The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-31
TWO SHIPS LAUNCHED
GUNBOAT HELENA AND MERCHANT
STEAMER GRAND DUCHESS.
Many People Assembled mt Newport
News-The New Vessels Greeted by
q Scream from the Indiana.

NEWPORT, Va, Jan. 3o.-The third war
ship constructed by private Southern ship
yard since the war, and also the largest
merchant steamer built in this country,
with the exception of the two American
transatlantic liners built by the Cramps,
were launched successfully here by the New
port News SURROUNDING Company at high
tide this morning in the presence of a dis
tinguished party from Washington, MEM
bers OF the House naval affairs committee,
Admiral Brown, commanding the Norfolk
navy yard, and a large concourse of people.
estimated at five thousand. from adjacent
towns. There were present also representa-
tives from Admiral Bunces great fleet in
Hampton roads, Senators Carter and Man.
tie, or Montana, and Assistant Secretary
McAdoo. who represented the Navy Depart
ment in the absence of Secretary Herbert.
To add to the spectacular effect produced
by numbers of steamers and sailing vessels
which had gathered here for the occasion
was the battle ship Indiana, which came up
from Fort Monroe this morning to load
coal. pending her departure later for Port
Royal. Both vessels are the finest type OF
their class ever turned out by this yard,
which soon begins the construction of the
mammoth battle ships Kentucky and Kear-
In order to take advantage of the flood
tide, the launch of the vessels took place
before IL O'Clock. one following the other as
fast as the workmen could knock away the
shores and wedge up their keels The first
to take the water was the merchant vessel
whose name had been kept secret until
she began to slide down the ways, when
Miss Nellie S. Eldridge, of Boston, broke
the usual bottle of wine and christened her
the Grand Duchess AS the stern of the
great hull caught the water the shrill whis-
ties OF the steamer. several foreign ships at
the yarq and the hoarse b-r-r-r-r OF the
thousands of people showed their apprecia>
ton by prolonged cheers for the Newport
News ship-building yard and c: p Hunting
ton as its founder. On the christening plat
form were Mr.. Plant, president of the line
for which the vessel was constructed; Pres
gent Calvin d. orcutt OF the Newport
News Company; Representatives Hart and
Haiey, or the House, and the party from
Washington.
Thirty minutes after the Grand Duchess
entered the water and had been towed OUT
OF the way for the new war ship the Helena
was ready to take her natural element, and
with at first slight hesitation, due TO lack
OF sufficient tallow, and with stately preci-
sion, she glided off into the James, as Miss
Agnes Belle Steele, daughter Of Mayor
bottle and named her in honor of Montana's
capital city. Senators Carter and Mantle,
Mayor Steele and a party of eighteen from
Monts' a, Captain Glass. of the Texas. and
Admiral Brown were on the platform. The
Indiana greeted the new addition 40 the
service with deep blasts from her steam
to the din. At the conclusion Of the cere-
monies President circuit entertained the VS.
itors at banquet. where the ships and the
company were toasted by the Senator's Rep
resentatives and others. The keels Of the
new battle ships will be laid near the spot
where the ships were launched to-day.
THE NEW VESSELS
The gunboat Helena is one of the two
ships Of peculiar design built for the navy
by the Newport News company, her sister
ship. the Wilmington. having been launched
last October. The purpose was to secure an
efficient type of vessel for the navigation
of shallow and shifting rivers, such as are
found in China, which might still possess
sea-going qualities sufficient to insure safe
passages from the United States to fort
stations and also. TO enable them to be used
in carrying the United States flag into the
many ports OF South and Central America
which are now inaccessible to our war
ships, owing to shoal water. So the Helena,
when complete, with all stores aboard will
draw only nine feet of water and may go
where any schooner able to navigate the
seas can enter, and, while not battle ship
in the sense of possessing armor and big
guns, will carry eight four-inch rifles, guns
Of armored craft and heavy fortifications
and number of smaller machine guns so
mounted as to afford an extremely destruc-
tive fire on mobs or troops on shore. or a
boarding party. To enable the Helena to
make her way up and down narrow and
crooked channels. che has double rudders,
giving great turning power. and these are
so shielded that the stern may be run into
soft bank and the boat swept around by
the current as is customary in some OF
our Florida rivers. To give the screws suffi-
time to protect them from snags and drift
in the freshet streams they are placed in
two tunnels worked in the bottom of the
boat. The general lines of the boat above
water are broad. and this results in giving
much more than the usual allotment of
space for berthing, SO that the boat will be
peculiarly fitted for service in the tropics,
and will also be able TO give refuge to many
people in time of stress There viii be no
sails this vessel, and her one mast is
big steel tube. large enough to permit of
spiral staircase inside. giving access from
the deck to the top where four machine
guns are placed to sweep the shores and
the steersmen may sit in safety forty feet
above the water and thus look clear over
the narrow bends of Chineses rivers. The
Helena is go feet 9 inches long by 40 feet
1 inch broad, with speed of thirteen knots,
and will carry 10 officers and men, She is
built of steel throughout and is launched
just two years after the award of the con-
tract for building her to the Newport News
Ship-buding Company at SSO,UO, although
the appropriation for the ship was not to
vice calculated to give efficiency and comfort
has been placed. She has double bottom
as a guard against collision and groundings,
and is believed TO be a model gunboat for
the special services she was designed to
meet.
The Grand Duchess is a merchant steam
or built for the Plant line, and destined to
run between Tampa and the Bahamas, but
as she is built in strict accordance with the
requirements of the subsidy act she is SUBJ
ject to call by the government at any time
to serve as vessel of the auxiliary navy.
She is fully half as big again as the Helena
and is finished throughout in the highest
style OF the shipwright's art, with elegantly
furnished and appointed saloons and state
rooms, and every appliance for the safety
and comfort of the passengers. She is i0i
feet long by AZ feet inches beam and 81
feet inches deep, from the top of the deck
to the base line. She has double bottoms,
water tight compartments, tubulous boilers,
deck observatories, fire alarm system, cleo
trio lights, twin screws, can carry three hum
bred first-class and four hundred second
class passengers, and is built of steel
throughout