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Show Navy Lacks Men; Only One Battleship Fully Manned DEFENDING the United States today in active sea service there is exactly one warship, the 20,000-ton battleship North Dakota, built in 1910, Capt. Thomas J. Senn commanding. With headquarters at Guantanamo, Cuba, Cap- tain Senn commands the entire force that is ready to engage an enemy in either the Atlantic or Pacific. The North Dakota not only is able to navigate nav-igate the sea at its full 21-knot speed, but could fire every one of its ten 12-ineh 12-ineh guns and 14 5-inch guns. All the other battleships and cruisers cruis-ers and most of the destroyers and other vessels of both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets are tied up in ports and navy yards, unfit for active service for want of enough men to man them. At the Philadelphia navy yard are the battleships Connecticut, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan and Nevada; at the Boston navy yard, the battleships Utah and Florida of the Atlantic fleet, and Virgintn and New Jersey of the Pacific fleet; at the Norfolk, Va., yard the battleships ' South Carolina and Oklahoma ; at Brooklyn the battleships Pennsylvania and Arizona, and at New York the Delaware. The Pacific fleet, under Admiral Rodman, was able to negotiate Secretary of the Navy Daniels' excursion to Hawaii and get back to home ports, where the ships are riding at anchor awaiting full complements of men. At the Mare Island navy yard are the battleships Rhode Island, Georgia, Nebraska and Vermont ; at San Pedro, the Idaho and Mississippi ; at San Francisco, the New Mexico, and at Bremerton navy yard the Wyoming, Arkansas, New York, and Texas. Admiral Wilson disclosed the condition of the fleets when he informed the house committee on naval affairs that the North Dakota is the only warship able to put to sea with a full complement of 1,100 men. |