War on the Water - George Griffith / Fred T. Jane

[ffutures]

Someone pointed me at this 1896 article by George Griffith, with illustrations by Fred T. Jane (of Jane's Fighting Ships fame), which I somehow managed to miss when I checked the first volume of Pearson's Magazine for scientific romances. The reason probably being that it isn't so much a scientific romance as a "prediction" of military technology. I've just scanned it and put it on line, please tell me if you spot any errors etc. in the text before I link to it properly.

http://www.forgottenfutures.com/library/warwater/warwater.htm

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

The text looks great.

Interesting that the author felt that most action would be at close quarters, despite the vastly increasing range of weaponry. To be fair, the Russians were also surprised by the long ranges used at the Battle of Tsushima.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's a mistake Griffith makes repeatedly, but he's far from alone - The Struggle For Empire has space battles fought by fleets only a mile or two apart!

[willibald.livejournal.com]

"a torpedo loaded with 500 pounds of gun cotton is rushing towards us at thirty knots an hour."

A knot is a measure of speed not of distance. Griffith has this right in the rest of the artical but makes the mistake in this sentence.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Probably the proofreader or editor rather than Griffith. but since it's on the page it stays in.