New-York tribune., 1900-08-25
EAYAL ARMAMENTS

We noticed recently the results of Mr.. School
ng's analysis Of the naval strength Of the
seven chief maritime Powers on the basis Of
tonnage modified by the ege Of vessels, as pub
lished In 1.-THE Fortnightly Review" In his
second paper Mr.. Schooling analyses naval
strength on the basis Of armaments. We have
not space to notice all the features Of his in
geniOus tabulations and discussions, the chief
object of which is to compare the naval strength
Of Great Britain with that Of certain combina-
tons Of Continental Powers, but those of par
ticular interest to the United States may well be
reviewed
After analyZ1ng the ornaments Of each Of the
seven navies Mr.. Schooling makes a series Of
tabular comparisons. He shows that while In
the total number Of guns the United States
stands sixth, Japan being seventh, in the num-
Der Of heavy guns-to wit, breechloaders-the
United States stands good fourth, and in the
number of very large guns Of 10 inches OF
more calibre, it not only far surpasses Japan,
Italy and Germany, but with it's 121 almost
equals Russia with her 125, and is at least
within measurable distance Of France with her
ISL In the number Of torpedo tubes, by the
way, the United States is a bad seventh, hav-
ing only 230 to Japan's 814. In the next table
1t is shown that the United States has q con-
siderably larger proportion Of breechloading
guns to its total armament than any other
Power and also a larger proportion of quick
firing and machine guns, while, Of course. It's
proportion Of torpedo tubes Is much the smallest
OF all.
OF great interest is a table showing the aver
age armaments Of battleships. It shows the
United States vessels to be the most heavily
armed in the world, with the possible exception
Of those Of Russia Thus the average United
States battleship has rs breechloading guns,
while the average Russian has only 6.8, and so
on down to the average italian with 81, the
average Of all being only "a In quick firing
guns our average is 40.4, decidedly surprising
all others save Russia, who has 41S The
average Of all is 35.4 In torpedo tubes of
course, our average is the lowest In total
armaments Of all. kinds our average to each
battleship is BOB. Russia alone surpasses us
with 58.8. Germany has only 4O1, and the
average Of all is 45S. On our armored cruisers
the showing is almost as good, Russia alone
surprising us by a slight margin Thus our
average Of breechloading guns on each armored
cruiser is 4.1, Russia's is o. Italy's 39, Great
Britain's rs Germany's IL, Frances II.
Japans b and the average for all 25. In
quick firing guns there is a remarkable uni
formity. Our average is 26, which is exceeded
by Russia with 294 Germany with 274 and
Japan with 27.1, while it surpasses France
with 25.6 and Great Britain and Italy with "a
each. The average Of all is 252. Reckoning all
kinds Of guns and torpedo tubes the average
armament Of each Of our armored cruisers is
362, Of Russia's 387, of all others less than
ours and of all together 314
Passing by similar but less important analyses
of the minor classes of vessels, we reach n
table Of a different character. It shows the
vast variety Of sizes Of guns in use in the
naVies. There are no less than thirty-two diff
ferent calibres of breechloaders, from 4inch to
17-inch. OF these tho United States has ONLY
five sizes, apart from few smoothbores and
dynamite guns. The five are, respectively, @, s.
10 II and 18 inch guns, fractional sizes being
eschewed. OF all the sizes OF breechloaders the
l2-inch is the only one that is found In all the
seven navtes while the 13-ineh is found in the
united states Navy alone. There are more
than dozen different sizes Of quick firing guns
OF which the 6-inch seems to he the general
IaVorlte. On the whole, Mr.. Schooling's analv-
SIS or armaments is highly creditable to the
united States Navy, showing It to be propor
uohately well to the fore among the great
navles OF the world In all departments of 40
gressiye potency excepting that of torpedo