The fleet of larger vessels would then slacken speed and drop back, taking the ships of the enemy in turn, and smothering them with a superior gun fire. The fleet of larger ships would probably have sufficient advantage in speed for the admiral to maintain his four vessels abreast of the first four of the enemy's line and, in this case, an eight-gun ship would be opposed to a four-gun ship, with the inevitable result (if the gunners were at all equally matched) that the four smaller ships would be silenced. If, of two such fleets, one were made up of four 20,000-ton battleships, each carrying eight 12- inch guns, the whole line would be about 2,100 yards in length and if the other fleet consisted of eight 10,000-ton ships, each mounting four 12-inch guns, the line would be 5,600 yards in length, or over three miles.
Future engagements will be fought with the two fleets steaming in parallel lines, in what is known as line ahead formation that is, with each ship of a fleet steaming in the wake of the one ahead, with an interval of about 500 yards between them.
It is to-day the almost unanimous opinion of naval officers that one big ship is more effective than two smaller ships of half her size. The determination of the range at which an engagement shall be fought will lie with the fleet which possesses the fastest speed.
Future engagements will be fought at an extreme range, the extent of which will be limited only by the ability of the fire-control officer to see the fall of the shots. The main armament will consist exclusively of heavy guns of not less than 12 inches caliber and, unless the difficulty of erosion can be overcome, the 12- inch will give place to a 13-inch and, possibly, to a 14-inch piece. The battleship of the future will be of great size displacement will be not less than 20,000 tons and this will increase so rapidly that a 30,000-ton ship will probably be afloat before the close of the next decade. The running fight which followed the sortie of the Russian fleet at Port Arthur, and the decisive battle of Tsushima Straits, crystallized into fact many theories of the design and maneuvering of warships and settled, probably for many years to come, the vexed questions of the size of ship, the type of gun, and the best formation in which to fight a naval action.
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