Evening star., 1941-03-21
Super-ButtIeships


gressional sources indicates that
Americas tWo-ocean Navy will be
the worlds most powerful sea force
not only from the standpoint of
numerical strength, but of size and
striking power of capital ships. AS
the Senate yesterday was approving
funds for construction of six battle
cruisers, a type of speedy dread
nought not represented at present
in our Navy, members of the House
disclosed that five of the new battle
ships included in the emergency
building program may have displace-
ments of from 10000 to $4,000 tons.
This would make them the biggest
warships ever constructed, by far.
The largest naval craft afloat to-
day is Britain's battle cruiser, the
Hood, which, fully loaded, displaces
about $4,000 tons. We have four bat
tleships of $4,000 tons under con-
struction. The exact tonnages of
Japan's latest capital ships, now
building, have not been announced,
but it has been reliably reported that
four of them will displace as much
as $4,000 tons each. We scrapped
four partly-completed battle cruisers
of 43,500 tons each, in accordance
with the limitation of ornaments
agreement, and converted two others
into aircraft carriers.
Suggestions for battleships of
$4,000 or $1,000 tons came from the
House Subcommittee on Naval Ap-
propriationS in December, 1889, and
there were subsequent discussions of
"super-battleShips" in the Senate
Naval Affairs Committee. The House
group requested the Navy to study
the whole question and to submit
report on the practicability and cost
of such sea giants. 1t was as a
result of these studies, presumably,
that the decision was reached to
build five battleships of unprece-
dented to mage. Naval architects
and con oructors long have agreed
that si'' ,os of almost unlimited size
could Je built and operated success
fully, but they have not been in
agreement as to whether such great
craft would be worth the cost. One
compelling argument used against
them in the past has been the fact
thot fha Cooo1 could mt
accommodate ships larger than the
5000 -tonners under construction.
But with the installation of a new
set of locks, now under way, the
canal will be able to furnish passage
for battleships of much greater bulk.
Battleships have steadily increased
in size as guns have grown in caliber
and number and as protective armor
has thickened. The largest guns
today are of sixteen-inch bore, but
there has been talk on Capitol Hill
in recent months of installing eight
een-inch or even tWenty-inch guns
on larger battleships. There are
reports that eighteen-inch guns are
being considered for the new super
ships. The dive bomber has neces-
STATED extensive additions to deck
and turret armor, thus increasing
the tonnage of most classes of ships.
AS battleships increase in bulk, how
ever, their speed and maneuverability
suffer. They are able to Offset de-
creased flexibility by formidable
striking power at great ranges.
Battleships are mobile floating forts
with vast offensive as we'll as de-
fensive potentialities. When our two
ocean Navy is completed, America
theoretically will be ringed with
thirty-two such floating forts. That
is first line of defense that spells
real security-in the future.