Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-04-02

that the boat would be rendered unseaworthy
while a hostile submarine was unshipping its
gun.
If the range was too much for the older tyoe
of the submarine before the latter boat could
get its larger guns into action.
our Older type of destroyers still posscss
enough speed to hold their own with any ship
atoat. except the newest models of their kind
And to meet the new models developed by for.
eign nations we have ships like the Jacob Jones'
OF 1850 tons displacement and of great speed
THESE ships are armed with 5-inch guns a sim
gle shell from which win make a submarine
look like sieve. The thin plates of the under
water boats cannot stand the explosive power
OF the new form of shrapnel that has been de-
veloped for the purpose of hghting submarines
One or two destroyers of this pattern would
protect any port from the attacks of light
cruisers such as the Emden and the Karlsruhe
the commerce destroyers that created such
havoc on the ocean some time since.
The EElden was sunk by the cruiser Sidney of
the Australian feet off the Cocos Islands The
Karlsruhe Is supposed to have been blown up
near the British East Indies after the COM
mander of the ship found that the vessel had
been crippled by striking a reef
Our destroyers would be the shipS~ In demand
by foreign powers Every additional DESTROYER
means that the submarine menace is lessened
If we could send fifty destroyers to the English
channel. that is all that could be required of
feet
"Unbroken Line of Defense"
'T HE American navy has admittedly been
built on the principle of having an 'un-
broken line of defense" along the coast II has
repeatedly been announced that the fleet ia not
intended for offensive purposes or to attack any
nation. On this ground the designers justify the
SLOW speed that characterizes most of our ships
"a tactor that might prove serious in time of
war, so far as concerned
lt was all right to talk about the ''unbroken
line of defense" when battleships the world
over averaged only seventeen knots in speed
Ioday however, every leading nation In the
world has battle cruisers with a speed of thirty
knots-equivalent to thirty-four miles per hour
on land-and the United States does not nossess
single battle cruiser.
Several have been provided for, but IT will be
two years before they are in commission
we have some huge ships like the Arizona,
pennsylvania and the recently launched Missiu-
sippi What will their size avail IL submarine
torpedoes them? 1t is on the destroyers the
fleet will have to depend to protect those great
ships which will deliver the crushing blows IN
action.
Ihe l4-inch guns of the Pennsylvania con-
structed since criticism arose of lack of range
OF some of our guns, probably can shoot as
lar as the 15-inch guns of the Queen Elizabeth
the battleship of the British fleet that took so
prominent Q part in storming the Dardanelles
The Queen Elzabete has speed of twenty.
hve knots or nearly twent--nine miles per hour
and in this respect the British have shown
themselves cleverer than ourselve~ There Is
little question but that the Pennsylvania could b
sink the Queen Elizabeth IL the English, ehto
would agree to fight on even terms. But It is
certain that the British vessels would not Co
this 1t would steam away from our own bat.
ueship, trusting to its superior speed, and would
PICK It's own time and conditions for fighting