The morning journal-courier., 1907-12-25

less.
 He also condemned the open shaft from turrets to powder magazines, and called attention to the inferior ammu- milton hoists.
 Furthermore. the writer said that whereas it was demonstrated in the maneuvers of the Atlantic fleet last summer that our navy needed forty eight torpedo boat destroyers, it had only twenty. Respecting the personnel it was his opinion that, although our officers were not surpassed by any in the world, they reached the highest commands too late in life to make the service effective.
 Everyone knows now that if we have war it must come by sea" said Mir. Reuterdahl. Everyone knows that it will be decided not by months or years of campaigning, but by one days battle-a few hours ot tremendous con- fiict between two fleets of fighting ships And everyone who considers it at all must understand that for those few hours our fleet must be continually prepared. We are a great sea power now and we have all the deep concern of sea power in it's navy. If war should ever come and find our navy unprepared our losses would be incal- culable.
 Taking up the question of armor pro- lection, MT. Reuterdahl declared that most of ours was submerged. He wrote:
 A modern batteship is 8 simple thing in its big general principles. Two points are essential in it's protection a shell proof armor, which guards its water line, and high shell proof tur- rets, which lift up its guns just above the wash and spray of the waves.
 Obviously, the most important fea- tura of all must be the belt along the water line A wound upon a turret may silence that one turrets guns. A hole upon the water line win cripple or sink the ship. Of all the Russian follies which came to light in the great battle of Tsushima that sealed the fate of the Russian-Japanese war, one stands out especially. The Russian battleships, when they went into that fight, were overloaded until the shell proof armor of their water line was underneath the water. They were not battleships at all
 Within year afterward, our navy awoke to the realization of a startling fact. The ships of the battle fleet of the United states are in exactly the same condition as the Russian ships at Tsushima-not temporarily, but perma nentLy.
 Of all our battleships, not one shows its main armor belt six inches above the water when fully equipped and ready for sea. There Is continuous belt of this main armor from seven and one-half to nine feet wide around every ship. The constructors plans were made to have from twelve to thirty Inches of this out of water when each vessel makes her trial trip. But trial trips are made with something less than half the weight of actual service on board the ship. When fully loaded for sea, practically the whole | of the ships water-line belt is under ! WdlGI. ADON6 llllS IS d llilAlISI which can be pierced by heavy shells The standard heavy gun of to-day l throws a steel projectile twelve inches in diameter, four feet long, and weigh ing $50 pounds, charged with a high 1 explosive, The bursting of one oi these shells in this thinner secondary armor would tear a hole bigger than a door upon a ships waterline.
 Passing to the disadvantage of oui vesesls dut to their iowness, MT | Reuterdahl had this to say. {,
 A battleship must fight at sea-ir thaavy waa ther, To do tf1 1ss, she must have her gunports and her turrets well out or water. If this were not ths case, the Monitor-long since discard ed-would be the fighting ship of the world. But the lowest of our battle ships to-day are scarcely more thar monitors. The three ships of the In. diana class have their bows but clever feet above thel water; the two ships ir the Kearsarge class but thirteen. Ant in the very latest of our ships aioat the Connecticut the bows are only about eighteen feet above the water. line, The bows of our latest armoret Ycruisers arc only twenty feet above
 Now, all modern battleships in for eign navles have forward decks iron about twenty-two to twenty eight fec above the water; the armored cruiser! lhave theirs from twenty-five to thirty,
 
 foreign ships especially in the French and British navies. the high bow is un iversal The Dreadnoughts forward decks are twentyeight feet high He, forward turret is set far back-abou lone hundred and ten feet from tn, bow; and in front of 1t breakwater i arranged to prevent the waves tha come aboard from rolling back to thii turret.
 The result of thls. difference in con struction would be disastrously appAr ent in any naval war. Fighting at se, takes place with ships under way ant steaming at high speed Our ships when moving into any considerable heavy sea. take in over their low bow solid water, which slaps up over thei forward turrets
 Tn other words, it would be impossl ; ble in rough weather to air and fire tn
 forward turret guns. one half, that is of our heaviest guns, which form tn main reliance of the modern battle 5 ship in the same weather, foreign bat tleships. with their high bows, coul,
 fire their forward turret guns wit ease. The handicap is still worse 10 our armored cruisers, for these ship
 steam faster than the battleships, and consequently. throw up more water a t their bows and, being longer than tn : battleships, they plunge their bow much deeper into the waves.
 But the broadside guns on our ship are in an even worse position tha' , those in the forward turrets In tn f Georgia. Idaho and Connecticut class
 es-containng the twelve latest battle | ships afioat-they are only about elev
 en feet above the water In each O
 our new armored cruisers. ten of tn
 fourteen medium guns are at the sam - height None of these guns could b 3 fired to windward while the ships wer i steaming at battle speed against even moderate sea; that is these guns coul , not be fought at all in the most advan
 tageous positions; for the ship whic fires to windward holds the great ad
 vantage of being free from the Smok
 side guns of foreign battleships an
 cruisers are, generally speaking, twie
 as high as ours, and many of them ar
 three times as high.