Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/746

 The Battle Cruiser of the Future

���COLONEL E. FERRETTI, a well known naval architect of Naples, has utilized in the construction of a new type of battle cruiser all the les- sons taught so far by the present war. The new type of battle cruiser is of thir- ty-two thousand tons displacement, the same as the dreadnought Pennsylvania, the new flagship of the Atlantic Fleet.

The fundamental principles accepted by Colonel Ferretti as necessary in the construction of a vessel superior in a fighting sense to any other now in use are: Suppression of everything not ab- solutely required for purposes of naval warfare or for life on shipboard; reduc- tion of all auxiliary services; reduction to the minimum of the above-water body of the ship; adequate protection of the vital parts in the largest sense of the word; definite separation between compartments; maximum arc of gun fire.

The hull of the ship is constructed of the Isherwood type of longitudinal framing. The sides of the ship are divergent above water, even in the central part of the ship. There is, of course, a double bottom. The interior of the ship is divided by three pairs of bulkheads into four zones, the inner- most being securely protected against under-water attack.

For a space of three hundred and one feet, the space covered by the heavy and intermediate guns, the height of the ship above water is only a little over nine feet. Superstructures are provided forward and aft, twenty-two and nine- teen feet above load line. Every other superstructure is suppressed, except the smokestack, the military mast, armored conning towers and fire control stations.

The principal armament comprises ten fifteen-inch guns, divided into two groups of five each, at the bow and stern of the ship. The five guns of each group are placed in one turret with two planes of fire, three guns in the lower plane and two in the upper plane.

The secondary armament consists of twelve seven-and-five-tenths-inch guns, twenty-eight four-inch guns, and eight torpedo tubes. The protection of the ship against gun fire is assured by the reduced target area, the distribution of armor over the exposed side, and the inclination of the above-water side.

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