The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-24

again. as in the case of the araad-
 naught, set the pace in battleshij con struction. She will produce d new en- zine of marine warfare that will make 1t necessary for every nation in the world to revise naval theories and ideas, theories and ideas, indeed, which have not been fully developed. This new craft will be 500 feet long, which is 150 feet longer than the Queen Elizabeth. that wonderful floating fort
 ress which today stands as the pre- mier battleship of the world. She will
 be nearly 200 feet longer than the greatest American battleships. Her speed will be well over 30 knots pos sibly 35. It is the speed of an ex- press train. it is knots and knots faster
 than many of the torpedo boat de- stroyers of the American, or any other
 navy. This superdreadnaught de-
 stroyer" will not carry great armament nor will she be nearly so heavily ar mored as many of her younger sis ters. She will have only four or six,
 the number is unknown, 15-inch guns. The Queen Elizabeth carries eight. It will be her speed that will make her formidable. With her great guns, with greater range than any others in the world save those on ships of her own fleet, and with her great speed, she will be able to stand well off and send in blow after blow against all
 most any ship afloat. It will be like two men fighting, one with reach 10 inches longer than the other, like Jess Willard holding off some bantam weight at a point where he cannot even reach his antagonist and, with his long arms, beating him down.
 The tonnage of this new monster will be over 30.000, but it will not be tremendously greater than that of many of the superdreadnaughts of to- da ba wi box a bt111< tonnage will be kept down through less armor and armament Her vast in- teriors will be given over to engines and boilers, from which will come her great speed. She will burn oil, as will all naval vessels of the future.
 Some months ago there was notable engagement in the North sea. A squad ron of German battle cruisers came to raid the east coast of England. They did their work and started homeward, pursued by a British fleet. The Ger man battleship, or battle cruiser Blu cher was sunk by the pursuing Brit ish battle cruisers. The Butcher was traveling at something like 25 knots an hour. possibly more. but the great and fast British boats managed to over take her The Butcher was sunk be- cause she was slow, yet there isn't a battleship in the American navy with the exception of the very latest types, that can make the speed lHe DluCHeT made when she was overtaken and sunk What a squadron of four ships of this new type could do to the ordi- nary fleet of the day can easily be imagined. Ideas of battleship con struction will now have to be recast. The superdreadnaught of today will soon become obsolete, as did the dreadnaught of yesterday, and just about as speedily.
 At the outbreak of the war England had building number of battleships of various classifications, but all su- perdreadnaughts. There were also be- ing constructed in this country two battleships for Chile and two for Fur key These were taken over by the British navy. It Is difficult to say just how many ships have been placed into commission during these last IA months. but 1t is a conservative esti- mate that from 12 to Is are now on active service. The others will be out, I it Is safe conservatively to estimate, l by January 1. 1916.
 This means that between August I, 1914. which was just before the ac- tual outbreak of war, and January l, 1916, IT months, England will have placed into commission, new, and not counting a single ship of the prepon- derating fleet which she had in com