The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-17
WORLDS SHIPS OF WAR
GROW ALL TO RE 1s,00o TONS OR
 MORE.
Enormoun Increase Due to War of Jn- pan and Russin--All Battles
 Likely to Be at Sew
 eFnl Miles Range.

The naval battles of the Sea of Japan and of August 10, 1904, were fought at ranges far greater than those or any previous naval battles of history. In the days of John Paul Jones and Hor- atio Nelson and even as far down as the civil war, vessels fought so close to each other that hand grenades and pistols, boarding bikes and swords were necessary arms.
 The ram and the automatic torpedo changed all that, and the makers or telescopic sights and exceedingly ac- curate guns and range finders or the present day have put into the hands Of naval gunners weapons which can be relied upon to hit targets at distances of from five to ten miles.
 Give A ship engines which enable her to make two or three knots more than most of her probable or possible enc mics can make, so that she can Keep as near to or as far away from those enemies as her captain may find desir- able; clothe her in a coat of mail nine inches thick, arm her with ten or twelve 5O-ton guns, which shoot straighter than a Krag rifle. and you have a battleship which, provided her ammunition holds out, can whip any two and possibly any three battlesnlps now in commission anywhere.
 This is not merely a theoretical ship. The ''condition confronts' all the world in the lS,0O0-ton battleship Dread naught, which the British navy has all ready begun, is building at breakneck speed. and will be in commission in less than fifteen months.
 She will carry ten and some author ities say twelve 50-ton guns of l2-lncn calfber as against four on any U. 5. battleship; she will have twenty to twenty-two knots speed: while the or egon's best was I6.S knots and the Rhode Island 19.1, the fastest ever made by al American ship of her class. She will carry 2.500 tons of coal. or 300 more than the best United States ships, those of the Connecticut class, which are planned to make eighteen knots.
 ghlns RulIt to Surpass Americans. The Connecticut, up to fifteen months ago, was the most powerful battleship under construction anywhere. To sur pass her the Lord Nelson type was be- gun. carrying a somewhat heavier arm ameut. In order to make comparison out of the question the Dreadnaught was designed.
 If the Dreadnaught were to fight the Connecticut on the high seas In single combat, as a naval officer expressed It, "the Connecticut would need the help of Goa to win. The Connecticut would stand as little chance of victory as man afoot on a prairie, armed with an
 
 ordinary revolver, would have against a crack shot, armed with a rifle, seated on a fast horse. Fog or dark night, which would permit the man afoot or the Connecticut. without being seen' to get to close quarters, where greater rapidity of fire would count, might give either the victory; but they would dread the revealing light of day"
 The Dreadnaught's armament and de- signs have been very carefully con- cealed from possibly hostile eyes. only rumors of the exact composition of the battery have been published. The Shipping World and The Engineering, both of London. The New York Worlds London correspondent and The London Mail say that the battery will be ten la-ineh and large number or S-ineh guns. The New York Herald's London correspondent hears that it will be twelve I2-inch guns. "cach capable of