Birmingham state herald., 1896-11-08

The secretary of the navy has an- nounced the names of the three new bat tleships authorized by act of the last ses- sion of congress, and Alabama Is to glory hn one of these distinguished namesakes. The others will be named the Illinois and the Wisconsin.
 By that act provision was made for the construction of three seagoing, coastline battleships, to cost Individually, exclud- 9ng armor and armament, not more than $3,750,000, the limit being based upon the contract price of the "Kearsarge" and Kentucky" now building at Newport News, Va.
 Battleships No. z, Mo- and No. g, for so they will be known till named, are im- provements, of course, upon any we have yet designed, and really happy compro- mises of the best features of the Iowa" and the "Kearsarge."
 Their general dimensions and principal features are:
 Length on load water-line, 368 feet; beam, extreme, 72 feet 2.5 inches; free board, forward, 19 feet 6 inches; free board, aft, 13 feet inches; normal dis placement, II ,525 tons; mean draft, nor mal displacement, 25 feet inches; indi- cated horsepower (estimated) 10000; speed in knots, an hour, (estimated) 16 knots; normal coal supply, 40 tons; to- tai bunker capacity, 1900 tons.
 BATTERIES.
 Main: Four 13-inch breech-loading rifles; fourteen 6-inch rapid-fire breech- 9oa ding rifles.
 Secondary: Sixteen 6-pounder rapid fire guns four 1-pounder rapid-hre guns; four machine guns; one field gun.
 The four above-water torpedo tubes are placed two on each broadslde, anu will fire through an arc of 50 degrees.
 One must remember that fighting ship of this order is necessarily a compromise of fin power armor protection-thickness and distribution-speed, coal endurance and manoeuvrng facility are most impor- tant; and in the case of these vessels the foregoing units of efficiency have been apportioned with a resultant balance that promises great things upon the limita- tions fixed by a displacement of some- thing short of 12,000 tons.
 The characte of our coast and the gen. orally shallow waters about many of our wealthest seaports made a comparative ly light draft an indispensa ble prerequi- site in these new ships. The largest or European ships of this sort usually draw about 2S feet when fully laden, while these vessels will draw but 25 feet when carrying their maximum coal supply less than either of the armored cruisers "New York" or Brooklyn" Besides as- suring the vessels admission to any har- bor of importance along our own coast line and making the ships less difficult of docking, this moderate draft would prove an invalua ble feature either of of fense or bling us to carry on an aggressive warfare, and that beyond the reach of retalatory approach.
 Boarding the craft at the lowest point, we come immediately upon the main deck, and right before us rises the after tur- ret for two of the 13-inch guns. Turn to the right and up a short flight of steps, and we stand at theafter break of the upper deck while in front of us an arr mored citadel, holding two of the 6-ihch guns blocks the way. Into the super structure and out again just forward or this citadel and there before us the deck runs unbrokenly to the stem, about which it flares outboard, formation yielding greater deck room and promising drler, easier seawayS in rough weather Ahead lie the forward turret and the two cranes for handling the heavy anchors. On the superstructure deck behind rest the boats, high above the blast of the great guns, while on the bridges stand the search lights and some of the 6-pounder. guns that are to aid in repellsng torpedo boats and just behind the forward turret and below the pilot house, rides the coming tower, of 1O-inch steel, within whose rounded walls the captain will guide his ship in action. Two tall steel masts, each with it's own set of electrlcal sls- nals. and bearing double fighting tops with the Gatl.ngs and 1-pounders peer ing OCT their edges will futter with Oli Glory in action.
 Back whence we started. and once more forward--ths time, however, through a doorway cut in hardened steel five inches and half thick, and there before us lie the midship battery for four 6-lnch rapid fire rifles each separated from the others by splinter bulkheads of inch-and-a- half steel. Training through ares of forty-fve degrees, firing four times miDute, send ing at each discharge a 100-pound missile of hardened steel hurling upon an errand of destruction, a mile away, six-incf, armor would wither nnder, this awful fire like snow before summer sun. Turning to the other side of the deck there we find the duplicate of this de- structive force.
 Still forward. we pass again through another thick wall of steel. cutting across the ship just beyond the fourth gun. and