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HE Telegraaf of Amsterdam has published a statement made by a deserter from the German Navy, a seaman of the first class who had been six years in the navy and received the Iron Cross after the Jutland battle. stated that in the Jutland battle he was aboard the Lützow, which was sunk. Over 1,000 were saved of her crew, which totaled 1,600. He was taken aboard a destroyer, which was sunk five minutes later. The following remarkable details of the sinking of the Lützow formed part of his narrative:

It was 8 o'clock in the evening. We were first hit by a torpedo behind the foremast below the water line. The torpedo penetrated the walls and exploded within the ship, killing and wounding a great number of men and destroying the food store. The watertight compartment before the engine room held good, and everything was done to support the bulkhead, with the object of preserving the ship. Gradually, however, her condition became hopeless. The staff left the vessel about 10 P. M., the crew remaining on duty. After the staff had been transferred to a torpedo boat the Lützow received another hit, which destroyed the wireless room beneath the bridge. Every one within was killed. Afterward the ship received four severe hits from fifteen-inch shells.

She was

now proceeding at only three miles an hour. At 3 o'clock in the morning the vessel appeared to be lost, and we were ordered to leave the ship. Four torpedo boats received 1,003 men surviving out of 1,600. Three hundred wounded remained on board, whom it was impossible to remove. Our torpedo boat was not 100 yards from the Lützow when it

was attacked by five English destroyers and two small cruisers. Our vessel was torpedoed and quickly sank. Three other German torpedo boats thereupon took us over. Some time afterward the torpedo boat I was on was hit near the engine room. An order then arrived to retire from further operations by developing smoke. A heavy screen of smoke hid us and the Lützow from the English. That was our salvation.

To save her from falling into English hands we were ordered to sink the Lützow with 300 of her own wounded on board. This order was executed. One of our torpedo boats torpedoed this great German ship, which quickly sank, carrying with it our 300 wounded into the depths. The English then left us in peace, and proceeded in the direction where the Lützow had sunk. Apparently they had not seen through the screen of smoke that the Lützow had sunk. While they were vainly seeking the ship we escaped and steamed at full power southward for thirteen hours. We were then taken over by the small cruiser Regensburg, in which we steamed for five hours more before our return at midnight to Wilhelmshaven.

It is remarkable that all our ships hit in the Jutland battle were hit in the forepart. Many ships were severely damaged while proceeding homeward. All the badly damaged vessels have been repaired, and new ships are serving, or are shortly to serve, in the fleet. Among the new ships are the Baden, Bayern, and Hindenburg. Shortly also there will be a new Emden, while a new Karlsruhe is already in active service. An Ersatz Blücher is on the stocks in Danzig Dockyard. The Derfflinger, which was seriously damaged in the Jutland battle, is again in service. The dockyards are now exclusively constructing submarines and large cruisers, because the greatest losses have been suffered in these types.

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This Lonely Woman, Still Faithful to the Martyr City, Only Emphasizes the Emptiness of the Once Busy Streets

(Photo Central News Service)

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A Mine Laying Vessel Sowing Its Deadly Freight Under Full Headway. The Mines Are Dropped at

Carefully Charted Points

(Photo Central News Service)

By Thomas G. Frothingham

Member of Military Historical Society of Mas-
sachusetts and of the United States Naval Institute

II. The United States Navy and Others

о

U. S. S. ROANOKE, 1863
Seagoing Turret Vessel

Armor: 1%-in.

Armament: two 15-inch, two 11-inch, two 150-pdr. rifled guns. wrought-iron deck in two layers of in. each, and side armor, 4 in. at top, 31⁄2 in. at bottom; wrought-iron plates 4 ft. below and 6 ft. above waterline.

S was explained in Part I. of this article, the United States Navy fell back in tonnage from second

to third place in the period of foreign naval increase, from 1906 to 1911. Through all these years our navy was restricted to the two-battleships-ayear program.

Fortunately, as has been shown when making comparisons with the British and German navies, tonnage does not tell the whole story. The United States Navy has been the leader in the development of the "all-big-gun " battleship of today, called the "dreadnought." From the first single-turret ship, the Monitor, to the two-turret monitors, then to the U. S. S. Roanoke these were the three great strides in such ships designed by the United States Navy in the epoch-making times of the civil war, which led to the plan of big guns in turrets aligned over the keel.

With the present article are shown plans of the U. S. S. Roanoke and U. S.

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Armament: eight 12-in. 45 cal. B. L. R., twenty-two 3-in. 50 cal. R. F., four 3-pdr. saluting. Armor belt: 10 in., 11 in., 12 in., at top; 8 in., 9 in., 10 in., at bottom. Casemate: 8 in. at top; 10 in. at bottom. Side plating forward and aft, 1-in. nickel steel. Protective deck forward, 1%-in., after, 3-in. nickel steel. By courtesy of U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings.

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view of the indicated non-completion of the building programs of the British and German Navies. A look at the chart on Page 90 showing battle formation in Lieutenant Gill's article, will confirm what was said about this in Part I. of this article. The dates of the ships are conclusive.

Consequently, the dreadnoughts in the corresponding program of the United States Navy should be fifteen.

The Battle Fleet

Above is given the plan of U. S. S. Pennsylvania. As will be seen, this ship

is the developed design of the Michigan, with three guns in each turret instead of two. It is probably safe to say that this ship and her sister ship, the Arizona, are the most powerful battleships in the world. The nearest approach would be the Japanese battleships of the Fu-So class. The Japanese ships, while closely imitating ours in armament, followed our earlier design of the Arkansas, also shown, in which the twelve guns are carried in six turrets instead of four.

This arrangement of turrets in the Japanese battleships has made necessary

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