72 THE INFLUENCE OF NATIONAL POLICIES ON SHIPS' DESIGN. ": 



By military characteristics is meant the broad features of offensive and defen- 

 sive strength, speed, radius of action, etc., etc. The technical means taken in the 

 construction of the ship to assure these military characteristics are beyond the pur- 

 view of the General Board. Thus the General Board would recommend the proper 

 speed for a scout cruiser, but it would not consider at any stage of the design 

 whether the proposed horse-power was sufficient to obtain that speed. 



Nevertheless, when the General Board considers a new type of ship and the 

 military characteristics which it should possess, the Board keeps itself in communi- 

 cation with the constructive bureaus so that its recommendations shall not outrun 

 practical possibilities of the day. 



In this way, the shipbuilding program of the Navy for the last few years has 

 had a unity and a consistency from year to year which was previously lacking be- 

 cause no agency existed in the Navy Department for directing the skill of the tech- 

 nical bureaus to meet the particular strategic and tactical requirements which the 

 national policies are likely to thrust upon the Navy in time of war. 



Turning towards other nations, we shall find that they all take means to cause 

 ship designs to harmonize with the national policy. 



Taking Germany as an example, it is apparent that the last forty years have 

 been marked by a great development of manufactures and of foreign commerce, and 

 the country has felt the increasing necessity of obtaining foreign markets. 



Coincident with the development of these commercial projects has been the rise 

 of the German navy. The Emperor embodied the national belief in his phrase 

 "Our future lies on the water." 



If now we compare year by year the ships of the German navy with contem- 

 porary ones of other powers, we shall be struck with the gradual modification of 

 German types relatively to those of other powers to accord with the increasing field 

 of German commerce and the increase of the relative strength of the German navy 

 as it thrusts itself to the front in the race for naval supremacy. This change in 

 the relation of the German national type to others is expressed in the increase in 

 the calibers of guns and still more in the increasing fuel endurance of German 

 ships. From a small navy for local defense it has been forced to become a great 

 navy of offense, to extend and protect German commerce and German markets. The 

 regularity of this development of general type and the harmony always existing 

 between the characteristics of different contemporary types show the controlling 

 influence in Germany of national policies upon naval ship design. 



The conclusion seems manifest that just as in the business world the managing 

 shipowner prescribes to the naval architect the qualities which his ship must pos- 

 sess in order to fulfil the conditions of the trade, so in navies, the products of 

 the naval architect's draughting room must be in accord with the views of accredited 

 expositors of national policies. These expositors of national policies must com- 

 municate to those responsible for the design and development of armies and navies 

 the trend of policies in order that national armed forces may ever be suitable and 

 adequate supports of national policies. 



