36] “Thames Ironworks’ Historical Catalogue,” 1905.

[37] _Times_, July 22, 1887.

[38] Appleton’s “Cyclopedia of American Biography.”

[39] _Engineering_, March 26, 1897.

[40] “Service Afloat,” by Raphael Semmes.

[41] “The Royal Navy,” by Sir W. Laird Clowes.

[42] _The Times_, 1869.

[43] King’s “The Warships of Europe.”

[44] _Daily Telegraph_, July 16, 1866.

[45] _The Engineer._

[46] “Ironclads in Action,” by H. H. Wilson.

[47] Valparaiso letter to _New York World_.

[48] _Daily News._

[49] “The New American Navy,” by Ex-Secretary of the Navy, John D. Long.

[50] From “The New American Navy,” and “The United States Naval Academy,” by Park Benjamin.

[51] “The New American Navy,” by John D. Long.

[52] Report by Lieut.-Commander Simms, U.S.N.

[53] _The Times_, December 24, 1864.

[54] _Engineering_, April 28, 1911.

[55] Paper by M. Canet, Junior Institution of Engineers, 1907.

[56] _The Times._

[57] _Engineering._

[58] _Illustrated London News_, June, 1903.

[59] “Two Centuries of Shipbuilding.”

[60] _Engineering_, April 28, 1911.9

Transcriber's Notes:

Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.

Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.

Perceived typographical errors have been changed.

In the illustration THE TRIAL OF SCREW v PADDLE, the sloop Alert has been corrected to the sloop Alecto.

Pages 337/338 in the index were printed out of order, this has been rectified.

Two-deckers, etc. (_see_ Ratings), replaced correctly in the index.