The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-10-28
SPEED OF ARkORED CRUISERS.
ADMIRAL MELVILLE SUBMITS
4 MINORITY REPORT.
He Disagrers With other Members NJ
Construction Board That speed should
ne Subordinsted 10 Arinor and Anna.
mrnt Reply by q VIA iority Of the hoard

WASHINGTON. Oct. % Rear Admiral
q. ". Melville. Chief Of the Naval Bureau
Of Steam Engineering. has submitted n
minority report To the Secretary Of the Navy
expressing his Disagreement will the other
members of the Board on Const ructinn in
deciding that the new armored cruisers
Washing on and Tennessee shall have 20 900
horse power instead Of $4,000 horse power,
as advoca ed hy Admiral Melville with speed
of only about % knots instead Of % knots
for which Admiral NJ lyille coniended.
Admiral Melville argues that Congress in =
tended that these vessels should be equal
or superior 10 any of their type. As they
were aut horznd Ar armored cruisers and not
as hattleships. no holds that speed was
the main essential and thai armor and
armament should he ~Ibordinatcd 10 horse
power. The trial displacement fixed
10y Congress for each Of these vessels was
1880 tons. but Admiral Melville says that
when the Washington and the Tennessee
are ready for sea each will have a displaco-
ment of 1000 tons With 5000 horse
power he vessel with this displacement
he asserts, will make only 20 knots, or fully
a knot and half less than he vessels of q he
British armored cruiser Drake class when
that vessel II also deeply loaded.
The better protection Of the Washington
and the Tennessee he says j. offset by their
great inferiority in speed. OF the Drake
class. he SAYS that with great speed and
large coal capacity they can visit an eneny's
coast and q. va-tate II at will unless that
enemy has vessels of equal or greater speed
and power to meet them, he speed being of
fully a. much importance AZ the battery.
When We remember. adds Admiral Mel
vile, "the fright caused in 1898 by the ap.
pearanCe of "A phantom fleet ON our coast ,
we can easily imagine the pane that would
occur if a squadron of the Drake class hap
pened along, for mono of our ships could
overtake and engage i, on anything like
equal terms, the light. fast ships would be
no match in battery and protection. and
the heavy fighting snips and vessels like
the Maryland tbattleshipl and the Ten
nessee could not ovortake II.
Admiral Melville expresses disbelief in
the claim Of the majority Of the Board on
Construction that ?2,OOO horse power Will
give the Tennessee and Washington
speed of % knots, and he says he bases
this on the performance of somewhat sim
liar ships He holds that the experiments
with models in the model tank a. the Wash
ing,on Navy Yard ara not reliable in de-
termining the speed IF naval vessels.
The ma jori,y of the Board on Construc-
ton has submitted an answer 10 Admiral
Melville's objection. The ina ioritys argu-
ment follows the line of Rear Admiral
O'Neils comments on the subject Of speed
versus armOr and armament, contained
in his annual report made public to-day.
Admiral O'Neil is chairman of the Con-
struction Board and Chief of the Bureau
of Ordnance. He holds that naval powers
should not be influenced by the speed
craze" az he calls il, and that It is better
to make virtual battleship- of the Wash
ington and Tennessee by giving them
plenty of armor and heavy batteries. than
to build them mainly for speed