The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
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Remarkable Picture of the New Monster 16-Inch Coast Defense Gun and Its Crew. Photo Taken at
the Testing Grounds of Sandy Hook. ' .
The First: of the New Coast Defense
Monsters Arrives in New York
Harbor and is Being Tried Out to
See if the Giant Will Do All
T
THE biggest gnn In the world
has just arrived in New York
harbor. ' It Ii ' being- nursed
and petted , and encouraged' and
tried out to aee it there is anything
wrong with It and to make sure
that It' will, do all that It is ex
pected to.' This Is the first of the
giant coast-defense guns which will
eventually be scattered around the
harbor defense of our big coast
cities and the Panama Canal.
It is the biggest gun ever con
structed. Some, of the great Ger
man cannon are of slightly larger
calibre, but tbey are mortars, a
different kind of , weapon, and do
not weigh nearly so much.
There are to be many of .these
huge guns, according to the War
Department's present plans. Seven
of them are to be mounted in the
forts that guard the entrances of
the ra&ama Canal. , Just how many
will be provided for the coast de
fences of the United States proper
is as yet a government secret;
but an official board Quite a while,
ago reached the . conclusion that
eighteen should be mounted for the
protection of New York City. Also
It recommended that ten should be
emplaced at SanTranclsco, eight at
Boston end four at Hampton Roads,
to defend the entrance of Chesa
peake Bay. . ' ,V, . ' . 1.
It is now fully realised that the
12-Inch guns which furnish the ma
jor armament of our ' seacoast
fortresses are not powerful enough..
A battle-cruiser of the Queen Elixa-,
beth type could take up a position
beyond , reach of their projectiles
and. with her rifles ' of superior .
range, destroy, a Urge part of New
York. ;
Evidently, then, our forts must
have bigger guns. The new ones
(of which the giant just arrived an
Sandy Hook is a type) will be of
eixteen-lnch calibre, and will throw '
an explosive projectile eight miles
farther.' 1 '
' An idea of the enormous size and
effectiveness of this new. gun Ji
'.best conveyed by comparing it,
point ior point, with the twelve
inch weapon. - ,
The twelve-inch gun is forty feet
long. . The length or the sixteen
Inch breech-loading rifle Is nine
inches short of fifty feet.
The twelve-inch gun weighs fifty
seven tons, s The weight of the six-tecn-luch
monster Is 130 tons more
than twice aa great
The twelve-Inch gun throws a
1,000-pound shell thirteen miles.
The 'projectile discharged by the
sixteen inch gun weighs 2.400
pounds, and is thrown twenty-one
miles.
The firing charge of the twelve
inch gun la 520 pounds of smokeless
powder. For the slxteen-inch gun
it is 666 pounds.
The shell of the
twelve Inch gun
carries an explod
ing charge of
sixty pounds zl
high explosive.
That of the six
1 teen-inch gun car-'.
ries ISO pounds.
was sent to Watertown (near
Boston), where the Govern- '
ment maintains what it
calls a , "carriage fac-
tory"--meaning by
that term an es
tablishment for
making gun
carriages.
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, It may be added that the pro
jectile discharged by the slxteen
inch rifle, weighing more than half
a ton, Is nearly as tall as a man
when stood on end or, ta speak
with exactness, five feet 4 inches
high. At a distance of three miles
it will strike with an energy pf
0,OO0 foot-tons enough, as it
reckoned, to smash a battleship at
one blow.
The monster gun here described
was built by the War Department
at Watervliet. N. Y. Thence it was
sent a while ago to Sandy Hook.
. From Sandy Hook It was re-
contly shipped back to Water-,
vllet,- in order that it might '
receive some minor altera
tiona and Improvements,
particularly In re
pect to the firing
mechanism.
Thla being
accomplished,
the gun
A
7
Copyright. 1115. by the 8Ur Company.
There it
was placet
upon the
carriage which
had been newly
made for it, and
subjected to a "shop
test," to make sure
that gun and carrlaca
would work together prop-
erly. and finally (a few days
ago) the carriage and gun were
shipped to Sandy Hook.
'A train of specially constructed
fiat-cars was required for their
transportation; and orders were is
sued by the railroad officials to
hare all lights in the Hooslc Tun
nel extinguished while the war
freight was passing through, lest
the presence of such great masses
of steel cause a short circuit and
set fire to the train.
On reaching Sandy Hook, the
gun was placed on its carriage,
with the help of powerful ma- ,
chtnery ready at hand, and thus
made ready for the "firing test."
It must be fired several times, to
be sure that nothing is wrong with
it. and then no time will be lost in
forwarding the giant weapon to the
Isthmus.
Inasmuch as fifty shots will wear
the gun but. through destruction of
its rifling by the enormous powder
pressure, - the test firing will be
carefully economized.
From the wharf at Sandy Hook
the gun and carriage will be trans
ferred by a wrecking derrick to
lighters, which will convey them
to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where
huge cranes will pick them up and
place them on the deck of a
freight steamship. Lashed fast to
her deck, as a -precaution against
damage in a possible storm, they
will make the voyage to. the At
lantic terminus of the Panama
Railroad, at Colon. The railroad
will carry them on flat cars
across the Isthmus and the gun
..will be mounted in an emplace
- ment of one of the forts at the
Panama end of the canal. In
ordor to realise the site of the
transportation Job, one should
understand that the war-carriage
of the giant gun weighs
something like 450 tons. It is of
the "disappearing" type (built at a
cost of 1125,000). and He counter
weight alone by the help of which
the weapon la lowered and raised
between shots is a bit heavier
than the gun Itself.
The constructional Ingenuity of
thla carriage may be Judged from
the fact that it must endure, with
out breaking or straining any of its
parts, the most tremendous explo
sive shocks, meanwhile, between
ahots, lowering the gun eight feet
to the loading position and re
turning it to the firing position. It
roust do this rapidly, certainly, and
easily, by mechanism not liable to
get out of order and readily oper
ated by the average soldier. The
performance la comparable to that
of a 50-ton locomotive and tender,
running twenty miles an hour,
which should be required te come
to a full stop within sixteen feet,
or one-third of its ' length, yet so
easily and gently as to suffer not
the allftbtest jar.
The force of the explosioa each
time the gun is discharged la bet
ter realized when it la eiDbvlned
Crait BrtUla EXitt-
A
. Projec
tile Shot
from the
New 16-Inch
Gun at Sandy
Hook Could
Shatter the Larg
est Building in
New York City, 14
Miles Away and
Likewise Could
Destroy the Lar
gest Battleships
in the Fleet of an
Invading. Enemy.
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that its firing load of. smokeless
powder (666H pounds) Is equiva
lent, in energy developed, to 1,225
pounds of ordinary black powder.
One can easily imagine what
eighteen such guns could do for the
defense of New York, or ten of
them for that of San Francisco,
against a hostile fleet especially in
view of the fact that, as reckoned
by experts, one gun on land is equal
to six on ships, calibre for calibre,
owing to better protection and
steadiness of platform. .
This wonderful slxteen-inch rifle,
emplaced at the Battery, on the
south end of Manhattan Island,
could throw shells far beyond New
Rocbelle on the Sound. Tuckahoe
and Hastlngs-on-the-Hi)dson would
be within easy range. Its shells
would pass far above Staten Island
and fall half a mile beyond Atlantic
Highlands. Perth Amboy could
easily be wiped off the map, and
residents of Montclalr might hear
the huge projectiles roaring over
head, to fall three miles dUtant in
the valley beyond. Paterson would
be within easy reach, with four
miles to spare.
With a range of twenty-one miles
a projectile from this gun would
mount nearly six miles into the
air, reaching a height of 30,516 feet
an altitude at which no human
being can get enough oxygen for
his lungs to keep him alive.
- If Pike's Peak (14,083 feet) were
placed on top of Mont Blanc (15,779
feet), midway between the Battery
and Hastlngs-on-the-Hudson, the
projectile fired from the Battery
would land at Hastings after pass
ing clear over them both wtth 654
feet to spare!
The giant gun is to be mounted
at the Paclflo end of the canal, be
cause that entrance Is deemed
more open to attack by a hostile
fleet than the Atlantic entrance.
The forts there located have been
built on four islands, most con
veniently situated for the defen
sive purpose, which were pur
chased by the War Department
from the Pacific Mail 8teamshlp
Company.
On each of these islands is a
fort, and each fort will be provided
with one slxteen-inch gun of the
type here described. The islands
have been connected with each
other, and also with the mainland,
by causeways of solid concrete. In
fact, as designed, the four forts
are integrated into a single sys
tem, and even if an enemy were to
capture one of them he could be
driven out by concentrating the
guna of the others upon it.
On the sea-frontage of each isl
and an inclined plane of concrete
rises from the shore with a long
and low slant toward the mainland.
This ia covered with aeveral feet
of earth, turfed ao aa to present
the appearance of a greenaward.
No casual observer would suspect
. that beyond there are concrete
lined pits concealing formidable
guns. Each fort consists of several
such gun-pits. It is a series of
holea in the ground, with the land
scape for a roof; there is nothing
for an enemy to shoot at
There will be in each fort several
fourteen-lnch guns very formid
able weapons, corresponding in
slse and power to the largest rifles
carried by our battleships. In the
rear of the ordinary gun-pits, fur
thermore, will be, on each of the
four islands, a battery of four mor
tars, similarly emplaced. They are
sbcrt rifled guns of twelve-inch
calibre meant for high-angle firing,
and to see them aa enemy would
have to be in a balloon. Such a
mortar Is thirteen feet long, uses
a powder charge of 105 pounds, and
throws an 800-pound shell over five
wiles. One such projectile land
ing on the deck of a dreadnought
would be likely to put her out of
action.
The forts at the Atlantic entrance
of the canal are three in number,
and are situated on the mainland.
In other respects their arrange
ments and armament are much the
same. Each of them is to be pro
vided with one giant slxteen-inch
rifle.
The seven huge guns thus pro
vided for the defense of the Pan
ama Canal would alone be sufficient
to "stand off" the most formidable
fleet. Constructed, as they are, In
military ideas, and armed as tbey
will be, the forts here described
are expected to be practically Im
pregnable. That they will ever be
captured by attack from the sea Is
not for a moment to be imagined..
The danger Ilea
in the possibility
of attack by an
army landed by
an enemy a few
miles up or
down the coast.
It is a peril that
would be quick
ly made real if,
through the de
feat of our fleet,
we lost control
of the sea. An
other danger is
from military or
naval aeroplanes
one well-aimed
bomb would
knock a gun and
ita carriage into
a scrap heap.
If ... . : 1
17
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Tbe Size I
f I J
Charge .
Powder
and - 't
Shell fiy si
for the . I "yyij
New Gun "
Compared w.T
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