The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-19
Our Ships Batteries.

The request for an appropriation to i'm
prove the Chicago's battery. which Secre-
tary LONG laid before Congress on Satur-
day, was accompanied by a clear and strong
report from Assistant Secretary RoosE-
WELT. The Chicago was the largest of our
first group of steel cruisers. The advance
in shipbuilding lately made 1t advisable to
give her more modern machinery, and her
condition, after years of useful service, JUS
titled this step, which was taken. But, as
Mr.. ROOSEVELT says. eff rebuilt at all. the
job should be lone thoroughly"
The Chicago's battery was the heaviest
we ever put into an unarmored steel
cruiser. Although the first Of her class,
she surpassed all her successors in this
respect. The Baltimore, for example,
on 4,413 tons displacement, carries four
S-ipch and six 6.inch guns, with fourteen
smaller pieces, while the Chicago, on 4,5OO
tons. carries four s-inch, eight 6-inch, and
two 5-inch guns, with seventeen secondary
pieces. Even our fine Olympia, on $50
tons, only carries four s-inch and ten 5.inch
guns in her main battery, although she has
five more secondary pieces than the Chi
cago. AS for the Columbia and Minneap-
oils, on 1875 tons, they carry only one
s-inch, two 6-inch, and eight 4-inch guns,
with twenty smaller pieces.
But the great difference between our
older cruisers n our newer is that the
latter rely greatly on rapid-fre guns. In
the earlier days rapid-fre appliances were
used only on small calibres, whereas now
adays they are carried up to the 6.inch, and
in foreign navies, we think, to the s-inch.
The Olympia's ten 5-inch guns are all
rapid-fre, while the Chicago's two of the
same calibre are slow-ire. Mr.. RoosE-
vELT's comments are broad and instructive
on this point.
At present, he says, the fighting efficiency
of ships like the Raleigh, Cincinnati, Mar.
blehead, Montgomery, and Olympia stands
high, compared with similar foreign yes
sells, "while the reverse is the case of ships
like the Baltimore, San Francisco, and
Yorktown" Not long & we had the
Philadelphia lying alongside the Naniwa in
Honolulu harbor, with matters not wholly
satisfactory between o%urcountry and Japan.
1.-THE Philadelphia's twelve e-iuch guns were OF the
old.fashioned. slow.nre type. six In broadside. Against
these the Naniwa would have pitted her two 10.
inch pivot guns and three OF her six rapid. fire 0.inch
guns. From three guns alone her skilled crews would
get more than double the volume OF nre that It would
have been possible TO obtain from the six guns OF tho
Philadelphia.
"The place OF the Philadelphia " AS taken by the Bal.
timore. The latter would have put two s.inch guns.
old.fashioned, slow type. against two l0.inch guns OF
the Naniwa- and put In broadsido three slow.nre 9.
inch guns against tho three rapid'nre guns OF small
calibre on the japanese ship.
"If hostilities had occurred. and We had lost Q ship
like either of these In q single night with another ship
OF the same nominal force. we could never erase ita
memory from our national records"
Mr.. RoosEvELT's conclusion is that a
smaller number Of ships equal to any for.
eigners Of their class in battery power Ia
far better for US than a larger number infc.
rior to them in this respect. That, too, we
may add, is simply the traditional Ameri-
can policy which has lone SO much to give
our navy it's renown. In the wal OF 1912
again and again we won victories over Brit,
ish ships by virtue Of greater weight OF
battery and better craftsmanship. And
half q century later the same policy was
illustrated, not only In the big smooth
bores of our monitors but In the heavier
weight thrown by the Kearsarge's broad
side a. compared with that Of the Brltish'