The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-25
We LACK OFFICERS.
Annual Report of Con-
dition of Navy.
EfficiencYof the BattIeship Paramount.
The Torpedo Boat Alone Has
Not Destroyed One of These
Fighters.
(By the Associated Press.)

Washington, Nov. 23.-How badly
the navy is off for officers and how
this condition may effect the navy and
the nation is plainly told in the annual
report of Rear Admiral George A.
Converse. Chief of the Bureau of Nav
igation, approved by Secretary Morton
today. Experience, especially in gun
fire, he says had shown that it is ne
ccssaIy to Increase the number of Of
iicerS assigned to ships, so that the
estimate made in 1902 of the number
of officers needed for ships in COM
mission is inadequate. 1t provided for
only about half as many officers as
SHIPS OF the same class carry in the
British, French and German nay1es.
admiral ConversE recommends that
number of lieutenantS be increased
from $50 to 500 and that the number
OF lieutenant commanders be increas-
ed from 200 to 800. 1T is especially
desirable" the admiral saws, that
every battleship and other powerful
vessel requiring the greatest skill and
experienced efficiency should have her
full quota of suitable rank; yet many
OF our battleships have Eeutenants
as ordnance officers and several bat
tleships have ensigns and even mid
shipmen as watch and division Oil
GERS. This very unsatisfactory and
the many urgent demands for officers,
lhe existing inadequacy of numbers
often making it impossible to detail
officers of appropriate rank"
Authorization by Congress of two
vice-admirals is urgently recommend
ed in order that our flag officers may
NOT be beneath all others in matter OF
precedence in international affairs
with which they have to do as repre-
sentatives of the United States. ut
is manifestly beneath all others liz
matter of precedence in international
affairs with which they have to do as
representatives of the United States ;"
il is, therefore recommended that the
rank of vice-admiral be conferred on
the officer detailed as communicating
chief of the North Atlantic and the
Asiatic fleets.
The King of Naval Fighters.
Regarding the paramount efficiency
of the battleship and the part played
by them in the Far Eastern war Adj
mifal Converse says:
although a hundred and more tor
Pedo boats and destroyers have been
actually engaged for five months
against hattleships which have been
exposed to attack times without num-
Der, we have yet to learn, authorita-
lively. of a torpedo from a torpedo
vessel causing the loss of single bat
tleship. Those which have been sunk
owed their destruction to submarine
mines, anchored or broken adrift. tor
pedo vessels not contributing to the re-
suit. except by the confusion and
scenes Of greater danger due to their
presence. 1t is evident that in the
final summary Of losses the achieve
. ments of torpedo vessels Will count
less than was ut first supposed. 1t
can not he claimed, therefore, that
there has been so far anything to dis
credit the battleship as a type; nor is
any such outcome to be expected from
this war; whatever may be the casual
ties among the battleships. TO wage
successful warfare with a naval force
requires now, as it has required in all
ages a type of vessel which shall
combine in the most effective manner
the qualities of offense, mobility de-
Tense, endurance f-maintenarce.
Such vessels are battleShipS and they
Constitute the main strength and re-
lance OF q naVy.'