"Eagles" went from New York to Inverness, Scotland, over a 4,500-mile course, and after they had steamed 11,500 miles officers confirmed their seaworthiness and their fitness for the task for which they were built. Several sailed to Arctic waters, through fields of ice. They were used to maintain dispatch service between ports in Northern Russia, in which duty Admiral McCully reported they were very successful.
Orders for many mine-sweepers were placed early in 1917, their design permitting their construction by certain companies without interfering with the building of naval or merchant craft. Some were built at the Puget Sound and Philadelphia navy yards. The new mine-sweepers proved exceptionally seaworthy. Thirty-six were employed in sweeping the mines in the North Sea. In addition to the vessels designed and built for this purpose, we employed a fleet of privately-owned ships of all sorts and sizes, which were fitted out and used first as patrol and then as mine-sweepers.
While war was on, construction had to concentrate on destroyers and other anti-submarine craft. However, we completed two battleships, the Mississippi and New Mexico, and practically finished the Idaho; but work was suspended on capital ships that were not already far advanced.
Hostilities ended, attention was turned to the completion of the program authorized in 1916. Should we proceed with the dreadnaughts and battle-cruisers on the pre-war plans; or modify the plans, but still build two distinct types; or abandon the plans altogether and build a single type to do the work of both battleship and battle-cruiser? These were questions that addressed themselves to naval administration. Officers were debating them. From London came the information that the British Admiralty had built a capital ship, the Hood, a composite of the dreadnaught and the cruiser, which was said to combine the advantages of both.
After consultation with leading members of the Naval Affairs Committee, and upon their advice, accompanied by Admirals Griffin, Taylor and Earle, heads of the Bureaus of Engineering, Construction and Ordnance, I went to Europe to learn, at first hand, what changes, if any, war experience taught should be incorporated into the new ships to be constructed. An examination of the Hood by our expert officers disclosed that this new ship had more speed than earlier battle-cruisers, though less than that of our design; a heavier battery, though of only about half the power of that of our projected battleships; and had protection much greater than that of earlier battle-cruisers.
FITTING OUT FOR DISTANT SERVICE
New destroyers built and equipped at a privately owned ship yard in Camden, New Jersey.
HANGING UP A RECORD