Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1895-10-16
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER IS, 1895.
AMERICAN THROUGHOUT.
National Pride That Can Be Taken
in Our New Battleships.
From Turret to Keel They Are the Prod
uct Of Native Skill and Material
Name OF Historic Kearsarge
to Be Perpetuated.
It is the proud boast of the navy de.

It is the proud boast of the navy de-
partment that the new war vessels now
G1uilding are American from the turret
so keel-from stem to stern. The de-
signs were drawn by American
draughtsmen in the bureau of construc-
4ion; the armor in which they are
gsheathed was forged at Bethlehem
sand Pittsburgh, Pa; the process by
which the armor was hardened and
which thus permits a lighter weight of
steel to be used without impairing it's
relative strength, was patented by an
American; the guns with which the
ships are armed were built of American
steel by American mechanics at the
Washington navy yard, the machinery
itself being Of American manufacture
while the contractors and their work
men who constructed the vessels wc~e
also of the same nationality.
While ten years ago there was O. in
She United States a shipyard capable
of building anything larger than an
ordinary cruising vessel, there are to-
day scores of shipyards IN which such
ships can be built, while four of the
number, namely, the Cramps, at Phila-
delphia; the Union Iron works, of San
francisco; the Bath Iron works, of
Maine, and the Huntington yard, at
Newport News, Va, all possess plants
IN which the largest vessels afoat can
BE as cheaply and is rapidly built as at
any other shipyard IN the world. 1t
nay be Of interest in this connection
TO state that the large vessels above re-
9erred to, and which are technically
Snown as battleships, cost $4,000, coo to
build. With their batteries on board,
and when ready for commission, the
cost viii be increased to an aggregate
of $780, 600 each. The battleshio
Is essentially the fighting ship.
and the four now in process of
construction viii be the best of their
class and the equal Of any in the
largest European navies. Each car
ries in its main battery 4 thirteen, s
eight and + six inch guns in addition TO
a powerful secondary battery. Three
Of the four vessels will be in commits
sion within the next twelve months.
The Indiana, which is the farthest adj
yanced, will be completed January /
next. The Massachusetts will be in
<DluH1SSlOu Gnfe6 months later, WhlIe
the Oregon will be turned over to the
government during the summer.
On the 30th day Of October next the
plans and specifications for the two
new battleships authorized at the last
session of congress will be completed
and bids for their construction will be
asked. The bids viii be opened No
Fenber 80 and the work upon the yes
sells viii begin not later than Janu-
ary 1.
The brilliant achievements of the old
wooden corvette Kearsarge, which de-
Eeated the confederate cruiser Alabama
sof the coast of France during the civil
war, and which was wrecked on Ronca-
dore reef a year ago., will be perpetu-
Sated in one of the new vessels BY giving
10 it her name. Following the general
custom, however. the other vessel will
receive the name of one of the forty
i've federal states. Each will be fitted
out as a flagship and each like it's
predecessor will be kept in commission
anti the officers and men of the navy
shall become sufficiently familiar with
Its mechanism to handle and fight it
~7rODor1U