Classification. The principal classes of warships which exist at the present time, as the result of an evolution along diverging lines enforced by the mutual antagonist qualities are: battleships, armored cruisers, protected cruisers, gunboats, monitors, torpedo boats and destroyers, scouts, and some intermediate types combining the characteristics of several classes. In the navies of the larger powers, where expense need not be considered and where the number of vessels must perforce be large, the lines between the classes are fairly well defined; but in many of the smaller navies the effort has been to combine in one vessel too many high qualities, usually resulting in an inferior ship and one excelling in no respect, though there are a few cases of this kind where an exceptionally skilful designer has been remarkably successful in his combination of elements.

Before going into a detailed description of the different classes of warships it may be well to take a general survey of the subject and to revert to the principal qualities before mentioned. The statement that a vessel is constructed entirely of steel, implies no inherent strength in itself. All war vessels are now built of steel, and it is only when thick steel plates are secured to their sides or deck, for the express purpose of protecting their machinery, magazines, guns, and personnel from the fire of the enemy, that any advantage is derived from it. Beginning with the lighter ships, such as torpedo boats, small gunboats, etc., we find there is no protection whatever except, in some of the gunboats, that given by a judicious arrangement of the coal bunkers, and the slight protection afforded the gunners by the gun shields. On some of the larger gunboats and on all of the protected and armored cruisers as well as battleships we find the protective deck, a heavy steel deck, covering the whole of the vessel at about the level of the water line and protecting the machinery, boilers, magazines, etc. On some of the larger protected cruisers thin side armor appears; on the armored cruisers there is thicker side armor covering a greater area and, on this type, the turret or barbette appears, while on the battleship the protection reaches its highest development.

Battleships.-The battleship represents the highest type of warship evolved at the present time, and from a purely military standpoint it is the most formidable and most necessary class of vessel, for upon the battleships fall the real burden of an offensive demonstration. The marked characteristics of the battleship are large guns and thick armor and these are the two qualities to which other elements, noticeably speed, are sacrificed. This sacrifice, how ever, must be made, for the battleship must bear the brunt of the heavy fighting and be able to give and receive the hardest possible blows. Speed is an important element and it is well for the battleship to have the highest speed possible as long as it entails no reduction in her fighting qualities; but speed never won a decisive battle and of all the elements entering into warship design high speed is the most uncertain, the most difficult to maintain in a high degree of efficiency, and it requires the greatest sacrifice in other qualities. The reason for this is that in a given ship the power, and consequently the weight and space occupied by the machinery necessary for an increase in speed, increases

in a much higher proportion than the speed gained. Thus a battleship that could make 17 knots with 12,000 horse-power, the machinery installation weighing 1,150 tons, would require, to make 20 knots, about 27,000 horse-power, the machinery weighing 2,570 tons. In addition to this, her greater power would involve a greater consumption of fuel per day, therefore a greater quantity or weight of fuel must be carried and, as before stated, the extra weight for machinery and fuel could only be obtained by a reduction in the armament, or protection, or both, or by an increase in size. When one notes that on a modern battleship the armament and ammunition is about 9 per cent, the protection about 25 per cent, the propelling machinery about 12 per cent, and the coal about 6 per cent of the total displacement, it can easily be seen how seriously a change in any one of these items affects the whole ship. The armament or battery of warships is divided into two classes, called respectively, the main and the secondary batteries. The main battery comprises the heaviest guns on the ship, those firing large shells and armorpiercing projectiles, while the secondary battery consists of small rapid-fire and machine guns for use against torpedo boats, or to attack the unprotected or lightly protected gun positions of an enemy. On the modern battleship the main battery usually consists of four 10-inch, 12-inch, or 13-inch breech-loading guns, mounted in pairs in revolving barbette turrets, one forward and one aft, on the centre line of the ship. Occasionally these guns are mounted en barbette, that is, the gun projects over a circular wall of armor, without the revolving turret or hood; it is not uncommon also, in foreign navies, to find but one gun in a turret or barbette, and sometimes these turrets or barbettes, instead of being placed on the centre line of ship are en echelon that is, the forward one on one side of the vessel, the after one on the opposite side. However, it is the almost universal practice at the present time to place the four heaviest guns as first stated, in pairs, in revolving barbette turrets, on the centre line of ship. In addition to these heavy guns it is usual to mount a number of smaller guns, from 5 to 8 inches diameter of bore, on each broadside, though often the 8-inch guns are also mounted in turrets. A battery arrangement that has obtained to a considerable extent in our navy is to have, in addition to the two turrets of 12- or 13-inch guns, four smaller turrets, each containing two 8-inch guns. These turrets are arranged in a quadrilateral, two on each side, the forward two somewhat abaft the forward large turret, and the after two forward of the after large turret, with in addition to this, a number of 6-inch or 7-inch guns mounted on the broadside. Later this arrangement has been somewhat changed by superposing one of the 8-inch turrets on each of the large turrets, the other two in some cases being placed one on each side of ship about amidships, while in other cases they were omitted entirely, their place being taken by a greater number of broadside guns. The Indiana, the first of our battleships, has the two large turrets referred to, each containing two 13-inch guns, the quadrilateral arrangement of four turrets each with two 8-inch guns and two 6-inch guns on each broadside. Next came the Iowa with a somewhat similar arrangement except that 12-inch and 4-inch guns were used in place of the 13-inch

and 6-inch guns respectively. She was followed by the Kearsarge class, with 4 13-inch guns in turrets; arranged as before, with a turret mounting 2 8-inch guns superposed on each 13-inch turret, and with a broadside battery of 14 5-inch quick-fire guns. Next came the Alabama class, with 4 13-inch guns, in the large turrets, no 8inch guns at all and 12 6-inch guns on the broadside. After the Alabama class the 13-inch gun disappears, and in the Maine class, which followed, there are 4 12-inch, no 8-inch and 16 5-inch quick-fire guns. The Virginia class shows a return to the 8-inch gun, her arma

the above we have confined ourselves to a description of the battery arrangements on the battleship class only. In the armored cruiser class a somewhat similar arrangement is followed, except that the guns in the main turrets are not above 10-inch bore, and are often 8 inches. As to the protected cruisers and gunboats, their batteries are so varied that they can best be considered by consulting the table which gives the batteries of a number of different classes of vessels.

The protection, that is, the armor on a battleship, is her most marked characteristic. The

9,500 I. H. P. Main ment being 4 12-inch, 8 8-inch and 12 6-inch guns. On the Connecticut and Vermont classes, our largest battleships, we have 4 12-inch, 8 8-inch, and 12 7-inch, the latter being a new gun used here for the first time. On the latest battleships, the Mississippi class, we have 4 12-inch, 8 8-inch and 8 7-inch guns. The superposed turret was entirely an American idea and has not yet been introduced abroad. It has the advantage that, the number of gun positions being reduced, better protection can be given the guns and their accessories on the same weight, or the same protection given on less weight, leaving an allowance of weight to be used elsewhere. In

Engine of a Battleship.

basis of all protection on the modern war vessel is the protective deck and it is common to the battleship, armored and protected cruisers and many gunboats. It is a heavy steel deck covering the whole of the vessel at or a little above the level of the water line, extending the entire length of the ship and firmly secured at the ends to the heavy stem and the stern post, and at the sides it usually slopes, meeting the sides of the ship 3 or 4 feet below the water line. Below this heavy deck lie the vitals of the vessel, the boilers and machinery, the magazines and shell rooms, the ammunition passages and all the parts where an explosion would be most dan

gerous and would create the greatest havoc. For safety every opening on this deck is covered with a heavy steel grating to prevent, as far as possible, fragments of shell from passing below. The most vulnerable part of the vessel is her water-line, for, if a shell should enter and explode here, tearing a large hole, she would probably quickly capsize and sink; it is here therefore that the heaviest armor, called the water-line belt, is usually placed. The lower edge of this belt rests on a projection or ledge, called the armor shelf, at the point of meeting of the protective deck and the ship's side; it is therefore 3 or 4 feet below the water-line and extends up about the same distance above. In the earlier battleships it was usual to run this

whole water-line of the vessel. The barbettes, one forward and one aft, about over the magazines, rest upon the protective deck at the bottom and extend up about four feet above the upper deck. At the top of the barbettes, revolving on rollers, are the turrets, sometimes called hoods, containing the guns and the loading mechanism and all of the machinery in connection with the same, and the turret ammunition hoists lead up through the barbettes from the magazine below, delivering their load of charge and projectiles at the breech of the guns in position for loading and, as they pass up inside of the barbettes and turrets, they are as well protected as is possible. It is usual to work an athwartship line of armor from the water-line belt to the barbettes, resting upon the protective deck, and this athwartship or diagonal armor is here the same thickness as the belt. We now have, enclosed within heavy armor a fort, citadel or redoubt, its bottom being the protective deck, its sides the water-line belt, and its ends the athwartship or diagonal armor, a barbette being placed at each end of the citadel, thus the space between the protective deck and the next deck above is well protected. Resting upon the armor belt and the diagonal armor, and following the same direction, is a course of armor usually somewhat thinner called the lower casemate armor; it extends up to the lower edge of the broadside gun ports and, resting upon it in turn is the upper casemate armor, following the same direction and forming the protection for the broadside battery. The explosive effect of the modern shell is so tremendous that were one to get through the upper casemate and explode immediately after entering, it would undoubtedly disable several guns and kill their entire crews; it is therefore usual to isolate each broadside gun from its neighbors by light nickel steel bulkheads 12 or 2 inches thick, and, to prevent the same disastrous result among the guns on the opposite side, a fore-and-aft bulkhead of about the same thickness is placed on the centre line of the ship. Each gun of the broadside battery is thus mounted in a space by itself, somewhat similar to a stall. Just abaft the forward turret there is a vertical armored tube resting on the protective deck and at its upper end is the conning tower, a protected station from which the ship may be worked in action, the tube giving protection to all the mechanical signaling gear leading to different parts of the ship, the steering gear, etc., while just forward of the after turret is another armored station for signaling. It is not a difficult matter to design a ship that will be practically unsinkable by the attack of gun fire, as it only means placing a sufficient thickness of armor at the water-line. A war ship might as well be sunk, however, as rendered useless in battle, and the one thing

water-line belt the length of the machinery space only, leaving the ends of the vessel unprotected; this was considered dangerous, however, as penetration at these unprotected ends would probably have serious consequences, so, as armor improved in quality, enabling thinner and therefore lighter plates to be used, the weight so gained was utilized by continuing the protection, at a reduced thickness, all the way to the bow and stern. thus protecting as far as possible the

absolute impossibility of the unprotected personnel of a ship working her guns when exposed to the hail of shot and shell from a modern battery of rapid-fire and automatic guns; as a result of this we see all the later battleships, armored cruisers and protected cruisers increasing the protection of the broadside batteries and exposed gun positions, even at the expense of the water-line belt. It has also been advocated lately to do away entirely with the protective deck, thus gaining many tons weight which