The Washington times., 1906-01-24
THE personal SIDE
oAT THE CAPITOL
Comprehensive Review of the United States
Navy as Computed by Clerk to Senate
Committee on Naval Affairs

Pitman Pulsifer. clerk to the Senate
Committee on Naval Affairs, has Just
completed a compilation of the An
nual Appropriations for the Navy from
1888 to 1906" which in general way,
illustrates the growth and present
strength of the navy. and in other ways
is regarded by those interested as a
volume OF much Importance
In the compilation Of statistics, which
is printed as a Senate document, Mr.
Pulsifer has arranged the book in the
form of an interesting story. He takes
up the strength of the navy according
TO the amount of money Congress APP
propriated for the maintenance in 1855,
and year by year shows what he terms
it's unprecedented" growth.
The table OF statistics is so arranged
that practically at a glance one can
readily understand the real progress.
and standing Of our navy. as compared
with the navies Of other countries
Starting with an appropriation Of
$14.S19.976.SO I'm 1883. the navy has, ac-
coTding TO the table of figures supplied.
grown to seven times that strength in
twenty-three years In 1905. $1,000
i40.0lLI9 was appropriated for naval
use during the present fiscal year.
These appropriations include, of
course. money for the building Of new
ships. for repairs Of ships. Increase in
the personnel Of both the navy proper
and its auxiliary. the Marine Corps. and
for building repairs Of, and completion
of barracks for its sea soldiers.
Passing along from the growth Of
our navy. Mr. Pulsifer then shows our
relative lighting strength, as compared
with leading European and Asiatic
countries. The table shows some in
teresting facts for ready references. It
shows that we have thirty-six less
first-class battleships than Great Brit
ain. the same number as France. one
more than Germany, thirteen more than
Russia, eight more than Italy. and
thirteen more than Japan We have
twenty-seven fewer aFmOTed cruisers
than Great Britain, four more than Ger
many, only one-hslf az many as France
the same number as Japan twice the
number that Russia has, and five more
than Italy. OF cruisers above 4. 600
tons we have Ave. Great Britain TWEEN
ty-one. France four, Japan two. and
Russia eight. OF smaller cruisers
ranging from l,000 TO 5000 tons we
have forty-four, Great Britain eighty
nine. Germany eighty-tWo. France sew
enty-one, Russia thirteen. and Japan
tWenty-one We have forty-eight torpe-
bobcats and torpedoboat destroyers.
Great Britain 243, France $50. Germany
seventy-five. Japan 129 Russia loo. TIA
ly lfs. and Austria thirty-nine We
have twelve submarines, France has
siNty-nine. Great Britain twenty-nine.
Germany one. Japan nine, Prussia TWEEN
ty-nve. Italy six.
As a total the United States has SOS
authorized fighting ships. Two hundred
and seventy OF these are Classed as tit
TOT service, Ihlrty-four arr under con-
struction, fifteen are unfit for sea ser
vice. and seven exist yet only in blue
l1-int form. Our sea strength he classes
as follows; Twenty fiFst-class
battleships. one second-class battleshIp
twelve armOred cruisers, twenty-tUo
protected cruisers. eleven gunboats
Jhirty-five steel torpedo boats sixteen
tCrpedobOat destroyers, four harbor de-
Tense monitors three unprotected cruis-
ers. fifteen gunboats of less than 800
tons each. eight composite gunboats. and
three scout cruisers. the others being OF
lesser types
The distribution of the personnel OF
the navy IN the table shows thai we
have 2.257 officers on the active list on