Albuquerque citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1907-1909, 1908-12-11
CRUISE OF The FLEET
AN EPOCH-MAKING
EVENT
Secretary of the Navy In His
Annual Report Reviews
Voyage OF Big
Ships.
ASKS CONGRESS FOR
MANY new VESSELS
Recommends Four New Battle
ships. Four Cruisers and Nu-
merOus Minor Ships Would
Have Two ViCe-AdmiralS
Named at Once.


Washington, Dec. 1.-THE annual
report of the secretary of the navy.
which was prepared by Secretary
Metcalf recently resigned, was made
public here today.
Secretary Metcalf, in his annual |
report, discusses, as the most nota- |
Bile naval event of the past year, the |
voyage of the battleship fleet, which |
has proven an epoch-making |
cruise
Late in the spring of 1907 it was
decided to send the Atlantic fleet ON
a practice cruise to the Pacific. When
the purpose of giving this assemblage
of sixteen battleships such a prac-
tice cruise, under severe conditions,
was announced, he states, criticism
from high technical quarters was
heard The undertaking, it was said,
was too monumental; dangers more
| than multiplied wish numbers in
such case; battleships should not
be sent around the globe on any or
| dinary occasion; the skeletons of
some of them would doubtless be left
| in the Straits of Magellan; and if the
ships should round South America,
they wouldr one by one, arrive with
machineries loose and unserviceaole,
and with crews reflecting the con-
dition OF the material.
| The facts are Secretary Metcalf
says, that the ships maintained
schedule time, and have practically
taken care of their own repairs ON
this cruise. The repairs list sent in
at the naval station, Cavite, p. l.,
have just been received, and are
| significant. They show that after
the voyage to the distant borders of
the Pacific, the needed repairs are
negligible. The performance of the
Oregon in 1908 has, it seems, been
substantially repeated.
This cruise, as yet hardly half over,
he declares, has given to those coun-
tries a better opportunity TO get ac-
lquainted with us. 1t has been every
where understood and accepted, as it
was intended, as the reaching out of
a strong hand in friendly greeting on
the part Of America, and the cordial
| hospitalities extended to our fleet
will be long remembered and have
powerfully Influenced feeling in this
country. Between the United States
and every country visited there is a
feeling of deeper interest and friend
ship than existed before the fleet
sailed.
Passing to certain recent criticisms
of the new and larger battleships
now building, the secretary says that
at the conference, convened and
opened by the president at Newport,
the general matter of design OF these
ships was approved, after forty-three
days consideration by this assemblage
of the best authorities available in the
Inavy, consisting OF about sixty Off
GERS, all but seven of whom were
line officers of the seagoing branch
of the service.
Marksmanship ne says has improv-
ed on the practice cruise. With re-
lspect to the assertion that lur l2-
inch guns are inferior to those of
other powers, the facts are found to
0e that the actual muZZic energy of
these l2-inch guns, which form the
main armament of our eight latest
battleshipe in commission. is some
what greater than that OF any gun
afloat in any other navy.
AS the officer in command OF the
American fleet now in the far east
holds the rank of rear-admiral only.
he is in a position of subordination
TO foreign naval officers. This is true
because foreign powers have, on i'm
portant naval stations representa-
tivos Of the rank Of vice admiral.
The secretary urges that the navy
should. without delay, be provided
with two vice admirals
1t is desirable, the secretary states,
to lengthen the dry dock authorized
by Congress TO be constructed al
Pearl harbor Hawaii from $50 to l.
40 feet, to render it capable of ac-
commodating two or more vessels at
once.
Secretary Metcaf recommends that
the navy yards at New York Phila-
delphia, Norfolk Puget Sound and
Mare Island be developed to their
full capacity for the repair and
maintenance OF ships, but says it is
] not further desirable to develop 9th
er navy yards at least until that at
Guantanamo shall have been equip
ped, the last-named station being
regarded ne 70 the first military i'm
portance and as a natural stragetic
base.
II is deemed highly desirable a.
acquire by purchase or to construct
Ia dock in san Francisco harbor. With