there TO-MORROW. "Get by to-night, get by forever," remarks the boatswain, and then with instant mental association, "Do they have hot and cold water in French bathrooms?"

To-morrow comes, and with it the lee of the land. The wind has died with the sea, and so placid is the air and water that it seems that the coast must be visible. We breakfast, muster and clean house, and for once, it being the last day, those in authority dispense with spot-lights, and cease harassing compartment cleaners. By the end of the morning, most of us have finished our chores, and with life preservers unfastened are basking in the sun and watching for the land, eyes shining with anticipation from faces pallid with sleeplessness. We have "got by " the last night out and are beginning to relax just a little.

The siren of the ship to port screams insanely and a stern gun thrashes a shell into the water off her quarter. Bugles burst into a nasal chatter and all hands jump to battle stations. The line of soldiers on the booms begin to shout and point at a swirl in the water, as the destroyers leap like live things and race for the spot where the shell has fallen. Even in their sudden mad hurry, their cool-headed plan is shown, for while one jumps in full cry right at the trouble-spot, the others whisk a smoke screen across our stern. The leading destroyer whizzes on, then turns sharply, and as she turns, the tortured water cracks and roars with the burst of the depth bomb she has dropped. Back over the same ground she flies, and again looses a bomb, spinning on her heel to slam three quick shots into the smother of the explosion. Then head up and tail erect, she slips back into her place in formation, leaving a coal-burner that has apparently broken all records getting down off the horizon to sniff around questioningly at her leisure. An army officer who through the long voyage has had many tales to tell looks at his watch regretfully. "Just II minutes," he explodes, "and that fellow over there has had more fun than I ever had in my whole life!" At that moment, a long yell comes from aloft of "Land ho!" and we turn to see the gray shoulder of Belle Isle lifting above the horizon. Our cup of bliss is full. What does it matter to us that subsequent investigation seems to make of our submarine merely a floating spar and our naval battle just a little swank from the destroyer's skipper? To us, there is nothing more needed. We have had a brush with Fritz, we have seen his tin

12

fish rent to bits, and yonder in plain sight is FRANCE! That -night the anchor rattles protestingly down into French mud and the ship is strangely still, for everybody, scrubbed to the blood, has climbed precipitately between the sheets and is fathoms deep in sleep.

Very strange and empty and enormous the ship felt on the way home, and in spite of the snarling gales of the northern route we took, it was a clean and shining transport that raised the coast. of the United States. One could notice as the first liberty party swung up the docks to catch the subway for Manhattan that their overshirts fit; and in their faces was the calmness of men who have proved themselves. There was no more speculation and secret doubt. "Leave it to us," those faces seemed to say. "Bring on your doughboys as fast as you can make 'em. We'll put 'em across." And they did.

DISCUSSION

Increasing the Size of Battleships

(SEE PAGE 387, WHOLE NO. 193)

REAR ADMIRAL SEATON SCHROEDER, U. S. Navy, Retired.-The able paper by Captain E. J. King, U. S. Navy, on "The Effects of Increasing the Size of Battleships," in the March number of the PROCEEDINGS, Commands a most interested attention. And conviction attends the reading of most of the statements and conclusions expressed.

On one point, however, there is, I think, room for discussion. That point is contained in the sentence, "Also the larger ships should be better gun-platforms, especially in heavy weather." The superiority of larger ships in that feature is dwelt upon throughout the paper, and it seems to be a generally accepted fact in professional discussions. The question in my mind is, "Are we sure that the statement is correct?" I must say that I am not sure; in fact, I incline to think that it is a mistaken notion as applied to ships to meet our particular needs.

As stated in the article, increase of size must largely be gained by increase of length and of beam, because any appreciable increase of draft is prohibited by the depth of water available, or likely to be available, in harbors and channels leading to our navy yards. Increased beam undoubtedly tends to increase stability, but it does so at the cost of steadiness; the two are antagonistic. The diminution of steadiness may be explained either by putting it that the deck of the broader ship follows more closely the surface of the waves, or by the more fundamental statement that the broader ship has a greater metacentric height. Even supposing, however, that by some inspiration the naval designer were able to shift his weights so as to appreciably raise the center of gravity and thus decrease the metacentric height, the result would still not be satisfactory, for the reason that winging the weights, either laterally or vertically, increases the roll after it is once started.

A condition is generally more convincing than a theory, and the first appeal on this subject was made to me by a condition. In the spring of 1906 a battleship, which I was to command later, was being swung for compass adjustment by the builders off the Capes of Virginia. I was surprised by observing a marked and disconcerting motion, while the sea seemed quite smooth; close attention then detected a long slight swell heaving. I spoke of it afterwards to the superintending naval constructor at Newport News, suggesting that the ship's behavior betrayed a considerable metacentric height, and I was told that the computations were not at hand, but that I was undoubtedly right and that it would probably prove to be something around 6 feet. This turned out to be about right, as well as J

can remember. And, also, as well as I could judge, the motion was greater than what I had observed with smaller ships under the same conditions.

As the size of ships has increased, the question of limiting the draft has come to the fore, and an interesting comparison came under my observation later. One pair of sister ships (battleships), in which restriction had been placed upon the draft, were seen, when in column, to roll considerably more than another pair which were a little larger, but of a draft much heavier in proportion. I have not had personal opportunity to see the performance of the heavier tonnages built since that time; but from what I have been told, I gather that certain ships of 11,000 tons more displacement and 15 feet more beam and 21⁄2 feet more draft have proved very lively in heavy weather, while two vessels of a displacement about midway between those extremes, but with 7 feet less beam and 6 inches more draft than the heaviest of those mentioned, are fairly easy.

All this is not very precise, and therefore not very convincing; but as we get above 30,000 tons the contrast between performances becomes greater, the increase in size and beam being out of proportion to any slight increase of draft that may be considered expedient. We should not go far above present figures without trying to reach some positive decision as to what the result will be. Especially should we guard against assumptions in problems in which the conditions change; we may be insensibly led on in a certain path without noting the effect of the advance in that path, and taking heed perhaps mostly of the progress in the mechanical arts which has made possible the great increase in size and power. After the battle of Lissa, in 1866, when the Re d'Italia was fortuitously rammed and sunk in the smoke of that rough and tumble Donnybrook fair engagement, attention became centered on the ram and the ram bow, and it took nearly half a century to remove the obsession and leave it clear that the danger to own ships in formation and to docks and piers, and the inconvenience in mooring and unmooring, more than offset any remote possibility of using the ram in action. Indeed, the acceptance of that weapon was so general as to cause it to be regarded as a means to an entirely different end; upon one occasion, when I ventured a protest against handicapping a ship with that dangerous excrescence, I was told that that increase of length underwater was necessary to ensure obtaining the required speed.

That increase of size must produce a steadier gun-platform seems a manifest truism, provided other elements remain the same; but, after determining the suitable proportion of beam to draft, any material departure from it changes the problem. It may be found, if it has not already been found, that, with normal distribution of weights and fullness of body, there is a critical ratio of beam to draft which should not be exceeded in solving the problem of steadiness.

In this connection it is to be observed that if two vessels, one drawing normally several feet less than the other, should be wounded seriously, the deeper draft vessel might be unable to enter a port and dock accessible to the other..

The advantage of higher command is conceded, of course; but in displacements larger than what we now have the increment will be small; in