The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1896-03-30
THE BATTLEsHIP IOWA.

Thk b~ATTLESHlP IOWA
named the big naval baby. When
Miss Drake christened the ship, her
father stood beside her and near at
hand were the members Of his staff and
q party Of other distinguished Iowans.
Secretary Herbert Was There.
Secretary of the Navy Herbert was
there with prominent attaches of his
office, and so were the chiefs of the diff
ferent naval bureaus in Washington.
and members of the house and senate
committee on naval affairs. Governor
Hastings represented Pennsylvania,
and Mayor Warwick, Philadelphia. A
mighty horde of citizens saw the event.
1t was shortly after l o'clock when the
last tie piece holding the monster to the
ways was knocked off, and the tremend-
Gus hull gave a preliminary culver.
The commanding figure Of Miss Drake,
standing on a little raised platform,
was drawn up. Under Henry Cramps
direction, she rested n shoulder
against the hull, and then as it begun
to glide away, she swung her right arm
and smashed the bottle square on the
vessels nose, at the same time saying:
Il christen thee Iowa."
But nobody heard her, because at
that moment the factories and steam
boats let loose their ear-splitting whis-
ties and the multitude gave vent to its
frenzied roar of enthusiasm. And the
racket kept up until the Iowa had
gracefully courtesied to the tribute In
midair, swung around and cast anchor.
Everybody ON the bow platform shook
hands with everybody else there, and
then went into the long mould LETT for
luncheon and more Fluctuations.
There was a long list Of Iowa visitors
present, while from Washington cab
met officers, senators, representatives
and their families numbered hundreds.
Built to Look For Trouble.
Officially, the Iowa is known as
"Sea-going battleship No. l." dstin-
gushing her from coast line battleships
like the Indiana, Massachusetts, and
Oregon.
She is built essentially to look for
trouble, and incidentally take . very
active part in any little pleasantly she
may get involved in. Virtually she is
q floating fort, a terrific engine of de-
struction. She is 800 feet long; 70 feet
2 inches wide and when roaming
the seas will be sunk about % feet
in the water. This means that
1l,4lO tons of water will have to
move when she decides to go on an OK.
cursion, as hat amout is her reckoned
displacement. Here are some of her
statistics:
Free board forward 10 feet; normal
coal supply, 625 tons; total coal capac-
ity, bunkers filed, 1880 tons; maxi
mum indicated horsepower, contract
IL, 900; speed in knots, contract Is;
complement of officers and crew, 400.
Along both sides If the ship is a Sec
backed up by IL incles Of heavy yellow
pine, and this IN turn backed by a
great pad of understanding material
called cellulose.
Will He Terror.
In the matter of giving punishment
the Iowa will susly be a terror. At
| each end Of the main deck rise great
revolving turrets, made of l4-inch
armor plates. These turrets are sup
ported and revoke inside a barbette
base of l5-inch amor, and in each one
is located a pair # rifed guns with a
bore IL inches in diameter. These are
the great guns aid can hurl accurately
steel pointed shit weighing nearly
1000 pounds, q matter of seven miles
or 80. These gins consume At each
shot about 800 punds of powder Of q
kind that looks like huge prismatic
Jumps Of egg Goa They are fired by
electricity. and 8 nice is the mechan.
ism by which thy are controlled, that
they may be almost as readily aimed as
q sporting rife. These guns can be
trained over eit.er side, and the for.
ward ones dead head, or the after pair
dead aft, thus sweeping the sea in any