The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-24
ARMORED CRUISERS NEEDED.
FIRST LESSON TAUGHT BY THE
WAR.
Ideas of Naval Theorists Upset By
Actual Warfare-Navy Not Effect
i've For Offensive Purposes.

| Washington. May 23.-As q result OF 4
the maneuvers executed by the Spanish
fleet under the command of Admiral
Cervera, future naval constructors will
give the armored cruiser a PROMINENT
place in the types adopted for offensive
warfare. This. perhaps, is the best les
son taught up to this by the war with
Spain. Such is the opinion of naval
experts. 1t marks the downfall Of the
ory so strongly advocated by Captain
c. F. Goodrich, now in command of the
Yale, formerly professor of the naval Z
war college, that the armOred cruiser =
had no place in modern navieS. !
Captain Goodrich is now probably =
convinced of the value OF armoredi
cruisers" said prominent naval off, q
Ger, lin view of the fact that, as conf
manding officer of the Yale, he has been (
scouting for the enemy's fleet since a q
few days before its arrival at Mar
Unique. Z
THE armored cruiser is nothing more G
than a swift seagoing battleship. Japan
recognizes this fact and is the only ma 4
ton that was quick to take advantage :
of such recognition. Her lesson was Z
learned at Yalu, where he protected =
cruisers, with great speed and equipped \
with rapid firing guns, drove from the <
scene of battle the Chinese battleshipS ,
THAT the lesson was we'll learned is -
shown by the fact that Japan immedi- y
ately placed contracts with the Arm
strongS Of England for the construc-
ton Of six battleshipS of great speed Z
In order to get the speed desired, IS
knots, with the protection and arma-
ment specified by the NIikado's govern
ment, it was necessary to make the
ships of great displacement Two of
them, the YaShima and Full, which are
now on their way to japan, are Of
Il, $50 tons displacement each. The later
ships have a displacement of 14,S50
tons each On their trials the Yashimt
and Full developed speeds of 1S.5 and
1872 knots respectively.
These vessels are really the perfec-
ton of the armored cruiser type. What
would we not now give for such yes
sells under the command of Rear Ad-
miral Sampson? Two of them, with
the New York and Brooklyn. would be
able to destroy or drive away Admiral
Cervera'S squadron. This government
when building the Iowa obtained a type
in some respects similar to the armOred
cruiser. but her speed is only 16 knots
and under the present conditions, is
probably but Is or II.
Since the war began we have been
using vessels for purposes for which
their types unsuited them. Fer in
stance, the Indiana and Massachusetts
are COAST UeIeISe DdlIleSnlpS. let lnSy
have been sent to sea. cruising for the
enemy, when they were really intended
for defensive purposes
Then we have been employing har-
Dor defense monitors for blockading
purposes and for offensive warfare, the
result being to cripple the maneuvering
quality of our fleet and handicapping
Rear Admiral Sampson early in his
offensive and defensive preparations.
Our ship building policy has been all
wrong. The country has gone on the
theory that a defensive navy was all
that was necessary. The present war
teaches that an offensive navy is Glb-
sOlutely required.
The necessity of target practice in
time of peace is apparent when we
think of the firing of the SpaItards at
Manila. at MatanZaS and San Juan
upon the American squadrOns. We
knew before the war began the deSir-
ability of employing smokelesS powder,
but unfortunately congress failed to
make the necessary appropriation when
/ was recommended several years ago
and the department had 10 fall back on :
brown powder.
L think that congress will now agree
hat docks are the necessity at this
line. Although none of the battleshipS
are capable of greater speed than 16
Knots an hour. under present fuel con-
iitiOns they cannot steam at a greater
ate than u or Is knots. The divers
who have been sent down to Key West
rom Norfolk viii be able to scrape
he prOpellers clean and thus increase
he speed of the ships, but they will
lot remove the barnacles off the bot
omS of the ships to any great extent
or it is impossible to do good work
Inder water"