The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-11-13

Cruiser Brooklyn Is the Finest
Fighter Of Her Glass Aaoat
Her Guns More Formidable Than
Those on ANY Other Cruiser

formidable cruiser aaoat She is not
built 10 encounter armored battle
ships, but TO destroy the commerce Of
a hostile nation and meo. 10 sea fights
vessels Of her own class Everything
about her is OF the latest aud best
type, and her guns will be the most
effective Of their calibre unoat.
The officers who we're on the Brook
Ign on the recent trial trip we're de-
lighted with her steadiness ia a seaway
and with the general behavior OF the
ship while running at the great speed
at which she was driven over the long
ocean course Of the New England
coast where she was tested. II the
Brooklyn belonged 10 tue British navy
her official speed would be placed ut
% knots, for several timus ia her trial
trip she exceeded that speed for over
a mile. Now, the two crack cruisers
of the British navy, the Powerful aud
the Terrible, have an official speed
over the measured mile OF % kuots,
aud smooth-water speed Of only 20
knots.
One Of the peculiar and new features
of the Brooklyn is thattwo OF her tur-
rets will be operated by electricity.
Heretofore electricity never has been
used in the United Statco navy for re-
volving turrets. For some time ex-
periments looking to It's use IN this
manner have been made, and il is
now believed that all the difficulties
encountered have been overcome. II
this application Of electricity to the
movement Of the steel muses. of the
Brooklyn's turrets proves "A success, it
is anticipated other new ships will be
fitted with like appliances
1t would be hard work to sink the
Brooklyn, unless she was blown al
most entirely to pieces, One torpedo
under her bottom would hardly do it.
Her watertight bulkhends, and her
double bottom, filled with cellulose,
make her as unsuitable AS it is posi-
BILE to have a ship. The old ships
those which few years ago we called
the new ships, such as the Chicago,
Boston and Atlanta-had double bot
toms, but they were different from the
double bottoms of the Brooklyn and
the moro recent vessels. In the Brook
lyn the space between the inner and
outer "skins" of the ship is divided
into a number of small compartments
by watertight partitions of steel, and
all these compartments are filled with
collulose. If a hole is made in the
bottom of the ship the cellulose would
swell up as soon as the water struck it
and stop the hole. The space between
the bulls being divided into so many
compartments, damage to the bot
would affect only two or three of them,
leaving the rest intact and as buoyant
as ever.
1t is a great thing, this cellulose,
and makes things different than they
used to be in the old wooden ships,
when sometimes, in cases of injury to
the hull, about everything portable
on board, from the sailors hammocks
to the captains best coat, had to be
stuffed into the hole to stop the
leak.
One thing with which the officers OF
the Brooklyn we're particularly pleased
on her trial trip was the lack of vi
bration in the ship even when her en-
gines were driven at their highest
speed. When her engines we're max
ing 1876 revolutions minute the PEG.
pie on board scarcely could believe the
ship was travelling 50 fast, so gentle
was thu motion OF her swift rusl
through the water. Aud on this tria
trip the Brooklyn was weighted dow
to about one thousand tons more thar
her regular displacement, as by the
stipulations of the contract unde
which she was built she was to have Of
her trial trip displacement equal t.
that OF the New York. The Brook
lyn cost 50, 9s6, 900. The New YOrl
cost within 81, 900 of the same sum
and the Columbia and Minneapoli
50, 725, 900 and 5000, 900 respect
fwalu