Page:Heresies of Sea Power (1906).djvu/350

318 The United States, just beginning to build sea-going ships, did at first succeed in evolving a novelty in the Indiana, an effort after carrying something better than the four heavy and many light guns. Intermediate guns were mounted, but the idea was not developed and subsequently American versions of the Majestic were built. Germany like America preferred a continuous battery to casemates for the secondary guns, but the likeness between the Majestic, Wittelsbach, Alabama and Maine is very clear. France after some experiments with guns mounted singly in lozenge formation reverted to that Brennus idea which fore-shadowed the Majestic, and the Suffren is little but the Majestic with a complete waterline belt. In every ship it is only the Devastation with higher sides and a number of little guns added, and as a rule the less the likeness to the Devastation the poorer the ship.

At the end of the century the 6-inch gun was paramount; and Yalu, in the Chino-Japanese war, was proved (as all battles usually are) to indicate the excellence of current ideas. Only the more or less amateur designs of America showed a hankering for some secondary gun superior to the 6-inch. The 8-inch returned to American ships and Italy copied in the Benedetto Brin the idea of three calibres. So did the British in the King Edward, which as originally designed was intended to carry four 12-inch, eight 7.5-and ten 6-inch. The 7.5 were to be paired in turrets