The Washington herald., 1915-10-17
Different Types Of Warships
That Constitute a Modem Navy
Our Naval Construction Experts Face Difficult Task in
Deciding Upon This or That Type of Ship.
Obsolete Warshps Are Useless.

!, crete forts or on movable carriages
moving on rails. In this position they
would have a chance to surv:"e in
stead of being sunk en- bloc by few
well-directed shells fired into the yes
sells hull. 1t is absolutely certain that
no nation proposing to attack the
United States on would send over
Ia1y antiquated types of ships with
which our older battleships could en-
gage on equal terms.
The armored cruisers place has
been taken by the battle cruiser We
have thirteen of these ships. Their
luselessness arises from the fact that
they cannot engage with battle cruis-
IerS IN action while they are far too
slow to catch modern light cruisers
AS patrol ships their size and the en-
pense of running them is against
them. not to mention the loss of life
entailcd in the event of disaster At
the beginning of the present war Great
Britain patrolled the North Sea with
| armored cruisers of the Cressy,
hawke and Hermes type with the re-
suit that when one was sunk by q
submarine or mine hundreds of lives
were lost. Now she uses trawIers and
old torpedo boats for the same pur-
pose The same objections apply to
the protected" cruisers of which we
have about thirteen of various ages
lheE are too large and expensive for
the work they can do or course all
of these cruisers can he used as conf
merce deStroyers in time of war. I;ut
| the battle cruisers. fast and light
cruisers of the enemy would soon clear
them from the seas. The old destroy
! ers and torpedo boats of which We
/ nav" about 10. not to mention a he
tcroSenous collection of old scows
that we preserve under the title Of
'gunhoats." can all be used for patrol
ana submarine hunting purposes. Even
they, however. are rather expensive
! Tor this work as compared with motor
n"atS and converted steam trawlers.
What Other Nations Have.
I turning now to the modern types of
Warshlps. We ind that we possess two |
! semi readnoughts. thirteen Dread
noushts built or buildinI and two or
dered. The whole of the latter are /,
speed of e0.50 knots. Three of them !
are "super-DreadnOughts" Is to |
say. they have better than 12-inuch |
guns. As compared with this. Germany |
possesses eighteen ships which can op-
crate together ut speed of twenty !
knots. Only fOur of these ships are |
super-Dreadnoughts. and four of them |
have only 11-inch guns.
japan has six Dreadnoughts built or
knots. Three of these. however now
under construction. may Re battle
cruisers. France has built and build
ing sixteen Dr"adnOughts with fleet
speed Of twanty-one knots OF these
twelve are super-Dreadnoughts In adj
diti"n I" these France has six power
full semi mi-DreadnOughts. On the basis.
therefore, of battleships built and
building France ranks third of the
navies of the world and we'll ahead of
the United states. Neither France nor |
the United States has as vet any hat
tie cruisers. Russia has eleven Dread
noughts or battle cruisers built or
building and Italy ten. Germany. in
addition to her eighteen DreadnouEhts.
has ten battle cruisers. of which two
have been reported sunk. and one is
IN the Rosphorus in n damaged condi-
ton. If we regard. as we must the
Austrian fleet as integrally part of
the German fleet. we must add to the
above four NOR" Dreadnoughts and
three semi-Dreadnoughts AS to any
changes that may take place in the
ownership Of any of the vessels mem
toned above as the result of the war
now raging in Europe the reader must
draw his own conclusions.
Great Britain has ten DreadnouChts
bnllt or building. as far as is known.
with a fleet speed of twenty-one knots;
twenty-thrce superDreadnouShts with
like speed: ten battle cruisers and
six ships Of the Queen Elizabeth class
that really rank somewhere between
tn" hattleship and battle cruiser. It is
clear that whatever contingencies the ,
naval experts may have in mind they ,
Will not emhark on program having -.
for its object the building up of fleet !
equal in size to that Of Great Britain.
Rmt they clearly contemplate the pos
Of bat |
second on the list. At present we are. ! ,
in capital ships. eighteen behind Ger | ,
many and Austria. five behind France.
and thirty-four behind Great Britain. ;
Over all other navieS we already have ,
Il substantial margin. ,
There is certainly a tendency among ,
naval experts to replace the Dreadnought ,
by the battle cruiser. II has to he borne ,
in mind. however. that all naval ship ,
building is comparative. The advent Of ,
the battle cruiser gave the nations an 9
opportunity to steal march on each ,
other hy building faster and faster ves- :
sells each one holding the palm for "A :
brief period. England. Germany. and !
Japan have all taken up the battle ,
cruiser. and the advent of the Queen ,
Elizabeth type-a compromise between a {
dren drought and hattie cruiser-indi-l
Gates a tendency to discard the old z
twcnty-knot dreadnoucht altogether. On ,
the other hand. il must be remembered -,
that the battle cruiser has distinct limi- !
tations in striking power and armor and ,
unless in a position to take advantage of
her speed will have the worst of the en- ,
As long as the enemy is re- ,
Guirpd to bring the fight to us. to use q r
pugilistc expression, our slow. heavily I
armored dreadnOughts will always hav" 7
the advantage over enemy battle Cruis-
crs. If We. ourselves. build battle cruis-
ers it will really he for the purpose of
offensive operation against the battle
cruisers of the enemy-not because they
will he able to participate more success
fully in n fleet action against the en-
nmy's battleships. =
wanted Light Crnisers.
In the matter of light cruisers. which T
all the other nations have been building O
in considerable quantities of late years. r
the United States is woefully deficient.
A modern light cruiser cannot be clsssed
as such unless she has a speed Of twen-
ty-fve knots. We have exactly three I
such ships. They are ten years old and 7
make exactly twenty-five knots speed. [
AS compared with this. it may be point d
I'd out that Great Britain has forty-eight. n
IF which twenty can make thirty knots n
Or better. Germany at the commence v
nent of the war had eighteen such ships, r
built or building. Japan has six build C
ng. France. like the United States, has n
neglected to build this class Of ship. Il
1t is rather remarkable that this should | g
be the case There Is no country with !,