The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-09-24
ADDITIONS To Our NAVY
1nfanta Maria Teresa and Cristoba1 Colon.
Excellent War Ships That Will Add
Greatly to Our Effectiveness Afloat.
T.. The Albany Coming. !. -.
The Albany Coming.

The command of the sea, the first
lord of the British admiralty stated last
year, was passing to cruisers rather
than to battleships. This may be so
to limited extent, for it depends rath-
er on what the words battleship and
cruiser signify.
AS has been repeatedly told in the
Herald, a battleship is vessel which,
for, her size, carries the heaviest arma-
ment and the th1ckest armor possible,
subordinating speed and coal-carrying
mored cruiser, on the other haud, sac
rifices certain amount of gun power
and protection in order to reach
high speed and to stow large guam
tity Of coal. But the dividing line be-
tween these two types of armored
fighting ships is. decidedly arbitrary,
each nation classifying it's ships to
suit the fancy of the committee that,
decides upon their construction.
For instance, when the old Maine
was first laid down she was called by
our navy department an armored cruis-
er. At that time it was proposed to
equip her with masts for sail power
Later it was, decided that instead Of
the spars there should be military
masts, and thenceforth the Maine was
known as a battleship.
Battlsships and Cruisers.
The new battleships of England of
the Canopus class are to carry 12-inch
guns and armor only six inches thick,
but the speed, with natural draft, is
to be 1872 knots, and the coal capacity
is 1890 tons.
Germany's latest designed battle
ships mount 9.2-inch guns as the heav-
lest pieces in. their main batteries.
In our navy the Texas is denominat-
ed second-class battleship, but the
Spanish ships Of the same size and ap-
proximatelysE 1.-the same armament and
armor are classified as armored cruis-
ers. This is distinction, therefore,
without a difference, and is not al
ways recognized, even among naval
men, the Infanta Maria Teresa being.
often spoken Of as a second-class bat
tleship.
This vessel and the armored cruiser
Cristobal Colon, now that they are
both to become American men-of-war,
are particularly interesting to us.
First, because having been won in war,
they represent the fruit of conquest,
the reward of victory and the glory
Of the United States navy; and second,
because, be they called armored cruis-
ers or battleships, they are a type Of
ship our naval officers are very de-
sirous of seeing added to our service.
The Infanta Maria Teresa
The Infanta Maria Teresa was built
by Sir Charles Palmer's Anglo-Spanish
company at Bilboa, Spain.
The following are the dimensions
and other particulars of the ship:
Length between perpendiculars, $40
feet; greatest beam, IS feet 2 inches;
/ mean draught, 81 feet inches; dis
placement, 1000 tons.
Her hull is built of mild steel and
is we'll subdivided by double bottom
and watertight bulkheads. She was
launched at Bilboa on August 80, 1890,
and completed her steam trials off Fer
rol in September and October of 1898.
With natural draft 9,55S horsepower
was developed and a speed of 1876
knots, whereas only 1S knots were stip-
ulated. With forced draft, in four and
a half hours trial, the mean horse
power developed was 1888 and the
speed was 20.5 knots.
The two sets of vertical triple ex-
pansion engines of the ship were de-
signed by an English engineer. The
diameters Of the cylinders are AZ, 62
and go inches and the stroke is 46
inches. The steam generating plant
consists Of four double-ended and two