Around the handling room at the base of the ammunition hoist are grouped the magazine and shell rooms for the storage of ammunition. These magazines and shell rooms are especially constructed compartments kept closed by water-tight doors and fitted with arrangements for flooding, etc. The powder in the magazines is stored in air-tight copper tanks and when required for loading into the gun it is removed from the copper tank, passed through a scuttle closed by a flap in the door and placed on the hoist which carries it direct to the breech of the gun. This general arrangement is shown as sketch No. 1. To provide additional safety for the magazine a platform has been more recently placed between the turret floor and the handling room below with an automatic flap steel door through which passes the ammunition carrier.

ENGLISH TURRETS FOR 12-INCH GUNS.

English battle ships, commencing with the Dreadnought, Thunderer, and Devastation in 1869 up to the Colossus class of 1886, carried muzzle-loading guns, and that turret system has now become obsolete. Commencing with the Colossus class of 1886, the first of the breech-loading guns were mounted in turrets controlled by hydraulic power. The guns were loaded by training the turret to a fixed loading position so as to bring the breech of the gun over an ammunition hoist working within a shaft or trunk built into the structure of the ship and independent of the revolving parts of the turret. The ammunition was supplied in carriers, which traveled from the handling room on the magazine and shell room deck direct to the breech of the gun. This same general arrangement was used on the English battle ships Camperdown, Anson, Howe, Rodney, Collingwood, Nile, Trafalgar, Royal Sovereign, Royal Oak, Ramilles, Revolution, Repulse, Empress of India, Hood, Barfleur (reconstructed 1903), Centurion (reconstructed 1903), and Revenge, which ships were built between 1875 and 1895. (See Fig. 2.)

By this time the method of loading guns adopted in this country and France as a standard type for turrets was recognized by the English as possessing many advantages. The English "fixed" loading positions not only took a great deal of time to train their guns for loading but also gave indication to the enemy when the guns were out of action and exposed a side view of them to the enemy's fire. The criticisms against the English "fixed" loading position brought forth the design shown in sketch No. 3, which may be regarded as the second stage in the evolution of the modern English turret. In this design the natural conservative spirit is shown in the retention of the fixed loading position, while at the same time it was supplemented by a central ammunition tube revolving with the turret and through which the corlite could be hoisted from the magazine handling room direct through the turret floor. A number of explosive shell were carried in the turret, and a number of charges of cordite were stored in pockets in the turret floor. By this means a limited number of rounds could be fired at any point in the arc of train, and cordite could be supplied through the central loading tube when the supply required replenishing. Also when the supply of shell in the turret was exhausted, it was necessary to train to the old "fixed" loading position to replenish it. It will be seen at a glance that this

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was a compromise, but it is interesting as showing the process of evolution by which the "fixed" loading position was finally abandoned. This design of turret was placed in only a limited number of ships (7) of the Majestic class, built between 1895 and 1898 and included the Magnificent, Mars, Hannibal, Jupiter, Victoria, and Prince George. (Fig. 3.)

The next step is shown in fig. 4, which was placed in five vessels of the Canopus class-the Caesar, Illustrious, Ocean, and Goliathbuilt between 1897 and 1900. This design abandoned the fixed loading position and in a natural mechanical evolution attached the upper part of the fixed loading hoist to the revolving part of the turret and used this portion of the hoist in connection with the central tube hoist. This resulted in what was called a relay chamber or a working room beneath the turret platform, where the ammunition was transferred from the lower hoist to the upper hoist. This arrangement has also recently been designated as "The two-stage hoist." In these ships it did not prove entirely satisfactory due to hand loading and detail arrangements.

The next mechanical development toward simplicity would naturally result in a combination of the upper and lower hoists into one single hoist, and this we actually find to be the case, as shown in fig. 5, which was installed in the English battle ships Glory and Albion, built in 1901, and in several foreign ships built by Armstrong and Company. This design shows the ammunition hoist enclosed in a trunk leading from the handling room abreast the magazine direct to the breech of the gun. This design of turret is characterized by a writer in a recent number of the Naval and Military Record as "The cleverest piece of workmanship and design that had yet been seen in naval turrets, but the two ships as a whole were never a success." The ammunition was a long time going up the long hoist, and nothing was gained as expected.

The next design was installed in the English ships Centurion, Barfleur, and Renown in 1903. It was a return to the Canopus type of 1900 with a relay chamber beneath the gun making the two-stage hoist. Steam and electricity were introduced as part of the motive power.

Following these vessels came the nine vessels of the Formidable class, completed between 1902 and 1904. These also had the Canopus type of turret with a 4° loading position supplemented by a 1° handloading position and a chain-folding rammer.

The four vessels of the Prince of Wales class, 1902-1904, had a similar type of turret, but a further improvement was made by the introduction of a rammer that enabled loading to take place at any angle of elevation as well as any angle of train.

In 1904 the Triumph and Swiftsure were completed in England. Their 10-inch turret mounts had central ammunition supply from the handling room direct to breech of gun. The design is similar in all important respects to that of the American turret design, except that the guns can be loaded at any angle of elevation.

The eight vessels of the King Edward VII class of 1905-6 and subsequent vessels have 12-inch turrets of the Canopus type of 1900 with improvements in details, some having a chain rammer enabling the guns to be loaded at any angle of elevation as well as at any angle of train. This has become the standard type of the English 12-inch turret mount and is shown in fig. 6.