Description
Our picture shows the deck of one of the giants of the United States Navy, the battleship Pennsylvania, one of the largest and most powerful battleships afloat. The Pennsylvania is modern in every particular and its armament and equipment are so powerful as to make her a very effective fighting machine The Pennsylvania is one of the advanced types of sea-going battleships. At the beginning of the late war the United States Navy had 361 vessels ready for service, including twelve first-line battleships, twenty-five second-line battleships, nine armored cruisers, twenty-four other cruisers, seven monitors, fifty destroyers, sixteen coast torpedo vessels, seventeen torpedo boats, forty-f our submarines, eight tenders to torpedo boats, twenty-eight gunboats, four transports, four supply ships, one hospital ship, twenty-one fuel ships, fourteen converted yachts, forty-nine tugs, and twenty-eight minor vessels. The growth of the Navy in one year from our entrance into the war may give some idea of the efficiency of our Navy Department. In April, 1917, the regular Navy contained 4,366 officers and 64,680 men. In April, 1918, it contained 7,798 officers and 192,385 men. In the Marine Corps in 1917 there were 426 officers and 13,266 men, and in one year its figures had increased to 1,389 officers and 38,629 men. In the Naval Reserves, Naval Volunteers, and Coast Guards there were in 1917, 24,569 men ; in 1918, 98,319 men, and 11,477 officers. During the time we were at war 123 new naval vessels were completed and about 800 craft were taken over and converted into transports, patrol service boats, submarine chasers, mine sweepers and mine layers.
