The San Francisco call., 1897-07-05
THE NAVY OF AMERICA.

We have heard so much of late about
the British navy, and particularly about
the magnificent Channel feet of 165 fight
ing ships with 900 heavy guns and 1000
sailors and marines; we have heard so
many tributes to 'the interchangeable
mistress OF the seas, ,"that we have tenn
porarily lost sight of the fact that the
American navy is not one to be ashamed
of. We do not pretend 10 dispute with
Britannia the queenship of the waves; we
do not pretend TO make any comparison
as between our navy and the Queens; /;
but we make bold to say that in any con-
fict on the sea we are able to teach some
valuable lessons to any assailant.
A London newspaper recently an
nounced that for all our navy could do
the Hawaiian Islands "would lie at the
mercy of any Spanish warships appearing
at Honolulu" while "Japan's sea power
is so immeasurably superior to that of the
United States" that our National admin
istration might we'll tremble at the thought
OF trouble with the Mikado's Government.
The wish may have been father to the
thought, but the thought would not COM
mend the writer who bore the wish for
responsible or veracious authority.
Lieutenant-Comma mander J. d. Jerrold
Kelley's excellent description of our feet
in recent number of Harper, Weekly
shows that our navy is to-day fifth in the
list of naval powers, Great Britain, France,
Russia and Italy alone surprising her,
while rating by "value in terms OF stand
ard" meaning armored vessels of the 1886
type, neither Spain nor Japan receives a
valuation equal TO even one-halt OF ours.
Commander Kelley states that our fleet,
exclusive Of torpedo-boats, consists of
eighty-seven vessels, of which twenty are
still under construction, with the remain
der either in service or being prepared for
sea. OF these vessels thirty three belong
to the armored and fifty-four to the un-
armored classes, while OF the former
eleven are sea- going battle-ships, twenty
Gre coast-defense vessels and two are
armored cruisers. Add the nineteen tor
pedo- boats, and we get a total of l06
modern vessels OF all classes. But in addi-
tion we have twenty-five ships older in
type and twelv tugs possessing battle
qualities" so that our total is ''140 ser
vcea BILE war vessels"
Taking into consideration our revenue
cutters, lignthouse-tenders, fishing and
coast-survey boats and other Government
craft not classified above Commander
Kelley draws the conclusion that our
Government ''can put afJat at very short
notice 200 vessels, 60 per cent of which
would be modern in character" Then we
have about twoscore of fast merchant
steamers under sub idy, and reserve bat
terie5 are now being prepared for such
service. Even here our resources do not
end, for 1t was shown a week ago in the
New York Sun, from one of the navy re-
ports, that We nave many tugs, yachts
and other vessels that could be fitted up
as torped o. boats or turned into gun boats,
transports, colliers and repair ships,
manned by those who are accustomed to
seafaring life in the fishing fleets and
coastwise and lake ira des.
Our nine tirst-clags armored battls-ships
and our splendid armored cruisers will
hold their own with any vessels OF their
class that sail the sea. And this Govern
ment VIII continue 10 build up the navy
of the Republic, and we may continue to
move up on the list of naval powers. We
have little to fear from Spain; little to
fear from Japan. If we were prone to
jingoism we might declare the perfect
ability of our navy to wollup Spain and
Japan together, with another small power
or SO thrown in. but we pre- fer to let the
facts speak for themselves.