Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-21
COMMENDS OUR NAVY
Sir Henry White Laughs at
Henry ReuterdahI.
BRITISH NAVAL EXPERT
Compares the Connecticut and the
Dreadnought.
PROBLEM OF THE ARMOR BELT
Says He Recommended the Abolition
of the Thick Water-Line Belt
Twenty Years Ago.
PROBLEM OF THE ARM0R BELT
Special Dispatch to The star.

Special Dispatch to The star.
BOSTON, April 21.-Sir William Henry
White. K.C.B.. recognized as one of the
greatest living authorities on modern bat
tleship construction and design. makes a
strong defense of the American navy
against the attacks of Henry Reuterdahl
and others.
, He paid high tribute to American ma
val architects and American shipyards
and declares that these. aided by the ac-
cumulated experience of other nations and
backed by American ingenuity. have pro-
duced a fleet of fighting ships that. next
to the British fleet, is the greatest in the
world.
He declared that ship for ship. compar-
ing the ships designed at a given date
the only fair method of comparison. in
s1is estimation-the American ''is equal to
anything the world contains"
He says Reuterdahl Is ''all wrong as to
his facts" and therefore wrong in his
conclusions. The thick water-line armor
{ Of the ship depends. he characterizes as
fetish abandoned by British admirals
many years ago, and mistakenly reverted
toAtPtheN NDfe1dnought class in making
distributon OF weight rendered neces-
1ary by the great number of 12-inch guns.
Compares the ships.
As TO the Dreadnought which Reuter-
dahl used as a basis Of comparison, Sir
william points out that her thick armor
boDt u from foot to eighteen inches be-
low the surface Of the water when she Is
fully laden, while the armor belt OF ships
Of ths Connecticut class, under the same
conditions. is from six to nine inches above
water.
So far as the Dreadnought and the Con-
necticut are concerned, he says. the Con-
necticut is better protected above the
water line, inasmuch as when fully laden
her sides are protected by arm0r that ex-
tends eighteen feet above the water, while
under the same conditions the English
ship's defense on the sides Is restricted
to armor that rises only from four to four
and one,half feet above. the water.
Sir Wf.iAm lenSeas that there is any
danger involved In the direct hoist which
Reuterdahl says IL responsible for the ac-
ciderits which have occurred on American
ships. He, says he himself was the in
ventor of the broken hoist, so-called. and
It was brought ont by him to save time
and not to minimize danger.
Lessons Of Experience.
One Of the lessons learned by the Rus
SLAMS from their war with Japan, he says.
Is shown by the fact that in their recent
construction Of warships they have great
ly extended the area Of armor of the
sides and reduced the thickness And one
Of the lessons learned by the Japanese is
that 1t pays to husband your ammuni-
ton and not to see how rapidly you can
fire 1t away.
The accidents ON the American battle
ships he attributes to inexperienced men
and the policy of placing a premium upon
the greatest number of shots and the
greatest number of hits in given time
IN target practice.
As to arunor belts. Sir William White
says: This aTmor belt. In my opinion. is
only q fetish. After the ship is upright
and at rest In still water, and you have
tha' thick armor belt at the water !ine
that portion of the ship would be well
protected. But that portion. as a matter
Of fact, is the most difficult to nit, be-
cause you must get the exact range to
hit II at all. II the shots fall ever so little
short they will ricochet and turn up If
they are high in elevation, of course, they
don't touch the water and will pass over
the thick armor belt.
An Old Problem.
"And that Is not all. That water line
Is never the real water line when the
ship Is at sea. II the ship Is moving the
waves formed by her motion in still
water will bury that thick armOr that
water line. II there are waves passing
the ship. they rise above that thick ar
NOR. II the ship heels over ever so little
that belt goes under water. no matter
where II 10 placed.
These considerations led me twenty
years ago to recommend to the English
admiralty that they should abolish the
thick armor and have it no thicker at the
water line than anywhere else And my
design which was used exclusively for a
period OF sixteen years. made the armor
Of uniform thickness from the main deck
down.