Heavy Fire

The suit (TIME, Nov. 24) of Taxpayer William B. Shearer to prevent the uncompleted battleship Washington from being sunk in a series of tests off the Virginia Capes went to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Again the taxpayer was denied an injunction forbidding the Secretary of the Navy to have the great ship sunk. The injunction was denied on the basis of a previous decision of the Supreme Court which held that a taxpayer has not sufficient interest to restrain a Government official from performing his official acts.

Meanwhile, the armored hull of the Washington, anchored offshore where it had been towed by five tugs, was subjected to a series of tests with underwater bombs placed at various distances from the ship. Her resistance to the concussions was said to "justify the expectation" of the naval architects. Later aeroplanes were to be called upon to bomb her, and the battleship Texas to test her deck armor with long range fire.

Wild and premature press accounts of how the Texas had bombarded the Washington, "sending chips of armor flying high in the air," and an account of two shells "passing completely through the hull" were received at the Navy Department with elevated eyebrows.

The Washington is the third ship disposed of by the Limitation of Armaments Treaty to be sunk for experiment. She was preceded by the New Jersey and the Virginia, The North Dakota is destined for a similar fate. Of the other condemned ships, 24 were sold for scrapping, or scrapped by the Government and the material sold at a total net profit of $1,410,000. Two partly completed cruisers, the Lexington and the Saratoga, are being converted into aircraft carriers.