Evening star., 1898-03-24

God bless Kentucky on the land! God
speed and protect Kentucky on the sea-!
Never Such Christening.
mo ship has ever been christened as
this has been. Not according to the GUS
tom Of pirate vikings clad with the skins
Of wild beasts, but with sparkling water
from the spring which quenched the infant
thirst of him who gave freedom to a race
and saved our country from destruction.
And when the great ship majestically
moves to the glorious destiny which is in
store for 1t, it will be sanctified by the
prayers of more Christian women than all
others that have ever moved on the face
of the waters Whether under calm and
cloudless skies or struggling with tempest
and wave, whether in peace or war, there
shall hover over it, not the spirit of al
&C hol. which has destroyed so many lives,
desolated SO many homes and caused the
shedding OF SO much blood and so many
tears, but the spirit of Kentucky's nobIest
son, the grandest man in all the tide of
time, symbolized by Gods gift to man,
that which causes the earth to yield it's
fruits and harvest, which cleanses and
purifies. which quenches the thirst Of the
living and relieves the parched lips of the
wounded and dying. Purity and patriotism
nave today been blended in the christening
of the ship which predict will win more
fame. gather more laurels and accomplish
more good than any that has ever swept
the seas.
"And in parting with the majestic vessel
kentuckians, with one voice. exclaim:
" In spite of rock and tempests roar,
In spite Of false lights on the Shore
Sail on. nor fear to breast the sea;
Our hearts, our hopes all with thee:
our hearts, our hopes. our prayers. our tears,
Our faith triumphant DER our fears
are all with thee, are all with thee I"
The Ships Described.
There are larger battle ships afloat than
the Kearsarge and Kentucky; there are
larger armored cruisers in the British navy.
such as the Powerful and Terrible; yet it is
doubtful whether any prudent naval COM
mander would care to venture a hostile
meeting with one of these steel bulldogs of
the sea.
With displacement of II, 1,5c5 tons, they
draw only % feet inches Of water, less than
the armored cruisers New York and Brook
lyn, which would not combined be equal in
combat to one of the battle ships. Save the
Indiana class, they carry the heaviest bat
teries in accord with modern naval prac-
tice and with primary batteries fully equal
to that class they mount secondary guns
In such fashion as to make the combination
almost unequaled in naval architecture.
The big rifles, four in number are mounted
in two tuIrets, one sweeping the entire
sea from directly ahead, fully half way
astern, the other, with equal range, placed
so as to command the sea from either bow
straight astern. These are OF thirteen-inch
caiiber; yet the British navy now confines
Its guns to tWelve-inch. In inches the diff
ference seems small, yet the American
gun has about % per cent more power.
Both ships have small turrets, each con-
tanning two eight-inch rifles on top of the
big thirteen-inch turrets. Probably the craft
does not float that would survive the aw-
full impact from the four guns of one of
these combined turrets upon one small
section of it's hull, and because they are
trained in unison their projectiles must
strike close together.
With this saving in weight the designers
were able to give splendid armor protec-
ton 10 the ships. All of this armor is of
HarveyiZed nickel STEEL of American in
vention and the best in the world up to
this date, as is shown by the many Eu-
ropean efforts to equal it by other pro-
cesses of manufacture.
Auxiliary Batteries.
The combination battery is supplemented
by numerous auxiliary battery of smaller
guns perched on every convenient point of
the superstructure. All are rapid-fire or ma
chine guns, for the Navy Department has
profited by the lessons taught in the Chino
Japanese war OF the terrible power of guns
of this type. About four motions suffice
to load, discharge and reload one of these
guns, and in rapidty of fire they are equal
to three of the ordinary navy breech-load-
ing guns. The largest are five-inch cali
ber, fourteen in all, sheltered behind six
inch steel walls and separated one from
another by two-inch steel walls to minim-
ize the effects of an exploding shell in any
compartment. Then there are six-pound-
ers, one-pounders and Gatlngs, mainly for