AMERICAN NAVY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 139, 9 December 1924, Page 9

AMERICAN NAVY

BATTLESHIPS THAT ARE OUT OF DATE

SLOW SPEEDS AND OBSOLETE GUNS

"FIRST LINE OF DEFENCE IS WAVERING."

Our first line of defence, the American navy, is ■ Wavering, declares Afilliam P. Helm, junior, in the "San Francisco

Chronicle." •If sudden war were to break to-morrow—as it broke over Europe within a few weeks in 1914—our fleet could not safely take the sea short of six months. It would take from one to five years to enforce our will in the Far East, were that the theatre of the conflict. Battleships, as wars are now -waged, are the most important link in the chain that comprises a modern navy. To gauge the condition of the American navy one does not need to hunt its weakest link in order to judge the strength of the chain.- What should be the strongest link has weakness enough to attract immediate attention. Consider our battleships. In theory, we have eighteen modern battleships as the backbone of our fighting force. In reality, we have eleven. Seven of our capital ships have been definitely but of any naval activities for at least a year! Those ships are the (Wyoming, Utah,. New York, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Florida. Here are the reasons why these seven battleships are unfit for taking their places in the line:—The Wyoming cannot be operated with safety at more than fourteen knots an hour. She was built for twenty-one. Her boilers are on the way to blowing. They should carry a maximum pressure of 200 to 210 pounds to the square inch. .They can safely carry only 160. The Navy Department, cognisant of this condition, has issued orders that not njore than 160 pounds pressure is to be maintained. .Those orders were necessary for the safety »f_those aboard." The Utah is in identical condition, and the same orders ] have been issued with respect, to the steam pressure in her boilers. The New York's boilers also are in bad shape, and soon must be renewed.. Maximum pressure, which is another way of saying maximum speed, cannot safely be maintained. Time and corrosion of her tubes have made her practically unfit to take her place in line. The Texas is in the same condition as the New York. The Arkansas is not only unable to withstand safely a pressure of more than 160 pounds in her boilers, but she actually couldn't cross the Pacific without re-coal-ing. Her boilers are in such bad shape that her cruising radius has been'cut nearly 20 per cent., or from 6200 to 5100 miles. The Florida, another first-line battleship, can't even get up steam. Her boilers are definitely gone. She is at the Boston Navy Yard to-day, out of service until her-boilers can be patched up or replaced. That leaves the Mississippi. One of her turrets was put out of commission by an explosion last spring. A number of men were killed. The victims of the explosion have been buried; so, also, has been any apparent attempt to repair her turret. It is still out of- commission. Her gun-power has been reduced onefourth and will stay at 75 per cent, of efficiency until the turret is repaired-. When that will be, nobody knows. These seven vessels carry a total of * | seyenty-six guns. Our entire ■battleship fleet, including these vessels, carries 192 guns. Seventy-six from 192 , leaves 116. That is the number of gunswe could bring to bear to-day against - ! an. up-to-date enemy. In other. Avbrds,.' out of every five big guns on our; bat--tleship fleet, two are out of commission. '- In numbers our battleship" gui]"s—_areV I ready to .fire at 60 per cent of efficir 1 ency. . .„. ."' : BOILER TROUBLES. . . I Boiler troubles are not the only weak-' ness of the New York, Texas, Arkansas, Wyoming, Florida, and Utah. Chairman Hale, of the House Naval Affairs Committee, in a report on the condition of these vessels, says :—"These vessels were designed and built before the great.de: velopment in submarine and aircraft attack and before the development.of. adequate types of protection against these forms o£ attack. In their present condition these vessels would be so vulnerable that their employment iii time.of war would involve very grave risks. Not only -would dependence on them form a weak line in the entire plan of campaign, but also their use would entail unjustifiable risk to the 9000 trained men by whom they are manned." .;. As Chairman Hales sees it-, the NewYork and Texas also are handicapped by nre-coutroj systems that are "antiquated and inaccurate." The fire-con--tt-ol system determines the efficiency of the battleship's guns. In the case of the New York and Texas, it is estimated I that they are' from one-fourth to onehalf accurate in gunfire, due to faulty ! fire-control systems. .._-.,. A. Bill to bring these seven battleships up to the bare essentials if they are to take their place in line as fightine x unite was introduced in the last session i of Congress, but failed of passage. It ! wiU come up again in- the next session and may pass. In the meantime, the = status of the battleships cannot be alter- i ?u- ■ D C,(? nf ress has say- And when I the Bill does come up, that is only the' h?S™™Z- Even if the alterations -i should be authorised they could not be' made short of a year. To do that it would be necessary to distribute the ; ships around among various navy yards. If .the work had to be done at one navy yard it would take three years or longer. Admiral Coontz, commander-in-chief '.of the United States fleet, has this'to say of the condition of the Wyoming, Arkansas Florida, and Utah :—'These I four battleships have become unfit for taking their positions in the line and unable to support nearly every sort of operation. The statement is contained in his report of last March to the Navy Department. All the battleships named in the foregoing, except the Mississippi,' are coalburners.- In operation they throw off a' volume of smoke that quickly would disclose their whereabouts to an enemy. Oil- ;• burning vessels (the other twelve battleships are oil-burners) do not have this fault. H was proposed to convert these six battleships to oil-burners. That proposal also failed of passage at the last session of Congress. Four of the battleships named can )n;il;e only "fourteen' knots., Modern naval battles..araiough't. at a speed of 21 knots or better. In a,naval 'engagement these four vessels, even if their boilers were nil strong enough to enable them to make the 14----knot, speed, would be worse than useless. Because of their slow speed theywould handicap the rest of. the" 'fleet. - They would either have to be abandoned altogether or the entire American battleship fleet would be slowed down -to 14 knots.^ _ . '.:/.. ":'.' ; ; From a tactical standpoint,, that, would be slaughter. The 21-knot fleet would' fitjrl it na?y \ai "cn-ri" the'"Americanyesfsl* w p»«k tlxctu oa, tine by one. Au

equal fleet of (superior speed could blow the American navy out of the water were it held down to 14 knots., So the seven battleships named could not, without inviting disaster,..'participate in a naval engagement. The lack of their presence would reduce the American battleship Heet Irom a paper rating of 525 850 tons displacement to 354,100 tons.