The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1898-07-11
THE MODERN BAHLESH|P
Is A COMPLICATED MECHANISM
OF STEEL.
1t Combines i'm its Structure all the
Latest Achievements of Science
Besides They are Expensive.

are battleships. the craft which bears
the technical name is a steel struc-
ure usually about $50 feet long, 20
feet wide and feet Deep says the
independent. "She weighs, with ev-
erything on board, about 1000 tons.
Her engines can propel her at about
Is knots per hour. Her guns. about
As in all, vary in calaber from the
huge 13-inch, throwing a prOjectile of
1,150 pounds, to the little Calling of
% inch, throwing a bullet weighing
| about three-tenths of an ounce. To
protect her engines and her guns, and
to insure the buoyancy and stability
of the ship, she carries steel armor
varying from to IS inches in thick
ness, and, finally, she is the abiding
place of some 500 men.
Her chief characteristic is the pre-
dominance of guns and armor, as COM
! pared with speed and coal-carrying
capacity, in which respect she is the
! opposite of the crusier.
THE cruiser preys on an enemy'S
/ commerce and swoops down upon his
coasts; therefor she must have speed
and endurance-Speed to enable her
| to catch the swiftest ocean grey
! hounds, and endurance. which means
! coal-carrying capacity enough to let
her steam. around the world. if need
| be. without replenishing her bunkers.
| The Minneapolis, for example, can
steam at % knots per hour, and about
half her entire weight is that of pro-
polling machinery and coal.
"The battleship on the other hand,
is a pure fighting machine. Her nor
NAL endurance is about 1000 miles.
In the Iowa about one-half the total
weight is that of the ship itself,
three-tenths is guns and armor, and
only two-tenths engines and coal. The
cruiser is not intended to fight any
vessel more powerful than herself. She
runs from a battleship. The battle
ship fights anything afloat.
Now what sort of a structure is
this? A huge steel honeycomb-
frames and ribs and plates and braces
in every direction. Look at the mex
tricable tangle of them in the shat
tered Maine. No more great eX-
panse of deck with the tiers of guns
in diminishing perspective, such as one
sees in the old wooden frigates and
three-deckers. But compartments CIV
eryw-here-212 of them in the Indi-
anna. Little steel boxes and big steel
boXes-BoXes inclosing guns and box.
es inclosing engines and a box for the
helm and labyrinthine passages in and
out of and around them where day.
light never gets: and endless doors
doors, dOOrs-354 water-tight doors
: and matches on the Indianna, every
one of which somebody must look af
ter and see closed when the ship goes
into action. Else why compartments
if you cannot keep them separate, sc
that if water comes in from a ran
thrust or torpedo or shot, you cal
contine it to one or two cells and sc
prevent the ship from filling. There
are more compartments in some small
cruiSerS-the Cincinnati has 4S7; but
cruisers run and battleships do not.
I'm this assemblage is placed-iam
med is a better word-one of the
most complicated aggregations of me
chanism that have ever been brought
together. There are from 100 to 15t
steam cylinders in the multifarious
engines; not so many as in the cruis
ers, perhaps. The Columbia has 1874;
but the Columbia keeps out of the
way of 13-inch shot. The battleshiT
Iowa has 1872. The new Ironsides, the
most powerful fighting vessel in oul
navy at the close of the war, haG
three.
What steam does not do electricity
does. There are wires everywhere
The dynamos are running constantly
for the closed steel boxes get no day
light and must be lighted, while with
equal consistency the blowers draw out
the foul and force in the fresh air
But on all sides there is machinery
Machines work the guns; machine
turn the turrets; machines manage
the helm; machines prOpel and pump
the ship and feed the boilers and
drive the fires; machines hoist ammu
milton, boats and anchors; machines
find the position of the enemy; ma.
chimes transmit orders from the cap,
tain to every part of the structure;
machines make the light; machines
condense the drinking water and COO
it; machines, themselves propelled by
other machines on board, go out un.
der the water to blow up the adver.
sary."