Willmar tribune., 1904-02-24
THE WAR SITUATION.

THE WAR SITUATION.
We reproduce the following editorial from the
Scientific American an authority upon the subject
of the naves of the world, giving reliable informa
ton as the result of the naval contests of the
The crushing blow delivered by the Japanese at
Port Arthur against the Russian fleet affords another
proof of the fact that after have made most
comparison OF the fleets of the two contending
nations, it is impossible to say whether this
tn possesses the most efficient navy, until know
something about the quality of the fcers and the
crews On paper, a. have shown in the present
and the preceding Issue of this journal the Russian
and Japanese fleets in the Pacific were approxi-
matey equal the two extra battleships possessed by
Russia fairly ofsettng the superiority Of Japan in
armored and protected cruisers. At the close of
article suggested that the question of supremacy
might depend entirely upon the PERSONNEL and in the
short interval of few days that question has been
decided in most emphatic manner. The ships at
tackled by the Japanese fleet in Port Arthur we're
among the very finest afoat, of them, the "Czar
witch, - being provided with internal bulkheads OF
plate, designed to limit the destruction of
torpedo while at and above the waterline she carried
two complete belts, one above the other where the
ordinary battleship carries only one. Moreover In
arming the Russian warships, particular attention
has been paid to the repelling of torpedo boat at
merous battery of and II FOUNDER rapid fire guns.
Yet in spite OF unusual offensive and defensive pro-
lection, the Russian ships apparently fell easy VIC
tins to the torpedo at the very first attack. The
fault lies certainly not in the ships, and
tainly it must lie with the officers and 1t is
evident that the Japanese immediately upon the rup
ture of diplomatic relations moved swiftly upon
well.considered plan They knew the location Of
every Russian ship and they quick to seize the
tempting opportunity offered by the assembly in the
outer harbor OF Port Arthur OF the very flower of the
Russian navy. The comparative ca with which
torpedo boats secured their victims proves either
that the Russians extremely care ess and neg
lected the most ordinary precautions that the ef
ectiveness of torpedo boat warfare has been greatly
underrated.
In the or three days of the war the Japan
ese have crippled the Russian Pacific fleet by the de-
structon disablement OF eleven Russian warships
aggregatipg about y COO tons dispac ment or over
fifty per cent more than put OF action by the
United States ships in the whole Spanish war;
What makes the loss 80 overwhelmingly disastrous
for Russia is that these eleven the very pick of
her feet. The "Czarevitch Is the latest and finest
of the ssian bat leshps, the model upon which all
her later vessels have been laid dowr; the 'tRetvi
zan,' built by the Cramps, was considered also to
be one OF the best warships aaoat, while the "Pol.
tava" is battleship OF about the and effective
four splendid cruisers among the very fastest in the
world, the ''Variag," "PAllada," " "Askold" and
DIANA vessels Of $500 tons, % knots speed or
over, with heavy modern armament Then there
is the cruiser Boyarin, crack vessel of 223 knots
speed, just out of her builders hands. and the NO
v:k, of 3 600 tons which has the distinction of be
ing the fastest cruiser in the world, he speed being
rs knots hour. In addition to thes are the two
gum boats "Korietz" and 'Mand]u.' OF these ves-
sels the sister ships "Varag" and ''Pallada" are
sunk, the by gun fire, the other by torpedo, and
for the present at least may be stricken of the list
The other vessels have been struck be! the water
line by gun fire, and with the very limited repair fa-
cilities at Port Arthur it will be hs before they
again on the active list. The balance OF naval
power has passed to Japan, and her superiority ap-
pears to grow steadily the days pas by. Having
the command of the sea, she pour the whole OF
her troops into Korea; for the fear Of invasion be-
ing removed, the troops that necessary for
home defense are liberated for service the main
Ia d. 1t is trivial to talk of sending the Baltic
fleet, for the ships generally old and of doubtful
value, ard they would undoubtedly be intercepted
and sunk by the Japanese before they reached the
of hostilities. The Black Sea feet is shut up
by treaty obligations With her navy crippled
and blockaded, Russia must now depend upon
her land TO cts to retrieve reputation. Port
Aut1r~ I