Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 170, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 July 1919 — WILL JUNK WARSHIPS [ARTICLE]

WILL JUNK WARSHIPS

Twelve Vessels Have Outlived Usefulness as Fighters. 4 Historic Oregon Among Craft That Will Be Relieved From Active Duty. Washington. Twelve pre-dread-naught battleship® will be relieved of active duty with the fleet, placed out of commission and eventually broken for junk or used for targets by more modern vessels, under plans now being worked out by~the navy department. The ships are of the “mixed battery” type and are not considered to be of any value against’latest fighting craft. Four of the battleships, the historic squadron comprising the Oregon, Indiana, lowa and Massachusetts* have plready been relegated to the scrap beap. The remaining eight, apparent-

ly doomed to the same fate, are the Kearsarge, Kentucky, Illinois, Alabama, Wisconsin, Maine, Missouri and Ohi«_ • The twelve vessels, built between 1893 and 1901, represent a total expenditure for hulls and machinery alone of more, than 890,000,000. When placed out of commission they will release for other duty approximately 10,000 enlisted men and nearly 400 oflW cers. The ships long ago outlived their usefulness as combatant units in a fighting fleet, although when they were built they were among the most formidable war vessels afloat. AH of them were used during the war with Germany as training ships or coast defense units. Slow of speed, with small coal capacity. Inferior ordnance equipment and ihsufficient . protection against present-day projectlies, the ships, If hept in commission, would be more of a liability' than an asset, In

the opinion of naval experts. . They are armed with old-type 12 and 13 inch guns In the main batteries and eight-inch in the secondary defense. The.question of what to do with so many practically useless battleships after they have been placed out of commission is before the department at this time.