The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-25
------------------- - ------- A GREAT WAR-SHIP.

The New Japanese Battle-Ship Shi-
 lshima-Remarkabl Growth of the Imperial Navy--Scenes of the Recent Launching of the Latest Addition
 A Tonnage of 14,s5O and a Speed of IS 1-2 Knots.
 What will be, when completed, the
 most powerful battle-ship in the world
 has was launched on November from
 the yard of the Thames Iron Works
 and Ship building company. The new ship, which is named the Shikishima, has ben built for the imperial Japan
 csc navy and will constitute remark able addition to the already formida- ble fleets that sail under the fiamboy- ant flag of Japan. There is no parallel | in history for the wonderful rapidity | with which the Great Britain of the East" has developed her naval strength, and since the close of the
 war with China that developed has proceeded at an accelerated speed. At
 present ships are being built for the Japanese navy not only in this coun-
 try, says the London Telegraph, but also in France, Germany, and the Uni
 ted States, and these vessels in every instance represent the very latest de- velopfnent of naval science. The ships of the Japanese navy compare favor ably even with our own, and in the Shikishima our friends possess a ves- sel which in point of armament, speed, and protection could outmatch any single war-ship afloat. At the naval
 review last year one of the ships which attracted most attention was the Fuji. a batt1eship just completed by the same builders who so success fully launched the Shikishima yester- day. This vessel, now in Japanese wa ters, Is almost as powerfully armed as our Majestic, and has rather more pro- lection.
 This latest addition to the fleets of
 Japan, compared with the Majestic,
 carries two more 6-inch quick ffrers
 and two more 12-pounders, besides
 having complete armor-belt from
 stem to stern, as against the armor-
 
 between the barbettes She carries,
 however. only 700 tons of coal, as
 against 900 tons; but as the Japanese
 have not, at present at all events a very widely extended empire the cou-
 pie of hundred tons coal capacity is
 we'll exchanged for the four extra guns and the additional armor. The Shilxishimas displacement is 14,S50 tons. He'd dimensions are: Length over all. 43S feet feet length between per
 pendiculars, 400 feet; extreme breadth E feet inches; depth, 45 feet 2 1-2 in-
 ches; draught on 14.S50 tons displace-
 ment, 27 feet inches. The armor con sists of a complete waterline belt of HarveyiZed nickeI-steel feet 2 inches in depth. and tapering from inches | in thickness and arnidships to inches at the ends. Above this is 6-inch belt /, of the same material between the bar bettes and extending to the height of | the main deck. On the barbettes there is IA inches of Harveyized steel, and | the bulkheads are 12 inches thick. The engines, by Humphreys, Tennant & Co.,, are to develop 14500 horsepower, and drive the Shikishima at speed of IS 1-2 knots. Belleville boilers will be fitted in the ship. The Shikishima is the heaviest vessel ever launched from a clip. Her total launching weight was I S,250 tons, of which 7,S00 represented
 the weight of the hull and the remain
 der that of the huge launching cradles.
 In her armament the Shikishima is a
 remarkable ship. She is to carry four 12-inch breech-loading guns of 40 cali bres, arranged in pairs in two bar bettes; fourteen 6-inch quick-firing guns of 40 calibres; twenty 12-pounder 1 quick-firing guns; eight 47mm. g. | pounder quick -firers; four 47mm. 1-2
 pounder quick-firers; eight Maxims, and five 1S-inch torpedo-tubes, four of which are under water.