Long-range gunnery
Until the Battle of the Yellow Sea[8] was fought on 10 August 1904, for naval battles of the 1890s the decisive weapon was the medium-caliber, typically 6-inch (152 mm), quick-firing gun firing at relatively short range; naval gunnery was too inaccurate to hit targets at a longer range.[A 1] At these ranges, lighter guns had good accuracy, and their high rate of fire delivered high volumes of ordnance on the target. At the Battle of the Yalu River in 1894, the victorious Japanese did not commence firing until the range had closed to 3,900 metres (4,300 yd) and most of the fighting occurred at 2,000 metres (2,200 yd).[9]
By the early 20th century, British and American admirals expected future battleships would engage at longer distances, as the range of the torpedo increased.[10] In 1903, the U.S. Navy ordered a design of torpedo effective to 4,000-yard (3,700 m).[11] Both British and American admirals concluded they needed to engage the enemy at longer ranges.[11][12] In 1900, Admiral Sir John “Jackie” Fisher, commanding the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet, ordered gunnery practice with 6-inch guns at 6,000-yard (5,500 m).[12] By 1904, the U.S. Naval War College was considering the effects on battleship tactics of torpedoes with a range of 7,000-yard (6,400 m) to 8,000-yard (7,300 m).[11]
The range of light and medium-caliber guns was limited, and accuracy declined badly at longer range.[A 2] At longer ranges the advantage of a high rate of fire also decreased; accurate shooting depended on spotting the shell-splashes of the previous salvo, which limited the optimum rate of fire.[2]
On August 10, 1904 the Imperial Russian Navy engaged the Imperial Japanese Navy in one of the longest gunnery duels to date, over 8 miles during the Battle of the Yellow Sea.[13] While the Russian battleships were equipped with Liuzhol range finders with a effective range of 4,000 meters and the Japanese battlewagons had Barr & Stroud range finders that reached out to 6,000 meters, both sides still managed to hit each other at the excessive range of 8 miles, which generally astounded the naval world in 1904.[14]
