The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-02-25
MOST POWERFUL
SHIPS FOR J, S,
10y VESSELS PLANNED tn
HAVE SPEED or THIRTy.o
FIVE KNOTS.
ADVOCATES BIGGER GUNS
Admira! Bsdger Also Gives House
Naval Committee Views on
Submarines.

|
Washington, Feb. 22.-The thirty
five-knot battle cruisers planned for
the new national programme will be
/ the finest and most powerful of their
class in the world, Rear Admiral
Badger, of the General Board, today
told the House Naval Committee.
With the highest speed ever propos-
ed for heavy fighting craft and main
batteries of ten fourteen-ineh guns,
he said they would be overwhelm-
ingly superior to any other battle
cruisers afioat.
On the new dreadnaughts, he said,
ten sixteen-inch guns, distributed in
five turrets, were advocated strong
lily by the board because all great ma
vies were increasing the size and
power of batteries.
Many of the latest European ships,
he said, carried fifteen-inch weapons;
it was reported the French were pre-
pairing to install fifteen-and-three-
quarter-inch, and rumor said both
German and British designers were
planning for seventeen-inch guns in
ships to come. With ten sixteen
inch guns, hes said, new American
dreadnaughts would be the most
powerful afloat.
Advocates Huge Guns.
A sixteen-inch shell would pene-
trate, the Amiral said, where a four
teen would be DETECTED by armor
struck at an angle. He cited the
case of the British cruiser Lion,
struck by an eleven-inch German
shell on her armor belt during the
Dogger Banks fight. The plate was
not penetrated, but was driven In.
Had it been a larger shell, he said,
the Lion would not merely have been
put out of action, but would have
been sent to the bottom.
Admiral Badger disagreed with
Rear Admiral Grant, chief of subma-
rines, as to the types of underwater
boats to be built. He thought the
1,2O0-ton fleet submarines and small
er coast submarines should be con-
structed, although no definite infor-
nation as to operations of 1,200-ton
boats in the European war was avail
able. Admiral Grant favored aban-
doning all other types in favor Of an
SO0-ton class. Admiral Badger saw
no reason. he said, why the 1900
ton boats could not be developed
with greater Availability and action
radius than the S00-ton boats and
with much greater fighting power.
Admiral Badger discussed the Ger
man submarine campaign to support
his belief and that of the general
board that although a million and
half tons of merchant shipping had
been destroyed the underwater boats
had not succeeded in seriously i'm
pairing the Allies fighting fleets.
Undue prominence should not be CIV
en- to submarines, he thought, in
working out the building programme.
:. Need Eighteen Big Ships. -.
Referring to the general boards
recommendation that the United
States Navy should equal the strong
est in the world by 1925. Repre-
tentative Butler asked If 1t would
not mean Immediately the construc-
ton of eighteen dreadnaughts and
an added number SUFFICIENT to equal
any new programme which might
have been started in England. To
propose any less programme, he
said, would be like trying to fit a
boys suit on may, so far as its eff
feet would go.
Admiral Badger admitted that no
smaller programme would accom-
plish the boards policy. He disa-
greed, however, with the suggestion
that small force might not success
fully cope with any probable enc