The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-04-24
TRIAL OF MASSACR USE7TS.
The Work She Did Surprised Even Her
 Builders.

Builders.
 Boston, April 2S-The battleship Mas sachusetts was given preliminary run
 by the builders over the official course to-day. The trial was so satisfactorily l carried out that only two-fifths of the
 course was gone over. The ship was steamed for less than two hours and in that time she averaged 15.59 knots an hour, which is .59 of a knot above her contract speed. If the vessel car-
 ries out the expectations raised by her performance to-day she should make a full 16 knots on her official trial Sat
 urday and earn her builders a bonus of
 $100, ,000
 It was as perfect a spring morning
 as the sun ever rose on when the Mas sachusetts headed down the bay, but there was heavy swell rolling in from
 the ocean. This swell made itself ap-
 parent to those aboard the ship Sev-
 eral sailors were forward securing the
 anchor. The Massachusetts poked her
 nose into roller and small sea broke
 over the bows. This was followed an instant afterwards by torrent of white
 crested foaming water, which swept the men at work along the deck like
 ninepins. All but one of them escaped with a good drenching, but one sailor was thrown against an anchor fluke and
 his leg was badly cut. The vessel
 plunged continually under water. Two sailors were sent forward to cover the forward ventilator with tarpaulins as the lower deck was being flooded out. While they were tying the canvas around the ventilators a particularly high sea came over the bow As the wall of water came at them both men hung on for their lives. The sea lifted them from their feet and swung them into the air. Both had a good grip,
 one on ventilator and the other on
 a back-stay and both held on, but as the sea drove them back on the deck, one of the men was dashed with such force upon the blanks that his ankle was sprained. It was necessary to bring the vessel broadside to the sea be- fore the ventilators could be secured. When the ship got to sea the swell was not so heavy, but the surge was big enough to materially reduce the speed of the ship. Despite the heavy swell the Massachusetts hardly rolled at sea and proved she was an excellent gun platform. As sea forced draught was put on and the Massachusetts was speeded up the course. When the third buoy, 12 2-5 knots from the starting buoy, was passed Edwin S. Cramp was so well pleased with the vessels per-
 formance that he ordered her put about
 and the return run to the first buoy
 was made.
 Between the first and second buoy the
 ship made HAP knots, between the sec ond and third 16.21 knots and on the
 return between the third and second
 cans she did 15.90 and between the sec-
 ond and first 15.S3, which gave her an average for both ways of 1859 knots
 The engines during the run worked
 splendidly. Their average revolutions
 were 125, and the maximum was 129.
 The slip of the screw was 22 per cent.
 The government had no supervision
 over to-days trial and but one or two
 members of the trial board were aboard.
 Lewis Nixon, who designed the Indiana
 and Massachusetts, was much pleas
 ed with to-days trial He said the
 Massachusetts had done to-day about
 as well as the Indiana did on her pre-
 liminary trip, but hat he expected the
 new ship to make a much better show
 ing than her sister vessel did on her
 official trip.