Note 34 — IV. THE DREADNOUGHT ERA—(WATTS).

In the Chinese ships Ting Yuen and Chen Yuen, built in Germany in 1882 with big guns en échelon, the former had the port big guns foremost, the latter the starboard ones—presumably an appreciation of and an attempt to overcome the inherent defect of the échelon system—the two ships being intended to fight in company, and so have one of the two always in the best fighting position were the enemy anywhere on the beam or quarter.