Polk County news-gazette. (Benton, Tenn.) 190?-191?, 1913-09-25

u.s. The battleship Ohio still IN the Atlantic
eaet but slated to leave In the near future never
to return
n The commerce destroyer Columbia, so long
missing in the news of the navy that genera
ton has grown up that knows her not ana she
was of the flying squadron of 1898
"a The commerce destroyer Minneapolis,
sneed record breaking cruiser of tle tate nlnetes'
a sister of the Columbia and, Ike her OF the
flying squadron OF 1898
49, The monitor Amplitude.
90 The monitor Miantouomah.
81 The monitor Monadrock
%. The monitor Cheyenne. formerly the Wyo-
ming. 80,
%, The monitor Ozark. formerly the Arkan'
o. Tho monitor Tonopah formerly the Ne
25 The monitir Tallahassee, formerly the
Florida
26. The minot>l Puritan.
OF. The MONT HTerror.
) p rs-II'-. --Ths- radi,s7~ liser St. Louis.
satsTsunday with Ser Charleston,
saH Rvmer s MilWaukee
% Mss Tot np.. 1 1ssr c eInaisD.u
s. The fQa .Eteu cruiser Raleigh, coghlan''
ship at Manila.
So Twenty-eight torpedo boats.
Twenty years ago this fleet OF slxty-three snlpo
ton then afoat. with the exception OF the meet o,
Great Britain Today all the vessels In 1t could
not last half an hour in battle with the nVe
dreadnaughts that constitute 'ne great hiS' ui'f
sion of the United States Atlantic fleet
And this mighty fleet of naval hasbeens cos'
tho limited States government more than $12s'
OO0 600 and the oldest among them not including
the old monitors, is not yet twenty-five years o,u
The battleships in it to build and equip cost tne
government $64435,225, and the cruisers, nlon
roico
$129 100000.
What will become Of these ships? some are
now in reserve and there they VIII stay uhtn
their end is decided upon. Will that END De the
target range or the auction block ana the Junh
nile or will they be permitted to rust away IN
navv wards nominally as units in reserve fleets
but in reality as useless reminders or navy
that in its day was great but which, owing 10
marvellous progress in naval construction, mas
reached quickly but surely that state OF oDsoie'e-
ness from which there can be no 'come'DacK
The Oregon and the Olympia Will probably De
retained for generations to come as glorious re-
minders to Americans Of future years Oh Ine
navy that won Immortality in the brief CONNECT
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 a full, free recognition
by all the nations Of the world of the right 10 De
numbered among those powers whose mission
and influence is world wide.
In the lineup of the has been teet II VIII De
noted that there is included the entire fourth
division of the great feet that circumnaVigated
the globe in 1907 and 1908. This division was
made up of the Alabama, the flagship OF Sperry
when he began the voyage as DIVISION com
mander; the Kentucky the Kearsarge and the
Illinois In that feet three OF the vessels OF the
third division are now also listed among the
obsolete fighters the ships in question being the
Ohio the Missouri and the Maine, all sister smps
and In their day held up to the world as ein,
vir Ill hat was In the construction anu
equipment OF modern menof-war OF the battle
ship class
The Atlantic fleet when it sailed out OF Hamp-
ton Roads in December, 1907. was made up OF
sixteen irst-class battleships, and look az tns
T. 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 been
relegated into the reserve the hrst stepping
stone that leads TO Junk pile and oblivion
IEaS FOLIAGE.