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IS NEW YORK IN DANGER? 341
EIGHTY MILES AN HOUR DEAD AHEAD FOR NEW YORKI
battleship Pennsylvania contains one ton
more metal than there is in one of these
super-Zeppelins! Six hundred eighty
feet long, seventy-two feet in diameter,
the new Zeppelins dwarf the passenger
carrying dirigibles of peace time. You
need hardly ask yourself. Are they a
menace ?
Now let us imagine New York City in
danger from another source. What if
the Russian resistance should collapse;
the Duma make peace with Germany;
the Western allied powers—England,
France, and Italy—come to terms with
the Central powers? Suppose, in other
words, we find Germany thwarted but
not beaten, deprived of her influence in
Asia Minor, her African colonies lost,
seeking compensation in South America,
and eager to turn the storm of her wrath
against the United States? What would
be the situation of our Atlantic seaports?
Undoubtedly they would be in grave
danger.
Picture a strong foreign fleet steaming
toward the American Coast. Where
will it strike? At what point along
that great unfortified seaboard from
Florida to Maine? The coast cities
are in a panic. Our naval officers,
schooled in the strategy of war, know
that the enemy fleet will not attack a city
until it has destroyed the American fleet.
They know that the enemy will send out
scouts to ascertain the location of our
fleet. We are sending out scouts—fast
small craft to find the direction the enemy
is coming from.
One night off the coast of Maine, with
our fleet steaming along in darkness, the
deck officers hear, above the swirl of inky
water, the clatter of propellers. The
enemy's seaplanes have spotted our fleet!
Up from the decks of our battleships
our own seaplanes are catapulted. The
rattle of machine guns splits the night.
In the air the battle between dragon flies
is on. The enemy planes try to escape
with the information they have secured.
Our officers see the flash of signal
lights from the enemy's seaplanes and
then, as three of them fall blazing from
the sky, the others turn tail and run.
Our searchlights sweep the heavens but
find nothing! Persistently, the long
white inquiring beams from every
battleship and cruiser cross and recross
the black spaces but nothing is revealed.
The searchlights have a range of only
twenty-five hundred yards, so just above
the dim tips of their long fingers unseen,