The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-11
TO COST $1,5OO,OOO.
New Monitor Connecticut.

Four new coast defense monitors, for which, under the law, the names of four states have been already selected, will be in commission in the navy about the middle of the year 1901 These monitors are to be called the Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida and Wyoming They will embody the experience, ob- servation and judgment of the naval authorities as applied to the produc- tion of a class of vessels of value in the capacity in which they are to be em- ployed, which is for harbor and coast defense, and not for long cruises, such as the monitors now in the navy were required to make during the war with Spain, because of the lack of battle ships to undertake that duty.
 With the awarding of the contracts for the four monitors, the programme of extension adopted by the congre s in the bill of May 4, 1898, will be in the hands of the builders or nearly so. When completed it will give the navy three f1rst-class battleships, four coast defense monitors, sixteen torpedo de- stroyers and twelve torpedo boats-a total of thirty-five new vessels The monitors are to cost $1,50O00O each, and must be completed in twenty seven months, with penalties of from three to six hundred dollars a day for each day of default of the contract.
 The designs for the monitors were prepared by Chief Constructor Hich- born, who decided that the best results would be obtained with the available appropriations, by adopting a single balanced turret on the center line for ward, containing two high powered twelve-inch breech-loading rifles, a gun that has just been designated to be used with smokeless powder, in the main battery. The secondary battery will consist of three six-pounder rapid fire and four one-pounder automatic ri- f1es.
 The general characteristics of these vessels, as shown in the clements of de- sign, will be:
 Length on load water line, 225 feet.
 Breadth, extreme, at water line, 50 feet.
 !, Mean draught, at normal dlsplace- men, 12 feet inches.
 Normal displacement, about 2,7oo tons.
 Total coal capacity, loose stowage, 200 tons.
 The hull is to be of steel, not sheathed with double bottom and close water tight ub-division. There will be one military mast, fitted with fighting and searchlight tops Seven boats are to be slowed clear of the blast of the guns , Two, being the life boats, are to be carried at davits so as to be quickly lowered
 The protection of the hull against in- jury to the water line region is to be af- forded by means of side armor belt, the maximum thickness Is abreast the engine and boiler spaces; from thence forward and aft it is reduced by steps at the bow and stern. The barbettes for the twelve-inch guns will have ar nor about ten inches thick. The turret is of the Hichborn bal anced type, with front plate inclined forty-two degrees from the vertical The side plates of the turret armor are to be nine inches thick. The main or protected deck is to extend throughout the length of the vessel, to be worked fiat, and the total thickness of it will be one and one-half inches. A coming tower of seven and one-half inches in thickness, having an armored commu- |, nication tube three inches in thickness. will be carried in a suitable command ing position forward, the tube extend ing to the armor deck, and affording protection to the voice tubes, bell wires, cts.
 The vessel will be driven by twin screws. The engines two in number, are to be of the vertical, triple-expan- sion type, in one water-tight compart- ment with the high pressure cylinder seventeen inches in diameter, the inter- mediate twenty-six inches, and the low pressure forty inches. The boilers, four in number are to be of water tube type, constructed for a working pressure of two hundred and fifty pounds, and are to be placed in one water-tight compartment. There will be the usual auxiliary machinery and workshop tools, and a distilling appa- ratus and evaporators will be fitted for supplying fresh water.
 The total coal-bunker capacity will allow at least two hundred tons with loose stowage without trimming. The total weight of machinery, capstan, windlass, steering gear, of winches, is ) limited to two hundred and forty tons Fifty tons of water for Steaming pur- poses must be carried in the double bottom. Steam windlass, steering en- zines, and boat winches will be provi- ded
 These vessels will have staterooms, in addition to one for the captain, for six officers. The vessels require a com plement of crew of one hundred and twenty-five, for whom ample berthing space has been provided. Storerooms are provided for one months supply of clothing, contingent and small stores. The electric generating plant will con- sist of four units, each unit to have an engine, dynamo and compensation bed plate, and each dynamo a rated output of four hundred ampres of eighty volts. The turret-turning gear ammunition hoists, elevating apparatus will be ope- rated by electricity. The estimated speed of the vessel is to be twelve knots-amply sufficient for harbor de- fense vessel All wood used in the con- struction of the vessels will be docking keels, which will also serve the purpose of bilge keels
 | These barb0r defense monitors which