Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1911-10-12
BIG JAPANESE NAVY
Rear Admiral Motoki Tells of
Great Progress Made.
Work Done at Four Ship Building
Yards Enables Japan to Attain
Position in Front Rank of
Naval Powers.

London.-The development by the
Japanese of their naval resources
since the end of the war with Russia
is a subject about which not much In
formation OF an authentic character
had been divulged, but a flood OF light
was shed upon the matter in the pa
pers read by delegates from Japan at
the International Congress OF Naval
Architects, just held in London.
Rear Admiral Motoki Kondo, the In.
spector-general OF Japanese naval con.
struction, who contributed a paper on
the progress of his department, dealt
first with the four navy yards, two OF
which, those at Yokosuka and Kure,
have launched eight armored ships
since 1905 1t must be remembered
that before that year the largest YES
sci built in Japan was four-thousand'
ton protected cruiser.
Yokosuka dockyard was started in
1865, and its first dock opened in 1870.
Only wooden ships were built until
1885. and from that year until 1905
only gunboats and small cruisers. To-
day the yard employs more than eight
thousand men and occupies 116 acres,
having two large and three small
building slips and four craving docks,
all of which will take any warship
afioat.
The Kure navy yard was begun only
in 1889, but il now rivals the Yoke
suka. having two large slips, besides
smaller ones for torpedo craft, and
two craving docks, with two others
under construction. Here guns and
gun mountings are manufactured, the
progress in output having been suffi-
cient to supply the armament Of al
most all the warships built in late
years. Kure also possesses steel and
armor plate works, the latter plant
having been started in 1902. The ar
NOR is made by special process de-
vised by Japanese engineers, and has
given good results
The two other navy yards, the
Sasewo and the Maidzuru, are on
smaller scale being used for repair
work and the construction of small
craft In addition, there are now two
private shipyards capable of building
armorclads. one at Nagasaki, the other
at Kobe Each has just received an
order for a battle cruiser similar to
the ship ordered in England last year,
while fourth vessel of the same type
is building at Yokosuka.
In the course of his paper on naval
engineering in Japan, Rear Admiral
Terugoro Fulfil stated that these four
bines would have engines of $1,000
horsepower Their displacement is to
be 27,500 tons, and with their high
speed and gun power, when they are
completed in 1914 they will make a
potent flying squadron in the Pacific.
The turbine has been adopted for all
ships begun since 1905, some vessels
being fitted with the Curtis turbine,
and others with that of the Parsons
type. The boilers in use in the Jap
anese navy are of a new design, first
tried in a cruiser in 1903. These
navy type" boilers. as they are
called, will be installed in the new
battle cruisers. Previous armorclads
built in Japan had been fitted with
Miyabara boilers the invention of the
Japanese admiral of that name.
Side by side with the development
in warship building capacity, mer-
chant ship-building in Japan has also
made progress, as is shown by the
paper on this subject contributed by
the director OF the mercantile marine
bureau. He begins by saying that in
1853. when an American fleet, under
Commodore Perry appeared off the
japanese coast, the shogun's govern
ment was surprised at the enormous
size of the warships and awakened
from the indolent dreams of the past.
The gross tonnage of vessels built
under the shipbuilding encouragement
law from 1897 TO 1910 was 2S6, sol tons.
Japan is not, however, perfectly self
supporting as regards the supply OF
steel for shipbuilding, as although the
government works opened in 1893 can
produce 100000 tons yearly, builders
have still TO import foreign material.
But the progress made during the
last decade is sufficiently striking. en-
aiding Japan, as II has done, to reach
and maintain a position in the front
rank of the naval powers of the world.