178 REFUELING WARSHIPS AT SEA. 



Should our enemy send a fleet, including dreadnoughts, across the Atlantic, 

 doubtless their first step would be to seize a base. This base might be the harbor 

 of an island belonging to a neutral power. The United States fleet would probably 

 attempt to bottle up the enemy with a superior force. The position of the United 

 States fleet would then become similar to the British in the North Sea, except that 

 there might be no suitable harbors for our dreadnoughts to be anchored and pro- 

 tected from submarine attack. We might not have a ship to spare and might need 

 every ship to remain where it could strike when the enemy came out. This block- 

 ading fleet would need to be maintained at its highest possible efficiency. 



The importance of maintaining the entire fleet on blockade duty, ready to fight 

 the enemy the instant they came out from the harbor, is self-evident. This could be 

 accomplished by assigning our big new colliers Jason, Orion, Neptune, Cyclops, 

 Proteus, Nereus and Jupiter, fully equipped with marine cableways for delivering 

 coal and oil to every ship at sea, when the sea and weather would not permit their 

 coaling alongside. One of these colliers alongside the Wyoming, in a smooth sea, 

 could give the Wyoming i,ooo tons of coal in 5 hours, using its clamshell buckets, 

 while if the sea was moderate or not too rough it could give the Wyoming 600 tons 

 in 10 hours with the marine cableway. This latter could be accomplished under the 

 eye of the admiral while the Wyoming was steaming at a speed safe from submarine 

 attack, holding her place constantly with the fleet. 



The marine cableway now on the Cyclops has demonstrated to the satisfaction 

 of a board of naval officers that it will deliver 600 tons in 10 hours, and it is the 

 expressed opinion of eminent United States naval officers that under stress of war 

 conditions 100 tons of coal per hour could easily be transported. 



UNITED STATES SECOND-LINE BATTLESHIPS. 



The twenty-three second-line battleships include the Massachusetts, Iowa, 

 Indiana, and Oregon, which were on blockade before Santiago in 1898. On block- 

 ade these would have to be recoaled as often as they were in 1898. The bunker ca- 

 pacity of the Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Oregon and Arkansas is about equal 

 to that of the Massachusetts, namely, 1,487 tons, and the necessity for recoaling 

 these would be the same. These ships might burn 60 tons of coal per day, and 

 prudence would indicate that they should be recoaled every 10 days. 



UNITED STATES CRUISERS. 



Our ten armored cruisers all burn coal. The bunker capacity of these cruisers 

 ranges from 1,929 tons (Colorado) to 2,185 tons (South Dakota) ; displacement 

 about 15,000 tons. These cost approximately $6,000,000 each. Patrolling on 

 blockade, they would probably burn 60 tons of coal per day. These would doubtless 

 coal every 10 days on an average. 



Our five first-class cruisers, including the Brooklyn, all burn coal. Their dis- 



