Rocky Ford enterprise., 1913-09-26


16 The battleship Ohio, still in the Atlantic
fleet but slated to leave in the near future never
to return.
II. The commerce destroyer Columbia SO long
missing in the news of the navy that genera
uon has grown up that knows her not, and she
of the flying squadron of 1898.
49, The commerce destroyer Minneapolis, a
speed record breaking cruiser OF the late ninetes
sister of the Columbia and, like her. of the
flying squadron of 1898.
10. The monitor Amphtrite.
20. The monitor Miantonomah.
81. The monitor Monadnock.
%. The monitor Cheyenne formerly the Wyo-
ming
2s The monitor Ozark formerly the Arkan-
"a The monitor Tonopah. formerly the Ne
vada.
25. The monitor Tallahassee, formerly the
Florida.
26 The minotor Puritan.
81. The monitor Terror.
2S. The monitor Monterey.
90 The protected cruiser st. Louis.
30. The protected cruiser Charleston.
81. The protected cruiser Milwaukee
80. The protected cruiser Newark
33. The protected cruiser Chicago
"a. The protected cruiser Cincinnati.
80. The protected cruiser Raleigh, Coghlan'A
ship at Manila.
SO. Twenty-eght torpedo boats.
Twenty years ago this fleet of siXtythree ships
would have been match for any naval organza-
Great Britain. Today all the vessels in 1t could
not last half an hour in battle with the five
dreadnaughts that constitute the great first dfvi-
sion of the United States Atlantic fleet
And this mighty fleet of naval has-beens cost
the United States government more than $129.-
100000 and the oldest among them. not including
the old monitors, is not yet twenty-five years old.
The battieships in it to build and equip cost the
government $64435,225. and the cruisers mon
ltors and torpedo craft raise the total to the
1929 100000.
What will become of these ships? Some are
now in reserve and there they will stay until
their end is decided upon VIII that end be the
target range or the auction block and the junk
pile or will they be permitted to rust away In
navy wards nomnally units in reserve fleets
but in reality useless reminders of navy
that in its day great but which, owing to
marvellous progress In naval construction has
reached Quickly but surely that state of obsolete
ness from which there can be no come back
The Oregon and the Olympia will probably be
retained for generations TO come as glorious re-
minders to Americans of future years of the
navy that won Immortality in the brief conflict
that wiped Spain off the map of the western
world and which added to American territory an
island empire in the far east and won for this
country for the first time full. free recognition
by all the nations of the world of the right to be
numbered among those powers whose mission
and influence is world wide
In the lineup of the has BEEN fleet 1t Will be
noted that there is included the entire fourth
division of the great fleet that circumnayigated
the globe in 1907 and 1908. This division was
made up of the Alabama. the flagship of Sperry
when he began the voyage as a division com
mander the Kentucky the Kearsarge and the
Illinois, In that fleet three of the vessels of the
third division are also listed among the
obsolete fighters the ships in question being the
Ohio the Missouri and the Maine all sister ships
and in their day held up to the world as EN-
bodying all that best in the construction ant
equipment of modern men-of-war of the battle
ship class.
The Atlantic fleet when it sailed out of Hamp
ton Roads in December, 1907, was made up o.
sixteen firstclass battleships, and look at the
makeup of the organization shows that In pc
riod of less than six years seven, or lacking one
of exactly half of those famous ships. have beer
relegated into the reserve, the first stepping
stone that leads to junk pile and oblivion
LESS FOLIAGE.