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smooth-bore with the penetrating force of the rifled gun, and in
experiments made with this weapon on the Agincourt target, in 1867,
the gun fully demonstrated its usefulness.

HEAVY GUN UNMOUNTED.

6-INCH B.L. 50-CALIBRE GUN COMPLETED AND WITH MOUNTING.

Photographs supplied by the Coventry Ordnance Works, Ltd.
No satisfactory results either with rifling or with the hexagonal bore
could be obtained, and as guns became more powerful it was found
that the only way of utilising them with the best results was by
loading them at the breech instead of at the muzzle. Obviously, a
heavy explosive shell could not be rammed down a big muzzle-
loader. The old 32-pounder had a muzzle velocity of 1,600 feet per
second, and the 40-pounder rifled breech-loader which took its place
was of only 1,200 foot seconds, and the muzzle energy was 570 and
400 foot tons respectively. Various methods were employed and
were not by any means satisfactory, but when slower burning
powders were introduced, the strain upon the gun was less sudden
and more cumulative, so that the pressure upon the projectile was
exerted to the full as long as it was within the gun and it was then
expelled at the muzzle with the greatest force obtainable. A great
advance in naval gunnery was made with the appearance of the
Armstrong breech-loader. The first breech-loader from this famous
firm was a tube gun which was formed to admit of a breech block
being dropped in to close the bore and a screw attachment held it
fast. From about 1860 the principal guns in use in the Navy of the
Armstrong screw type were the 9-pounder weighing 6 cwt., the 12-
pounder weighing 8 cwt., the 20-pounder of 16 cwt., the 40-pounder
of 35 cwt., and the 7-inch gun, 99½ cwt. The last-named was of 7.2
inches diameter, and fired projectiles weighing 109 lb. All these guns
were on the polygroove system. About this time iron or steel gun
carriages were introduced for use on shipboard. The Admiralty, for
some reason best known to themselves, fancied muzzle-loaders,
and obstinately remained faithful to them long after all other naval
powers had discarded them as cumbersome and comparatively
useless compared with the newer types of breech-loading guns. The
newer muzzle-loaders, however, were improvements on the old
smooth-bores, and were built on what is known as the Fraser
system, and they were far larger than any which had been
constructed before.
The inner barrels of the Armstrong 12-inch, 9-inch, and 7-inch
muzzle-loading guns were of tempered steel, with solid ends; these
were strengthened with wrought-iron coils shrunk on; the trunnion
ring, breech-piece and cascable, which was screwed into the latter,
were solid wrought-iron forgings. The different parts were hooked
together with shoulders and corresponding recesses, to prevent their
separation.
The muzzle-loader of 64 lb. on Fraser’s cheap construction plan
consisted simply of a coiled iron tube, having the muzzle part double,
but with a triple coil over the breech.
The Armstrong big muzzle-loading guns were formed with the
Woolwich system of rifling or grooving, the projectiles being fitted
with studs to correspond to the grooves. The muzzle-loading guns
varied from the 7-inch 7-ton gun to the 16-inch 80-ton gun. The 8-
inch was 118 inches in length, the 9-inch 125 inches, and so on, up
to the 16-inch gun, which was 288 inches in length; the last-named
took a charge of 450 lb., and fired a projectile weighing 1,684 lb. with
a muzzle velocity of 1,590 foot seconds and a muzzle energy of
29,530 foot tons, capable of penetrating at the muzzle between 24
and 25 inches of wrought iron.
By 1877 the initial velocity of rifled projectiles had been increased
from 1,600 to 2,100 foot seconds, and the energies by nearly 75 per
cent., so that a further reconstruction of artillery became compulsory.
It was not until after 1881 that the Admiralty definitely adopted heavy
breech-loading guns for its armed cruisers. Even as late as 1885 the
squadron sent to sea when it was feared that trouble with Russia
was brewing, included thirteen battleships, not one of which had a
breech-loading gun of more than 6 inches diameter. As a contrast to
this, all the heavy guns of the Russian ships were breech-loaders.
What would have happened to the English ships had hostilities
occurred, and had the Russian gunners been able to use their
weapons properly, is best left to conjecture, but it might have proved
a sorry day in the naval history of England. Even by 1894 muzzle-
loaders were still in use in the Navy.
The Woolwich Armstrong breech-loading guns varied from 12-
pounders of 3 inches to the 16.25-inch 111-ton gun, the length of
which was equal to 30 calibres. The last-named gun took a charge of
960 lb. of powder, and fired a projectile weighing 1,800 lb. with a
muzzle velocity of 2,087 foot seconds, and a muzzle energy of
54,390 foot tons, calculated to penetrate over 36 inches of wrought
iron at the muzzle. Gunpowder not being powerful enough for these
great weapons, other explosives were introduced, which had, among
other advantages, that of being much more powerful. The principal of
these explosives at present in use is cordite.
In the early ’sixties the guns chiefly in use on this side of the Atlantic
were the 9-inch gun, weighing 12 tons, and discharging a 250-lb.
shot with 43 lb. of powder, the initial velocity being 1,730 feet per
second. The largest gun was the 23½ tons, with a 12-inch diameter,
its shot weighing 600 lb. and the charge of powder 70 lb., and the
muzzle velocity being 1,240 feet per second. The larger guns could
not be worked without considerable improvements being made in the
ships themselves. Greater height had to be given between the
decks, and the distances between the guns had also to be
increased, there being 25 feet between the centre lines of the ports
for the 12-ton guns, while the 23-ton guns required about 30 feet
between the ports and between 8 and 9 feet between the deck and
the underside of the beams supporting the deck above. To keep the
portholes as small as possible an arrangement was made whereby
the gun should be pivoted near the muzzle.
The later developments in naval artillery began with the 12-inch 46-
ton wire gun, which was the chief weapon of the battleships between
1894 and 1897. This gun was 37 feet 1 inch in length, or 35.43
calibres, and threw an armour-piercing shell of 850 lb. with a charge
of 167½ lb. of cordite. It had a muzzle penetration of 36.8 inches of
wrought iron, and was in every respect as powerful as the 13½-inch
67-ton gun, which it replaced. During 1898, the 12-inch wire gun,
weighing about 50 tons, was introduced.
The adoption of breech-loading made possible a very rapid rate of
firing, even with the heaviest guns. In 1881, the Government, in reply
to an invitation it issued for guns to meet certain requirements,
received a number of replies from gun-making firms, as did also the
French Government at about the same time in reply to a similar
invitation. These guns, which became known as quick-firing or rapid-
firing guns, were comparatively small weapons, and the Armstrong
Company at Elswick, having improved upon them with quick-firers of
4.7 inches and 6 inches calibre, they were adopted throughout the
Navy as the secondary armament. Their superiority over those they
displaced was such that a battery’s firing power was increased
sixfold. An important trial took place on board the Hardy in 1887,
when a 4.7 gun was mounted on a centre pivot recoil mounting, the
whole weighing 4 tons 12 cwt.; this gun fired ten rounds in less than
48 seconds. Compare this with the firing of the ordinary 5-inch
breech-loading gun on the gunboat Mastiff, when ten rounds took 6
minutes 16 seconds.
In rifling some of the guns an increasing twist was given, while in
others the twist was uniform throughout the bore. The object of the
increasing twist was to lessen the strain upon the gun, as the rotary
motion was not started when the projectile was first put into motion,
but developed as it moved down the bore. The projectiles were
provided with studs which fitted into the grooves. The breech-loading
guns on the polygonal system of rifling fired projectiles which were
coated with lead fixed on with zinc, so that the bore of the gun was
not injured by the rush of gas past the projectile as was the case in
the rifled guns in which there was windage. Two systems of breech-
loading were designed by Sir W. Armstrong, one being the screw
system and the other known as the wedge.
The projectiles invented by Major Palliser were specially designed to
penetrate iron armour. Cast iron was found to be smashed against
armour, wrought iron was too soft to do any damage, and steel in
those days was too expensive to be of use. Major Palliser solved the
difficulty by making his projectiles of chilled iron, and giving them a
cylindrical shape with the pointed or ogival head.

PROJECTILES AND CHARGES USED IN THE BRITISH NAVY.

Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea.
1. Projectile, 16·25 B.L., 9. Projectile, 7·5 B.L., 200 17. Projectile, 4-in., 25
1,800 lbs. lbs. lbs.
2. Charge for ” ” 960 lbs. 10. Charge for ” ” 77½ lbs.
18. 4-in. Cylinder.
powder. cordite.
3. Projectile, 13·5 B.L., 1,250 11. Projectile, 6-in. B.L., 100 19. Projectile, 12-
lbs. lbs. pounder.
4. Charge for ” ” 187½ lbs. 12. Charge for ” ” 29 lbs. 20. 12-pounder
cordite. Charge.
5. Projectile, 12-in. B.L., 850 13. Projectile, 5-in. B.L., 50 21. 12-pounder Case
lbs. lbs. Shot.
6. Charge for ” ” 211 lbs. 22. 12- ” 8 cwt.
14. Charge for ” ”
cordite. Charge.
7. Projectile, 9·2 B.L., 380
15. Projectile, 4·7, 45 lbs. 23. 6- ” Cartridge.
lbs.
8. Charge for ” ” 103 lbs. 16. 4·7 Cylinder for
24. 3- ” ”
cordite. Cartridge.
25. 1¼-lb. Cartridge.

Experiments are often carried out to ascertain the resisting qualities

of various combinations of armour offered to projectiles of varying
weights and penetrative powers according to the distances at which
they are fired. When iron was used for armour-plating, targets were
built in duplication of those provided for the armoured ships. Both the
Armstrong and Whitworth 70-pounders fired in the competition trials
over 3,000 rounds, or three times the number assigned as the limit to
the life of the old cast-iron smooth-bore guns. Of course, the bigger
the gun the shorter the life, as a rule.
The French adopted for naval service four different patterns of heavy
breech-loading rifled guns, all made of cast iron, and strengthened
behind the trunnions with steel rings which were shrunk on. Their
weight varied from 21 tons 13 cwt., with a calibre of 10.82 inches, to
the gun of 4 tons 18.5 cwt., with a calibre of 6.48 inches, firing
projectiles respectively of 476 lb. and 99 lb. The weight of the charge
was rather more than one-sixth of that of the projectile. The guns
were mounted on wrought-iron carriages and slides constructed on
the box girder system.
As the powers possessed a great number of old smooth-bore guns
and rifled guns were expensive, several attempts at a compromise
were made by lining the smooth-bore guns and converting them into
rifled guns, the lining being rifled according to whichever system the
power owning the gun happened to prefer at the moment. The Dutch
Government is said to have set the example of national frugality in
this respect.
How slow the Admiralty was, is shown by the statement of the
Secretary to the Admiralty in the House of Commons in March, 1881,
to the effect that “at this moment there is not a single heavy breech-
loading gun mounted on any of our ships, but by the end of next year
a very substantial beginning would have been made towards arming
our fleet with breech-loaders.... The Admiralty was driven to the step
by the fact that a high velocity was now required for the projectile,
that high velocity was only obtainable by a great length of gun, and
that to load a gun over a certain length at the muzzle became
impracticable under the ordinary conditions of mounting guns afloat.”
The Government, it was contended, was now able to profit by the
experience which foreign nations had gained, and intended to
improve upon the guns which were in use abroad. But whatever may
have been the official view, the fact remains that the Admiralty was
years behind other nations, that Woolwich, in spite of official claims,
discovered nothing that had not been known to be possible a decade
earlier at least, and that the Navy was armed with out-of-date
muzzle-loaders. Fortunate it no doubt was for this country that it had
no wars in which its Navy could be tested against a navy armed with
breech-loaders.
In the matter of armour this country owes a debt of gratitude to Sir
John Brown, who made the Atlas Works at Sheffield famous
throughout the world for the excellence of the armour-plates
produced there. Indeed, the records of what he has accomplished
seem to indicate that his rule was to surpass whatever his rivals
produced, and never to forget that he might be able to learn
something from others. His company took up the manufacture of
chrome steel, which was patented in America about 1871. When the
Italian experiments at Spezzia resulted in the 100-ton gun smashing,
in 1876, 22 inches of iron armour and its backing, the French turned
their attention to steel plates, as did also Sir Joseph Whitworth, but
Sir John Brown thought that better results would be secured with iron
plates with steel faces. These compound plates had half their
thickness of steel. By 1888 the firm was producing compound plates
each 32 tons in weight.
An interesting comparison between French and English methods
was made a few years ago[55] by M. Canet, of the well-known
French firm of gun manufacturers, in a paper on the heavy naval
guns and warships of the two countries. Referring to the latest type
of the large weapons then employed at sea, viz., the English 12-inch
gun, known officially as Mark IX., he described its method of
construction, which has already been alluded to, and pointed out that
the corresponding gun in the French navy was of 305-mm. bore (or
12.008-inch) and of 45 calibres in length. The barbette system of
gun-mounting, as already explained, owed its origin to French
inventiveness, and is preferred in the British Navy; but the French,
curiously enough, seem to have preferred the English system of
mounting turrets for the guns. The turrets themselves, however,
differed from those of the English pattern, the French idea being to
make them oval and smaller, so as to offer the narrowest possible
target, and this theory was carried into practice even at the expense
of the interior roominess. The limited dimensions, however, made it
no easy task for artillerists to arrange conveniently inside the turrets
all the machinery required, and M. Canet avowed a preference for
the English practice of allowing the designer plenty of weight and
room inside the turrets or barbettes. There were also structural
differences in the methods of the two countries of arranging the
armour, and it was claimed that the French oval form, with the other
characteristics, had, among other advantages, that of distributing the
blows of the projectiles over a greater weight of armour. Another
important difference lay also in the method of working the guns. It
has been the custom for many years in the British Navy to take up
the recoil of the guns by hydraulic buffers, and to use hydraulic
pressure to run out the guns again. The French introduced springs,
which were compressed by the force of the recoil. Again, hydraulic
appliances are preferred in the British Navy for training and elevating
the guns, but our neighbours across the Channel prefer electricity.
The latter has been tried in the British Navy, the most notable
example being one of the super-Dreadnoughts, but the experiment
has by no means given satisfaction.
Even more striking differences appeared in the matter of the
ammunition hoists, etc. The French battleships, M. Canet said, were
equipped with hoists leading direct from the magazines to the guns,
and there was the drawback that the guns had to be returned to a
certain position to be reloaded, and the muzzle had to be depressed
a few degrees below the horizontal to facilitate the loading, the
projectile being pushed home with a rammer by the gun crew, whose
strength was assisted by a compressed spring. The ammunition
hoists on the English battleships, on the contrary, were made in two
sections. The lower section raised the ammunition to a relay
chamber, and the upper section carried it thence to the gun. This
method is held to allow of more rapid firing, as a large supply of
ammunition can be placed, prior to an action, in the relay chamber,
and the store there, as fast as it is drawn upon, can be replenished
from the magazines. It has also been held that in case of a shell
bursting in the turret the danger to the magazine would be less, and
in M. Canet’s opinion the English method is superior to that of the
French. Another matter in which he considered the English to have
an advantage was in the manner of loading the guns. How this was
done on the French battleships has just been explained. The English
gun crews could load the guns at any elevation. The ammunition
was carried up in a curved hoist, so that it could be delivered at any
point desired, and was pushed home by a hydraulic rammer moving
with the gun.
By permission of Messrs. Vickers, Sons & Maxim, Ltd.

12-INCH BREECH MECHANISM

(CLOSED).
12-INCH BREECH MECHANISM
(OPEN).
 INTERIOR OF A BARBETTE, SHOWING 12-INCH GUN, H.M.S. “CÆSAR.”
Photograph by Gale & Polden, Aldershot.
Time brings strange revenges. At one period the French were the
leading nation in the world in the matter of naval construction, and
the English were content to copy the French designs. But in later
years England has taken the lead, and not only France but the other
maritime powers of the world have been glad to sit at the feet of
Britannia and accept the instruction she has been able to impart.
Some of these pupils, if pupils they be, have proved themselves
exceedingly apt copyists and improvers, and are inclined to think that
their own creations are every whit as good as anything this country
can produce.
The superiority of the British methods alluded to by the famous
French gun-maker were not lost upon French naval architects, and in
some of the latest French battleships these methods have been
copied. The rapidity of the fire of the big guns would thus, it was
expected, be raised to two rounds a minute. Electricity, however, has
been retained, as the French consider it to be better than hydraulic
machinery for the loading of the guns and movement of the turrets,
and more easy of repair in case of damage under hostile fire.
The size and weight of the pieces forming the breech mechanism of
the modern guns of large calibre made compulsory the adoption of
mechanical means for loading them. There was also the further
advantage that machinery was less likely to make mistakes, or to
suffer from the accidents which are bound to disable some of the
crew in a naval engagement. In some of the earlier battleships, in
which the large muzzle-loading guns were fitted, the charge was
raised to the gun-mouth by machinery worked by hand-power, and
after it had been rammed home by the crew the projectile was
inserted and rammed home also, obviously an impossible
arrangement when it was sought to introduce rifled explosive shells.
When guns were made too large to be withdrawn into the turrets to
be loaded, they were loaded by being depressed so that their
muzzles just entered a specially cut orifice in the deck in front of the
turret, and the loading crew were able to do their work in safety. The
drawback to this system was that the gun had to be brought back to
the same position for loading, then revolved with its turret once more
to the direction in which it was to be discharged, and aimed afresh
before its missile could be sent at its mark. The chief advantage of
this system was that the gun required a smaller, and consequently
less weighty, turret for the protection of its crew. The introduction of
the breech-loader enabled the guns to be loaded in greater security,
with greater speed, and without interfering with the aim or training of
the gun, thereby rendering a more rapid fire possible. Ammunition
hoists brought the charge and projectiles right into the turret or
barbette more expeditiously and with greater precision than the best-
drilled crew, and the men had simply to load the weapon and fire it.
The human element came in here, however, in all its uncertainty,
and, in spite of the greatest possible care, accidents occurred. A
charge or a shell was dropped or caused to explode in some way,
and disastrous were the results. Again the necessity for the
mechanical appliances caused them to be forthcoming. The
projectiles and charges for fighting purposes, which naval strategists
declared to be necessary in ever-increasing size and weight, and the
greater rapidity of fire which was demanded, made it impossible for
dependence on hand power to be retained. After various
experiments, both steam power and electricity being tried, hydraulic
power was introduced, and has proved more suitable for the purpose
than any other method. Now the heaviest projectiles, weighing half a
ton or more, are lifted with the greatest ease and exactness to the
required position by hydraulic power, are pushed into their places by
the same power which does a like office for the charge of explosive,
closes and fixes the breech, and does not desist until its task is
finished. In the latest appliances, the machinery is made interlocking,
so that, at least in the system introduced lately by Messrs. Vickers,
no one operation connected with loading the gun can be performed
until its immediate predecessor has been accomplished. With a view
to securing more rapid and accurate fire this firm has introduced a
modification of the breech mechanism by what is known as a “pure
couple.” The hydraulic breech mechanisms just alluded to are used
for the largest guns, such as the 12-inch weapons, and have also
been installed on the Japanese ships for the 10-inch guns. The guns
can be loaded at the required angle of elevation, the advantage
claimed for this being that the sight can be kept on the target all the
time.
The pressure to which guns are subjected when the charge explodes
is enormous. One reason why they do not burst is that they have not
time to do so. How rapidly the pressure arises against the sides of
the gun and then against the projectile to expel it from the bore, was
shown by experiments which Sir Andrew Noble conducted some
time ago with a 6-inch gun of 100 calibres length of bore. Practically
instantaneously with the ignition of the charge, that is to say in about
the four-hundredth part of a second, a maximum pressure against
the interior of the gun of 22 tons per square inch was reached, but
this declined to about 13 tons per square inch in about the twelve-
hundredth part of a second more. But by that time the projectile had
left the gun, and was rushing, faster than the eye could follow it,
towards its mark.
The English 12-inch (Mark IX.) gun consists of a steel tube, wound
practically from end to end with layer after layer of steel ribbon or
wire of very great tensile strength. This tube is known as the A tube,
and may be called the hollow heart of the gun. As much as a
hundred miles of wire will be used for one of these guns, and, of
course, for the newest guns, the 13-inch weapons, such as have
been placed in the latest super-Dreadnoughts, or the 15-inch guns
which it is said will be placed in the Dreadnoughts of 1912 or the
year after, the amount is a great deal more. The greatest thickness
of layers is placed round the breech of the gun, where the strain is
most severe, and each succeeding layer is wound on with increasing
tension, though to the ordinary observer the first layer seems to fit so
tightly that nothing could be tighter; but the gun makers know better.
All along the chase or fore part of the tube another tube, called the B
tube, is shrunk on to ensure that it shall be the tightest fit possible.
Then, over a portion of the B tube, and also over a portion of the
winding, that part of the gun known as the breech jacket is shrunk.
Apparently everything is so strongly fixed together that nothing can
cause the parts to separate, but the gun makers know this is not so,
for into this jacket a bush is screwed to prevent any movement of the
A tube, so far as the jacket is concerned. The A tube itself contains a
thin steel inner tube inserted from the breech and fixed in position by
the breech bush. It is this inmost tube which has to bear the wear
and tear caused by the firing, and suffers from erosion, due to the
gases generated by the explosion of the charges, and has to be
replaced by a new tube when it is no longer fit for service.
THE 12-INCH GUNS OF H.M.S. “NEPTUNE.”
Photograph by Stephen Cribb, Southsea.
Gun makers have always responded cheerfully to the challenge to
penetrate the hardest armour of the time, and have succeeded in
producing weapons which are able to penetrate any armour now
carried. The problem at present is to increase the range at which the
penetrative power may be exercised. This can only be attained by
the increase in the length of the gun and the use of explosives
developing higher pressures in order to obtain higher velocities. The
British gun of 45 calibres and 9.2 inches diameter is about to be
superseded by one of 50 calibres, and the 40-calibre gun carried in
some of the latest ships is being superseded by the 12-inch gun of
45 calibres.
Twelve-inch guns of 45 calibres and 10-inch guns of 50 calibres
have been installed in the new ships, built at Elswick recently, for the
navies of Japan and one of the South American States.
Greater length means a greater muzzle energy, higher velocity, and
increased power of penetration. The latest guns, too, have shown
that the manufacturers have been considering the advisability of
effecting a certain amount of redistribution in the thicknesses of the
different parts of which the gun is built, notably the tubes, wires, and
jackets, and the adoption of a uniform type of rifling. The theory was
that the rifling should be increased as the grooves passed down the
tube, so that a gradually increasing twist should be given to the
projectile, but it is now held that no advantage is obtained by this
method, whatever may have been the case in the past, and that the
uniform rifling will give better results as to accuracy, muzzle energy
and velocity, and inflict no greater strain upon the gun or shorten the
“life” of its tube. The trials already made have shown that uniform
rifling for modern high velocity guns has resulted in giving greater
range and greater accuracy in shooting.
The war between France and Germany in 1871 brought machine
guns into notice. Great things were expected by the French of the
mitrailleuse, and some of the patriotic Paris newspapers at the time
published glowing prophecies of the number of Germans each gun
could be depended upon to kill in a few minutes, with the result that,
according to their calculations, there would be no Germans left after
a few days to continue the war. But events turned out otherwise; the
mitrailleuse failed, and the Germans were victorious. This machine
gun was very defective, and served to advertise by contrast the
Gatling, Nordenfeldt, Gardner, and Maxim automatic guns, named
after their respective inventors. Of these the Maxim has been so
improved that it is considered to be superior to any of the others. The
machine guns fire, according to the number of their barrels and their
calibre, from four hundred to six hundred or more shots per minute,
at a range equal to that of the best infantry rifle, and can be sighted
with deadly accuracy.
 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.

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
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