Hearings before Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of Representatives on estimates submitted by the Secretary of the Navy, 1911 - Tapa blanda

Reseña del editor

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt: ...of the building of the Florida, and the expenditure was authorized to be charged partly to construction and repair, 1909; partly to construction, plant, under Bureau of Construction and Repair appropriation; partly to increase of the Navy, construction and machinery, and partly to the Florida. The proportions into which this amount was divided were intended to represent the use of the changes made under the different appropriations. I want to say that this year, for the first time, we were prepared with our designs two weeks before the appropriation was passed and that that was due to the manner in which we go to work now. The general board works out the military points which they believe from experience of the past are advisable. Then it is sent to the chief constructor and chief engineer to work on those lines. Before, it went to the board of construction. I always claimed that they were a mutual admiration society. They were very busy and sometimes they could not act quickly, and when they did each one would naturally not want what belonged to him criticized. It was better for that reason to get outside criticism. With the abolition of that board, when it came to the final criticism of the plans, we had experts from the fleet, in addition to the board, who criticized them from the military side. Those military critics made their criticisms. In that way the constructor and engineer seemed to understand the requirements and they were finally ready two weeks before the appropriation was passed, without any agitation and with all sides coming to an understanding. Since I have gone into the department I have not allowed changes to be made in vessels which would add to their cost or which would add to the delay and give the contractor an excuse to add to the p...