THE BATTLE CRUISER

By COMMANDER E. F. EGGERT, C. C., U. S. Navy

A great desideratum in building up a fighting fleet is economy in the expenditure of money and men. It is hardly to be expected that all such expenditures could be so made that all are represented in a general action, and one measure of the efficiency of a fleet is the percentage of the total expenditures that are then available.

There will always be special classes of vessels used for special purposes, which cannot be used for fighting, in a fleet action,, and they will require men that are therefore not used in battle. There are, on the other hand, vessels that will always be valuable in a general action, such as the battleship, the destroyer, and the submarine-real fighting ships-and we might say that their crews are fighting men. How many of the others though are non-combatants?

Are cruisers fighting ships? To be sure, a cruiser will fight a cruiser or a vessel inferior to herself, but she is wasted capital in a general action, as she cannot inflict damage on a capital ship. The same may be said, to a large extent, of the battle cruiser; indeed it might be asked, is the battle cruiser intended to fight in a general action?

This is usually answered in the affirmative, and it is probable that the first intent was that the battle cruiser should be employed in a general action as a battleship, though of course in a special organization, such as a fast wing. That this is, however, the

present idea, is to be doubted, and that such ships, in action, can be considered as anything more than inferior battleships is open to question.

Cruisers have always been required for purposes other than use in a fleet action, and even in the days of wooden ships, when the only essential difference between the type used for fighting and the type used for cruising was a matter of size of ship and numbers of guns, the cruiser type was used strictly for the special work of its type, and was rarely employed in a general battle. It is likely, however, that this was due more to the fact that sufficient numbers of the type were never available, rather than to an idea that the type was unsuitable for fighting.

Modern cruisers, even the battle cruiser, differ in a much greater degree from the type that has been accepted as the most suitable for fighting in a general action, and it can hardly be denied that in an engagement of battleships the cruiser type, as exemplified by the modern scout, and to a less degree by the battle cruiser, could not be used for heavy work.

It becomes then a question how much money we can afford to spend for a type of ship that should be on hand in considerable numbers, and yet is not available to be drawn into the line of battle for work against the main body of the enemy fleet. In the long run, it always means that money expended on such ships. means less money available for fighting ships.

It seems hardly necessary to argue that if all the ships used for scouting and screen purposes could also be effectively used in action against capital ships, their value would be greatly enhanced, and money expended to build them would be not only more wisely expended, but also more easily obtained.

Let us therefore examine into the reasons why the present ships of these classes are not fit for fighting capital ships, and see if some method cannot be suggested to overcome the handicap under which they fight.

The scout cruiser need hardly be investigated at all, since its weaknesses in action are well known. With no protection at all against the battery of a battleship, this vessel also lacks offensive power suitable for use against a capital ship. Its 6-inch battery need not be expected to make any impression on a capital ship, even at short range, and at long range it could not even reach.