Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-09-21
THE NAVY BUILDING
PROGRAM FOR SHIPS
What Action Of President and Navy
Secretary COn,emplates.
ADMINISTRATIONS ARMY POLICY.
Present Tentative Plan { r Use Of Sub.
marines With Fleet Two for
Each Battleship.

Ld(h 0dAliGSulf-
Four battleships and two ba. lie cruis-
ers are said to be the building prog am
recommended by the General Boar in
preliminary 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
IL is believed will be given out at the
same time that the Administration
policy is made public. The matter has
not gone so far as to bring under con
sideration in the Navy Department
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 as bat
tie cruisers of $4,000. The speed rang
es from % to 80 knots per hour In all
probability the type OF battle cruiser
that will be adopted will have a speed
OF about 80 knots and carry from seven
10 eight-inch armOr This is the most
prevalent type of battle cruiser that
has been built by the British and Ger
man navies and is looked on with more
favor than any other by the United
States Navy Department.
They will probably carry 14-inch
guns although ii has been suggested
that IL 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
engaging the attention of the Navy De-
partment On account of recent de-
lvelopments in the construction of sub
marines no settled policy has yet been
adopted, but it is probable that over
t%o hundred coast defense submarines
viii be required 20 protect the harbors
and the possible landing places of an
enemy. The program for the sea-going
! fleets of submarines may add hun
dred more to the number of craft.
Reliable reports from the operations
of the German submarines are to the
| effect that a submarine and it's crew
are on duty. or rather in active oper-
alton about One-third of the time. A
German submarine is sent to sea gem
orally for twenty-four days, and when
it return sto its base II is laid up for
twelve days while the crew is on leave.
While its crew is recovering from the
rigirs of undersea duty the submarine
receives a thorough overhauling and
is placed in condition for another pc
riod of twenty-four days. It is esti-
L .
| twenty-four days to make the trip to
and from the English coast In ar
ranging plans for submarine coast de-
| fense 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 probably be two lines of
coast defense submarines established.
The outer line viii be held by the most
powerful and latest types of subma-
marines; the inner line by the older
types of submarines, and both lines
viii be arranged so arranged that if
the enemy should slip through the
outer line it would be detected by the
inner line of submarines. There
should be sufficient submarines in
both lines so that the undersea craft
can be in constant touch with each
other by signals. Based on this plan
il is believed that not less than two
hundred submarines would be requir.
ed to guard our extensive coast line
and the 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 sea going type
two of which were authorized by the
last Naval Appropriation bill Based
upon the General Boards building pro-
gram, which eventually provides for
forty-eight battleships, the number of
seagoing submarines required will be
about one hundred. OF course if a type
could be developed which would take
the place of the destroyers, as was pro-
fleet undersea craft would be greatly
possessed by the most enthusiastic adj
vocates of submarines. the number of
seagoing or fleet undersea craft would
be greatly increased. This would pro-
vide for approximately four fleet sub
marines for each battleship. No pro-
gram would provide for the building
.of all of them in one year.