HISTORY 23 American History : America Old Navy

United States of America’s old navy was comprised of battleships with old design in 1882. It was 1883, when congress gave approval to three protected cruisers, USS Chicago, USS Boston and USS Atlanta. Modernization also had considerable effort on the project that contributed in the next generation battleships. Hence, it gave birth to America’s new steel navy that changed the face of U.S. navy.

 It was due to the incompatibility of the incompatibility of the U.S.’s old navy ships that were outdated. America’s civil war left the American navy with 6,000 men and ironclad ships. This led the congress to take decision on making modern ships that will be compatible in the battlefield (Bradford).

William H. Hunt, the secretary of the navy appointed Admiral John Rodger in 1881 to calculated the need for new warships. He came up with the requirement of 68 modern vessels with a cost estimation of $29,607,000. The congress hesitated, rejected the proposal, and funded for the three modern cruiser ships, which brought success to U.S. navy and later convinced the congress about the need of modern warships (Bradford).

This decision changed the face of U.S. navy forever and by 20^th century, it ranked fifth around the world compared to their twelfth place in the year 1970. The New Navy of United States helped them wining the 1898 battle against Spanish and continued to build more ships with modern design. By the end of World War I, the size of U.S. navy exceeded the size of British Royal Navy (Bradford).

However, according to (Mott) the civil war destroyed the U.S. navy and it was incompatible to continue its further venture that lead the congress to consider to rebuild the navy. The author deducted another reason that was the influence of navy secretary William H. Hunt. He requested the congress to approve the budget for building new generation battleships for U.S. navy. His decision was based on the facts received from the survey conducted of U.S. navy.

The congress first approved the construction of three cruiser ships named USS Chicago, USS Boston and USS Atlanta and one dispatch vessel USS Dolphin. They were together known as ABCD ship. The performance of ABCD convinced the congress to build more ships with modern technology and design (Mott).

This transformation changed the structure of the U.S. navy both internally and externally. The New U.S. Navy was comprised with men and women compatible with the knowledge to run the ships dismantling the previous marine force. Furthermore, this new navy brought success in the immediate battles and the World War I after which, the navy ranked fifth around the world (Mott).

The modification of the U.S. navy that took place in the 1880s was a result of modernisation. The increased modernisation lead the congress to consider modifying both the ships and the human power that comprised the U.S. navy. Navy secretary William H. Hunt presented a report demanding 68 new warships built with modern technology in 1881. This idea was rejected by the congress due to its extreme budget and replaced it with the three cruiser ships and one dispatch vessel (Love).

The initiation effort according to the author was taken by the congress to modify the naval power of the states. This resulted into modification of both the ships and the marine. However, the change process was slow and the congress approved one project after another based on the success of the previous (Love).

This significant modification in the U.S. navy brought considerable change in their battle strategy. With technology that is more advanced and firepower, the U.S. navy soon exceed the British Royal Navy in size. The modern navy gave them considerable advantage in the World War I. They also won every single battle in between basing on their strong Navy. For instance, they won the war against the Spanish in 1898 (Love).

According to my understanding, the (Love) defines the history in a more reliable approach. I selected the work of (Love) as it chronologically defines the fact, which reflects more authenticity of the material to the readers.

As Mentioned in the previous paragraph, I have multiple reasons for selecting the work of (Love). The first reason is the chronology of the events as defined by the author is more reliable than the rest of the two. Secondly, as the author mention the reason being modernisation that brought change in U.S. navy sounds more authentic as the technology used by the navy in civil war was truly outdated. Lastly, U.S. navy was one of the first to adapt technology which resulted them in their success is well defined in the author’s work. Hence, I find the work of (Love) orderly placed and properly communicated with the readers.

References

Bradford, James C., ed. A Companion to American Military History: 2 Volume Set. Vol. 45. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

Love, Robert William. History of the US Navy: 1775-1941. Vol. 1. Stackpole Books, 1992.

Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines, 1850-1865. Vol. 2. Harvard University Press, 1938.