The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-11
CoRNsTALK CRUISERS.
Kearsarge and Kentucky Have Walls
Packed with Pith.
Washington Post.

The new battle ships Kearsarge and Ken
lucky to be launched six weeks from now.
structed with armor belts OF cornstalk plth
1t is a notion wholly novel, and naval ex-
perts are watching the experiment With
great interest. Such confidence is felt in the
wisdom of it that all the other ships now in
course of building for Uncle Sans navy
are ordered to be furnished with similar
equipment. Those who are best informed
on such subjects declare that three-foot
belt of cornstalk pith is equal, for protect
i've purposes, to six inches of Harveyized
nickel-Steel armor.
The idea of it is that cornstalk pith pos
sesses in a remarkable degree the property
of absorbing water, swelling with such ra-
pidity as to close shot hole pe1ore the
briny ocean can enter the ship. Thus a
belt of it placed between the outer and IN
ner skins of the vessel, and covering the
waterline, is calculated to keep her afioat
even though that delicate part of her anat-
omy should be fairly riddled by projectiles.
similar stuffing of cellulose, obtained
from cocoanut fiber, saved the japanese
cruiser Itsukushima at the battle of the
Yalu river, when she was struck repeatedly
near the Waterline by large proJect1leS. In
the same fight the Chinese armored cruisers
Tschi-Yuen and King Yuen, neither of them
Sc protected, were capsized and sunk by a
shell apiece
from downstairs, so to speak, by a turtle
back deck of steel plates. This is called the
protective deck, and its edges are below the
water line. The whole top story or the
vessel, with masts, bridge, smokestack, etc,
might be shot and burned away. and still
she would be expected to float. the turtle
back DETECTING the projectiles aimed at
her But the trouble is that shOt-holes
above the protective deck might let in water
on one side, overbalance her, and cause her
to turn suddenly over keel upward. 1t is in
order to avoid this embarrassing con-
tingency that the water line is backed in
side by series of steel, watertight com
partmentS called "cOffer-damS. !"
1t is obvious that if a number OF the cor
fer-dams were pierced by projecties in, a
sea fight and filed with intruding water the
weight of the water would be apt TO upset
the delicate balance of the vessel, causing
her to list over to one side Under such
point up at the sky and others down toward
the ocean, so that she would cease to be
serviceable as a gun platform. In other
words, she would become useless as a llsnt-
ing machine and would be compelled TO
strike her colors. even if she were so lucky
as to escape capsizing, Accordingly, II has
been sought to fill the coffer-dams with
something as light as possible to help keep
the water out of them and to assist in
maintaining the fiotation of the ship.
Nothing satisfactory was found however,
until a Yankee genius hit upon the idea of
using the pith of cornstalks This proved
the solution of the problem. and that is why
all of the newest vessels of the United States
navy are being provided with a belt of this
material To call it belt is fairly accurate,
inasmuch as the compartments or coner-
DAMS filled with the stuff, run along both
sides of the ship. The belt of stuffed Golfer
dams is three feet thick, and extends four
1eet above the wafer Une anu TOUR Ieel De-
low it. The pith is packed under pressure in
the coffer-dams in the shape of bricks. Navy
men say that, with good turtleback deck
back of it to defend the ''vitals'' of the snip,
one hundred tons of cornstalk pith are
equivalent TO one thousand tons of steel
armor
This cornstalk filling has not been adopted
by the Navy Department without elaborate
experiments and tests. Coffer-dams filled
with the stuff were riddled by big shells,
but water could not be made to enter even
when projected al the holes in a powerful
stream from a fire hose.
The first and most natural way of guard
ing against water-line damage was TO put
a belt Of armor all around the vesse. ex-
tending for a few feet above and below the
water line. But guns improved so rapidly
in penetrating power and facility of fire
that a belt could not be carried the whole
length Of sufficient thickness to guarantee
defense. Hence. the value Of the cornstalk
padding for armored ships. while for un-
armored vessels ii is a most admirable pro-
lection.
The process Of preparing the cornstalk
pith is decidedly interesting. The un-
trimmed stalks. just as they come from the
field that has yielded It's harvest. are fed