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President Roosevelt will consult Secretary of State Elihu Root about the possibility of arbitration per Andrew Carnegie’s suggestion. Regarding an international limit to battleship size, Roosevelt feels a size below the Dreadnought would suffice and be agreeable to other nations, even Germany.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-06
Ambassador Meyer explains in a memorandum that the Admiralty are laying down two battleships to be built in Russia. Meyer learned in a conversation with a Russian Admiral that they had begun building the ships since if they had waited until March it would have meant paying off 20,000 workmen and causing great unemployment. Meyer learned from another source that the plan was to have a fleet of four battleships and an English Company is offering to build a ship with ten or twelve 12-inch guns with speed similar to the “Dreadnought.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-06
Arthur Hamilton Lee enjoyed reading what President Roosevelt enclosed. While not familiar with long-term battle practice, Lee would like to compare Britain’s methods with those described by William Sowden Sims. Lee has written to the Admiral for more information and hopes to hear back by the time he returns to Washington, D.C. to visit Roosevelt early next month. There were photographs of the HMS Deadnought in a recent issues of the Illustrated London News and can be now rated a complete success.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-19
Admiral George Albert Converse reports to President Roosevelt the decision of the Navy General Board on the subject of big guns. While the General Board finds most compelling the arguments written by Captain A. T. Mahan, it also notes several advances in weaponry that mitigate Mahan’s recommendations.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-16
A recent report suggested that improving the speed of battleships was very important. The writer of this article concludes that if advances in this regard were unlimited, it would of course be extremely important; but there is a limit on speed that ships can reach which cannot be easily passed without extreme expense or sacrificing other important qualities.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-10-03
Carl Cavanagh Hodge examines Theodore Roosevelt’s ideas and policies regarding naval policy in the context of international relations and a naval arms race in the first decade of the twentieth century. Hodge emphasizes Roosevelt’s reading and use of the ideas of naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan, and he compares American naval plans with those of Great Britain and Germany. Hodge frames Roosevelt’s policies within the context of friendly relations with Great Britain, an increasingly assertive Germany, and the rising power of Japan, especially in the wake of the Russo-Japanese War. Hodge highlights the acquisition and construction of the Panama Canal and the voyage of the Great White Fleet as key parts of Roosevelt’s overall naval strategy. He notes Roosevelt’s embrace of the battleship as a means of engaging other nations’ fleets abroad, and he asserts that Roosevelt saw the fleet as an important symbol of American power.
Eight photographs, including those of Roosevelt and Mahan, and one illustration supplement the article. A text with the mission statement of the Theodore Roosevelt Association appears in the endnotes.