In our new ships the weight devoted to protection may approach one-third of the total displacement. Experts conversant with the secret designs declare that the King George V.. and her sisters will be as nearly unsinkable as it is possible to make them.
Naval officers, as a whole, are' satisfied that the Admiralty's policy of endowing the new ships with a hard-hitting battery of 14in. guns, immense defensive strength, and moderately high speed is thoroughly sound, They would oppose any suggestion of mounting 16in. guns so long as the displacement is restricted to 35,000 tons.
It is pointed out that any foreign ship of great speed which carries 16in. guns must needs be deficient in protection,; especially against air attack, to resist which very thick, multiple '-armour decks are essential.
These decks, however, are extremely heavy.
An. important advantage of the 14in. gun is its greater rapidity of fire compared with larger calibres. Within a given period 14in. gun ship could probably discharge a total weight of metal little, if at all, inferior to that from a 16in, gun vessel.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.