The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1906-09-16
KEEP UP THE NAVY
THE BIGGEST wARsHIPs MAY NOT
BE THE BEST


New York, Sept. 15.-United States
naval officers do not admit that the
onster battleships planned by Great
Britain and Italy are necessarily more
effective than warships of the Com
necticut- Louisiana and Michigan-south
Carolina types Now that fuller de-
tails have reached here regarding the
Cuniberti battleship with which Italy
expects to outcIass the "Dreadnought"
there is less disposition than ever to
over-estimate the Importance of Italy's
more.
ION, paper" naval constructor at
tached to the Brooklyn Yard said,
both Great Britain and Italy will have
ships greatly superior to anything In
our navy. But all comparisons which
take into consideration merely COM
parative displacement and battery
strength are misleading. No one knows
as yet how these monster warships
will behave at sea. The "Dreadnought"
went into commission only two weeks
ago, and has never had trial of any
kind And their effectiveness in ae-
tion is in even greater doubt.
Moreover. the assumption that the
biggest battleship can whip one of a
few hundred tons smaller, leaves out
of account the matter of seamanship,
brains, courage, Workmanship and rel
alive GIlCleuCes
may not be as big as the biggest, but
in personnel and equipment they equal
anything ahoat."
This officer called attention to the
emplacement OF the twelve-inch guns
on the Connecticut" which has been
so planned that they have a range of
fire from dead aheady to a point well
abeam. Another device that adds
vastly to the safety of American war
ships Is the arrangement for closing
all the bulkhead doors in time of dan
ger. From an emergency station on
the bridge or in the pilot house all the
doors below the water line can be
closed almost instantly by what is
KNOWN as the Long Arm" system.
Each door and the arn.or matches have
an electric motor, connected with the
central station. In any emergency the
ship can be rendered practically I'M
sinkable in a few minutes by starting
these motors and making the water
tight compartments so many lire pre-
servers. That 1t Is no imaginary danger
against which naval constructors are
guarding our warships by perfecting
their bulkhead arrangements in this
way, Is shown by g. long line of ma
rine disasters, beginning with the loss
of the Victoria and coming down to
the Russo japanese war. Other pow
ers are deeply interested in the Long
Arm" system. but for the present Uni
ted States fighting ships alone have
the advantage of the most effective
means OF safety devised since the wa
tertight bulkhead was introduced.
Our newest warships have also
steaming radius of 5000 miles. much
greater than that of any other battle
ships afioat This is very important
element in the lighting efficiency OF
all war vessels, and one In which the
large English and Italian battIeships
are likely to fail
Improved steering gear, better pro-
vision for handing ammunition and
means of communication far in ad-
vance Of anything heretofore perfec-
ted are additional advantages claimed
for Uncle Sans latest warships. On
the Connecticut and Louisiana COM
plete telephone system is Installed. In
addition, private lines are run for the
executive officer, navigator, chief en-
gineer, surgeon and electrical gunner.
There are twenty-five extensions from
the central station and seven private
lines, in addition to eighty-seven lines
of voice pipes