Navy Unafraid Of Airships.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 19, 1912:
No Need, Officials Say, of Special Guns to Repel Their Attacks.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Sept. 18.— The report, cabled from England last night to The New York Times, that the four new British warships will be fitted with guns and deck armor for protection against aerial craft attracted interest in the Navy Department to-day.
    It is believed, however, that aerial science has not reached a point where in seagoing ships special arms are needed for fighting aeroplanes and dirigibles. Even the great Pennsylvania, which will be the largest as well as the newest ship in the navy, will carry neither guns mounted for aiming toward the skies nor deck protection against falling bombs.
    Rear Admiral Twining, chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repairs, today described the problem of aerial guns as strictly one of gun carriages that will aim upward and sustain the enormous downward recoil of a shot aimed almost directly overhead.
    Admiral Twining believes that in the present development of flying, the ordinary service rifle is sufficient protection against air craft.