United States or Iran ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Tarapoca battery, which faced due south over Chorillos bay, contained two 15-inch Dahlgren guns, as also did Pierola battery, facing Callao bay. Next to Pierola came the Torre del Merced, a revolving turret mounting two 10-inch rifled Armstrongs. Then came a brick fort called the Santa Rosa, containing two 11-inch rifled Blakely guns.
These passages are most secret, as all believe that the grating of the sewer, seen from the sea, is a drain. The battery of Santa Clara is the most interesting of the fortifications of Havana, and one of the most important. Here are three new Krupp 11-inch guns, designed to protect El Principe, the land side of Havana.
The Valago battery, a part of the Morro, an out-work on the edge of the cliff, mounting four 11-inch Krupp guns separated by earth traverses. The Morro, commenced in 1589 and finished in 1597, is important for historical associations. It is a most picturesque structure, and is useful as a lighthouse and prison, and is mounted with twelve old 10-inch, eight old 8-inch, and fourteen old 4-inch guns.
It consisted of a revolving turret with 8-inch armor and two 11-inch smoothbore guns, set on a raft-like structure 142 feet in length by 41-1/2 feet in beam, projecting at bow, stern, and sides beyond a flat-bottomed lower hull. Though unseaworthy, the Monitor maneuvered quickly and drew only 10-1/2 feet.
It is possible that Jellicoe assumed an inferiority of the British armor piercing shell because of this power of the German ships to stay afloat. But photographs published after the armistice showed that British shells penetrated the 11-inch turret armor of the Seydlitz and the 13-inch of the Derfflinger with frightful effect.
Farragut made his attack with four monitors, two of them, the Tecumseh and Manhattan, of large size, carrying 15-inch guns, and the other two, the Winnebago and Chickasaw, smaller and lighter, with 11-inch guns, and the wooden vessels, fourteen in number. Seven of these were big sloops-of-war, of the general type of Farragut's own flagship, the Hartford.
The advance of the enemy's column to the Hauffpaur . . . will ensure its speedy fall, with loss of guns and garrison. Under these circumstances, General Taylor has ordered the removal of the 32-pounder rifle and 11-inch columbiads to a position higher up the Red River."
The Monongahela was the first to reach the monster, struck her fairly, and, swinging around, let fly with a broadside of 11-inch shot, which dropped harmlessly from her mailed side. Undaunted, the Monongahela rammed her again, though she received ten times as much damage as she inflicted.
With impetuous haste, and while yet more than two miles away, the Spaniard pointed one of his long 11-inch hontoria rifles in the direction of the Texas and pulled the lanyard. The shell came shrieking out to sea, but to sea only.
Some vessels, like the Spaniard Vizcaya, are about half way between a battle-ship and a cruiser, having the heavy guns of the former and the speed of the latter. The Vizcaya, although a cruiser, carried 11-inch guns with a 12-inch armour belt, and had a speed of twenty-three miles an hour.
Word Of The Day