Relative Power of the World’s Navies.
In the Matter of Tonnage the United States Occupies Fourth Place on the List, Being More Than a Million and a Quarter Tons Behind Great Britain—Ships Now Building Will Give Us Third Place.
The navies of the world represent a tremendous amount of money as well as power. It now seems to be generally admitted that being prepared for war is the best way of insuring peace. If this is true, there would seem to be very little likelihood of war among any of the great nations of the world. They are all pretty well prepared to back up any arguments which they may find themselves forced into by a display of force.
Our own latest appropriation includes thirteen and a quarter millions of dollars for a battle-ship and three torpedo-boat-destroyers, with a million’s worth of “subsurface, submersible or submarine boats.” The battle-ship is to be of the British Dreadnaught class—a monster of nineteen thousand tons displacement.
Japan is building one of thirteen thousand one hundred and fifty tons, and Germany has increased the tonnage of some of her ships heretofore authorized to eighteen thousand each.
Commenting upon this the New York Sun says:
The Russian-Japanese War convinced the naval experts of the world that the big battle-ship must be the principal weapon of marine combatants, and the effects of the lesson may be seen wherever national ships are building.
Leaving out of consideration all vessels more than twenty years old, except such as have been rebuilt or rearmed, all vessels authorized but not begun, all transports, colliers, repair ships, torpedo depot ships, converted merchant vessels, yachts, vessels of less than one thousand tons, except torpedo-boats, and all torpedo-boats of less than fifty tons, the tables prepared at the office of naval intelligence show the strength of the eight greatest marine powers last fall:
| GREAT BRITAIN. | |||
| Tons. | Tons. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Built | 1,673,338 | Building | 234,660 |
| FRANCE. | |||
| Built | 619,675 | Building | 181,283 |
| GERMANY. | |||
| Built | 466,084 | Building | 121,978 |
| UNITED STATES. | |||
| Built | 388,519 | Building | 313,278 |
| JAPAN. | |||
| Built | 321,131 | Building | 106,740 |
| ITALY. | |||
| Built | 266,728 | Building | 73,700 |
| RUSSIA. | |||
| Built | 244,601 | Building | 131,094 |
| AUSTRIA. | |||
| Built | 122,756 | Building | 21,200 |
Were the vessels now in course of construction all completed, the order in which the powers stand in this table would be changed by the transposition of the positions of Germany and the United States and of those occupied by Russia and Italy.
Comparing the personnel of these navies, it is shown that the United States, with one thousand three hundred and seventy commissioned officers of all ranks in the sea-going corps, has actually fewer than any power except Austria, which has eight hundred and fifty-one, and in proportion to tonnage stands at the bottom of the list, having only 1.95 commissioned officers to each one thousand tons of her war-ship tonnage built and building.
Great Britain has 2.52 officers to every one thousand tons, France 3.58, Germany 3.48, Italy 4.60, and Austria 5.91. It is not practicable to give the proportions for Russia and Japan, owing to the conditions created by their recent struggle.
In midshipmen and cadets the United States leads all the nations save Great Britain, both absolutely and relatively, with one thousand and fifty-four in the service, or 1.49 to each one thousand tons.
In nothing is the tremendous size of the British navy shown more impressively than the figures of her enlisted men. Of these, exclusive of marines, she has ninety-five thousand two hundred and sixty-three, but there are only 49.93 men to each one thousand tons, while the United States with thirty-seven thousand men has 52.70, Germany with thirty-five thousand one hundred and thirteen has 59.71, and France with fifty-two thousand one hundred and fifty-three has 65.10.
Great Britain and the United States are the only powers that maintain aboard ship enlisted men other than bluejackets, and it is the intention of Great Britain to replace all her marine officers gradually by naval officers. No navy has a grade corresponding exactly to the British and American warrant officer, the nearest approximation of it being the chief petty officers of the other navies.
The United States has no engineer corps, and Great Britain is amalgamating her engineer corps with the line. The other nations all maintain the distinction which existed in our navy until the adoption of the Roosevelt personnel law.
Neither Japan nor Italy maintains chaplains, and many British chaplains are naval instructors.