ound in the turret of a battleship. Here
again, and even inside of 5,000 yards, we find the superiority
of the great gun over the musket, as evidenced by its accuracy in
use. No soldier can fire his musket, even on a steady platform,
himself and target stationary, and the range known perfectly, as
accurately as a gun-pointer can fire a 12-inch gun; and if gun
and target be moving, and the wind be blowing, and the range only
approximately known, as is always the case in practice, the advantage
of the big gun in accuracy becomes incomparable.

But it is not only the big projectile itself which has energy, for
this projectile carries a large charge of high explosive, which
exploding some miles away from where it started, exerts a power
inherent in itself, that was exhibited with frightful effect at
the battles of Tsushima and the Skagerak.

This brings us to the auto-torpedo, a weapon recently perfected;
in fact not perfected yet. Here is another power that science has
put into the hands of naval men in addition to those she had already
put there. The auto-torpedo, launched in security from below the
water-line of the battleship, or from a destroyer or submarine,
can be directed in a straight line over a distance and with a speed
that are constantly increasing with the improvement of the weapon.
At the present moment, a speed of 27 knots over 10,000 yards can
be depended on, with a probability that on striking an enemy's
ship below the water-line it will disable that ship, if not sink
her. There seems no doubt that, in a very few years, the systematic
experiments now being applied to the development of the torpedo
will result in a weapon which can hardly be called inferior to
the 12-inch or even 16-inch gun and will probably surpass it.

_Controllability_.--If one watches a fleet of ships moving on the
sea, he gets an impression of tremendous power. But if he watches
Niagara, or a thunder-storm, he also gets an impression of tremendous
power. But the tremendous power of Niagara, or the thunder-storm,
is a power that belongs to Niagara or the thunder-storm, and not to
man. Man cannot control the power of Niagara or the thunder-storm;
but he can control the power of a fleet.

Speaking, then, from the standpoint of the human being, one may say
that the fleet has the element of controllability, while Niagara
and the thunder-storm have not. One man can make the fleet go faster
or slower or stop; he can increase its power o