After a series of battles, Ma Jifen and Shelly at this time can be said to be exhausted. After joining up with the battlefleet commanded by Admiral Simpson with 4 ships, they returned to the Florida Peninsula together. There, the US Navy will make corrections in preparation for another war! But at this time, Majifen already felt that there was no need to fight this war. The hardships and accumulation of more than ten years of the US Navy should not be exhausted in this war, and the warships can be built without warships, and even the people can be cultivated without them, but the shadow of this defeat will be difficult to erase! Roosevelt was right when he said that Americans need to recognize the importance of the navy, but this process of realization cannot come at the cost of a crushing failure!

And the impact of this tragic failure is too great. 5 cruisers were lost in just two days! And the price of the other party is only 1 sunk, 1 hit, and 2 slandered! The result of this battle was not only unbearable in the United States, but even the Admiralty, which had begun to have a certain degree of support for the war, sent harshly worded telegrams one after another accusing Shelly and Dewey of not being able to fight well. This, in turn, led to an extremely dangerous situation for the fleet. Of course, the telegrams sent to Dewey ended up in Simpson's hands. In order to stabilize the morale of the army, at the behest of Roosevelt, the Admiralty did not know at the first time that Dewey could no longer receive these telegrams!

Although the battle situation is unfavorable, it is far from the level of erosion! And Roosevelt, a hardliner, was not willing to ruin the possible results in this way, at least not as a loser to sign a certain peace treaty! Even if Cuba cannot be brought under the control of the United States, the United States must find a decent way to end the war. As a rising power, the United States cannot show weakness, because one show of weakness means countless concessions. And this is unacceptable to the US government!

But it was easier said than done, unlike the other bureaucrats in the Admiralty, Roosevelt knew the Navy well, and he believed that both Magiffin and Shelly did their best, from a personal point of view. They have no subjective errors. He also knew that the U.S. Navy and the Spanish Navy at this time were indeed a bit reckless, but the gamble had already begun, and anyone could easily stop it. Can only go on!

"Colonel Magifin, you are the most experienced combat-savvy man in the U.S. Navy, and at the same time the one who knows the most about the performance of Italian ships. I need to know now what we need to do if we are to defeat those damned Italian ships. At the meeting, Roosevelt asked very directly.

"I want to know, in the major naval shipyards, are there any of our warships that can be quickly reassembled and put into battle?" Magiffen asked, slightly embarrassed.

"If the war ends in 2 years, we will not have a single capital ship that will be put into active service. Our shipyards are producing battleships, and the production cycle of battleships is too long. Roosevelt shook his head and said.

"Could we consider converting high-speed merchant ships into auxiliary cruisers? At least strengthen the firepower of the two first-class protected cruisers. Shelly said on the side, after two naval battles, Shelly was very impressed by the ferocious firepower of the Spanish fleet. Even a hint of fear!

"It will take time to strengthen the firepower of the cruisers, and to improve the high-speed merchant ships, we have already done it before the war, and it was intended to deal with the Spanish convoys." Roosevelt said.

"That's just pretty on paper. These unprotected battleships will sooner or later be beaten into a torch in the face of picric acid high-explosive bombs. Contingency is possible, but it must not be fought for a long time. And the speed must be fast. Otherwise, there is a high risk that the unprotected battleship will be slowed down by the water and sunk. Magiffen has reservations about this opinion. …,

"In fact, there is no need to be pessimistic, so far, the battleships of both sides have not engaged in battles, and our Navy has 4 regular battleships. The Spaniards had only 2 ships, and in the event of an engagement, they could only make up the numbers with armored cruisers. Admiral Simpson definitely said that there was something wrong with the atmosphere.

"In addition, I would like to tell you the good news that the White House agreed to our suggestion that the Army would temporarily suspend transportation operations, and that our Navy could finally concentrate on finding the Spanish fleet for a decisive battle. If the Spanish fleet chooses to avoid the battle, then we will attack the port of Santiago directly, and the Spaniards will definitely not give up. Roosevelt was also on the sidelines to cheer everyone on.

"Then you mean that we will concentrate our forces on besieging the port of Santiago? If so, how can the supply problem be solved? The main guns on the 4 battleships did not have much ammunition in reserve, only 60 rounds per gun. If the Spaniards were to lay mines again, it would take us quite a bit of time to clear the minefields. And if we were to be attacked by the Spanish fleet with insufficient ammunition, then our situation would be very worrying. Magiffen said with a frown.

"Do you have a better way to do it?" Roosevelt asked, holding back the unhappiness in his heart.

"Excuse me, to what extent can the auxiliary cruisers we are now concentrated on the ground be improved?" Majifen didn't answer the other party's question, but asked bluntly.

"We can now concentrate 3 high-speed merchant ships of more than 13,000 tons, in addition to 7 slow merchant ships ranging from 4,500 tons to 7,000 tons, of which the former can reach a speed of about 22 knots, there is plenty of space on it for additional artillery, and a certain amount of armor can be added to protect the gun emplacements and ammunition depots, but because of the tight time, we only intend to give the gun emplacements a certain amount of protection, but in terms of firepower, you can rest assured that there will be absolutely no problems, More than 6,000 tons of merchant ships can be equipped with at least 10 6-inch guns, and when improving high-speed merchant ships, we even plan to add 8-inch guns and related loading equipment, among them, the Paul merchant ship has been equipped with armor and artillery is heading here, as long as we line up the naval personnel, we can have a 10,000-ton unprotected cruiser! Simpson said confidently.

In fact, Simpson deliberately concealed some things, such as one of the auxiliary cruisers that was being improved in Newport News and was forced to suspend the plan because the shipyard was destroyed. For example, the Paul was only equipped with a certain amount of armor, and the guns reprinted on it were not completely in place. He hurriedly put the cannon on the ship and transported it.

"I want to know how high the speed of those 4,500 to 7,000-ton auxiliary cruisers can be, as well as the specific number and armament." Majifen's eyes flashed, and then asked.

"At present, we have 7 ships that can be put into battle immediately, of which except for 2 4,000-ton guns, the others are 7,000-ton guns, and in terms of armament, except for the smaller two are 6 5-inch guns and some secondary guns, the other warships are equipped with 10 6-inch guns and 6 6-pounder guns as standard firepower. These ships were enough to pin down the three second-class cruisers of the Spaniards, and even inflict heavy damage. Simpson paused and continued: "As for speed, there are some variations, the fastest can reach 16 knots, but the slowest is only 13 knots. And that's still nominal. As for the actual speed? We can't have too many illusions about these battleships of the late 80s-early 90s. Speaking of which, Simpson said with a little embarrassment.

"God, can't the Navy get some high-speed boats?" Shelly sighed and said, now Shelly is very important for speed, after all, it is certain that these ships will not be able to defeat the opponent, but at least they need to be able to protect themselves under the cover of other warships, right?

"Let's face the reality, the Navy's military spending can only buy these second-rate merchant ships, and even those 10,000-ton merchant ships are also obtained in the name of Lend-Lease, and they have to be returned after the war! And at the very beginning of the war, these ships were meant to deal with the Spanish convoys, and they did not expect to encounter the situation they are in today! Roosevelt also said with some complaints. …,

"Does that mean that the sailors and officers on these ships are also second-rate?" Majifen keenly captured the subtext!

"Well, they're a group of veterans and volunteers called up by the Admiralty. We really can't hope too much for it. Simpson pouted. But I promise, I'll equip those three 10,000-ton auxiliary cruisers with good enough sailors and powerful enough artillery! And you can rest assured, although these ships are civilian ships, they are all ocean-going ships, the structure is strong enough, the redundancy is also very large, and after improvement, they will not be weaker than the 2nd class protected cruiser. Simpson assured.

"I hope these ships will soon join our navy, but they are still useless, they will slow down the movement of the whole fleet, if the Spaniards blindly avoid war, we will not be able to fight a decisive battle with them, and such a fleet that can be described as a department store with different maneuverability and speed will be very troublesome in formation and action. More importantly, these so-called battleships are very easy to lose, and a few small fires may completely burn these ships down. So we only have one chance! One chance at a time! Ma Jifen said solemnly.

"So what if we can't hit our opponent hard this time?" Roosevelt asked.

"Then my choice is a truce. The real long-range strength of the US Navy has been consumed in the last naval battle, and there are only 5 cruisers that can really be called cruisers, and those 2000 to 3000-ton battleships can face the opponent's 10-inch and 8-inch turret guns for a maximum of 10 to 20 minutes. As for the battleships? I think that if a decisive battle were to be fought with the opposing side, the battlefleet would also suffer serious losses. Majifen said with a sad face.

"Even if we can finally win against the Spanish fleet, all we can get is a Pinochan victory, after this war, even if the United States can finally take Cuba under its control, within seven years, the US Navy will definitely not be able to fight a big war, and don't forget that so far we have lost 2 future battleships." Magiffen smiled bitterly.

"Don't worry about the end of the war, let's talk about the present." A trace of sadness appeared on Admiral Simpson's face, but then he was relieved, after all, doing the current thing well is the most important thing!

Thank you for the reward with a breeze. It's been two days in a row with a dismal subscription. (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )