Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1913-09-26


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 genera
ton has grown up that knows her not, and she
of the flying squadron of 1898.
49, The commerce destroyer Minneapolis,
speed record breaking cruiser of the late ninetes
sister of the Columbia and, like her, of the
flying squadron of 1898.
49, The monitor Amphitrite
90 The monitor Miantonomah
21 The monitor Monadnock.
%. The monitor Cheyenne formerly the Wyo-
ming.
23. The monitor Ozark, formerly the Arkan-
"a. The monitor Tonopah, formerly the Ne
vada
25 The monitor Tallahassee, formerly the
Florida.
26. The mnotor Puritan.
27 The monitor Terror
2S. The monitor Monterey.
90. 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.
80. The protected cruiser Raleigh, Coghlan 8
ship at Manila.
SO. Twenty-eight torpedo boats.
Twenty years ago this feet of sixtythree ships
would have been a match for any naval organiza-
tion then afoat, 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 feet of naval has-beens' cost
the United States government more than $780,
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 64,435,225, and the cruisers, mon
itors and torpedo craft raise the total to the
$4,000, 900
What will become of these ships? Some are
now in reserve and there they will stay until
their end is decided upon. Will that end be the
target range the auction block and the junk
pile, or will they be permitted to rust away in
navy yards nominally units in reserve fleets
but in reality useless reminders of a 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 comeback
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 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 it will be
noted that there is included the entire fourth
division Of the great fleet that crcumnavigated
the globe in 1907 and 1908. This division was
made up of the Alabama the flagship of Sperry
when he began the voyage 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 hoo up to the world as en-
bodying all that was oest in the construction and
equipment of modern men-of-war of the battle
ship class.
The Atlantic fleet when it sailed out of Haipp.
tog Roads in December, 1907 was made up OF
sixteen first-class battleshilt and a look at the
makeup Of the Organization: shows that in a Pc
rod of less than six years geven, lacking one
of exactly half of those famoug ships, have been
relegated into the reserve, the first stepping
stone that leads TO junk pile and oblivion.
LESS FoLIAGE
This is (Ereat age"