Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/127

ciple was continued as guns increased in weight until the combination became impossible. Then, rejecting the turret except for coast defence vessels, they mounted all the heavy guns en barbette. Even now considerable difference of opinion exists as to the relative advantages of the two systems, as may be observed from the fact that one of the new 14,000-ton battle ships we are building is a turret vessel. This is one of the problems that only such a practical test as war can solve. The barbette system consists of a thick inclined wall of armour, usually pear-shaped, built into the ship, enclosing a turntable, which carries the gun, and is high enough to permit the latter to fire freely over the wall in any direction as the turntable revolves. Therefore only the apparatus for manipulating the gun is protected, and the piece itself is exposed throughout its length to hostile fire. With the revolving turret protection is afforded to a greater portion of the gun, because the height of the wall is greater, and the gun points through an embrasure. With short ordnance there was little exposed even at the moment of firing, and after discharge rotation of the turret took the guns out of danger. It was this peculiarity of the turret system which gave the 'Monitor' such an advantage over the 'Merrimac' As the officers of the latter said, the 'Monitor's' guns were fired and the turret revolved so quickly that they had not a chance of getting a fair shot at them. But when guns were given great length, and slender muzzles which might be disabled by small projectiles, the advantage in this respect was lessened. Moreover, the turret involved