Evening journal., 1918-07-12
GERMAN WAR FLEET
MAY Be SECOND NOW
Seizure of Russian Ships
Has Probably Put Kaiser's
Navy Next TO England's
SOME DREADN0UGhTs
AMONG SHIPS TAKEN

nos,,,on NJ the Russian Navy following
tho collapse Of the Russian front un-
der Bolshevih influence, and are not
unmludful of the fsct that some OF the
Russian dreadnoughts may be aVall-
able for use by Germany against ihe
Entente navies.
lust what has become Of these vessels
is something that American and En-
santa oalolals have not been able to
ascertain, although every enort nas s
been made TO do so. How many anu @
which OF the Russian naval UNITS Ho
still afloat, and how many ana Wllloli .,l
az those anost have fallen In the nlsilus llsls
of the enemy is not known. tieIe
have been stories to the effect that thls
snd that Russian dreadnought or other
init had been destroyed, but they nave
not heen verified. and officials do nol
irnow TO what extent these stories
NAV have been inspired by Germany 10
ynIslead the Entente Governments.
V5hatever the fate Of the hussian
,,r,ts n became authoritatively known
todav that the Russian naval units
sbose completed or due for completion
~ tha end OF 1917, were sufficient Wheh
sdded "a the German Navy TO put the
cerman Navy ahead Of the Uniteo
states in sea strength and second onis
to Great Britain in sea power. ~
,hoea facts that have hastened the oe-
oIs,on M the United States governments
A 20 ahead Immediately win tne con
strnction OF new American dresI-
.,'o,sshts 10 be laid down at New norA
and other wards, as part OF the Amer
,can fhree-year shipbuilding program
~ naval increase, and the constructor
~ which had been delayed In order 70
n.hia - The American government 10
concentrate upon the construosion "a
destroyers, submarine chasers n ~
other pon-capital naval UNITS anu 'A
merchant ship construction. -,..
The most important OF the nuss,an
vrnr vessels and the ones concsrhlns
the fate Of which Entente naNel au
thorities are most concerned are uie
larger units, and particularly OF ureau- ,a
nonvhts The Russian Navy has I'M
nortsnt naval units in each OF us ior-
nor fleets the Baltic Fleet as Wen as
+ha Rlack Sea fleet. The advance ol
~ cernans In the Russian ballio
,,,.ov,nces as well as the naval oper-
s.tons undertaken in connection WIN
.he landing OF German troops IN flh-
,.nd mt Germany In position 70 optal.'
,,assession OF units Of the Baltic liees
rbo German military operations aiohs
- shores of the Black Sea, as WEI
as The capture OF the Crimea ana Se-
bastopol. were partly with a view 70
ohfsining possession Of the Russian
Black Sea Fleet. - a.,
The three most important units IN
the Russian Baltic fleet were the 1rssu-
nought battle cruisers Gangoot, PoiVa-
va pefropavlosk and Sebastopol, al OF
,.bicb were completed in 1911. Inese
sre sister ships. each displacing 25'5OO
Tons and eapable Of twenty-three knots
sneed Each Is armed with twelve II
Inch on,ns Of a modern callbre and pro-
tected nv A 9-inch belt Of armor. Ihey
were designed by prominent BRUSH
.hinhrilder. and are modern IN every
resnect Russia also had four Baitio
dreadnought battle cruisers, each ol
ps o0O tons. which were laid down I'D
to,9 and were due for completion IN
toI7 These sre the Borodino, lsmaii'
K,nhurn and Navarin, and their ae
signed epeeu was
knots. ~ ,..as.
model of i4-inch guns-nine such guns
arranged in groups OF three guns " suo
turret, In three triple-gun turrets, p
ing the number assigned 10 esSn snlp'
In the Russian Black Sea Fleet are
three powerful units-h an arg ssn' I
afloat-and all Of them are pattiesnlps
OF the dreadnought type. Ihes asS
the Ekatarina II, the lmperatrlSa MarlS
and Alexander III, begun at the SeDas,
tapol and Nlkolaieff works IN 1911 anu
oompleted lust about the time the Eu-
ropean war broke out. These patlie.
ships were designed for displacement
Of % 800 tons each and u knots speeu,
and each carried ten i2-ineh guns. Ihe
russian Black Sea Fleet also contained
some re-dreadnoughts. Botn the bal-
tio and Black Sea Fleets also had
number OF submarines and destroyers'
The BLACK Sea Fleet was formerly
commanded by Captain Stchasnlg.
london dispatch Of June 30 stated that
. Rolshevist tribunal had sentenced
,bis offloer TO death for having opposed
and agitated against the rule Of the
Soviet government. Ensign krylenko,
the Bolshevlh commander IN chlel
who demobillzed the Russian army
took the role Of prosecutor Of this Of
acer. Whether the Germans captured
the Russian warships in the Baltic has
not been definitely ascertalned. There
have been stories both ways. On May
4. the Cologne Gazette asserted that the
Germans hoped the capture OF Sebas-
topol would prove a mortal blow to
the Russian Black Sea Fleet, as 1t would
be without a base and unable to coal
and ammunition and to effect repairs.
TWO days later a Constantinople dis
patch received by way Of London, as
serted that German troops occupying
sebastopol found In the hsrbor most
Of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, in
cluding cruisers. destroyers, torpedo
boats. submarines and merchant ves-
sells and that this had been officially
announced at Constantinople. The dis
patch added that the Sultan Sell and
Hamidieh had arrived at Sebastopol.
The Constantlnople dispatch omitted
any mention Of battleships and did not
indicate whether any of the three new
dreadnoughts or the older pre-dread-
noughts OF the Black Sea Fleet had
fallen into the hands Of the Germans.