The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1913-10-03

16. The battleship Ohio, still in the Atlantic
feet 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 a genera
ton has grown up that knows her not, and she
was of the flying squadron of 1898
Is. The commerce destroyer Minneapolis,
speed record breaking cruiser of the late nineties
a sister of the Columbia and, like her, of the
flying squadron of $685.
10. The monitor Amphtrite.
20. The monitor Miantonomah.
81. The monitor Monadnock.
20. The monitor Cheyenne, formerly the Wyo-
ming
49, The monitor Ozark, formerly the Arkan-
sas.
"a. The monitor Tonopah formerly the Ne
vada
25 The monitor Tallahassee formerly the
Florida.
26. The minotor Puritan.
81. The monitor Terror
%. The monitor Monterey.
80. The protected cruiser ST. Louis.
80 The protected cruiser Charleston.
81. The protected cruiser Milwaukee
80. The protected cruiser Newark
33. The protected cruiser Chicago
"a. The protected cruiser Cincinnati.
35. The protected cruiser Raleigh, Coghan's
ship at Manila.
SO. Twenty-eight torpedo boats.
twenty years ago IHlS ue6I Ol SlAly-tHr06 SHIPS
would have been a match for any naval organiza-
ton then a1oat with the exception of the fleet of
Great Britain. Today all the vessels in it could
not last half hour in battle with the five
dreadnaughts that constitute the great first divi-
sion of the United States Atlantic fleet.
And this mighty fe 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 battleships in it to build and equip cost the
government $64435,225, and the cruisers, mon
itors and torpedo craft raise the total to the
$129, 900.
What will become of these ships? Some are
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 yards nominaly as units in reserve fleets
but in reality as useless reminders 81 navy
that in its day was great but which. ewing to
marvellous progress in naval construction has
reached quickly but surely that state of obsolete
ness from which there can be no Comeback"
The Oregon and the Olympia will probably be
retained for generations to come as glorious
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" feet it will be
noted that there is included the entire fourth
division of the great fleet that circumnavigated
the globe In 1907 and 1908. This division was
made up of the Alabama, the flagship of Sperry
when ne began the voyage as a division COM
mander; the Kentucky, the Kearsarge and the
illinois. In that fleet three of the vessels of the
thlrd division are now also listed among the
obsolete lighters, the ships in question being the
ONO the Missouri and the Maine, all sister ships
ana IN their day held up to the world as en-
oodylng all that was best in the construction and
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 I'm IF
sixteen hrstclass battleships, and look at the
makeup OF the organization shows that in a 10
rlod OF less than six years seven, or lacking ana
u exactly half of those famous ships, have been
reiegated into the reserve, the first steun,ng.
stone that leads to junk pile and oblivion
LESS FOLIAGE