The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1922-10-14

longer any official between the EN-
peror and his navy.
When Admiral Fisher evolved an
entirely new type of ship for England
in the shape of the "dreadnought'-
thereby surprising the world as if he
had launched sudden assault upon it
and thought that he had thus given
England, once for all, an unapproach-
able naval superiority which the rest
OF the powers could never meet, there
was naturally great excitement in all
naval circles. The idea, to be sure,
did not original with Fisher, but came
in the form of an appeal to ship
builders of the whole world-from the
famous Italian engineer Cuniberti
who had made public sketch in Fred
James Illustrated Naval Atlas.
At the first conference regarding
the Introduction of the "dreadnought"
type of big fighting ship by England
at once agreed with Admiral Won
Tirpitz that it had robbed all pre-
dreadnoughts of their value and con-
signed them to the scrap heap, espe-
cially the German ships, which it had
been necessary to keep considerably
smaller, on account of the measure
ments of our old locks, than the ships
of other navies, particularly the Eng
lish.
Thereupon Admiral Won Tirpitz re-
marked that this would also apply to
the English fleet itself as soon as the
other nations had followed Fishers ex-
ample; that England had robbed her
enormous pre-dreadnought force, upon
which her great superiority lasted, OF
us flghung value, which would neces-
state her building an entirely new
fleet of big fighting ships, in competi-
ton with the entire world, which
would do likewise; that this would be
exceedingly costly; that England, in
order TO maintain her notorious two
power standard" would have to exert
herself to such an extent that she
would look with more disfavor than
ever on new warships built by other
nations, toward whom she was un-
friendly, and begin to make objections;
then this would be especially true if
we started building, but would be in
vain, since, with the existing types of
ships in our fleet, we could not expect
to fight against big battleships, but
were forced, nolens volens, to follow
England along this road.
The war fully confirmed Admiral
L II pAl1 Op1ulOu. Everyone OIL OUT
ships not in the big fighting ship class
had to be retired from service.
When the first German big fighting
ship was placed in service there was
a loud outcry in the land of the Brit
ish. The conviction gradually dawned
that Fisher and his shipbuilders had
counted absolutely on the belief that
Germany would not be able to build
any big fighting ships. Therefore the
disappointment was all the greater.
Why such an assumption was made is
beyond comprehension, since, even at
that time, German shipbuilders had al
ready built the great ocean grey
hounds, far surprising our warships
OF the line in tonnage, which had oc-
casioned painfully noticeable competi-
ton to the English steamship lines.
Our big fighting ships, despite their
small number, showed themselves, at
the Skagerrak (Jutland) battle, not
only equal to their English opponents
but superior to them both in seaworth-
mess and in standing up under gun
fire.
impatient for U-Boats.
The building of U-boats, unfortunate
ly, could not be pushed forward before
the war to an extent commensurate
with my desires. On the one hand, it
was necessary not to overburden the
naval budget during the carrying out
of the naval law; moreover, most inn
portant of all, it was necessary to col
lect further data from experiments.
Tirpitz believed that the types with
which other nations were experiment.
ing were too small and fit only for
coast defense; that Germany must
built ''seagoing" submarines capable
of navigating in the open sea; that
this necessitated a larger type-which,
however, must first be systematically
developed. This took long time and
required careful experiments with
models.
The result was that, at first, in 1914,
there were only small number of
seaworthy submarine in readiness.
Even then more pressure might have
been brought to bear upon England
with the available submarines had not
the chancellor been so concerned lest
England De provoked thereby.
The number and efficiency of the
submarines rose rapidly in the course
of the war; in considering numbers,
however. one must always remember
that in wartime, U-boats are to be
reckoned as follows: One-third of the
total in active service, one-third on
the outward or return journey, one
third undergoing repairs. The achieve
ments Of the Uboats aroused the ad-
miration of the entire world and won
the ardent. gratitude of the Fatherland.
Admiral Won Tirpitz's tremendous
success in creating the commercial
colony of Tsing-tao must never be for
gotten. Here he gave proof once more
of his brilliant talent for administra-
tion and organization in all directions.
Those talents of his created, out of a
place that was previously almost un-
known and entirely without impor-
tance, commercial centre which,
within few years, showed a turnover
of between so and so millions.
The dealings with Richstag mem
bers, the press and big industrial and
world-commercial elements gradually
increased the admiral's interest in po-
litical matters, particularly in foreign
affairs, which were always bound up
with the utilization of ships. The clear
world-vision acquired by him as a
Travelled sailor, well-acquainted with
foreign ports, qualified Tirpitz to
make quick decisions, which his fiery