The age-herald., 1898-05-19
LAUNCHING OF
 THE ALABAMA The Ship Has ChriStened by the Daugh- ter Oi Senator John I, Morgan. Z CEREMONY WAS PRIVATE Fear Of Spanish Spies Vas tho Cause
 of This. A DESCRIPTION OF THE VESSEL Will Create a Sensation When She Gets in Running Trim, as Did Her Famous
 Namesake Who Flew the
 Stars and Bars.
A DESCRIPTION OF TIE VESSEL

Alabama was launched at Cramps shipyard shortly before o'clock this afternoon.
 Miss Mary D. Morgan, daughter of Sena- tor Morgan, of Alabama, had the honor of breaking the traditional bottle of wine on the brow of the big fighter as it slid from the ways. The fact that the launching of the ship was one of the most successful ever witnessed at Cramps Is regarded as an omen of good fortune. So eager was the Alabama to get into her native element that before the saving of the "shoe" which holds the cradle in place had been complet- ed the monstrous hull, tugging with weight of thousands of tons on the strips of oak tore them apart and the big mass of steel g1ided gracefully into the water a few minutes ahead of schedule time. Miss Morgan stood on a dais built on the launch- ing platform directly under the bow of the Alabama. She was attended by her father, Senator Morgan, and her sister, Miss Cor nelia Morgan. As the ship began to tremble preparatory to sliding off, the well greased ways, she took firmer grasp on the gai1y bedecked bottle of native Ala bama wine which she held In her right hand and swinging her head smashed 1t against the nose of the ship, saying as she did SO:
 T crown thee with magnolias, brave ship, and christen thee with a proud name, Alabama"
 Festoons of Magnoiias
 The bow of the boat was hung with great festoons of magnolias, gray moss and roses gathered by ladies of the State of Alabama and sent here for the occasion.
 Only a few hundred people witnessed the launching as against the thousands that are usually in the yard on such occasions. For the time past the yard has been closed to all visitors and the rule was not relaxed to any extent today. Fear of Span- iesh treachery has made the government nd Cray4 nxtr al ap1 single bomb exploded by hostile visit or would do almost incalculable damage. The "war time launching" was for this reason almost a private affair.
 After the Alabama had come to a stand still in the Delaware tugs lowed her back to her dock and workmen swarmed over her, beginning at once the work of prepar- ing her for service. If the armor Is con- tpacted for now and delivered promptly the ship will be ready for commission with in year.
 It is a curious coincidence that the yard number of the Alabama 200, is the same as the yard number of the old Alabama. built for the confederates in English shipyard during the rebellion.
 Description of the Ship
 The Alabama will be different from the battlesh.cs Indiana and Massachusetts, with which those who have seen the North Atlantic squadron are familiar The double deck turrets that mark the battleship or dnarily will be missing. The smokestacks will not longer be arranged fore and aft, but according to the style of our English cousins, athwart-ships This will remove the somewhat top-heavy appearance which has been considered the one drawback to the graceful outlines of the Indiana. the vessel that "Fighting Bob" Evans termed the finest machine afoat."
 Heretofore there has been very marked difference between cruiser and the bat 10 rNra n this difference, barring the smokestacks, will be greatly lessened by the absence of the double turrets. It Is declared by naval experts that the Alabama will be a beauty, and 1t is further claimed that as speed- maker she will out class even the Iowa. The general dimensions and principal feat ures of the Alabama are as follows: Speed, 1T knots an hour; length of load-water line, 36S feet; extreme beam, 72 feet 25 inches; freeboard forward, 19 feet 6.9 inches: free- board aft, 13 feet inches; normal displace- ment, 11,525 tons: mean draught, B feet 6 inches; horse power, 12,Oo0; capacity of coal bunkers. 1,2O0 tons.
 Her Armament Ample
 Her armament is ample as will be ob- observed from the following: Batteries Main, four 13-inch breech-loading rifles; fourteen 6-inch rapid fire breech-loading. Secondary batteries-seventeen 6-pound rap- id-fre guns, four 1-pounder rapid-fire guns; four machine guns; one field gun. The four above water torpedo tubes are placed two on each broadside amidships, and will fire through an arc of GO degrees. The four 13- inch guns are mounted in pairs in two balanced barbette turrets of Harveyized armor fifteen inches thick. augmented on the slanting faces by two more inches.
 Two of the 6-inch rifles will be placed anlidshps on each side, firing through an armour citadel of steel. Below, on the hab a co afa ships, four of these 6-inch rifles, will con- stitute broadside battery, Forward of these guns, one on each side, with six inch- es of armor plate for protection, two G. inch rifle parrots will be located. The sec ondary battery is placed in such portions of the ship as need 1t most. The armor belt, sixteen and half inches thick, will protect the hull at the water line. Its main depth is seven and a half feet. This belt will extend from the stern to abreast the after barbette. and will maintain a maxi mum thickness from that point forward to the forward barbette, gradually tapering to four inches at the stem.
 Protect ted by Steel
 From the top of the side belt up to the upper deck, the sides will be protected by five and half inches of hardened steel, backed below the main dc G1, by belt of cornpith celluloise and full coal bunkers At the warship's bulkheads twelve inches thick will run inward to the barbettes from each end of the thickest part of the side armor, and on top of the four walls, so formed flat protective deck, PSI inches thick, will rest. Below, and within the space embraced by this heavy steel box, will be placed the engines, boilers, maga- zines and shell-rooms.
 Slanting decks, running from the top of the heavy athwartship, bulkheads to the stem and stern will form the continuation of the fiat protective deck. This deck will be four inches thick forward. The ship will be propelled by two triple expansions engines, each in its own water-tight compartment, having cylinders 33.5, and 78 inches in di- ameter. Eight boilers, two in compart- ment, provide working pressure of 1SO pounds. Blowers in the fire-room maintain a forced draught-