Pacific Cruise of US. fleet.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 7, 3 October 1907, Page 2

Pacific Cruise of US. fleet.

American files to hand by mail contain particulars of theprojectediaciiib cruise of the Itnited Sta,tea battleships. They also mention the report (recently cabled on the authority of a New iork journal) that tour now monster battle-ships, bigger tfcaa the Dreadnought, are to be added to the United States Navy.. . i Secretary Loeb announced on August 23 that a licet 01. sixteen battleships will start for the Paa c so.M time in December, via Ac Stiart Magellan, touching at ban i'rancisoo and also probably at 1 "get SoumL V destroyer flotilla will leave foi the Pnclc about the same time, but will not accompany tho battle-ships. Congressman Roberts of Massachusetts the trip of the battleship*, via the Straits of Magallcn is for tact ; ical reasons alone. "Yfe all boheve, ■ho remarks, "the Suez route .is the easier and the cheapor, but going by tho hard routo wo will determine some of our needs in the Pacific, particularly in the matter of coaling stations on the mainland. I have not the slightest doubt that 1,000,000d01. will be used up in tho Pacific route, but if the naval tacticians wish to determine certain things now is tbo time.' Representative Fobs, Chairman of tho Naval Committee, says the committee will probably ask Congress authorise four moro battle-ships of 20,000 or 25,000 tons, and added: "We may as well make up our muids now that it is necessary to maintain a large fleet in the Pacific. Our interests are too great on that coast do otherwise." . The details of the movement of tbe great battle-ship fleet around the South American continent aro being systematically developed on board Admiral Evans' flagship, Connecticut, and at the Navy Department, where, by the President's ordors, various bureaus are authorised to executo the plans for the fleet movements. It is settled that tho battle-ships, or atleast a number of them, will go to Pnget Sound. . The number will bo determined by the capacity of tlio sound to accommodate them.. The battle-ships will carry only 120 fathoms of anchor chain, and most of the water there is more than sixty fathoms deep, so, as safe practice requires that chains be not less than three times the depth of water, only a few. vessels can be accommodated