The San Francisco call., 1898-12-26

has since been learned that Russian To- comotive works, which has never yet built a single vessel, had made a more tempt ing offer, and so the English company was left out with a snub
 The British battle-ship Formidable, launched at Portsmouth November 1T, was laid down last March, and thus oc- cupied only about eight months in Duilo- ing. This Is the best record yet made in shipbuilding in any country. Two oth- CTS of the same type and size are being built-one at Chatham, the other at DeV- enport They are of 15 900 tons displace- ment 15,000 horsepower, and are to have a speed of eighteen knots. They will carry 900 tons of coal on draught of 27' feet six inches and 2100 tons when fully equipped. The armor, 216 feet in length by 15 feet in depth and inches in thick ness, protects 54 per cent of the ship's side. The armament consists of four 12- Inch wound rifles in barbettes pro- tected by curved steel shields s inches thick, and twelve 6-inch quick-lrers, eighteen 12-pounders, twelve 3-pounders and eight Maxims. The complement is 7S9 officers and men and each ship will carry eighteen boats, of which four will be steamboats of large capacity.
 M Augustin Normand, the noted builder of torpedo boats at Havre, has submitted a novel proposition to the French Admir- atty which is receiving serious attention. He points out that owing to the inability of France to build as many powerful and fast war vessels as England it is better policy to reduce the speed of the ships and thereby secure a larger number than Is now possible and at the same time fn- crease their defensive power. The Gov ernment has actually ordered two ar mored torpedo boats (sea-going), which are now being built at Normands yard, in addition to others in the Mediterranean arsenals. The new naval warfare policy will be to have the battle-ships do their fighting under the most favorable condi- tions; therefore number and strength are for them more important than speed. Cruisers are for these reasons not as use full as flotillas of torpedo boats, because cruisers cannot fight battle-ships nor cap- ture merchant steamers under another flag. Torpedo vessels scouts and escorts are the only vessels that need to be fast. All the others should possess compara- lively low rate of speed.
 The Russian battle-ship building at Cramps yards will be very much like the American battle-ships Maine, Ohio and Missouri, but will have a lighter sarmor protection. The ship is 376 feet in length, 72 feet 21b inches beam, displacing 12,700 tons on a draught of 26 feet. The armor belt, of nine inches maximum thickness, extends from the after turret to the stem, where it tapers to two inches and is seven and a half feet in depth The armor above is six inches to the gun deck. Bulk heads are nine inches. and barbettes ten inches thick. while the gun positions are five inches. The armament is four 12- inch rifles in two turrets, twelve 6-inch on gun and main deck, twenty 3-inch, of which twelve are on the gun deck for ward, six on the main deck and two on the bridge. There are also six torpedo tubes, one being at the bow, one at the stern and two on each broadside. The motive power is two triple expansion en- zines of 1900 horsepower and twenty-four Niclause water-tube boilers, and with 126 revolutions a speed of eighteen knots must be maintained for twelve consecu- tive hours, which Is three times that ex- acted by our Government from contrac- tors The coal capacity is 2000 tons, and the complement 75O officers and men.