The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-03-11
OUR NAVAL FORCE
Warships in Commission and Under Cor
structton-Our Navy Ranks Sixth Among
the Nauions-Spain Comes Next
Chicago RecOrd.)

Washington, Z. c.. February 2S.-The
construction of what we call the new
navy of the United States, the white
squadron which has placed us sixth in
the rank of the naval powers CT the
world instead of SO far down that we
were scarcely to be counted at all, has
all been done in less than twelve years.
1t may he that the rank Of sixth is not
yet high enough to stand. but the pro-
gress Of a decade is certainly remarkable.
After the civil war, when hOstilities on
our own coasts and complications abroad
seemed to be at an end, the care of the
navy was abandoned and ships were sold
with scarcely a protest, almost as entire
ly IS had been done eighty years before,
at the end CT the revolution. There was
even less reason for this policy, because
in 1875 the country was poor and needed
the money the ships brought, while in
the twenty years following the civil war
there was no such excuse CT national
poverty. BY 1855 there was no United
States navy at all worthy the name. for
the wooden vessels on the list. with their
Obsolete guns, were of no value what
ever in the event Of hostilitieS with a
foreign power that had kept up its equip
ment with rif'2d guns and irOnclads.
The movement to repair the decay be-
gan when in 1881 secretary of the navy
William H. Hunt appointed the first ad-
VisOly board. presided over by Rear-Ad-
requirements CT a new navy This
beard reported that the United States
should have twenty enc battleships,
seventy unnamed cruisers Ct various
sizes and types, twenty torpedo boats,
five rams and five torpedo gunboats, all
to be built Of steel. The report was re-
ceived by congress and the country with
the attention it merited, hut to get the
work started was another matter.
POLICY OF THE ECONOMISTS.
The economists had been p~raising the
policy of deness If naval construction.
claiming first that We were at peace and
did not need to spend money on expen-
siNa vessels. and next that naval con-
StructiOn was IN an experimental stage,
and that we should let the European ma
tons go to the expense of the expert
ments, &c hey were doing. and when
some result had teen reached take ad-
vantage Ct it, instead CT wasting our
CIV money IN work that would have to
be thrown way in a few years. When
the country became convinced that a
navy was needed. it was found that We
could not follow out that pleasant little
theory. Our naval authorities could not
obtain the facts and the experience they
wanted from other nations, and our ship
yards could not build even one of the
armored ships. We could not roll even
the thinnest of modern armorplates. and
could not make a gun that was worth
mounting On a modern vessel if we had
it.
The shipyard of John Roach did the
first work of the new navy, and during
Secretary Chambers term of office built
the Chicago, the Boston. the Atlanta and
the Dolphin. Instead of battleships, the
first of the fleet were third-rate cruiser.
Armor plate was bought in a foreign
market, and we actually went abroad for
the plans of one of our largest cruisers
the Charleston.
In 1885 the navy department came un~
der the administration of Secretary Will
liam c. Whitney,, and it was beginning
with his years of service that the great
est progress was nae While our ship
yards were learning to build ships, the
gunmakers and the makers of armor-
plate were learning their craft, too, so
that rogresS was along parallel lines.
In 1856 the sum of s.. 12S, 900 was appro-
priated for modern rifled guns. The first
contract for armor plate was signed in
1887. Since that time the plants for con-
struction have been completed and ar
mor-plate equal to the best in the world
turned out from them. Ten yeaIS of ap-
premiership have taught US how I" lid
whatever we need to carry on nara. ar
fare.
TAKES THE RANK OF SIXTH.
By 1894 the United States had risen to
the sixth among the naval powers of the
world. the first ten in their relative
strength expressed in percentage of that
of Great Britain being as follows: