As regards the naval forces of the States which concern us to-day, the
accompanying table, which is taken from the _Nauticus_ of 1911, affords
a comparative epitome, which applies to May, 1911. It shows that,
numerically, the English fleet is more than double as strong as ours.
This superiority is increased if the displacements and the number of
really modern ships are compared. In May we possessed only four
battleships and one armed cruiser of the latest type; the English have
ten ships-of-the-line and four armed cruisers which could be reckoned
battleships. The new ships do not materially alter this proportion. The
comparative number of the ships-of-the-line is becoming more favourable,
that of the armoured cruisers will be less so than it now is. It may be
noticed that among our cruisers are a number of vessels which really
have no fighting value, and that the coast-defence ironclads cannot be
counted as battleships. France, too, was a little ahead of us in the
number of battleships in May, 1911, but, from all that is hitherto known
about the French fleet, it cannot be compared with the German in respect
of good material and trained crews. It would, however, be an important
factor if allied with the English.

|Battle- |Armoured |Armoured| Armoured |Protected |Number |N S
Nation. |ships |Coast |Gunboats| Cruisers |Cruisers |of |u u
|above |Defence |and | | |Torpedo |m b
|5,000 |Vessels |Armoured| | |Vessels |b m
|Tons. |from |Ships | | | |e a
| |3000 Tons|under | | | |r r
| |to 5,000 |3,000 | | | | i
| |Tons |Tons | | | | i
+--+-------+--+------+--+-----+--+-------+--+-------+----+----+o n
|No|Displ. |No|Displ.|No|Displ|No|Displ. |No|Displ. | |From|f e
| | | | | | | | | | |200+|80- | s