cost of one
super-Dreadnought, so that adequate allowance could be made for
accidents now and then, since a Zeppelin catastrophe, no matter how
complete it may be, is regarded by the Teuton as a mere incident
inseparable from progressive development.

At the beginning of the year 1914 France relied upon being strengthened
by a round dozen new dirigibles. Seven of these were to be of 20,000
cubic metres' capacity and possessed of a speed of 47 miles per hour.
While the existing fleet was numerically strong, this strength was more
apparent than real, for the simple reason that a large number of craft
were in dry-dock undergoing repair or overhaul while many of the units
were merely under test and could not be regarded therefore as in the
effective fleet. True, there were a certain number of private craft
which were liable to be commandeered when the occasion arose, but they
could not be considered as decided acquisitions for the simple reason
that many were purely experimental units.

Aerial vessels, like their consorts upon the water, have been divided
into distinctive classes. Thus there are the aerial cruisers comprising
vessels exceeding 282,000 cubic feet in capacity; scouts which include
those varying between 176,600 and 282,000 cubic feet capacity; and
vedettes, which take in all the small or mosquito craft. At the end
of 1913, France possessed only four of the first-named craft in actual
commission and thus immediately available for war, these being the
Adjutant Vincenot, Adjutant Reau, Dupuy de Lome, and the Transaerien.
The first three are of 197,800 cubic feet. All, however, were privately
owned.

On the other hand, Germany had no fewer than ten huge vessels, ranging
from 353,000 to 776,900 cubic feet capacity, three of which, the
Victoria Luise, Suchard, and Hansa, though owned privately, were
immediately available for war. Of these the largest was the Zeppelin
naval vessel "L-1" 525 feet in length, by 50 feet diameter, of 776,900
cubic feet capacity, equipped with engines developing 510 horse-power,
and with a speed of 51.8 miles per hour.

At the end of 1913 the effective aerial fleet of Germany comprised
twenty large craft, so far in advance of the French aerial cruisers as
to be worthy of the name bestowed upon them--"Aerial Dreadnoughts." This
merely represented the fleet available for immediate use and did not
include the four gigantic Suchard-Schutte craft, each of 847,500 cubic
feet, which were u