St. Paul daily globe., 1896-03-29
THE MOST POWERFUL. FIGHTING
SHIP AFLoAT LAUNCHED AT
CRAMPS YARD.
BUILT TO SEEK TROUBLE,
AND WHEN SHE FINDS IT SHs
CAN PLAY A STAR
PART.
NAMED AFTER STATE OF IOWA.
Her Great Guns Will HurI Tbouso,a
round Projectiles for Dis
tance of Seven Niles.

PHILADELPHIA, March 28 The
battle ship Iowa was launched from
Cramps ship yard this afternoon
When she slipped from her cradle and
dlpped her virgin keel in the waters OF
the Delaware, Uncle Sans new navy
received the most powerful fighting
Vessel afloat. There has meyer been
more successful launch. Federal.
state and municipal governments were
represented by high dignitaries. Miss
MARY Lord Drake, daughter of the
governor of Iowa. named the big naval
papy- The. bottle she broke on its great
iron prov contained champagne. and
not water from either the Des Moines
or the Schuylkill rivers, which some
HaWkeye state prohibitionists wanted
used When Miss Drake christened the
ship, her father stood beside her and
near at. hand were the members of his
star and a party of other distin-
gulshed Iowans
Secretary of the Navy Herbert was
there with prominent attaches of his
oHlce, and so We're the chiefs of the
different naval bureaus in Washing
ton, and members of the house and
senate committee on naval affairs. Gov.
Hastings represented PENNSYLVANIA
and Mayor Warwick, PhiladeIphia. IF
was shortly after 1 O'Clock when tha
last tie piece holding the monster to the
ways was knocked off, and the tra-
ihehdons hull gave q preliminary uuiy
er. The commanding figure of Miss
Drake. standing on a little raised plaf-
form. was drawn UP. Under Henry
cramps direction, she rested one shouI-
der against the hull, and then. as II he
gun 10 slide away, she swung her right
arm and smashed the bottle SQUARE ON
the VesselS nose. She nervously muir
INJURED: Il christen thee Iowa" Bur
nobody heard her. because at that mo-
heht the factories and steamboats, let
loose their ear-splitting whistles and
lhe multitude gave vent to it's fren-
zled roar of enthusiasm And the
racket Kept up until the Iowa had
gracefully curtesied to the tribute in
1llld-stream, swung around and cast
anchor. Everybody on the bow plat
forms shook hands with everybody else
/ ana then they went into the long mould
loIt Tor luncheon and more zfeiicitations
ofilc1aily, the iowa is known as "sea
going battleship No.41," distinguishing
her from .coast7line battle ships like
the Indiana, Massachusetts and Ore
gans She is built essentially TO lnol,
Tor trouble and incidentally to take
very active part in any little pleas
antry she may get involved In. Vir-
tually, She Is floating. fort. ter
rifle engine of destruction. She ia Sso
feet long, 72 feet 2 inches wide and
when roaming the seas will be sunk
about 20 feet. This means that II 41o
tons OF water viii have to move when
she decides to go on an excursion
Here are some of her statistics: Free
board forward, 19 feet: normal coal
supply, 625 tons; total coal canacitv
bunkers filled, 1,7S0 tons: maximnn, II,
ulcated morse power, contract. 1I,O0o.
speed in knots, contract. 1S. con,n3e
ihelit or officers and crew. 400 Alone
both sides of the shin Is n sac,ian %
steel armour, fourteen inches thick
oacAeu up oy Il inches of heavy yellow
Phe' ana this, in turn backed hv a
great pad of water-exciudina, noator;o1
called cellulose
In the matter of giving punishment tbo
Iowa Will be a terror Al each ord - a.
main deck rise great revolving turrets pood
OIL lourteen-inch armor plates These turrats
are supported and revolve inside a barbette
oaee oi Hiteen-lnch armor, and In each one
is located pair of rided guns. with a bore
Twelve inches In diameter. These can hurI
accurately steel pointed shot weighing nearly
lVoo pounds matter of seven miles or so
iihey are fred by electricity, and so nice is
the mechanism by which they are centTolled
that they may be almost as readily aimed es
sporting rifle. The deck house as 1t might
De called on the Iowa is really heavily
afmored fortress. At each of its four. corners
are barbettes OF eight-inch armor, on which
turn turrets five and one-half inches thick
In each OF these turrets is a pair of guns fof
elght Inches diameter, a type conceded to be
about the most effective made. They hurI
lighter projectiles than the great guns. but
with almost as much force, and are easily ham
died and quickly fired. These grim monsters
have free range all around, for they point
out far above the big guns below.
incidentally. the ship carries six fo,ir-inch
rifles, no mean guns, by the way In a close
fight, and twenty-five rapid-fre and machine
guns. The great beam of the ship. which
must give her stability in any kind of wealth
er, Will enable her to fight this tremendous
battery entire in any sort Of sea- The Iowa
contract was awarded to the Cramps on Feb
II, 1898, the price being $1,000, 600: She is
guaranteed to speed sixteen knots an hour
and for each quarter knot additional the
builders will get $40 900.