60,000-TON DREADNOUGHT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 6395, 23 September 1916, Page 1

60,000-TON DREADNOUGHT.

Could " Whip a Fleet." Senator Tilman, chairman of the U.S.A. Senate Naval Committee, lit* proposed in the utmost good faith the building of a battleship of (i0,()(l<) to'is. which shall be equipped with lo I,Sin guns, have speed of :tj knots, and rest £(1,000,000. He suggests thai this superlative dreadnought should be named the United 1 States.

With an enthusiasm for the primacy of America on the sea that, gives more credit to his patriotism than to his intelligence the seiuiior suvs : " She could whip the whole fleet of ordinary battleships. When the Oregon was built we thought her 12in guns invincible, her size—about 10,000 or 12.000 tuns —-gigantic, and her IS luiot speed marvellous. Every new type since has giine up a notch in power, speed and displacement. Why not take up hulf-a-dozen notches at once and have (lie most powerful ship in the world V'

Commenting upon (he proposal, Ihe New York Sun says: Senator Tilnian has no copyright upon ihe idea of the biggest ship in the world for the American Navy. It is popular in Congress. Xo doubt the mental picture of a ship twice as big as Ihe new giant I'ensylviinia, powerful enough to lick a whole fleet of ordinary battleships, has an irresistible appeal. But there is really no enthusiasm among the mivnl constructors tor such a mojistrosity. Would it not be belter to leave Ihe ,-ize and ordnance of our super-Dreadnoughts to tlieni."