The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-07-20
THE WAR SHIP CHARLESTON.
The First Of the New Cruisers About
20 be Launched.

This week will be a memorable In naval
circles at Washington as the first Of the new
cruisers laid down by the present Navy De-
partment Is about to take to the water
Two Of Secretary Whitney's vessels, II Is
true, have already been launched, but
neither Is elassed as cruiser. The York
town, built at Cramps yard. is gunboat of
only LOO tons displacement, or not much
more than the Dolphin's, while the Vesuvius,
Of 800 tons, Is a dynamite torpedo craft de-
signed for harbor defence. But the Charles
ton, to be launched from,the yard Of the
Union Iron Works. San Francisco,I the mid
die Of this week, is a full cruiser of $3.50
tons, having double the horse power Of the
Yorktown. costing twice as much to build.
carrying all the armament of the Yorktown.
and in addition to 1t guns five times as heavy
and vastly more powerful. The launch Of
the Charleston, therefore. will be an event
Of unusual importance, independently of the
peculiar interest attached to it as product
Of government shipbuilding on the Pacific.
The Charleston is twin-screw cruiser, of
steel throughout, having length between
perpendiculars Of 800 feet, beam Of 46, a
draught forward Of ia feet, and draught
aft Of 19a. She is double-bottomed under en-
gines and boilers. She has also q curved or
turtle-back steel deck from two to three
inches thick running from stem to stern, and
protecting everything below it, being foot
above load-water line at the crown and then
sloping at its edges to four feet below the
water. Coal bunkers are so arranged as 10
furnish further protection.
The compound engines are in two separate
compartments, and actuate three-bladed
twin screws. The indicated horse power
under forced draught Is 7,4o0. and she is
expected to make maximum of fully IS
knots an hour. At 10 knots an hour her
coal will last for 5000 miles, and at IS knots
for 200. She has no sail power, however,
except storm sails, but has two military
masts. Her regular coal capacity is 45O tons.
but she can carry 800, with an increase then
of II feet in her draught. Her hold is
divided into many water-tight compartments
by bulkheads, furnishing rooms for stores,
ammunition, chains. and so on.
The main battery consists of two nigh
power, breech-loading. 10-inch steel rifles,
mounted on central piyots, besides six 6-inch
rified breech-lOaders on central pivot car
riages and spar-deck sponsors in broadside.
Steel screens, two inches thick, protect the
l0-inch guns, with their, hydraulic revolving
and loading gear; and there Is the same
thickness Of steel on the coming tower.
The ammunition hoists, which lead directly
from the she'll rooms to the loading towers at
the breech of the 10.inch guns, are covered
with three inches of steel. The 10-inch guns
can be fired fore and aft at point blank, and
their hydraulic power Is the same as that
which works the steering gear. Were there
nothing else to give interest to the Charles
ton, she would attract great attention from
the fact that she Is TO carry guns far larger
than the largest placed upon any other of the
unarmored cruisers, even those which are Of
a much larger displacement Her 10-inch
guns are in fact the same as those which
will be carried on the heavy double-turret
monitors now under completion. They will
weigh 26 tons each, and throw projeetile
weighing 800 pounds with charge Of $50
pounds of powder at the high initial velocity
of over 1000 feet per second.
The secondary battery Of the Charleston
consist of rapid-fre Hotchkiss guns and
Gatlings, and she will also have supply of
automobile torpedoes, to be launched from
tubes mounted in water above broadside.
The Charleston is built upon the lines of
the famous Japanese warship Naniwa Kan,
constructed by Armstrong Il Co., with
machinery by the Hawthornes. The Naniwa
Kan was an Improvement on the Esmeralda,
built by the same firm for Chilli, and Is said
to have made, on her trial, nearly 10 knots.
Accordingly, Secretary Whitney bought her
plans, and these, with slight notifications,
were made the basis of the advertisement
for Cruiser No. 3, as the Charleston was
then called, which fell to the Union Works
Of San Francisco in the bidding. Her keel
was laid last year, and the contract price for
hull and engines was 81, OF, 800. She should
have been completed on the 2Sth Of June,
according to her contract. but like all the
other vessels, was delayed for reasons which
have been frequently explained, the con-
tractors urging that they could not, under
the government tests Of steel, receive it fast
enough for their purpose. II Is point, at
all events, in favor of the builders Of the
Charleston that she is the first Of the large
new vessels to be launched. From the
record Of the Naniwa Kan, whose lines and
motive power have been carefully followed,
1t is believed that the new vessel Will DC
fine success.