Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-10-29
A POLICEMAN OF THE SEA.

A POLICEMAN OF THE SEA.
Grand Forks Herald: The battle
ship North Dakota, which is to be
given a fine silver service by the peo-
pie of North Dakota, is the first OF
the Dreadnaught class to be built on
this side of the ocean, and when
launched last November she was the
largest battleship afioat: The ship
is $40 feet long, IS feet wide, and
draws q feet of water. Her dis
placement is 10000 tons, which is
1000 tons more than the dis
placement of the Connecticut, which
is next in size to the North Dakota
among the earlier built American
vessels, She will be propelled by
turbine engines of $4,000 horse pow
.er, and with these she will attain
a speed of q knots or more. In her
equipment are ten 12-inch guns, four
teen 5-inch guns, two 3-inch field
guns, four Founders, four l pound
-ers, and several others. Her battery
of big guns is so arranged that they
can all be trained on the same tar
get at once, the guns in one turret
ranging over the tops Of the other
turrets. The effect of the fire of
these immense guns, all concentrated
on one spot, will be tremendous, and
this feature is very important one
in ! the equipment Of ship. W, The
North Dakota will carry, of officers
and men, quota of nearly 1000 per
sons, and among them will be many
men highly trained in every branch
of science. The days of hand to hand
fighting are gone. Ships no longer
sail within few rods of each other
broadside after broadside of little
-projectiles from diminutive cannon,
winding up the affair by rush of
boarders over the side, each man
carrying his cutlass in his teeth and
climbing as best he could. A battle
at sea is now contest of scientists.
There must. be bravery, as before,
and ther,- must be discipline AMI or
der, but in addition there must DC
knowledge OF physics and the ability
to apply it, There must be knowl-
edge of trigonometry and dynamics,
of every branch of mathematics, of
the laws of light, that proper allow
ances may be made for refraction in
the calculation of distances. There
is scarcely a branch of learning of
which some knowledge is not needed
in the management of a modern bat
tleship.
great many people consider the
money invested in battleships wasted.
In one sense this view may be cor
rect. But really the waste is not in
the construction of the battleship,
but rather in the conditions which
made its construction necessary. In
the same sense that a battleship re-
presents a waste the money paid a
policeman is wasted. He is not a
producer Of anything. He tolls not,
neither does he spin. But we need
him. nevertheless, and in reality an
efficient police force is an economy
rather than the reverse. II there
were no evil and no tendency to dis
order there would be no need for
police protection. The waste is not
in the employment of the officer, but
in the conditions which make US need
him. And, while a navy costs money
its absence would cost us much more.
And as we must have a navy, it
would be a wicked waste to have
anything but good cne
! The time will come when the ma
tons will learn how to get along
without war, when perhaps. some
SORT of :nternationa! police force will
curb the mischieyos tendencies of
brawling nations. big or little. We
may look forward hopefully to that
4 time. and when it comes a large
share Of the money now invested in
+ our naVies will be invested in pro
ductiye occupations. But until that
time approaches there is no possible
escape from the continuation of the
l expense Of powerful navy. The
battleship North Dakota stands for