The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1903-11-13
NAVAL FORCES IN
The FARTHER EAST
Estimate Of the Tonnage ana
Strength Of Russia and
Japan.
VERY CLOSELY MATCHED
japan Is Stronger in Great BsttIeships.
but Russia Leads in Tonnage.
and Power Of Her Armored
Cruisers.

L 81 ~ EN5=FT@G.
harper's Weekly: The navies of Rus
sia and Japan should first be consid-
ered. Japan can land troops only in
Korea, TO make an attack on Russia's
position IN Manchusia, If her trans
DOTS are covered and guarded by pow
eriul battleships and cruisers. At the
same time she must guard her home
ports against possible md even prob
aDle russian invasion. Therefore ia
pan, When she determined on her great
~ti-Russ campaign Immediately
after her war with China, saw that she
absolutely needed, first of all, a DOW
es1ul a and to gain a strong navy
she set herself vigorously to work. In
1896 she launched two powerful battle
shlps, the Iashin1a and Full, of over
l2,50O tons displacement, with armor
pelts or enormous thickness, not less
than lS inches; like almost all battle
SHIPS, except those of Russians Black
sea feet, they have primary batteries
OIL O l2-inch guns each, With second
airy batteries of ten 6-inch quick firing
guns, sixteen 12-pounders and five tor
pedo tubes. They can steam about
eighteen knots an hour, the average
speed of Japan'S first fighting line. IN
1898 Japan followed these two battles
ships with one considerably larger, the
Shlkishima, which, during the neXt two
years, was followed by three more very.
~ : - IgsssiS' we Asahl' the Mlkasa
49, lIaa - ila.s"se lhese lour new Dat
~ onn naNe q oisilaGeiiiel ol over
launched and are still, the four heav-
lest lighting ships in the world. They
have four .12-inch gun as their pri-
mary batteries, and these guns are
spoken of in certain statistics as quick
bai,. 's ~ ~ - ! uliilue ul;
nf thasa ra,, - asIo..ualy paltgliss
tlash;ns o az. 'i af neaNS palI
c,1in1-l q arsn ars ~. . I o5incii
each bass so,,. -, .Se'.y pg Uuilue.s
Tanannsa battIeshins th ~ : 49, %
sapt nvar ee 900 - i'e iepls-
thev can FIRE NV Nv 1sl : a,s sai
81 once. thev can Stow .ba,t aia al.eirs
tknots 4 10 noe CO. ~. 49, sm.Isi
arc tha roI;wr. aean,a Ia,,.,n 1n.ata
YakIno ana hy,,,na'i ,.l,,nhaI 5,I, ~
the snrne vaars nf inst ,,Sa. IN nn6
tons 5~isnlacen,en each and narrpin@
! primary batteries of fo,,, s.inch o,Iicte
firing gum with b.ttarias a.
twelve to fourteen 6-inch nuiclS-frers
with smaller guns and tornedo tnhes
! Two of these Cruisers can do twentv@
two Knots; two are rated at twenty-
one, and the remaining two at twenty
knots. T. sse twelve shins are tha
backbone of the Japanese navy. LET
us see what Russia has To SCI aesjnt.
them.
To meet Japan's six battleships Rus
STA has. first, the Petropavlovsk.
launched nine years ago, and with
| eleven thousand tons displacement: she
has the usual four l2-inch guns, and a.
dozen 6-inch quick firing guns with
thirty-four smaller guns and six tor
lpedo tubes. She can do from seven
teen to eighteen knots and has sixteen
inches of arInor. Then comes three
battleships, the P~eresvet, Osliabya. and
Pobieda, launched four or five Years
ago, and dispiacing 1900 tons. They
have four 10-inch gun eleven 6-inch
quick firing guns, twenty 3-inch Quick
! firing guns and thirty Quick firing guns