The herald., 1898-11-27
ON ten to twenty feet above the ships

from ten to twenty feet above the ships
deck.
The forward coming tower armor will be
in thickness 10 inches, oval in shape, size
in the clear, 7xll feet, with an arlnored tube
Z inches thick, extending down to the pro-
tective deck, to house all wires or. other
means of interior communication, SO that
the officer coming the vesseli in action can
be in constant and safe communication with
all parts of the vessel. An after-conping, or
signal tower, is alb provided, having IN
inside diameter of 6 feet and thickness OF
6 inches.
The turrets will be operated by electric
power; also the ammunition hosts and the
dynamo and auxiliary blowers for ventilat-
ing purposes There will be some eighty odd
auxiliary engines in the vessel, thus adding
greatly to the efficiency of the ship in the
celerity and certainty with which work can
be done. The cranes for handling the boats
are operated by steam; also deck winches,
pumps, windlass and steering gear; this lat
ter is located beneath the protective deck
and several feet below the water line. The
| introduction of these auxiliary engines is
brought about mainly by the variety and ma
| ture of the work to be done and the demand
| for the latest and best in every branch of
mechanics represented in man-of-war.
| Manual labor is therefore reduced to a mini
mum, condition of affairs which must re-
suit in greater interest and development
OF the crew in their special duties as now re-
quired in a modern battleship, where fight
ing and all that leads up to thorough eff
ficiency in that line of art is not handicapped
by the constant drudgery so universal in tie
old time vessels of our navy.
The height of freeboard forward of the
vessels hull proper is twenty feet and at the
stern thirteen and one-Quarter feet. The
floor of the pilot house is As feet high, thus
placing the eye of the steersman for or
dinary cruising about so feet above the
water. The sight holes in the coming tower
for use in close fighting are 341s feet above
the water The Bore of the forward l3-inch
guns will have an elevation of 2G1s feet and
the after l3-inch 10 feet above the surface
OF the water. The 6-inch guns vary from
Is to 22la feet and the 6-pounders from 80 to
40R feet above water, according to their
location on the vessel. The smaller guns are
mounted in the military tops. at heights
of from fifty-nine to seventy nine feet. This
great height above water of both main and
secondary batteries will enable the vessel
| to be fought in any weather. a quality al
ways sought for, but obtainable only in YES
sells of good size, and considered of immense
| advantage by all naval authorities. She is
also provided with bilge keels, placed fore
and abaft the midship body only, so as not
to interfere with docking her. These keels
have maximum depth of three feet and
will largely tend to lessen her motion in a
seaway and SO contribute to her steadiness
as a gun platform, SO essential for correct
gun-fire. Four powerful electric searchlights
are also provided, two on top of the forward
chart house and two on each side of the
after military mast; also having an eleva-
ton of twenty-five feet above the water
and commanding complete all around
range. There will be two sets of triple
expansion, twin-screw engines each in its
own separate water-tight compartment !;
the collective indicated horse power will
be 10000, with l20 revolutions per minute
stroke, four feet.
There are eight single cylindrical boilers,
each l51s feet in diameter by 9 feet llA
inches long, having total crate surface of
6S5 square feet, with 2l,200 square feet of
heating surface; pressure, $50 pounds. These
boilers are placed, two each, in four sep
arate watertight compartments. The
smoke-pipes are two in number and stand
abreast of each other.