Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-07-16
Problem of
Future Navies.
BY Frederic ]. Haskin

Washington. July 15.-If the great
sea powers of the world should agree
10 cease authorizing huge sums OF
money for building batt!eships,
America would remain in second
place. with Great Britain first and
Japan a rather poor third These
positions would result from completion
of the construction of ships already
contracted for or authorized.
The present building programs of
the nations will not be completed
until about 1925. British losses dur
ing the war would put the United
States very close to Great Britain in
the matter of tonnage of ships of
battle. the difference being only about
10000 tons The ranking of the first
three nations in ship tonnage when
the present programs are completed
would be Great Britain, 100 900 :
United States, 1850 900; Japan. $780,
900.
These tonnage figures include only
first line ships-super-dr -dreadnaughts
battle cruisers, scout cruisers, de-
stroyers. submarines. and few spec
ial types Of ships. The figures do not
include second line battleshipS, shiDs
whose age or lower caliber armament
has rendered them virtually useless
as modern sea fighting machines.
The development of the dreaunaught
class made all earlier vessels vir-
tually useless. 1t was easy to demon
strate that one Of these vessels. with
greater speed and much longer range
guns. could stand off and destroy a
whole fleet of the type of fighting
ship which preceded it.
AM comparison of national sea
power must of course be relative. The
introduction of the seaplane as fight
ing unit has put new light on the
whole situation, but many naval ex-
perts still are insistent that the true
comparative values of the navies Of
me world must be computed from the
tonnage OF the ships of the first line,
with particular stress on the big gun
vessels such as battle cruisers and
superdrednaughts
So-calied second line ships still have
their uses in war. The blockading of
ports on coast lines, certain kinds of
patrol duty, and the raiding of COM
nerce carrying vessels has been dem
onstrated to be an important part of
maritime warfare, and there are many
vessels in the navies of the world
well-fitted for this kind of duty. This
is particularly true of the British
navy.
on known figures, American big gun
power apparently is greater than that
of the British Navy. However, the
number of 16 inch guns in the Brit
ism Navy is not known, and may be
large enough TO swing the balance
in favor of England. Big guns in
clude those of II inch bore and up.
Three Navjes Epitomized.
Latest figures show the strength of
the British Navy. already built. to be
as follows:
First line battleships, 26; second line
battIeships, 20; first line battle cruis-
ers, 6; second line battle cruisers, 4;
first line cruisers, 2; second line cruis-
ers, 20; first line light cruisers, "A;
second line light cruisers, "a; destroy
er leaders. "a; first line destroyers,
asa: second line destroyers, AZ; first
line submarines. IL; second line sub
marines. &C; first line fleet submarines,
Is: second line fleet submarines, Z:
cruiser submarine. /; monitor type
submarines, 2, and aircraft carriers, 6.
In addition TO this array of vessels,
now building:
First line light cruisers. 5; destroy
er leader, i first line destroyers, II;
first line feet submarines, IS, and
monitor type submarine, i.
The total number of British ships
IN commission listed above is III,
with an aggregate tonnage of 2,412,-
JAG. There are SO ships under con-
struction, aggregating 76,S90 tons.
The American Navy has in commits
sion the following vessels:
First line battleships. Is: second
line battleships, 16; second line cruis-
ers. 10; second line light cruisers. 9;
f,rst line destroyers, 260; second line
destroyers. 81; first line submarines.
43; second line submarines, A; first
Line feet submarines. 2.