It was in 1881 that Secretary Hunt appointed an advisory board to determine the requirements of a new navy. It recommended 21 armored vessels besides 70 unarmored, together with rams, and most significant of all declared that the material of construction should be steel. That was the knell of the iron navy—although as a matter of fact, iron had never fully re placed wood. Meanwhile there was not a plant in the United States capable of making forgings for guns of more than six-inch calibre— nor one able to make armor plate or torpedoes or machine guns. In May 1887 contracts were signed with the Bethlehem Iron Company for gun forgings and armor plates and in the same year the now great naval gun factory in the Washington navy yard was begun.
The Modem The first vessels of the new steel fleet were the Dolphin (1884) and the Atlanta, Boston and Chicago (1885). The increase after 1888 was rapid, the outbreak of the Spanish War of 1898 finding the navy equipped with 77 vessels, including several coast line battleships such as the Iowa, Indiana and Oregon and the powerful armored cruisers New York and Brooklyn. The war developed the remarkable preparedness of the navy, which practically annihilated that of Spain in a cam paign of 110 days. The chief naval event apart from the battles of Santiago and Manila was the famous rush of the Oregon from San Fran cisco to Jupiter Inlet, Fla., around Cape Horn, a distance of some 14,000 miles in 68 days, which she accomplished without accident, arriv ing in condition for immediate service.
The history of the United States navy from the close of the war with Spain to the advent of vessels of the Dreadnought type demands but little attention. Vessels were laid down on no large scale, but those built were among the best of their type. The battleships of this period (1899-1906) were of from 12,500 to 16,000 tons displacement and about 450 feet in length. The speediest vessels of this type and period Georgia and Kansas classes — steamed 19 knots per hour. The armored cruisers had an aver age speed of 22 knots per hour. An unpre cedented event in America's naval history and one of the most spectacular of cruises was the sailing of the United States battleship fleet around the world; it departed from the At lantic Coast 16 Dec. 1907 and returning with
out mishap on 20 Feb. 1909. When the fleet sailed, Admiral Evans, in command, declared that it was ready "for a fight or a frolic." It proved to be the latter, and while the proposi tion to take the trip was vehemently opposed when first broached, it was so successful in its results that those who felt most disgruntled could, after the return, find no more cogent reason for even a lukewarm opposition than the expense attending the excursion.
An enlarged building program was in augurated after 1906, and when war was de clared on Germany in April 1917 the tonnage of the United States navy, including all types of vessels then under naval control, was approxi mately 1,500,000. Strained relations with Ger many caused the United States to enter upon a course of great naval expansion in 1916-17, which led to a considerable increase in expendi ture, due mainly to the adoption for the first time of a continuous shipbuilding program.
The period was of three years, the total cost to be approximately $520,000,000, and in the first year four battleships, four battle-cruisers, four scout cruisers, 30 submarines and 20 de stroyers were laid down, to be followed by six additional battleships, two battle-cruisers and a number of smaller vessels. With.the declara tion of war the program was enormously in creased and accelerated; at the openirg of hostilities the navy had 787 vessels of all kinds, including a large number of submarine chasers. The sum of $350,000,000 was at once appropri ated for destroyers. The Secretary of the Navy on 9 Dec. 1917, in his annual report, asked for $1,000,000,000 for his department for the next fiscal year. The personnel of the navy was at the same time increased from 19,500 to 322, 000; the naval reserves from a few hundred to 49,000; the monthly expenditure from $8,000, 000 to $60,000,000, and ships in commission from 300 to over 1,000. The splendid work of the naval arm in the Great War is treated else where. (See WAR, EUROPEAN - NAVAL OPER