The romance of the ship; the story of her origin and evolution . tleships of the Formid-able type already noticed. She can travel, in fact, atthe rate of 36 knots an hour, which is the equiva-lent of about 41J land miles, and this wonderful turnof speed would make her in any naval engagementto-day a most dangerous unit, for from her four 4-inchguns can be fired fifteen projectiles of 25 lbs. eachminute, to say nothing of the torpedoes despatchedfrom her tubes. But simultaneously with the improve-ment in type of ship and armament has gone forwardthe gunnery of those on board these ships, and a
The romance of the ship; the story of her origin and evolution . tleships of the Formid-able type already noticed. She can travel, in fact, atthe rate of 36 knots an hour, which is the equiva-lent of about 41J land miles, and this wonderful turnof speed would make her in any naval engagementto-day a most dangerous unit, for from her four 4-inchguns can be fired fifteen projectiles of 25 lbs. eachminute, to say nothing of the torpedoes despatchedfrom her tubes. But simultaneously with the improve-ment in type of ship and armament has gone forwardthe gunnery of those on board these ships, and a recentAdmiralty memorandum states that their lordships notewith great satisfaction the considerable improvement inthe results,* some of the destroyers having made whatar^ esteemed actually marvellous records, obtaining inone case 15*33 hits out of 16 rounds per minute, thegun used being the 12-pounder. When the appearance and character of the ship ofwar are so frequently changing, owing to the restlessefforts to obtain perfection in efficiency, it may seem 222. i-H V. ^ THE MODERN MAN-OF-WAR only of passing and ephemeral interest that we shoulddiscuss the trend of the latest naval types. But thepresent age sees such marvellous advances made, suchcomparative equality among naval powers, that it isimpossible to have a comprehensive grasp of the moderndevelopment of the steam warship, or of its futureprobable tendencies, without having first gained someinsight into the ships that are in being. The Dread-nought type, which embodies the principle of the all-big-gun theory, is really the last and most completeextension of that lesson which the little American shipMonitor taught during the preceding century. It is asufficient proof that the turret system of placing thebig guns is a thoroughly sound one. The United States,Japanese, French, German, Italian, Austrian, Brazilian,and Argentine Governments have all followed this mam-moth battleship type. Foreign navies have introducedsuch i
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