The Portland daily press., 1862-12-13

On Saturday also was launched the Whit
ney battery, Keokuk, the first iron-clad ever
built in the city of New York. Alexander III.
Rhind, one of the regular officers of the old
navy, will command her. He was born in n.
York, appointed from Alabama, and is citi-
zen of Minnesota; has been twenty years in
the navy, and eleven of them at sea- The
following description of his vessel is taken
from the New York World:
The dimensions and detailed account of the
work performed on the Keokuk have been
printed, but they convey no idea to the gener
al reader of her peculiarities. These are
First-the armor of the hull and its arrange
ments.
Second-the mode Of mailing the turret.
Third-the speed of the ship.
First, the buwark of outside armor, with
which the construction of Monitors has made
Americans familiar, consists of iron plates laid
over one another. Thus, when we say a bat
terry has four and half inches of iron armor
on her sides, we mean that four inch plates
and one half inch plate are laid over each
other and fastened. Mr.. Whitney has adopted
a new and novel plan which is interesting,
and apparently good. Over ground work of
hali-inch rolled plates there are bars of iron
four inches thick, alternately with strips of
gtHOW piuc vi dDOht tuudl tillckllcsS. ONeT
all these, then, there are two or three So inch
plates of iron; so that in reality the erclus-
irety iron mail on the outside is not quite
two inches thick, while the whole armor, the
iron edge, wooden lining, and plates together
make over six. Many deem this as good as
six inches of plate iron.
Second, the turret is somewhat similarly
made. The small batteries already in service
except the Galena, have in their turrets eleven
L .lafa ta.I IL.
constituting an exclusively iron wall eleven
inches in thickness. The Keokuk's turrets
have the 4-inch iron bars, inside or outside the
5-6 plates, and although the turret has 6 1-2
inches of iron, as stated in our first account of
the vessel, only two inches or less of it. is laid
on in plates, the rest being edge-turned bars,
which, as in the hull frequently alternate with
strips pine, so that the exclusive iron armor
of the turret is only two inches, while the mass
taken together is deemed by many as strong
as if the plates were laid over each other.
Third, the Keokuk was to be a 'ten-knot
vessel" when she was originally designed but
more iron having been put on her than was
intended, it is conceded that she will lose
a knot thereby, or only make nine. The first
Indispensable attribute of a ram is strength,
and the second speed. Hence, the most i'm
portant-the last named-pecuiarity of this
singular ship has been overlooked by all who
have written about her. She will be fast, and
her strength is apparent to all who look at
her.
A steam ram mnst be able to catch the YES
sci she wishes to destroy, and to strike her
with as much velocity as possible. 1t is to
make the Keokuk this kind of a craft that Mr..
Whitney has so assiduously labored. Were it
possible to drive her twenty miles an hour she
would be all the better ram for it, but she
is not meant so much to be the perfect
thing herself as to illustrate in what manner
perfection can be attained. Her engines are
400 horse power, and if they drive her nine
miles an hour, as the authorities expect, it
would be easy to build one four times her size,
with proportionate speed.