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compelling ships to act more essentially on the defensive and to provide themselves with crinolines› guard launches, electric lights, and Nordenfelts; indeed, with the possibility of the introduction of Ericson's torpedo guns, and such like contrivances, it would appear by no means unlikely but that floating batteries of the strongest type will be, before long, an unreliable factor of a general scheme of defence, a contingency to which we must not close our eyes, for every such additional source of danger to a vessel means an additional argument for fixed defences, and an additional source of strength to such defences.
Appendix No. 4.
SINGAPORE.
10. Ships again are very unfortunate in being obliged to have machinery,
boilers, screw, and Vulnerability. steering gear, any or all of which are liable to injury, not necessarily of a permanent character, but which puts them for the time hors de combat; a contingency to which forts are not liable. Then again, hydrographical considerations and the presence of electro-contact torpedo cables, nets and passive obstructions generally oblige floating defences to keep to certain waters. With the most skilful naviga- tion they will at times touch the mud flat or sand bank, or be driven ashore and destroyed by an attacking squadron. A fort cannot be captured without landing and attacking a work designed for near defence also, and with unbreached escarps. A ship places itself on a level with the assailants.
11. The sides of a vessel afford but little protection to the gun detachments, whereas, in a battery, Frotection and im- they are comparatively safe, and immunity from danger can be insured to the ammunition supply. provements. Once built and designed, a ship cannot be altered; a fort can be strengthened to meet the exigencies of the times, and the gun emplacements modified to receive improvements in ordnance, a constant changing contingency, which should be borne in mind.
12. Again, whilst the first cost of a ship is enormous compared with the cost of a battery, there is First cost and cer- no certainty that she will be present when required, especially if she be under the orders of the tainty of presence. Naval Officer Commanding on the Station. He may consider the best means of defence is to have a strong squadron afloat and unite all possible means for the attainment of that end, or he may want as many vessels as he can collect to blockade an enemy's ports or hem in his ships, when suddenly the squadron alluded to in paragraph 15 of my Report* will make its appearance and find the floating means of defence wanting. The argument is sometimes used that the movability of floating defences makes them available for two or more positions, but it is now generally allowed that there is always the possibility that, when they are wanted at one locality, they will be at another; that we can never know when something will not go wrong and prevent their moving, and that therefore the defence of each individual locality should be complete in itself.
maintenance.
13. As regards the relative expense of ships and forts, the expense of maintaining the latter is Relative expense of insignificant, and, once constructed, they are permanent, whereas the cost of maintaining the former is considerable, and it is necessary to provide for their periodical renewal.
defences.
14. I need not enumerate minor reasons for advocating that where fixed defences are possible, it Place for floating will be extravagance and imprudence to supply their place by floating means. But these have their proper rôle, and there is nobody more ready to recognize it than I am. Where the distance between
guns is too great to be properly commanded by their fire, where advanced batteries are necessary at a distance from the shore, or where foundations for fixed works cannot be obtained without expense and difficulty disproportionate to the object to be gained, then it is that we must have recourse to floating means of some sort.
substitution.
15. At any other time, they should be employed, if employed at all, not as a substitution for, but Addition and not as an addition to, fixed defences, which, independent of their assistance if absent, will be strengthened by them if present as affording an additional means of offence rather than of defence. These floating means should be of a light mosquito or harassing description, such as small boats of high speed and little draught armed each with one gun only; spar torpedo launches, &c.
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16. Upon this section I need say but little. Throughout my Report I have carefully kept the question of the defence of the harbour (section 4) separate from the defence of the town (section 5), and the direct point at issue demands in this case also separate consideration.
17. The harbour is practically landlocked, and presents a series of positions for fixed defences which make them independent of floating means. The western entrance is difficult of approach (see paragraph 18 of my Report*) and can, without difficulty, be made secure by the existing fort on Mount Šiloso, and the proposed one at Passir Panjang.
Neither is the eastern channel easy, for, with Pagar spit on the starboard side and a Baran Darat coral reef on the port, a vessel has a choice of some 800 yards only, over a zone studded with submarine mines which are protected by the fire of the batteries erected on the high ground on either side at Mount Palmer and Blakang Mati East, respectively. A third fort could, if necessary, be con- structed on Pulu Brani, and its fire, raking the channel of approach, would have its extreme range at the point of concentration of the collateral fire from the other two forts. The cost of the three existing works has not exceeded 17,600%-the price of a gunboat--and a trifle to what would be required for sufficient naval means to equal the power of these works even in their present condition as noticed in paragraphs 49 and 56 of my Report.*
18. Thus we may congratulate ourselves that the harbour is well situated for defence by land works, leaving us financially so much the better off for undertaking the sea defence of the town where we find existing the conditions mentioned in paragraph 15 of this Memorandum, and investigated in paragraphs 51 and 52 of my Report.* The flanks of the line of defence are supported by the land works at Mount Palmer and Tanjong Katong, and by certain proposed additions thereto, but the curtain must be occupied by guns mounted on shipboard, as explained in paragraphs 91, 92, and 93 of my Report,* or by a sea battery constructed on the edge of the shoal water.
Defence of the harbour and town not
equally easy. Harbour favourable
for fixed defences.
Defence of town requires aid of float- ing means.
[1103]
* Inclosure 15 in No. 74.
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