Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-17
TALKS OF NAVIES
LORD BERESFoRD INTERVIEWED
IN NEW YORK.
The Submarine Boat, He Says, is an
Unknown Quantity
as Yet.
From the New York Times Of TODAY

From the New York Times of today
Rear Admiral Lord Charles Beresford,
MP, arrived yesterday on the North Ger
man Lloyd liner Kronprinz Wilhelm. and
will spend two or three weeks with friends
In the city, profiting by his stay to look
over some of the new American warships.
He declined an invitation to find fault with
those Of the British navy.
Our army and navy have improved
much within the last few years" said he,
and we have learned a valuable lesson in
South Africa. Every country, think now
realizes the importance of movable heavy
guns To cope with the Beers and their
ability to move their heavy guns We were
obliged to take guns from our ships. No
country had ever done that before
The latest addition to our navy subj
marine boats, are largely an unknown
quantity. What We have to be careful Of
Is not to underrate them, or then again.
overrate them. We have five of these ves-
sells. think. and are using two types. one
of which Is the Holland. If the submarine
boat turns out a success, 1t means the key
England is concerned. The only trouble
with them now is that they are not able to
take care OF themselves. They have to b..
carried on warships from place to place.
winch or course. takes up space War
ships In action need all the room they can
get.
We are making our ships modern as
fast as we can, but we are not doing az
much in that direction as France which
has modernized with surprising rapidity
vessels that not long ago were considered
almost obsolete.
about the ship combine? Well, ! was a
little frightened over that. 1t is ridiculous
to talk of England forming a rival COM
bination. We can't compete with your
railways, for it is the through rate that
pays England would not establish a boun-
ty or subsidy on her ships. for If she did.
you could put up million pounds to every
IN thousand od OF ours. Then, again, you have
SO,OO0OO0 people here and unlimited means.
Il was much interested in your recent
maneuvers, and l read all about them. I
understand that, for Diplomatic reasons.
the army. In England sometimes we have
given the victory to the navy, and admitted
the weakness of the ports. Although that
was big admission. where was the harm?
Ihese maneuVers also prevent men from
going to war as an experiment. A sham
battle teaches the sailors more than all
their schoolship training. The men in
navy begin to learn when very young. and
are schooled for eight years before they
are considered efficient. In these maneu-
vers there are two elements that We have
to look out for. They are danger and alb
surdity. The danger lies In exploding guns
and collisions, but the absurdity L
will explain. For instance a torpedo
boat runs alongside of warship on
moonlight night and claims that she has
torpedoed the bigger vessel. The men on
the warship say that instead they have
put the torpedo boat out of action by firing
several shots at her. There is the absurd
part.
Il cannot make any comparison as to the
superiority of guns over armor or vice
versa. While shell might be able to pene-
trate a plate of armor set in a direct
frontal position, a slight detection of the
armor plate would render the shot almost
useless. That is why in time of war SO
few of the shells fired at a vessel cause
great damage Small armor cannot be
praised too highly, however. A bursting
shell which used to kill a great number of
people has been rendered less dangerous
by this small armor catching the flying
pieces.
1.-The target practice in which our battle
ships the Majestic and Terrible sunk the
Belleise taught us lot about the different
types of battle ships and their respective
usefulness. Mortar batteries, fixed, are,
in my opinion, of value at moving
target No, 1 do not think they could hit
a ship moving at the rate of eighteen knots
an hour or even al fourteen knots.