Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-01-08
NAVAL PROGRAMS
CONTINUED from Page one.)

err until the battlcship requirements
begin. The United States cannot
lay down new battIeship keels until
1881 under the treaty requirements
schedules.
There has been no Official disclos-
,lre Of the plans for the two new
British ships. Frequent items re.
Gently in the British press. however,
have given what appears to be q
clear general picture of the ships
which presents vessels so strikinEly
superior to anything now afloat that
they will queen the seas until 1894,
wnen the new American replacement
battleships can be commissioned.
Under the treaty the new British
ships may have a maximum size OF
, $4,000 tons standard displacement
I as defined by the treaty. That
means ships weighing $4,000 tons
without fuel or extra feed water
The American battleships Colorado
and West Virginia, to be retained un-
der the treaty, displace $4,000 tons
with two thirds Of their fuel and con-
sumable stores aboard. Roughly
speaking. they are 5000 tons or more
smaller than the probable size of the
forthcoming British craft. The mon
ster American battleships not to be
completed under the treaty are rated
at $4,000 tons, or, roughly, 5000 tons
larger than the British indicated
design.
The Colorado and West Virginia
each carry main batteries of eight
16-inch guns, mounted two to a tur-
ret, with a maximum range Of we'll
over 10000 yards The unofficial re-
ho D~.x.
with nine 16-inch guns each, mounted
| three to a turret, which would be the
| first British adoption of this Ameri-
can practice.
With the main battery consolidated
thus in three turrets, 1t is indicated
| that the British designers are pre-
pairing to use the huge deck sweep
for air-plane take-off, landing and
storage.
The indicated length OF the British
ships is close to $50 feet. The Am
erican Colorado class measure ga
feet over all and the abandoned Idaho
class 684 feet, so that if the unofficial
forecasts are correct, the British
craft will be virtually as Dig to look
at as the American ships which are
to be scrapped under the treaty. The
Idaho class would have carried twelve
16-lnch guns each, however.
Whatever may be the facts as to
the new British design, 1t is certain
that they embody every lesson learn
cd in the war an represent the judg-
ment of Britain experts as to the
most likely developments of the next
naval engagements to be fought.
When the United Stares may, under
the treaty, lay down new battleship
keels. it will lot be possible to put
superior ships IN the water merely by
increasing the size and adding to Of
fensive and defensive equipment as
has been the case in the past. 1t is
| only by refinement of design, by saw
ing weight in the ship .erself to per-
nit increase in her fighting power,
that an advance Gamble made.
And it is here that the vision of
naval experts comes in, Tor they must
gamble on the soundness or ,heir con-
clusions as to what future naval war
would be like. If they guess correct
ly and stress what is to prove the
dominant factor whc.a the clash
comes, whether it be speed. armor,
guns, torpedo, protection, aircraft, ca
pacity or the wise comoinarion of all
these elements, the snips thep plan
may some day have q deciding voice
in directing the course or world his