Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-12-24
GERMAN NAVY NIL
SINCE SURRENDER
Empire Has But Few Boats Left
and They Are Old
and Obsolete.

Writing Of what is left To Germany"
a naval correspondent Of the London
Times SAWS that "a story has come down
from the grand feet 10 the effect that IN
conversation the delegates of the German
Workers and Soldiers Council OF the North
Sea station and feet expressed some re-
rret that when the Allies demanded the
surrender Of a portion of the German
Navy they had not asked tor the whole
OF IL These German Scamcn are re-
ported to have said Anyway we have
no further use for a fleet : Whether there
he any truth IN the yarn or not u must
be quite certain that any German sea-
man. looking AZ the balance that has
been left. NAV we'll be Of the opinion
that IL is of little use TO anybody.
The estimated life Of a battleshlp Is
10 wears, bu, the relative value Of feet
must depend largely upon ITS containing
a fair proportion OF recently constructed
vessels owing to the constant progress
and development IN construction And
such development Is Of course accele-
rated by the experience and demands oi
var
HER wARsHIPS RkCX NUMBERS.
Further more aS already explained the
coming vi the drcadnaught made back
numbers, Of all the vessels which pre-
ccsiCd her IN regard 20 Germany, there
~ q third reason for marking down some
of the Older battlcsMpS OF the dread
naught era The four ships of the Nassau
tvpc were. IN point of fighting capacity,
far below the standard Of their con
tcnporaricS IN other navIer Thus IN
estimating the value Of the battle fleet
which remains to Germany IL will be
- al -
composed Of rrc-drcadnausht ships; that
the early drcadnaughts were not first
claSS Of their date, and that II Lacks
now tho later units which arc absolutely
,sscntial 10 make II effective rs fighting
'OrcC
roUR DREADSAVGHTS LIFT.
Of the dreadnaught feet which re-
mains TO Germany, there arc four YES
sells completed IN lall-l2 There are
The ThurIngen. OldCn nhurg, OStfrles IS
land. and Hclgoland. These vessels on
displacement of -. 400 tons carry an
armament OF - l2-inch, IL 5.9-inch,
- Z finch guns and are provided with
six submerged torpedo tubes Owing 10
he distribution of the guns IN SIX turrcnts
only eight Of the l2-inch guns can iirc
on each hroadsidC, and similarly only
haif the J 9-Inch guns. The thlckest armor
i > inches. on the turrets, and there Is
bolt with maNmum thickness OF /
inches on the watcrllnc. The trail speed
~ these vessels WAS 70 knots
FOUR OTHER oLD FIGHTFRs.
The still Older dreadnaughts com
nIe,ad in lo0o~lO are the Wcstfalcn.
Nassau Rheinland and Posen They
arc verv similar in appearance 10 the
,1seS btr. " ,trb moro rrarl,T,,l
there being an increase in the length OF
be latter of 20 feet. and IN the displacc-
rnent of between 400O-5000 tons The
.rmaincnt consists Of II ll-inch guns
mounted in SIX turrets, eight oi these
nuns firing on either side giving q broad
ssde firc II about 5000 pounds, which =
Inferior 10 that Of the drcadnaught
herself Nor In regard 70 speed and pro
lection have tho Nassau any advantage
over the British prototype
ALL II FIRST SQUADRON.
IN august 1914, the eight vessels
,ust named formed the first squadron
Il the High Seas Fleet, and the SEQ.
part 3 german navy nil Roberts
and SQUADRON was composed oi eight
hips Of the Deutschland and Braun
Schweig types These latter -ere pre-
dreadnaught vessels completed be
tween 1904 and 1905. tivc were Deutsch-
land and three BraunSchweIg~ They were
thc Deutschland. Hanover. Pommern,
SchlcsNIC-HolSteln, SchleSien, Hcs>cn,
Lothringen and PreusSen.
There was no very great difference IN
armament, speed and displacement oi
these two types. but the later vessels
are possibly a little better protected
The Pommern has twice been reported ~
sunk during the war She was FIRST said
10 have been tOrpedocd IN the BaltIc,
and afterward ship Of tins name was ad
uittedly DESTROYED At the battle oi
Jutland Possibly more than one ship
nf this class las gone, and, in any case,
they can only be oi nominal lighting value
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. oBsoLErE.
Il would not b. surprising. indeed. If in
All navies the prc-dreadnaugl vessels
were aid UP for good in fact. we seem 70
have -crapped all ours, with the exception
OF the KING Edward VII typo Witt
arruorcd cruisers il i as with the pre-
drcadnaughtS They have gone out of
date. and no nation a. built any for
~omc wears past IN this particular
class, also. q heavy toll has been d.
manded from Germany by the var
The Bluchcr wa sunk by gInfrc A.
me Dogger Bank the Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau went down before ~turdee
Fleet of the falkland Islands the
Yorck was destroyed by a mine IN the
North Sea tho Prlnz Adalbert va
torpcd0cd IN The Baltic BY a British sub
n arinc, and her SISTER the Friednr
Carl, has also been reported destroyed
There cannot, therefore, be more than Il
couple OF ships Of tins class left 70 Ger
many
DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT BATTLE.
sufficient has already been SAID to
indicate that after the surrender of
the units referred 20 IL the terms Of |
the ar1nlstice Germany Will have little |
OF value left in the way Of hight cruisers |
and torpedo craft Never was there |
more Wholesale dissolution Of d powerful |
feet by submission without battle
But, il Captain Pcrslus speaks the |
ruth, the battle which brought about |
F., he submission Of the German scanen was !
that fought OF the coast Of Jutland on |
Nav 81. 1916 After that, he SAYS. It |
was clear TO any man with a knowledge |
Of the facts that the High Seas Fleet |
would never again offer battle except |
a. q measure born Of desperation and !
despair
yUTLAED DECISIVE BATTLE.
IL was the result Of that battle which .
forced the submarine campaign TO b. !
pushed 10 extremes. and II was the failure !
d the submarines that led TO the mutiny
an the feet. As Captain Perslus says