OCR Text |
Show AMERICA'S NAVAL POWER. What will be the naval rank of the United States when the warships now authorized and in course of construction construc-tion are added to those already In service? serv-ice? . The Statesman's Year Book for 1904. following the rating system of All the' World'3 Fighting Shins, ranks this country as fifth in naval strength, the order being Britain. France. Germany, Russia. United States, Japan and Italy. This classification does not include in-clude the navy projected cr in course of construction by this country. It credits the United States with thirteen ; first-class battleships, whereas the : number built and authorized to be built is twenty-five. Within the next four years the actual fighting strength of the United States navy will more than double. This increase will materially alter its rank. It will move from fifth place to third in the total tonnage of fighting vessels. The present rank and comparative strength of the five largest navies now and in 1907 may be seen I from the following table: 1 v Rank in 1907. Present rank. Great Britain. 1,867,230. tons L516.040 tons France 755,757 tons 576.108 tons United States. 672,525 tons 294,405 tons 1 Russia '. 558,432 tons 416.158 tons Germany 505,619 tons 387.874 tons In spite of the fact that the French navy will, still exceed that of the United Unit-ed States in total tonnage in 1907. yet the Naval Annual of 1304, a British publication of authority on naval matters, mat-ters, says: "The United States will shortly become the second naval p"ower of the world." This is doubtless a surprise even to those most closely in touch with the naval progress of this government. The ranking cf the United States navy above that of France probably took into account he comparative newness of the ships, equipment, and the probable prob-able fighting force considered apart from tennage and number of guns. Chicago Tribune. |