Los Angeles herald., 1908-02-17
NAVY CRITICS
DENOUNCED
BY CONVERSE
ADMIRAL SAYS BATTLESHIPS
ARE FIGHTERS
Expert Asserts American Squadron Is
Fit to Meet Any Opponents
in Any Kind of
Weather

BY Associatef Press.
WASHINGTON. Feb. 16.-By direc-
tion of the president, Secretary Met
calf has made public the report of
Admiral Converse on the fighting ships
of the American navy, called forth by
many criticisms recently published In
magazines and otherwise.
This report was prepared primarily
70 satisfy the president as to the exact
state Of the ships compared with those
of other navies, and its publication is
authorized with the design to reassure
the American sailors as to the quality
cf the weapons with which they must
go into battle.
Admiral Converse characterized the
criticisms as prepared by persons
whose knowledge of the subjects dis-
cussed was limited and incorrect"
There was, he said, ample justifiea-
ton for the adoption of the battleship
designs which have been followed. 1T
is not claimed that mistakes have not
been made" ne adds. "or that our ships
are without fault, but that in view d
the then art of shipbuilding this fact
is not to be wondered at. 1t Is remark
albe the mistakes were so few, anG
none were really serious. In this re-
spect our record will compare favor
ably with that of foreign services.
Deals WIKI OOnStTuStiOu
In the ninety-one pages which the
admiral devotes to the defense of the
navy the subjects dealt with include
battle drills, freeboard of American
ships, height of gun positions, tor
pedo defense guns, battleship armor.
turret designs, ammunition hoists. IN
and cut turning screws, the Kearsarge
and Kentucky, and general notes.
His emphatic conclusion is: Dur
ships are not inferior to those OF for
eign services.
We have he says, made com
promises in our designs of battleships,
because it is impossible to construct
rerfect battleship: such compromises
have, perhaps, detracted from the de-
sired perfect ship in1Some respects, but
at .he same time have made II pos
sible to improve upon some other ex-
isting disadvantage. and, on the whole.
the, compromises, each and all, have
tended towards nearer approach to
the desired perfect finality.
"Other nations have labored and Will
like ourselves, continue to labor. under
this same difficulty in endavoring tol
approach as near as possible to that
perfect battleship.
s'The quality of the material of our
navy is inferior to none; in quantity of
vessels alone are we lacking. With an
III NUMBER OF SHIPS tllc Aiueii-
can navy will have been supplied the
only feature necessary to make it sec
ond to none in all that tends toward
fighting efficiency. And when the stress
of actual combat, if such should unfor-
come, brings the only really
practical tests. our country need have
no fears or misgivings that our battle
ships will not give an excellent account
of themselves and prove themselves all
thof uta have designed them for. and
know them to be-
UphoIds the Navy
The admiral says, in. treating of bat
tie drills, that II was not until the
spring of 1903 that our new navy
achieved the size of squadron-eight
battleships-and not until last spring
that we ACQUIRED a fieet-two squadrons.
1t then for the first time became pos
sible to carry out fleet tactics. These
were begun in July, were interrupted
for target practice, and resumed again
in the present voyage to the Pacihc
coast. In this connection the admiral
says:
I'm the personnel, our navy, in ambi-
ton and professional knowledge, is
second to none in the world
Considerable space is devoted to a
refutation of criticism that American
fighting ships do not stand as high
ont of the water as those of foreign
navies. 1t is admitted by the admiral
that the Indiana and Kearsarge
classes (the first battleships of the
navy, are too low forward for effic-
lent fighting at sea. but the remainder
of our battleships could without doubt
give a good account of themselves in
a fight at sea in any weather in which
it is at all likely for fleet to be en-
gagged"
The question presents the choice of
being we'll armed and consequently
weighted lower in the water, or being
lightly armed and standing high out.
1t is stated to be the policy of the
American navy, Ito always have our
vessels better armed than our oppon-
ents.
TT may not be amiss," the report
adds, while dealing with subject OF
gun heights and free board. to add that
the Japanese in their most recently de-
signed ships have, notwithstanding an
increase of speed and length of vessel,
not raised their gun positions, nor the
free board, which is one of the results
gained from their experience from
their recent war, and which seems TO
uphold the good idea of our system Il
building ships without the excessive
heights deemed to be necessary by
some critics"