The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1907-01-18
WANTS TWO DREADNAUCHTS
Both as Matter Of Economy and In
creasing Naval Strength.

Washington, Jan. ia letter writ
ten by the president in advocacy o
plan for two battleships of thu
Dreadnaught class became public to
day. 1t is dated January II, and Ii
addressed to Chairman Foss OF the
house committee on naval affairs. The
letter says in part:
81 feel SO strongly that there should
be two first-class battleships Of maxi
mum size and speed and with their
primary battery all of 12-inch guns
added to the navy this season that
desire to lay the matter before your
committee, through this letter These
big ships should include the one pro
vided for last year and the one pro
vided for this year. 1t must be remem
bered that am not asking for any in
crease in the navy because unless we
can provide at the rate of battleshiG
per year our navy will go backwards
Moreover, am advising that our mon.
ey be spent economically. 1t has been
waste Of time and money to provide
such ships as single turret monitors
and while the cruisers, especially the
great armored cruisers, serve some
useful purposes, it would never-the-
less have been Infinitely better to have
spent the money which was actually
spent on them in the construction OF
first-class battleships.
IT thoroughly believe in developing
and building an adequate number OF
submarines; I believe in building tor
pedo boat destroyers; there must be
a few fast scout and, of course, various
auxiliary vessels Of different kinds.
But the strength Of the navy rests pri-
marily on it's battleships and in build
ing these battleships, is imperatively
necessary from the standpoint alike of
efficiency and economy they should be
the very best of their kind.
Il therefore desire to lay before you
the following reasons for my belief
in the advantages of battleships Of
large displacements, as compared with
all other fighting craft, on the suppo-
sitiOn that both are handled equally
well:
"Much of the information showing
the superior value Of battleships of
large displacement, speed and great
gun power is Of very technical nat
ure and cannot briefly be stated. This
is especially true of certain confiden-
tial information concerning the re-
quirements necessary for efficient
long-range gun fire, it being under
stood that in this sense efficiency Of
gun fire refers exclusively to hitting;
that is, to the large number of large
projectiles that can be landed against
an enemy's hull in a given time, and
not to the number of all-calibres that
can be fired in given time.
Therefore, the effective offensive
power Of battleship may now be
measured by the number Of heavy
guns she can fire on either broadside.
For the ordinary battleship the most
effective broadside fire consists OF four
12-inch guns. It follows as matter
of course that a large ship having a
broadside of 10 12-inch guns could
promptly destroy battleship OF the
usual type with 4-inch guns and with
the advantage of greater speed OF the
larger vessel she would be more than
a match for two of the smaller yes
sells.
"But as battleships are not intended
to fight singly, their efficiency must be
determined by a comparison Of their
relative abilities when fighting in fleet
formation. In this respect a rela-
lively small squadron or large battle
ships having the same number of
heavy guns as a much larger squad
ron of small battleships has a still
greater natural advantage, which con-
sists in the ability of the small squad
ron OF large vessels to concentrate
on a limited part of the enemy's line,
the fire OF many more heavy guns
than the ships or that part Of the line
are able to retain, which, OF course,
would result in the destruction Of the
entire fleet OF small vessels.
Putting the extreme case for the
sake OF illustration, this may be shown
by comparing the fighting value OF two