Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-18
COULD NEVER AGREE
MakaroH and Alaxieff Were
Always at loggerheads
ABOUT BATTLE SHIPS
FoRMEE THOUGHT THEY WERE
MERE TARGETS FOE ToRPKDoRa
And Was Killed in Just saeh q DIX
astsr N He Said Might
Happen
ABOUT BATTLE SHIPS

WRITER fer ne Evening star b. Retired Eas-
BY the manner of his death Admiral Ste
phen Osipovich Makaron helped to prove
the truth of his pet professional theory.
He was probaSis the only great admiral
of modern times irreconcilably opposed to
great battle ships and heavily arnaored
cruisers. He could regard them In hardly
any other Hight than as targets for tor
pedoes.
While other naval men regarded the big
battle ship. protected by tits thick wall of
STEEL as the safest place In a sea fight.
Admiral Makarof never tired of contend
ing that 1t was the most dangerous. He
believed that the torpedo boat destroyer
was exposed to far less peril, and when
that conviction was attacked he would
point to his own experiences In the Russo
Turkish war, when he and a band of dare
devil subordinates made torpedo attacks on
Turkish ironclads every night for many
weeks without losing their lives.
The battle ship was always his pet aver
sion. and it was on battle ship that he met
his death by just such an accident he
had constantly argued was likely to hap
pen, when the Patropavlovsk
''Heaved up her battered side,
And carried million pounds in steel
To the cod and the corpse7fed conger eel.
"what good are these swollen worms?
Their bodies are large, but they cannot
His Chief Opponent.
These words, according to a Russian ma
val officer, were used by Makaroff in de-
nunciation of the scheme to build the
Gromoboi, the Retvizan, the Borodino, and
other huge vessels at the time of Russa's
great naval expansion few years ago. He
wanted the money to be spent instead for
light cruisers, destroyers, submarines and
such-like craft. His chief opponent was
Admiral AleXief, who believes in the bat
tie ship with a fervor that. is almost ia
naticaI. Their great fight over this ques-
ton convulsed Russian naval circles for
years
They were the most powerful and inf1u-
entail Of the Russian admiraIs, and both
to the car himself, Eventually Alexieff
fought the battle, step by step, from the
navy department through the committee of
ministers and the council Of state. right up
to the car himself. Eventually Alexieff
won. for he was supportkds bscnearly all the
other admirals and navaliexperts, while
lutionary by his own profession. Almost
his only disciple was Hdfnifial Skridlioff,
the present commander ofEthe Black sea
fleet, who served under him as a SUBJ
lieutenant in his brilliant torpedo cam
paign against the Tutyks vand had thus
learned the vu1nerabilit8 of~fronclads.
Makarof and Skidlof Were-overruled, and
the battle ships were built. 1t was on one
of these same battle ahiDS; that Makaroff
lost his life. When he first assumed COM
mand of hte Russian feet at Port Arthur
he carried out his petstheoty by hosting
his flag on small unarmored vessels like
tinued that policy he sseuM probab be
alive today.aI,,a q k-.xse..a1 a<rerg ~
Always Disagreed, -
Makaroff and Alexieff were always at
daggers drawn from the, ytime they both
became prominent in Russian affairs. They
differed strongly in their ideas on imperial
policy, as well as in their naval theories.
Alexieff stands, above all else for the Rus
sianizfng of Manchuria; Makaroff always
contended that the conquest and retention
of Manchuria were plumbers of the first
magnitude. Like Russia s oldest and great
est general, Dragomiroff, he was opposed,
from first to last, to the aggressive policy
which led to the war with Japan When
his opinion was invited by the car, he
urged that Russia was not ready to run the
risk of war in the far east, and he did not
hesitate to express that opinion so freely
and openly that it became common talk in
st. Petersburg.
A Tokyo newspaper, the Hochi, declared
on March IL last, the authority Of
Japanese naval officer who was in st. Pc
tersburg at the time, that when Makaroh
heard that Alexief had been appointed vice.
ereign power. he exclaimed angrily:
THAT ignoramus! That blunderer! He is
sure to make mess of It! He is sure to
make some colossal mistakei"
But death has put an end to the long
quarrel of the two admirals. and Alexieff
paid generous tribute to the memory of
his great rival In announcing the loss of
the Petropavlovsk to the car 81 regret to
report to your majesty" he said, that the
Pacific feet has suffered sirreparable loss
by the loss Of its brave and capable COM
mander."
No Man Stood HIGHER.
No officer of the Russian navy, not even
the world-famous Alexieff himself, enjoyed
higher repute than Admiral Makaroff, not
Only in his own service, but also among his
professional brethren in all the. fleets of the
world. He was generally regarded as the
father of torpedo warfare: ana its greatest
exponent IF Farragut deserved the title
OF the Nelson OF the frouclad.'" said Fred
T. Jane, the well-known English naval ex-
pert, Makaron should aSsuredly be called
the Nelson Of the torpedo boat for his
DEEDS In the Russo-TurkisE war were quite
as great In his own special line as were
those of Farragut."
His international reputation was, how
ever. based mainly upon his numerous In
ventions for warships. 1t lis said that not
fewer than forty-tvo of them, of greater
or less Importance. are now in use in the
Russian navy. They range from Ice break
ers and big guns to improved mess tins for
the jackies on the 5lowers deck. In whose
welfare the great admiral always took the
keenest interest. ~
His Many Inventions.
Makaroff worked for over twenty years
on various Inventions which were designed
to prevent armored warships from sinking.
Two of these inventiens Wese adopted by
the Russian admiraitx. asBvtdently they
were not in use on ther Pst1Npaylovsk. or