Simon Darkshade
Mysterious City of Gold
An interesting quote:
Battleships - Even though these great warships do not figure in this novel at all, I can't resist commenting on them. From the earliest days of naval warfare, even the dumbest commanders have known that the thing which is the number-one most important gotta-have-it asset in a fight is weight of metal on the enemy. You can screw up the tactics, but if you've got the biggest guns and the heaviest shells coming down on the bad guys accurately, you will probably win. There are all sorts of annoying exceptions to this rule, but it still holds most of its water.
The BBs were the rulers of the sea up until the Japanese took their little trip to Hawaii in 1941, then were supplanted by the carriers (out of sheer necessity since the American battleships had been abruptly turned into hazards to navigation). The battleships were relegated to a supporting roll and, except for getting dragged out of mothballs for every war we've had since World War II, were pretty much finished.
In the eighties, we recommissioned all four of our Iowa class battleships and deployed them around the world. They carried sixteen-inch guns and fired rounds weighing around 2,700 pounds apiece. The effect was like shooting an entire showroomful of Ford Escorts, packed with high explosive, about twenty-five miles. When the rounds hit, they made instant holes in civilization that were the size of tennis courts. I got to see the New Jersey fire a broadside at somebody in Beirut once, and I still haven't found the words to describe it.
This was also effective because the people who were fired upon immediately quit annoying their neighbors and repaired to their graves. The surviving terrorists went home for an underwear change and all was quiet for awhile.
The battleships have all been mothballed again now and it doesn't seem the same anymore. When one sees a battleship steaming along, one is seeing Navy and all that that meant through the centuries. There is no weapon on earth that will make a little tinpot dictator sit up and take notice like a battleship slowly cruising off his coast well out of pistola range with her guns trained on his presidential palace. It sort of gives him a little peek at his relative importance in the grand scheme of things. If that peek stops one firefight, however small, or saves one life, or ensures the fairness of one election, then the battleship has earned her keep.
But, since those things usually happen outside the Capital Beltway, and Dan Rather doesn't mention them, they matter not at all to the geniuses in Washington. Those events have no bearing on the next election, and every congressman knows that money to measure the effect of cow farts on the ozone layer is far more important than wasting it on a battleship. They're quite correct, too. It'll help next year, when the bill to teach cows to say "excuse me" comes out of committee.
Battleships - Even though these great warships do not figure in this novel at all, I can't resist commenting on them. From the earliest days of naval warfare, even the dumbest commanders have known that the thing which is the number-one most important gotta-have-it asset in a fight is weight of metal on the enemy. You can screw up the tactics, but if you've got the biggest guns and the heaviest shells coming down on the bad guys accurately, you will probably win. There are all sorts of annoying exceptions to this rule, but it still holds most of its water.
The BBs were the rulers of the sea up until the Japanese took their little trip to Hawaii in 1941, then were supplanted by the carriers (out of sheer necessity since the American battleships had been abruptly turned into hazards to navigation). The battleships were relegated to a supporting roll and, except for getting dragged out of mothballs for every war we've had since World War II, were pretty much finished.
In the eighties, we recommissioned all four of our Iowa class battleships and deployed them around the world. They carried sixteen-inch guns and fired rounds weighing around 2,700 pounds apiece. The effect was like shooting an entire showroomful of Ford Escorts, packed with high explosive, about twenty-five miles. When the rounds hit, they made instant holes in civilization that were the size of tennis courts. I got to see the New Jersey fire a broadside at somebody in Beirut once, and I still haven't found the words to describe it.
This was also effective because the people who were fired upon immediately quit annoying their neighbors and repaired to their graves. The surviving terrorists went home for an underwear change and all was quiet for awhile.
The battleships have all been mothballed again now and it doesn't seem the same anymore. When one sees a battleship steaming along, one is seeing Navy and all that that meant through the centuries. There is no weapon on earth that will make a little tinpot dictator sit up and take notice like a battleship slowly cruising off his coast well out of pistola range with her guns trained on his presidential palace. It sort of gives him a little peek at his relative importance in the grand scheme of things. If that peek stops one firefight, however small, or saves one life, or ensures the fairness of one election, then the battleship has earned her keep.
But, since those things usually happen outside the Capital Beltway, and Dan Rather doesn't mention them, they matter not at all to the geniuses in Washington. Those events have no bearing on the next election, and every congressman knows that money to measure the effect of cow farts on the ozone layer is far more important than wasting it on a battleship. They're quite correct, too. It'll help next year, when the bill to teach cows to say "excuse me" comes out of committee.
