The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1905-11-09
Naval Constructors Favor
Heavier Vessels Than
Have Ever Before Seen.
LESSONS or THE RECENT WAR
NEW SHIPS BUILT FOR THE
UNITED STATES AND GREAT
BRITAIN ILLUSTRATE THE
MODERN IDEAS.


While the struggle between Russia and
Japan taught no new lesson of prime inn
portance, in the opinion of naval archi-
tects, it emphasized the fact that the
time is fast coming when only the rich
est nations can afford to go to war. In
if only on account of the very lack
among the smaller nations of proper ma
terial wherewith to conduct it. The
coming battleshps, those now being de-
signed in this country and in England,
for example, will cost when complete
about $6,000,0C0. For the smaller ma
| tions a feet of such enormously expen-
siye engines of war is out of the ques-
| tion; and when the nations that can af-
| ford to build these fleets meet smaller
nations inswar, as the United States met
Spain in 1898, then must come such one
sided battles as Manila and Santiago.
The tendency in naval construction is
| to build heavier ships than have ever
| been seen, to make these ships as speedy
| as possible, and to arm them with the
heaviest guns. This tendency, it is in
teresting to know. is not result of the
! Russo-Japanese war, says the Brooklyn
Eagle" Though emphasized and ad-
vanced by the engag gements that have
taken place in Oriental waters, never
/ theless the tendency antedates the war.
mont, which was recently launched at
| the Fore River yards at Quincy and
which has displacement Of 5000 tons
and will carry four 12-inch, eight S-inch
and twelve 7-inch guns. 1t is equally
| noticeable in the new British battleships
| of the King Edward class, which have a
| displacement of more than 10000 tons
and which carry four 1o-inch, four 9-incll
and ten 6-inch guns.
Captain Hovgaard, the professor Of
/ naval design at the Massachusetts, Insti-
tute of Technology in Boston, not long
ago worked out design of an ideal bait
| tleship under present conditions, and the
result was a ship of the King Edward
| class. This illustrates the fact that ma
! val architects are able to anticipate the
lessons of actual warfare.
The British have gone a step further
than the Boston naval architect and the
designers of the King Edward class of
ships "a designing the battleship of the
Dreadnaught type, which will have dis
placement of $4,000 tons and will carry
| twelve twelve-inch guns and nothing
else, with the exception of small guns to
repel torpedo boat attacks. The United
| States battleships of the South Carolina
class. which are now being designed,
| will, it is thought. have a displacement
1 of 5000 or 1000 tons and will carry
either one mighty battery or twelve-inch
guns, like the British ships of the Dread
naught class, or battery divided be-
| tween twelve-inch and ten-inch guns.
So it is with the battleships that the
| japanese are building; they have dis
/ placement of 16, 400 tons and their arma-
ment will consist of four twelye-inch,
|, four ten-inch and twelve six-ineh guns.
All these ships, British, American and
| japanese, will be swift as we'll as pow
erful.
| Professor Cecil H. Peabody, the head
of the department of naval construction
at the Institute Of Technology. IS Of the
| opinion that one of the lessons Of the re-
cent war in the Far East is that mere
personal courage. which was such an i'm
portant factor in the sea fights of the
! old days, is valueless to-day unless ac-
Dompanied by suitable material and
learning. Military experts still agree on
the truth of the general proposition that
an army of coura ageois men, men with
j fighting instincts. even though INSULT
ciently armed and improperly conducted
will infict more or less severe losses
upon the enemy. But at sea, where 8