Gunboat.

Gunboat. A small boat or vessel armed with one or more guns of heavy calibre. From its small dimensions, it is capable of running close inshore or up rivers, and from the same cause it has little chance of being hit by a larger vessel at the long range which the carrying power of its guns enables it to maintain. At the outbreak of the Russian war, a large squadron of them was hastily constructed for the British navy for the first time. Their tonnage was small; and their armament usually consisted of one 8-inch gun and one 100-pounder Armstrong gun. Gunboats in their more modern form (like the Staunch) are small mastless vessels mounting one large gun in the bow, and propelled by an engine with single or twin screws. The gun is pointed by means of the helm or the screws, and the gunboat is in fact a floating gun-carriage. In the British navy these gunboats carry an armour-piercing gun of 18 tons, on a draught of only 4 feet. But they have been designed to carry 35-ton guns, or heavier. In 1890 there were on the British Navy List 114 of these vessels, of which 43 were called third class, and are intended for coast defence. In 1900 there were in the navy 33 torpedo gunboats, the largest form of special torpedo boats. At the beginning of the century the United States had over 250 of these vessels; but the 'gunboat system' was soon abandoned. In 1899 the United States navy possessed 17 gunboats of from 900 to 1400 tons, armed with 4-inch quick-firing guns and light secondary batteries. They are mainly unarmed, though some have a slight protective deck. Most Continental navies are provided with gunboats of various size and construction.