Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, September 6, 1903, Page 32

(Copyrigit, 1903, by Frank G. Carpenter.) T. PETERSBURG, Aug. 2. - (Special Correspondence of The Bee.)—The prospect of a war with Japan calls attention to the enors= mous Increase golng on in the navy of Russia. 1 see Russian men-of-war everywhere, I found several new ones building in the Vulean shipyards at Stettin, Germany; others have been consiructed at Kiel by the Krupps, and there are a large number under way in the shipyards of Russia. This country has now one of the largest navies of the world, and it has a vast number of mercantile vessels which ean be brought into use in time of war. The czar has six great battle ships with an aggregate tonnage of more than 70,000, He has three armored crufsers aggregating more than 35,000 tons and ten cruisers of about 0660 tons. In addition there are twenty destroyers, fourteen torpedo gune boats and fifteen torpedo boats either built or buillding. For the past ten years Russia has been steadily adding to its navy, and has had ships constructed for it in the United States, England, Germany and Den- mark, in addition to those made at homa It has a big fleet here on the Baltic guard- ing 8t. Petersburg and other perts. There is another fleet in the Black sea and the Mediterranean and another In the far east protectit g Manchuria and eastern Siberia. I took the steimer at Nicolas bridge the other day and went out to Kronstadt, the little island at the mouth of the Neva which guards the entrance to the Russian capital. When Peter the Great built St. Petersburg he said shat he wanted it as a window through which he could look out upon Eurcpe. Kronstadt is the steel bars of that window. It is only twenty miles away and is reached by a sea canal sixteen miles long and more than twenty feet decp. This leads into the Gulf of IFinland and it ends only a short distance from Kronstadt, In coming Into 8t. Pclersburg you must pass Kronstadt and as you do so you make your way In and out through islands covered with forts. There are about a half dozen such island forts in addition to Rronstadt itself. They rise from the sea looking like mighty floating batteries, and effcctually protect this gate to the great Russlan empire, Kronstadt itself is low. Tt is walled In from the sea, and as you look at it you can see a forest of masts back of the walls and among them-the smokestacks of steamers, out of many of which the black smoko s pouring. The war harbor Is at the southeast end of the island. There were five great boats inside it during my visit. Near this ds the middle harbor, In which all sorts of naval repalrs are’ made, and not far away are the admiralty buildings, an arsenal, the naval school and a great marine hospital, The fortifications are very powerful and the island altogether contiins some of the strongest forts of he world. There is quite a city upon It with something like 60,000 people. It has two dlvisions, one de- voted to the navy and the other to mer- cattle Interests, During my stay I saw many of the naval officers and men. The eailors are fine- looking fellows, big framed, broad shoul- dered and as a general thing bearded. They are sald to be the equals of any other na- tion as to seamanship, and they are as brave as the Cossacks and other Russian soldiers on land. The czar is fond of the navy. He fre- Quently comes to Kronstadt to look over Czar and Mikado Preparing to Fight THE ERMAK, RUSSIA'S GREAT ICE BREAKER the fortifications and not long ago he and the czarina held there a review of the ma- rines, If a war should arise between Russia and Japan all the czar's shipping in Chinese waters will be pressed into service, There are many ships in the volunteer fleet which can be used as transports or cruisers, These ships are about fifteen in number and are now running between Odessa, Viadivostock and Port Arthur, They carry troops, provisions and emigrants by the thousands. I understand that Russia is quietly planting colonies along the Chinese IZastern railroad and that it will eventu- ally Russianize Manchuria. These colonies will also do cffective work In time of war supplying provisions and perhaps men. In addition to its merchant vessels and men-of-war Russia has now scme of the most effective fce-breaking steamers of the world, It has enormous floating machines run by steam which wi'l crush the ice of the harbors and force their way into al- most any port. Kronstadt is Kkept open during the winter by such ice breakers, and they will also be of great value at Vladivostock and other Siberlan ports, The largest of these vessels is Er- mak, built in 1808 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, It is lilke a huge man-of-war, being as long as the average city block, as wide as the ordinary city street and a depth as great as that of a four-story house. It has a draft of twenty-five feet and a dis- placement of 8,000 tons. Its machirery is operated by engines furnishing 10,000 horse power, and when it pushes aginst ice with this enormous force the icebhas to be in- deed thick to resist it. Ermak is so ghaped at the stern that another vessel can be lashed to it, so that it will have the assistance and additional power of the ves- sel behind. Tt has forty-eight water-tight compartments, the larger of which have engines and boller rooms, the capacity of each boiler room being 2,000 tons. Ermak has been severely tested. In 1899 it made a journey of 200 mileg through solld ice, all of it being at least five feet in thickness and fifty miles of it about ten feet in thickness, In plowing through this it hurled the ice aside as a locomotive plow throws snow, cutting its way right into the harbor of Kronstadt Such ice breakers will make Vladivo- stock an open port during the winter, fur- nishing a new outlet for war supplies via the Trans-Siberian road. There are ice breakers on Lake Balkal which keep the Trans-8iberian road open, although in case of trouble tracks can be laid on the ice and communication thus be kept up. With Lake Balkal open it is now only seventeen or eighteen days from Moscow to Port Arthur, where the harbor is free from ice the year round, and where ships drawing thirty feet can enter without difficulty. The Russians have built up a great naval station at Port Arthur., This is only a few miles from Dalny, the commercial port, at the end of the Trans-Siberian road. They have an enormous amount of naval sup- plies there, and they are, I am to'd, now ready for war if Japan is anxious to fight, The navy of Japan i{s a greater wonder than that of Russia. The Russlans have had a navy since the days of Peter the Great. The Japanese navy has been built up within the present generation. During our civil war the Japanese knew nothing of naval affairs outside their war junks, and for ten years thereafter they had no merchant vessels to speak of. When they fought the Chinese in 1894 their navy con- sisted of sixteen steel men-of-war, seven= FHE ASKOLD, A FAMOUS RUSSIAN CRUISER, teen gunboats of wood and steel and about twenty-six torpedo boats. They had gcod guns and they fired them well. Fhey showed that they knew how to shoot, and proved themselves the equals of any naval troops upon earth. The story of that war was much the same as that of our war with Spain. The Japanese gained their victory by courage and skill rather than by better ships or better guns. They destroyed the heavier vessels of their enemy &nd practically annihilated the Chinese as a sea power, At the close of the war the Japanese took the money they received from China and put it into new battleships, cruisers and gunboats. They bought new arms, and have been adding to their navy from that day to this. During the present year they will spend about $10,000,000 for war ships and war material, and they have spent about a hundred million since the close of their war with China. In addition to this, they have set aside another hundred milllon dollars to be spent in the future. Fhis vast sum Is to be spread over eleven years, be- ginning with March next, making an aver- age of more than $9,000,000 a year. As a result of such expenditures the Jap- anesd navy is now one of the best of the world, and in some respects it is already stronger than that of Russia. During my last visit to Japan, about two years ago, I visited some of the new ship- building yards, The Japanese are now making their own protected crulsers and destroyers and are founding armor fac- tories with which they will be able to con- struct battleships. There is no doubt but that they can manufacture anything they please, for their workmen are among the most skilled upon earth, and they are ready to adopt any new thing at a moment's notice. They have their mechanical and naval engineers in all of the great ship- yards of the world studying the newest methods and superintending the construc- tion of ships intended for Japan. You will find them at Cramps' in Philadelphia. I saw some at the Krupp works In Essen and they are also at the Vulcan shipyards in Stettin, The six first-class battleships now in the Japanese navy were all built in Great Britain. They are twin-screw steel vessels with an ordinary speed of gixteen knots and a possible speed of eighteen knots or more. They are protected by belts of Harveyized metal from fourteen to eighteen inches thick and they each carry four Qfinch guns, ten 6-inch quick-firing guns, twenty-four rapid-firing and five tor- pedo tubes., The largest of these ships is Mikasa. It has 15,200 tons and 15,000-horse power and it can make eighteen knots an hour. It takes 741 men to manage the ship, Some of Japan's second-class ships were built in Germany and some of them came from the Chinese. Two of its protected cruisers were built in the United States, one at Philadelphia and the other at San Francisco. They are just alike in design, but the San Francisco cruiser is the faster, having made almost twenty-four knots an hour. Japan has also a number of merchant vessels which can be called upon in case of war, It has some of the largest shipping companies of the world, the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, for instance., This company has thirty-three steamers and it sends them to Viadivostock in Siberia, to Corea, Chima and Manila, and also to Australla, India and through the Sues canal to Londom, (Continued on Page Fifteen) ,,. 4 iAm