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the torpedo is 25 knots which equals 42 feet per second. The mussle velocity of the gun may be conceded as 1800 to 2000 feet. A range of 1000 yards will be crossed with this velocity inside of two seconds in which time no large ship can move her own length across the line of fire.

As for the difficulty of hitting a ship which possesses equal speed with one's own, a telling reference may perhaps be made to a professional audience to the difficuly experienced at times by new hands in picking up a floating target moved by the wind and sea. We are all inexperienced in the handling of rams.

The lateral errors so far considered are those due to the moving of the target for which it may be claimed that allowances can be made on the sight bars by sliding scales or otherwise. I shall concede the claim partially, alluding only to the confusion incident to frequent changes by which alone such corrections can be maintained.

There is another source of lateral error due to the medium through which the projectile moves in the one case through the air, in the other water.

The currents of air to which a projectile is exposed, differ not only from day to day, but in an action they will be continually changed relatively to the line of flight, according as the positions of the combatants change.