. The railroad and engineering journal . when ships are moving in thesame direction, the striking range of the torpedo is al-most reduced to close quarters. The author advocated two classes of gunboats for thepurposes under discussion. The first class should possessconsiderable speed, and would be designed to take theplace of vessels of the Glatlon type: whilst the secondclass would be for purely local defence where a high rateof speed would not be essential. Both classes should bearmed with one very powerful armor-piercing gun, pro-tected by a semicircular shield of stout armor-plating forend
. The railroad and engineering journal . when ships are moving in thesame direction, the striking range of the torpedo is al-most reduced to close quarters. The author advocated two classes of gunboats for thepurposes under discussion. The first class should possessconsiderable speed, and would be designed to take theplace of vessels of the Glatlon type: whilst the secondclass would be for purely local defence where a high rateof speed would not be essential. Both classes should bearmed with one very powerful armor-piercing gun, pro-tected by a semicircular shield of stout armor-plating forend-on fighting, besides carrying a number of quick-firingand machine guns for defence against torpedo boats. Thefirst class should have two military masts. The smallervessels, roughly of about 800 tons displacement, wouldwork in close vicinity to the land, and would not requirea speed above 12 knots. Their tactics would be to ad-vance a few thousand yards from the shore, and alwaysretire if pursued. The larger class would be about double. Plan lO-TON GUNS. long ranges at which the stoutest ships are now penetrableby guns which can be mounted in gunboats, and with theintroduction of the latest invention of shell projectiles,that the gunboat of the future has rather gained than lost. Armor-clad ships may be less vulnerable than the oldwooden vessels, but the same remark applies, as theauthor pointed out, to shield-protected gunboats fightingend on, and the smaller object will still retain its distinctadvantages. Sir George Elliot would not, however, wishto disparage the value of shore batteries, submarinemines, or torpedo boats, but thinks that these means ofdefence would prove inoperative in the absence of assist-ance from gunboats, so far at least as preventing thebombardment of many of our seaport towns from dis-tances of four to five miles. The question, like all others of national defence, isbased on expenditure. How to get most for our moneyis what must guide our decisions. T
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectrailroa, bookyear1887
