The Worthington advance., 1900-04-20

following this comes a recent request
by the minister of marine for authority
to lay down additional battleships for
the French navy.
AS battleships are intended to have
the greatest possible fire energy, with
the best protection attainable, their
gun fire must be the maximum which
their displacement will permit; and
the latest foreign expert opinion is
practically unanimous that their
armor must not only protect the wa
ter line and the gun positions, but that
the hull and the personnel must be ef-
fectively sheltered.
The typical features of the battle
ship, maximum offensive and defensive
power, are not dependent on circum-
stances, but are ready at all times.
Speed varies with conditions of serv-
ice, and for battleships is regarded as
secondary consideration, although
very important one. The anxiety which
the monitors caused Admiral Samp-
son has impressed anew upon foreign
observers the need of strategic mobili-
ty. Other things being equal, the more
efficient of two fleets of battleships
will be the one whose slowest ship is
faster than the slowest ship of the
enemy. The aim abroad now is to have
the battle fleet composed of ships hav-
ing great offensive power and the best
protection obtainable, with minimum
speed of not less than Is knots. Whil.
some of the units may be capable of
1S knots, there should be none which
cannot be depended on for tactical evo-
lutions at Is knots speed. To attain
this, obsolete vessels must be replaced
or modernized in accordance with the
latest developments in engineering.
Next in Importance to the battleship
is the armored cruiser, which forms a
prominent feature of the latest for
eign shipbuilding programmes. Yes
sells of this type have primarily high
speed and great coal endurance; they
are usually of large size and are given
as much protection and as intense fire
energy as practicable, but these quail
ties ore secondary. While they may be
used to supplement the fleet of battle
ships if necessary in maintaining COM
mand of the sea at strategic points,
and are most useful adjuncts of such
fleet, it is held by many foreign writer's
that they have also distinct field of
operations. While these operations
will not be decisive in their results in
a war between great naval powers, yet
the sudden opportune arrival of an ar
mored cruiser, or of several of them, at
well-chosen points, may have a great
influence on the war. Their size, speed
and armament enable them to engage
successfully any except battleships.
They are regarded as the most effective
type for carrying on a cruiser war of
depreciation.
1t was formerly held by some writer's
that armored cruisers would prove SUI
perior to battleships, owing to their
greater speed, but since the close of the
war with Spain such claims are seldom
heard.
1t is worthy of note, however, that
with the effort to give increased speed
to battleships and better protection to
armored cruisers these two types tend
to approximate.
Armored coast defense vessels ap-
pear to be practically ignored in pres
ent foreign programmes for the in
crease of modern fleets. There are two
reasons for this, the first being the
general belief that naval force will be
mainly employed in sea contests rather
than in merely defending home shores
against attacks by an enemy. The Sec
ond reason for not building new ar
mored coast-defense vessels is that in
the European navies it is felt that they