Captain Mahan has contributed to the Proceedings of the United
States Naval Institute for June, 1906, a striking paper on the battle of Tsushima, with special reference to the speed and size of battleships. After showing that, as battleships are built to work together, their speed depends on that of the slowest ship, and in action is reduced to that of the injured ship, Captain Mahan concludes that "speed at its best is a less valuable factor in a battleship than fighting power, and that it is subject to more serious deductions, unavoidable and accidental, than fighting power is." As regards size, Captain Mahan severely criticises the " Jumbomania" now prevalent. "Our present condition is that of abandoning all attempt at a guiding conception of types or standards, except the crude one that each ship must be bigger than the last." The moral effect of this is to induce an absence of trust in anything but bigness, and to disregard the teaching of history. Other things being equal on both sides, bigness will doubtless carry the day. But when have all other things been equal P Captain Mahaii else notes Another consequence of the increasing size and cost of battleships. The Russo-Japanese War having shown that naval war henoeforth will be marked by greater losses of material than of personnel, reserves of ships will be more needed than reserves of men. The critics who have assailed the present Admiralty policy in regard to the wholesale scrapping of obsolete types and the cult of bigness will find a powerful ally in Captain Mahan.
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