Evening star., 1915-07-11
/.WAUI1IINT.

large enough and sufficiently we'll arm
ed to be superior to the torpedo boat
proper. 1t was not battle test but ex-
perience driven home in maneuvers
that demonstrated the vast superiority
States ship Gloucester "a converted
pleasure yacht) sank the Spanish tor
pedo boats Pluton and Terror during
the Spanish h-American war in fair fight.
1t was as If the little craft that had
been sung throughout the world by
poets as the executioner of the battle
ship vanished finally from the imagi-
nations of naval men.
-
For some years It has been SO COM
pletely eliminated that the destroyers
have quite lost their original prefix Of
torpedo boat" destroyers. It Is the
only thing that they have lost Instead
of diminishing in Importance with the
disappearance of the prey for which
they were devised, they gained steadily
IN engine power. size and armament.
and finally became an inherent part Of
the war fleet They are scouts now.
Tbie to hold the seas in any weather.
and to steam great distances at MAXI
mum speed. While they cannot vie with
Element them with a chain of intelli-
gence that no other form of craft could
supply.
For actual fighting purposes, also.
they are vitality necessary, and would
have been SO had the submarine never
been invented. This is because they
are absolutely the only craft that can
fight against their own kind.
owing to their own value as war
ships. the destroyers would have re-
mained an inherent part of the modern
fleet even If battleShips never had been
threatened by renewed danger from
torpedo attack. With the advent Of
the submarine, however. they assumed
instantly new and enormous value.
because they have had to resume their
undeniably terrible reincarnation Of
their old enemy.
AT present the dreadnaught Is weak
against the undersea torpedo boat The
battleship's great batteries of rapid fire
guns hardly can be considered as de-
lenses, because by the time dread
naught's crew sights the periscope of a
submarine and fires at it, the dread
naught's death warrant may already
be hurrying toward it in the form of a
torpedo. The only dependable defense
that the dreadnaught has is to keep its
engines whirling at top speed that the
submarine shall be unable to approach,
or to so change it's course when a SUBJ
marine is sighted that the latter may
be unable to send its torpedoes true.
The battlesihp has absolutely no other
protection within itself It's one and
only protection can come from only one
type of craft-the swift destroyer, that
can circle around a battleship. sweep
ing to and fro at distances we'll at the
limit of possible torpedo distances.
It is for this incalculab1e service,
then. that the modern fleet requires de-
stroyers. Peace maneuvers carried on
during past years, and in addition the
graphic illustrations furnished by the
European war. have assured naval tac-
ticians that the destroyer is not merely
necessary. but literally indispensable.
Under the stress of this need they
have grown into real warships, and SO
far as quality is concerned the United
States is well in the front with such as
1t has built. Thus the six destroyers
authorized by the 1914 Congress will
be of LOO tons, as against the 420 tons
of the first American DESTROYER Balm
bridge. The new ones Will, In fact, be
almost one-half the tonnage Of the At
lanta and the Boston, the first protected
cruisers built by the United States that
served as the basis for the present navy.
They will carry four 4-inch guns and a
hundred men.
-
But there are very few of them. 1t
mas Deon 6SCaDllSueQ ludL IOT ducQudlc
defense each battleship needs at the
very least four destroyers as its spe-
cial guard. They must never leave it
in war They never must be detached
from it for other duty. They must be
large enough to go wherever it goes
and hold the seas SO long as it holds
the seas.
Though the American. navy carries
sixty-two destroyers on its list. only
twenty-five constructed and authorized
are highly modern craft of more than
1000 tons. only twenty-six have 700
tonnage and the rest are about 400
tons, which is far too small for oceanic
work and confines them rigidly to har-
Dor and coast service. At the rate of
four destroyers to guard each battle
ship, the twenty-six effective armored
vessels in our first and second line
should have 104 seagoing destroyers
ready for battle.
The United States was the pioneer in
invention and adoption. but
it fell behind quickly in construction.
Though the 1893 Congress authorized
the building of boat, the Plunger, no
su bma rine actually went into commits
sion until 1900. Three years elapsed
before any more were placed in COM