Lanterna Rally

Author: Fred T. Jane

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-12

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9781331281979

Excerpt from The British Battle Fleet, Vol. 2: Its Inception and Growth Throughout the Centuries to the Present Day The characteristic motif of the Barnaby designs has been described as a "maximum of offensive power and the minimum of defence." This is not altogether correct; though as a generahzatiou it is no very great exaggeration. In every Barnaby design proper, offence was the first thing sought for, but defence as then understood was by no means overlooked as to-day it appears to have been. The bed rock "Reed idea" was to produce a ship which could attack and destroy the enemy without much risk of being damaged in doing so. The "Barnaby idea" was that "the best defensive is a strong offensive"; and a strict subordination of defence to what might best serve the attack on the same displacement. The first big armoured ship to be laid down at all on Barnaby principles, the Inflexible, was built under somewhat peculiar circumstances. In the year 1871 a Committee was appointed. One of its findings was as follows: - "As powerful armament, thick armour, speed, and light draught cannot be combined in one ship, although all are needed for the defence of the country; there is no alternative but to give the preponderance to each in its turn amongst different classes of ships which shall mutually supplement one another." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.