Lacks Torpedoes To Fight A Round.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 20, 1913:
The Navy, Says Congressman, Would Be at a Disadvantage in the Event of a War.
ONLY A SHOT TO A TUBE
Officers Admit Shortage — Advocate 1,000 Projectiles a Year — Present Annual Output 300.
    BOSTON, July 19.— "There are not enough torpedoes in this country today to fight one round in a combat with another nation," said Congressman Fred A. Britten of Illinois, a member of the House Naval Committee, on his arrival in the Charlestown Navy Yard this morning. With the others of the Naval Committee, Mr. Britten is making an inspection of the naval stations on the Atlantic Coast. The inspection of the Narragansett Bay naval station was finished yesterday.
    "Immediately on my return to Washington," Mr. Britten continued, "I shall introduce an order to double the capacity of the torpedo station at Newport.
    "Our committee spent three days at Newport and learned that the New York plant which is turning out torpedoes can deliver only 200 a year. If war were begun to-morrow we would be in a sorry plight, so far as torpedo defense was concerned. We learned that some of the torpedo boat destroyers in commission have not enough torpedoes on board to-day to fire more than one shot through their tubes."
    The Congressman spoke enthusiastically of the naval stations in Norfolk and Newport, and said that in his opinion they should be made the principal naval bases of the country, with Philadelphia, New York, and Boston as repair yards.
    "All the so-called Southern yards should be abolished," he added. "Their only use is to fatten the popularity of Southern Congressmen."

Will Urge Appropriations.
Special to The New York Times.
    NEWPORT, July 19.— As a result of the inspection of the torpedo-making plant at the Naval Torpedo Station by the Naval Committee of the House of Representatives yesterday, where the members saw the capacity of the plant was only 100 torpedoes a year, several of the visitors said they had read with interest the article, "Naval Efficiency a Public Duty," by Capt, William S. Sims, commander of the Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla, and that they would take steps to have appropriations recommended to give the navy the supply of torpedoes it needed.
    Capt. Sims wrote for the programme of Navy Day here, when Col. Roosevelt spoke, July 2, in part as follows:
    "There has been expended about fifty millions of dollars for a flotilla of splendid torpedo boat destroyers and submarines designed to attack an enemy's fleet with one of the most effective of modern weapons, that is, the automobile torpedo, which has a range of five miles and an explosive charge sufficient to sink or cripple the largest battleship.
    "But we have not more than one torpedo for each tube, so that this great force, which should be one of our principal means of defense against a hostile fleet, may be compared to an army marching into battle with one cartridge in each soldier's rifle, or a fleet advancing to meet the enemy with one projectile for each of its guns. After such a flotilla has fired its single torpedo from each of its launching tubes, it would be powerless to inflict further damage, and would have to retreat or be destroyed.
    "A torpedo is a complicated and expensive machine that requires more than a year to build. The navy's torpedo factory is so inadequate in size that it cannot supply more than 100 a year, and the total capacity of our country is not more than 300. There are few torpedo manufacturers in the world, and they are more or less interrelated. We know the number of torpedoes that is turned out and the number each navy owns, and foreigners are informed as to our deficiencies in this respect and in other military equipment. The principal foreign navies have from 6,000 to 10,000 and we have 1,000."

Navy's Shortage Is Admitted.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, July 19.— The assertion of Representative Britten of Illinois in Boston to-day that the United States Navy was short of torpedoes caused no surprise in naval circles here. A prominent ordnance officer said to-night that what the Chicago Congressman had announced had been notorious for the last ten years.
    "We have made no effort to conceal the fact," said this officer, "for we want the deficiency to be supplied just as soon as it can be. The same holds true of one or two other matters of ordnance.
    "A former Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance made the remark when the fleet started around the world," continued the officer, "that if the boys had to fight anybody they would have just twenty minutes of fight in their magazines.
    "This remark has been passed all over the earth through the medium of army and navy clubs, and its meaning is well understood. All the other leading navies of the world carry high explosive shells on every battleship afloat. We do not, and if war should come suddenly we would be handicapped for a time to make up the deficiency against an enemy already prepared in this respect.
    "The same thing is true as to torpedoes. We have been buying them abroad, but the contracts have been small, comparatively, and slow in being carried out. Five years ago Congress authorized a torpedo factory, and one was built at Newport, but it is limited in its capacity and output. I believe its best mark would be 150 torpedoes in a year, and it has not so far made over 100 in a year.
    "The charge that we have on hand only enough for one round against an enemy is slightly incongruous. The use of a torpedo is hardly to be compared with a round of shots in gunfire. Circumstances and opportunity govern in the use of the torpedo. We have enough for a small war, and in case of a great struggle we would have to put money into the manufacture speedily and expedite the output. But for the present there should be annually at least 1,000 torpedoes contracted for until the deficiency is made up."