The San Francisco call., 1896-10-04
Building Of the
Great Warships
for the New Navy

Active work on the three battle-ships
will now commence and $4,000, 900 from
Uncle Sans Golfers will be distributed
among the workingmen on the Atlantic
and Pacific seaboards during the next three
years. 1t is scarcely six years since the
contracts for the first three battle-ships
were signed; these have been completed, a
fourth one will soon go into commission.
two are in course of construction and prep
arations are under way for three more,
making eleven attle-ships turned out
from our private shipyards in about nine
years.
While In point of number our armored
feet Is inferior to those of the larger naval
powers, the fact that they are new vessels
and equal at least to the best productions
abroad gives our small navy the advan-
tage In not having to carry dead load of
old craft of doubtful utility, such as are
carried on foreign navy lists and many of
which inspire more terror By their names
than the ships themselves.
Since 1856 about $4,000, 900 has been
appropriated for the reconstruction CT the
navy, and the benefits of this expenditure
have been greater than the average
citizen realizes. 1t has raised the United
States from the bottom of the list of
naval powers to the fifth in mum Der and
efficiency. and enabled this country to
back up its demands with a respectable
force at sea, and that alone is worth the
money expended. But the much greater
benefit derived has been the building up
of great industry. Ten years ago there
was only one shipyard in the country
where ship of any considerable size
could be built; now there are a dozen,
OF which four are capable of undertaking
battle-ship building. Ten years ago the
capacity of the largest rolling mill in the
United States was only about 4-inch
iron plates; now there are two armor-
plants capable OF turning out 1S-inch
Harveyized steel plates. In 1886 we had
no gun foundries worthy OF the name;
now the Government gun-foundries at
Watervlist and in Washington assem- BILE
and finish guns from 16-inch caIiper down
to 4-lnch rifles from the forgings made at
Midvale, Bethlehem and other steel
works.
The capacity of all these yards, steel
plants and gun foundries is sufficiently
great 10 warrant the belief that they could
double the present navy in two years, for
they are all thoroughly equipped and have
thousands of experienced workmen to
draw on in case OF emergency.
Another natural result of the growth of
the several industries connected with navy
material is that the cost has been consid-
erably reduced, caused by competition and
experience in the work. The best steel
plates and shapes used in any country are
now produced at half the cost of ten years
ago, when much inferior material had to
be accepted. The cruisers of 1886 could no
doubt be duplicated at the present time
for 20 per cent less than then, and in
battle-ship building there has been drop
of nearly % per cent, although the re-
quirements have become greater. The
folio wing table shows the battie-ships bull t
or authorized to be built, year of contract,
displacement, contract cost, exclusive of
armor and armament, and the contract
cost per ton;
CONTRACT COST OF BATTLE-sHIPs