Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-28
NATIONAL DEFENSE PROBLEMS
IX-Lessons of the War-Batteships.
Battleships.
By Frederic J. Haskin

carry them. In the end, the authori- |
ties say, ship must meet the enemy |
and there must be a grapple to deter |
mine which dies first. The biggest |
guns are almost sure to survive.
AS far back as 1908, the General |
Board of the Navy recommended that |
continuing plan of construction be
adopted that would produce, by 1919, |
battleship fleet of forty eight big |
ships and smaller craft in proportion.
Beginning at that time it would have
been necessary to build two big ships
each year to accomplish that end. Con-
gress failed to keep pace with this
plan. 1t appropriated some years for
two battleships and some years for
one.
80 Ships in First Line
The General Board still held that
its plan to look to the future and pro-
vide navy of a given size at a given
time was the correct one. 1t there
fore recommended the building of an
! additional ship on years following pro-
vision for laying down but one. So it
came to ask for as many as four ships
| in a year. At present the building
plan of the experts is behind by the
! matter of eight ships. There are now
thirty-two battleships in the first line.
1t would be necessary, that the plan
| of forty-eight ships in 1919 be real
lied, that battleship production be
very materially speeded up.
The General Board has made the
same recommendation each year since
1908. It's mem bership has changed
over and over again, its guiding gen.
fuses have come and gone, secretaries,
administrations, parties, have assumed
! authority and given it up. But the
| General Board, the official expert body
to whom the task of determining the
size of navy needed is delegated, has
| remained constant in its belief that
! the plan laid down should be fol-
| lowed.
Expert observers and naval attaches
abroad have eXerted every energy to
learn the lessons of the European
war and have reported in minute de-
tail to the home government The
bureau of intelligence of the Navy De
| partment has operated as its clearing
| house. The General Board has
weighed all facts that have been de-
veloped.
Needs of the Navy
Now the President has asked the
Secretary of Navy to make to him a
report of the needs of the navy in the
face of the developments of the past
! year The Secretary will rely on his
experts and those men will repeat the
advice that they have given each year
since 1903. There is, they will say,
nothing in the present conflict that
| disproves the correctness of their old
position. The nation should have
| forty eight battleships in 1919 and
the necessary auxiliaries to make up
a well-balanced fleet
The second element in a welI-bal-
anced fleet, in the opinion of the
General Board, is the destroyer.
Whenever battleship is put into
commission four destroyers should ac-
| ha 80
the fleet, the screens of the dread
| naughts. They do the work that is
performed by battle cruisers in the
navies of Europe, for the American
fleet manages to get along without
cruisers because they are not so nearly
indispensable as are battleships or de-
stroyers and there is no money for
| trimmings.
Sea Going Submarines
The United States now has building
few great, sea-going submarines that
are believed to be the most ambitious
machines of the kind in the world.
The nation of the west usually leaps
to the ultimate of the possibilities of a
new development much quicker than
do European countries. In addition
nearly a score of coast defense sub
marines are now being built These
are of a much smaller type and are
not intended to attempt the very diff
ficult feat of operating with the fleet.
The General Board has not changed
its view since it made its last official
declaration on the character of the
fleet which was as follows
I'm the matter of battleships the
General Board remains Of the opinion
that it has always held, that command
of the seas can only be gained and
held by vessels than can take and keen
the sea in all times and in all wealth
ers, and overcome the strongest enemy
vessels that may be brought against
them. Other types are valuable and
have their particular uses, all of which
are indispensable but limited in char
acter. But what has been true
throughout all naval wars of the past,
and what is equally true to-day. is
that the backbone of any navy that
can command the sea consists of the
strongest sea-Going, sea-keeping ships
of its day-its battleships."
The experts cite the fact that. at
the termination of the Civil War. the
monitor was hailed as the battleship
of the future. But the monitor soon
proved its limitations When the de-
stroyer was first brought to a high de-
gree of efficiency, with speed exceed
ing any battleship, with its torpedo
tubes handy for the launching OF those
deadly missiles, with the possibility of
stealing in upon the big ships in fog
or darkness. 1t was hailed as sounding
the death knell of the big ship. So
! with the submarine. Yet the big ship
still survives and in it still lies the
possibility of making the United
States immune to attack.
The experts will warn the nation
J against the neglect of the develop
ment of this keystone of the fleet in
! favor of under water craft.