Evening star., 1925-03-26
CHAPTER III.

Besides the function OF defending
our coasts and possessions, which in
wolves as q prime act seeking out the
enemy and destroying him, one of the
principal reasons for the existence of
the Navy is to protest the commerce
of the nation against enemy attack
and to seek out and destroy enemy
commerce. Suppose for moment
that two countries al war should de-
eide that their commerce can be pro-
tected by planes or airships Two en-
emy merchant ships meet in bad
weather, SO bad that planes cannot be
used. One side has a, gun and uses It.
The side which did not have the gun
would mostly surely make up its
mind to fit a gun and bigger one at
the next opportunity. The other side
then selects a bigger gun and maybe
a little armor, and before long the old
circle which led to the creation of
the original warship to protect mer-
chant fleets is completed and battle
ships appear again.
Another most important point in
this question of ships OF the water
and ships OF the air is that OF their
ability to operate under any condi-
tions of weather and without regard
to location. 1 have already spoken of
delays occasioned by bad weather in
Washington. Even more recently 1t
will be recalled that in the daily
papers was described the trip of the
airship Los Angeles to Bermuda She
arrived at her destination in a pro-
tected harbor, with a tender and
mooring mast awaiting her but heavy
rains fell and her covering soaked
UP such q weight Of water that she
could not moor without the danger OF
being unable to remain in the air.
Until all nations are willing to
adopt the policy of the various Chi
nese armies in this last civil war and
agree to postpone all battles until
after the rain is over, there appears
to be but one answer to the question
as to whether a satisfactory naval
force should be of ships of the water
or the air. I have heard it expressed
that the vessel which will win con-
sistently will always be that one
which is ION the Job "a hours a day"
and certainly in the present state of
development that vessel is the fight
ing ship of the sea.
Since much has been said about
economy, it would be well to look into
that question. AS far as have been
able to discover, the attitude of those
who would substitute bombing planes
for battleships is that Is bombing
planes are superior to one battleship.
A modern battleship costs from $780,
0oO00 to s40,000,000 A bombing
plane costs about $4,000, so that Is
would cost $4,000 However. the
life Of a battleship Is generally ac-
cepted as 20 years, while the life of a
bombing plane Is but approximately
four years. Allowing so per cent for
requirements, which is believed a con-
servative figure, would give for cost
Of planes alone during 20 years to-
tai of s4,500.000. This also makes no
allowance for crashed planes, fires,
necessary training planes and protec-
tive combat planes. Even with these
additions, the cost is less than the
battleship, it Is true, but it is not so
much less when there is taken into
consideration the capabilities of the
battleship and the extremely re-
stricted field of the plane.
If 1t may be assumed to have been
shown that aviation cannot replace a
sea-going navy composed of ships. it
can easily be shown that aviation is
| most valuable auxiliary The basic
use for aviation in connection with
ships of the sea is that of obtaining
| Information. Scouting vessels always
proceed ahead of fleet to gain in
formation of an enemy at the earliest
possible moment. With airplanes, the
| field and range of vision of such
scouting vessels is increased enor-
| mously. Further, with fleets in con-
| tact and fire opened, hitting depends
upon accurate spotting of the shots
as they fall in order that corrections
| may be applied before the next salvos.
With airplanes to report the fall OF
shot, the spotter is raised to many
times the height of his old position
at the masthead and out nearer the
| target, so that his reports will have
much greater accuracy.
1t may also be easily imagined that
bombing planes flying from aircraft
carriers may introduce decisive fac
tor into an engagement. All these
planes, observation, spotting and
bombing. must be protected from at