The Washington herald., 1915-09-19
NEWSOF ARMY, NAVY AND MARINE CORPS
Be and

Four battleships and two battle cruisers
are said to be the building program rec
commended by the general board In pre-
liminary report which Is now In the
hands Of the President. What action the
President and the Secretary of the Navy
will take on the recommendations OF the
general board it is believed will be given
out at the same time that the admins
stration's army policy is made public. The
matter has not gone so far as to bring
under consideration in the Navy Depart
ment what size of battle cruiser will be
built If any Of this class Of capital ship
is authorized. The department from time
to time has also had under consideration
scout cruisers of 10000 tons as well rs
battle cruisers of 1000. The speed ranges
from twenty-five to thirty-five knots per
hour In all proba bility the type OF bat
tie cruiser that will be adopted will have
a speed of about thirty knots and carry
from seven to eight-inch armor. This Is
the most prevalent type of battle cruiser
lIdl mas pcSu puiiS by siAS 1AAN-~-- ~
German navies and is looked on with
more favor than any other by the United
States Navy Department. They Will
probably carry H-inch guns. although II
has been suggested that it~would be a
good plan to arm them with 16-inch guns
like the one already built by the Navy
Department
The question as to how many subma-
rines will be needed for coast defense
and to operate with the fleet is now en-
gaging the attention Of the Navy Depart
ment On account of recent develop
ments in the construction of submarines
no settled policy has yet been adopted.
but it is probable that over 200 coast de-
fense submarines will be required to pro-
tect the harbors and the possible landing
the seagoing fleets of submarines may
add a hundred more to the number of
undersea craft. Reliable reports from
the operations of the German submarines
are to the effect that a submarine and
its crew are on duty, or rather are IN
active operation, doout one-tiaiu VI siiS
time.
A German submarine is sent to sea
generally for twenty-four days, and
when it returns to it's base it is laid
up for twelve days while its crew is
on leave. While its crew is recover
ing from the rigors of undersea duty
the submarine receives a thorough
overhauling and is placed in condition
for another period of duty of twenty
four days. 1t is estimated that it re-
quires about half of the twenty-four
days to make the trip to and from the
English coast In arranging plans for
submarine coast defense the United
States navy would be called upon to
deal with very similar conditions.
Bases would be established at certain
intervals along the coast. which would
depend largely upon the sailing radius
of the submarines. There will prob
ably be two lines of coast defense
submarines established. The outer
line will be held by the most powerful
and latest types of submarines; the
inner line by the older types of sub
marines: and both lines will be ar
ranged so that if the enemy should
slip through the outer line it would be
detected by the inner line of subma-
rines There should be sufficient sub
marines in both lines SO that the un-
dersea craft can be in constant touch
with each other by signals. Based on
this plan, it is believed that not less
than 200 submarines would be requir-
cd to guard our extensive coast line
and large harbors.
BY the present tentative plan for
the use of submarines with the fleet
two are allowed for each battleship.
These will be of the seagoing type.
two of which were authorized by the
last naval appropria ton bill. Based
upon the general boards building
program, which eventually provides
for forty-eight battleships. the num-
her of seagoing submarines required
will be about 100. OF course. if a
type could be developed which would
take the place of the destroyers. as
was proposed by the most enthusiastic
advocates of submarines, the number
of seagoing or feet undersea craft
would be greatly increased. This
would provide for approximately four
neet submarines for each battleship.
No program would provide for the
bui1din1 of all of than in ma wear