The times., 1898-01-09
OUR SHIPS.

{ 10 the lHe
In your issue of Monday, March 2.
last, You kindly published commu
I nicatien stating that very NJ any Of
/ the steel vessels of all the great ma.
/ tions, except America, have their bot
! toms sheathed with wood and coppereC
/ to prevent pitting and marine growth
! at a saving of many thousands CT dol
lars per annum, as well as the preser-
1 walton of the lives of the vessels
/ 1t SO happened that the edition re-
/ ferred to was sold out before some OF
I your readers who desired additional
4 copies applied for them, and ] there
/ fore request your indulgence and space
that portion of the article may be re-
produced in the interest Of the new
American navy.
Experience has confirmed the con-
yiction, and it appears incontestable
that the cost of fitting sheathing to the
bottoms of our cruisers would be more
than saved during a single three years
cruise by the decrease in coal con-
sumption and docking bills, without
considering the question of ability to
maintain the speed for which the YES
sells We're designed.
The prejudice, for it is nothing else.
against sheathing has been so great
that of all the new vessels not one has
had its bottom sheathed and coppersd.
The first departure from the estab-
lished practice has been the recent con-
struction of six composite gunboats.
These vessels will be of much greater
value and much less expensive by rea-
son of having wooden bottoms cop
pered. Steel vessels are docked for
cleaning twice each year Cor more), but
they cannot maintain their speed for
one month after leaving the dock, nor
their economy of coal consumption.
That fact, added to the cost of dock
ing, y hich is excessive on foreign sta
tons should, of ;,s:if, sufficient to
change the American Iaactice.
1T is to be hoped that in the light IF
experience the cruising vessels of our
navy, at least, will soon have their bot
toms sheathed and coppered.
Why not try it on the Eearsarge,
Kentucky, Illinois, Alabama and Wis
consin, now building, or, If not upon
all, upon four of them, three of them
two of them, one of them?
If the naval authorities will not try
the experiment of their own volition,
Congress, in the next appropriation for
naval construction, might well provide
that the vessels appropriated for be
Everyone who has grown to manhood
near a seaport is aware that the thin
sheets of copper with which the bot
toms of the wooden merchant marine
are covered keep the vessels out of
dock for years at time. and that if
fungus or other marine growth at
taches to them while lying in port the
passage of the vessels through the wa
ter sweeps it off as soon as they get
under way.
''On the contrary, less than one year
ago, as one of our naval vessels was
about to sail for foreign station, at
the last moment, it was discovered that
it's bottom was badly pitted, and twen-
ty-eight steel plates were removed and
new ones substituted, at great expense
by reason of the cost of repair and six
weeks detention, her crew of several
hundred men being on full sea-pay,
with nothing to do but amuse them
selves. Two of our battleships barely
escaped serious injury in dock-the
Texas at Brooklyn and the Indiana at
Halifax"
In this connection may 1 ask you to
quote from a recent number of the
London Engineer, which devotes sew
eral pages to a description Of our new
light-draft gunboats, Nashville, Will
mington, Helena, Newport. Annapolis,
Vicksburg, Princeton, Marietta and
Wheeling, giving half-tone photo
graphs of the Helena, Annapolis and
Nashville, with sectional drawings
looking from stem to stern and Sec
tional side views of the Annapolis and
Marietta classes?
OF the first three named it says:
owing to the light draft of these ves-
sels and the use of twin screws, in con-
junction with the special river service
for which they have been designed,