Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-12-15
Statistics of the Fleet.

Here are some salient facts concernin,
the ships and the cruise. The tonnage o
the sixteen battleships will be in rount
numbers 223,OO0 There will be abou
1900 men-officers, sailors and marines
No less than 925 modern guns will be OF
the ships, from. the monster 13-inch siz
which hurls projectiles weighing 1,13,
pounds down to- the one-pounders ant
other machine guns that shoot small pro
jectiles. The most powerful weapons OF
the fleet will be the 12-inch guns, of which
| there will be LA.
These guns shoot projectiles weighinf
$40 pounds, with a muZzle energy of 2 7Ol
feet second and muzzle velocity OF
$4,000 foot tons; that Is, a power thai
| could life a, 600 tons one foot. Although
smaller than the thirteen-inch guns they
have greater destructive force.
The length of the voyage will be IL, 772
miles. and it is expected that 1875 days
will be occupied in making the trip OF
these sixty days will be spent in port re-
newing supplies and giving shore leave.
Nearly 10000 tons of coal will be con-
sumed and the cost of it approximates
100000. Each ship will carry about
1000 tons oil supplies, varying from am
munition to the smallest thing necessary
for the larder
The cruising speed will be about ten and
half knots. It Is proba BILE that the ships
will go in single file most of the way anI
tried in order to economize on coal. The
ships will be at intervals of 400 yards.
and in fair weather. storm or fog that
interval will be kept vigorously.
Under no circumstances will the fleet
scatter. 1t must be kept together COM
pactly so as to practice what Charles III.
Cramp, the shipbuilder. once said was the
greatest need Of our navy-battleship sea-
manship-
Only five stops will be made on the way
to San Francisco. The first will be at the
Port Of Spain, Trinidad; the second at
Rio de Janeiro. the third at Punta Arean-
at Callao. Peru. and the fifth at Mag
dalena bay, in lower California.
| Five days each will be spent at Trinidad
and Punta Arenas and ten days each at
Rio and Callao. Thirty days will be spent
in Magdalena bay for target practice
After that the ships will go to. San Fran
cisco and then the problem Of what to do
with them. whether to bring them back in
the same way or by way Of Europe. leav-
ing a large part of them in the Philip
pines will probably be announced. The
President in his message intimated that
they might be brought back to the At
| lantic coast by way of South America
| and that cruises such as this, from one
thing hereafter at least once in two years
| If not oftener.
Previous Gatherings Of warships.
| Wnlle II Is true ludC no meet or such
size has ever made such voyage" it is
not the largest fleet of battleships eve,
| assembled for evolution. 1t is the larg.
est and strongest American fleet.
Only last fall Great Britain assembled
no less than twenty-six modern battle
| ships and twenty armored cruisers 70,
| maneuvers in home waters. At Oyste,
bay a year ago there were thirty-ont
| American warships Of all kinds In the
great review. At the opening of thu
Jamestown exposition last April there
were assembled for the President to re.
| view ffty-two warships, counting the
| foreigners, and forty-three of them new
the Stars and Stripes
But no American fleet has had tn,
homogeneity of the one Admiral Evans 1.
to take around South America. Il /.
composed exclusively of heavy fighters
the bulldogs, If naval dogs Of war car
be so designated.
| The four other ships that 60 along dc
| not count because two of them are
strictly supply ships. one is a repair shir
and the other Is known as a tender Theil
purpose is to furnish supplies from q
shaft to a can Of machine oil and to see
| that all the little material wants that
any great ship. not the men, may need
| are furnished.
The fleet is to be divided into two
| sduadrons and four divisions. Admiral
Continued on Eighth Page.)