ships can carry larger guns than small ships.

The distinctly military (naval) purpose for which a war-ship is
designed necessitates, first, that in addition to her ability to
go rapidly and surely from place to place, she be able to exert
physical force against an enemy ship or fort, and, second, that
she have protection against the fire of guns and torpedoes from
enemy ships and forts, against bombs dropped from aircraft, and
against mines.

This means that a man-of-war, intended to exert the maximum of
physical force against an enemy and to be able to withstand the
maximum of punishment, must have guns and torpedoes for offense,
and must have armor and cellular division of the hull for defense;
the armor to keep out the enemy's shells, and the cellular division
of the hull to prevent the admission of more water than can fill
one water-tight compartment in case the ship is hit.

It must be admitted here that, at the present moment, torpedoes
hold such large charges of explosive that the cellular division of
ships does not adequately protect them. This means that a contest
has been going on between torpedo-makers and naval constructors like
the contest between armor-makers and gunmakers, and that just now the
torpedo-makers are in the lead. For this reason a battleship needs
other protection than that imparted by its cellular subdivision.
This is given by its "torpedo defense battery" of minor guns of
about 5-inch calibre.

By reason of the great vulnerability of all ships to attack below
the water-line, the torpedo was invented and developed. In its