Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 56, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1915 — WARSHIPS HAVE SHORT LIFE [ARTICLE]

WARSHIPS HAVE SHORT LIFE

Few Years of Real Usefulness, and Then the Scrap Heap, Seems to Be Recognized Thing. - When Nelson wentinto the battle of Trafalgar his flagship, the famous old .Victory, wet more than forty years Things are different nowadays. In the twentieth century a warship begins to grow obsolete a tew months

ly* old-fashioned at ten years of age and in the junk heap flee years later. The German cruiser Bluecher, a fine ship, completed less than five years ago, owes her present position at the bottom of the North sea to the fact that the rush/of progress in naval designing had made it impossible for bar to keep up with the pace in the up-to-the-minute contest ; In Nelson’s time warships were kept id the first line until they were worn out by hard use. In our day warships we not given a chance to wear out.

They become old-fashioned and obsolete while their engines and guns and armor are still as good as on the day of. completion. That ib one reason why it is so* much more expensive to maintain a navy than it used to be. —Cincinnati Times-Star.