The romance of the ship; the story of her origin and evolution . seWar of 1904. Our space, however, is limited, and weshall confine ourselves to the most momentous navalwar of them all and consider only the last mentioned,which, because of its greater modernity, is of far greaterinterest, since the conditions under which it was wagedapproximate to those which may be expected in thenext war on the sea. The intention which is uppermost in the mind ofan admiral on the eve of battle is so to arrange theships under his command that he may be able to pourinto the enemy the greatest amount of fire wh
The romance of the ship; the story of her origin and evolution . seWar of 1904. Our space, however, is limited, and weshall confine ourselves to the most momentous navalwar of them all and consider only the last mentioned,which, because of its greater modernity, is of far greaterinterest, since the conditions under which it was wagedapproximate to those which may be expected in thenext war on the sea. The intention which is uppermost in the mind ofan admiral on the eve of battle is so to arrange theships under his command that he may be able to pourinto the enemy the greatest amount of fire whilst re-ceiving in return a minimum of damage. In order toput this intention into practice, it is not exclusivelya question of possessing the largest aggregate of bigguns, but of disposing his ships in such a mannerthat these guns may be given the chance of doingtheir uttermost. In a word, the ships must be somanoeuvred that the gun-fire may be probable formation of the British navy in timeof war would be for the squadron of battleships to 228. bfl 9f o o ^ <u £ 1I ^ Ort c3 THE SHIP IN ACTION steam in single line ahead/** that is, practically, singlefile, the senior flagship ahead and the other battle-ships following astern at intervals of two cables (or400 yards). On either side of this line would steamthe cruisers, thrown out a great distance, and keepingin touch by means of wireless telegraphy. But as adistinguished Norwegian admiral has recently pointedout, the difficulty of fighting in a long single line isvery great, when the line consists of a large numberof vessels. At the battle of Trafalgar the Britishfleet was arranged in two grand divisions, and tothe commander of each were given instructions to havethe entire direction of his line, to make the attackon the enemy, and to follow up the blow until theywere captured or destroyed. This arranging of thefleet in two divisions was tried also in the Russo-JapaneseWar, but to-day, with battleships posses
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