Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-04-01
France.

Russia.
Battle ships 90:
Georgei Pobiedonosets ............... ID aS(
Ndsarin cc'''.............. !,4f
lmperator Nlco!al L. .................. 9,1N
Imperator Alexander H. .... 9'lN
Total ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. A.SJ
Armored cruisers (0:
Admiral Nakhimoff ........... $500
Eurlk OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. 0,9C
Pamyat Azova ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 6,70C
Total Observation-Disclosures. a6,14C
Mr.. LODGE. That is assuming that
they do not change their present pro-
gram.
Mr. HALE. Well, there is no sign
that they will, as l have stated.
Mr.. LODGE. l mean is it perfectly
fair to take that for granted? Of
course, they may change.
Mr.. HALE. Well, if they do so, we
can. l mean the program that is
now laid out and provided for by law.
Great Britain undoubtedly, as l see
from what has taken place in the
House of Commons, has large, but
not Il detailed, program this year.
just how she Will want to build ships
for the next year.
Mr.. LODGE. May I ask the Senator
in regard to those vessels he was
speaking of as built before 1884? Is it
not true about every armored ship built
and ordered at that time that the
armor Was iron plate? l do not
remember the technical name, but they
We're plates that were superseded by
steel plates.
Mr.. HALE. Entirely.
Mr.. LODGE. 1t is armor that no
country would think of using now.
Mr.. HALE. There may have been
some composite armor, but it is only
within a very few years, Mr.. President,
that any nation has begun to use the
best modern armor.
Mr.. LODGE. They were compound
iron plates.
Mr.. HALE. Composite iron plates.
Mr.. President, l put in here a
memorandum from the Bureau of
Naval Intelligence:
Memorandum.
February Is, 1904.
By 1908 the following ships should
not be counted in the main line of de-
feEse, but should be disposed us in
dicatcd below:
Battle ships: Indiana, Massachusetts,
Oregon, Texas: coast-defense squadron.
Monitors: Miantonomoh, Amrhitrite,
Terror, Puritan: harbor defense only.
SO it seems they are already talking
in the Navy Department of putting the
Oregon, the Massachusetts, and the
Indiana onto the retired class for coast
defense.
Mr.. STEWART. I hope they will
keep the Oregon off of it.
Mr.. Hale. They ought to. I think
the Oregon is one Of the best ships
that ever was built
Mr.. LODGE. 1t is good ship to-
day.
Mr.. HALE 1t is Il good ship today.
Mr.. STEWART. | should like to see
another like it built.
Mr. HALE. But it does not FIJI the
fancy of a naval officer. She has not
the room on her for staterooms and for
comforts and for conveniences and for
all the intricate machinery that d &c.
00O-ton ship has. But she has the same
number of 12-inch guns and the same
number of turrets and the same
efficient force. so far as the great guns
go. She is smaller, more easily
handled. and when she goes to the
bottom, as any battle ship will from the
impact of torpedo, like the jab of a
prize fighters fist, instead of seven or
eight million dollars going to the
bottom, it is only s5.000.O0O. for which
sum Il ship of that kind can be built
today.
SO We have to reckon with this as
showing why it is that we are con-
tinually asked by the naval officers
and the naval boards for the largest
program. They want the biggest
ships that ever were built. They do
not want any other nation to beat
them. There is not today. Mr.. Presi
dent. on the waters of the globe d ship
of l6.00o tons displacement, and yet we
are building these of late years. and
all other battle ships are turned down
by the naval boards.
Mir. ALLISON. Are there any build
ing now?
Mr.. HALE There are a few build
ing. but very few in addition to what
we are building. England has talked
dDOul 4 Nt5Stl even
than that, but ] think it has been
abandoned. and most of the building is
of the 1000 and $1,000 ton class and
along there with the same armament
of big guns.
Mr.. STEWART. l wish we had ten
or fifteen like the Oregon.
Mr. BACON. Will the Senator from
Maine pardon me for a moment?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does
the Senator from Maine yield to the
Senator from Georgia?
Mr.. HALE. Certainly.
Mr.. BACON. 1t is in connection with
what the Senator from Maine has just
been saying.
The fact is developed and recognized
hy all that changed conditions will
make a ship which would otherwise be
good comparatively worthless. 1t be-
comes obsolete. For instance, the
matter suggested by the Senator from
as to the changed
character of the arnor. 1t makes
valueless ship armcred with armor
which twenty years ago was considered
good.
The particular point to which I wish
to direct the attention of the Senator