Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-03-14
The Kearsarge and Kentucky to Be
Launched This Month.
POWERFUL FLOATING FORTRESSES
Have Been Built in a Remarkably
Short Time.
TREMENDOUS BATTERIES


News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company
will launch the finest of our new battle
ships on the oath of the present month-not
quite twenty months from the day the keels
were laid. The ships could have been
launched two months ago, but, to facilitate
their final completion, they have been kept
purposely on the stocks till a magnificent
new crane of great capacity could be erect
ed to handle the armor and other heavy
weights yet to go in the vessels.
The dual event of two ships of such mag
nitude being launched on the same day will
mark an era in the history of our new
navy, while each ship in itself will be the
heaviest mass of the kind ever moved from
keel blocks to water in this country. Five
thousand tons of steel-the equivalent of
couple of blocks of good-sized houses-is
tremendous mass to transfer under any
circumstances, but to do SO without the
slightest strain to the structure is some
thing calling for skill and careful fore
thought, and yet that is the sum of only
one of these unfinished ships.
The ships were provided for by act OF
Congress approved March 2, 1898, and on
the "a of the following January their con
struction was awarded to the Newport
News company for the individual contract
price of S2,250,00O, without the usual in
ducemeDt of bonus for excess of speed.
The "Kearsarge" and the Kentucky are
and in action would render good account
of themselves in behalf of Old Glory. The
dimensions of one apply equally to the
other, and their general data are:
Length on load water line, 36S feet; beam,
extreme ~ feet inches; draft, on normal
displa cement, % feet inches; normal dis
placement, 11,525 tons; maximum displace-
ment, all ammunition and stores on board,
12,325 tons; maximum indicated horse pow
er (estimated), 10000; maximum speed, re-
quired by contract, 16 knots; normal coal
supply 40 tons; maximum coal supply,
bunkers full, 121O tons: complement, offi-
GERS, seamen and marines, 511.
The novel characteristic of these ships
is their exceedingly moderate draft of
water-but twenty-five feet when full Ia
Gen. by which they may enter practically
any harbor of Importance along our coast
line something denied to most of the
armored cruisers of all other nations. The
offensive advantage possessed in this sim
gle feature cannot be overvalued.
Powerful Batteries.
The power to meet an enemy will be CEN
tered effectively in the twenty-five guns
forming the main and auxiliary batteries,
and these will consist of: Main battery,
four thirteen-inch b. L. r. and four eight
inch B. L. R.; auxiliary battery, fourteen
five-inch rapid-fire rifles.
For the purposes of resisting torpedo
boat attack and enfilading the open decks
unprotected gun StdlloilS VI al cHcmy
twenty six-pounders six one-pounders and
four Cuttings will keep up a destructive
mitrailleuse.
Four torpedo tubes, two on each side
amidships, will complete the offensive
phase of The ships.
The thirteen-inch and the eight-inch
guns are housed in two two-storied turrets.
The eight-inch guns are in the upper half
which is fixed rigidly to the lower half
The whole structure has total swing of
go degrees, and all four guns are pointed
in the same general direction and swung
from size to side by the one great turning
gear. engaging the lower half The de-
sign has been seriously questioned here
and abroad, and there is a prevailing opin-
ion that the experiment will never be re-
peated.
The eight-inch guns are sheltered behind
walls generally nine inches thick, but aug
mented to eleven inches at the front. The
thirteen-inch guns are covered by fifteen
inches of hardened steel also except at the
front. where there is an added thickness
of two inches. To pierce the walls of the
lower turret a shot would have to strike
them from distance of 1,5OO yards with
all the pent-up energy equal to bearing
that shot quite thirteen miles.
The Auxiliary Battery.
The auxiliary battery of fourteen five
inch rapid-five guns is mounted in the SUI
perstructure on the main deck. This super
structure, where it faces an enemy, is
composed of hardened steel six inches
thick, and no explosive six-inch shell could
ever get through that bulwark. Each
gun station is separated from the adjoining
gun by a two-inch wall of steel, that the
effect of penetrating shot and bursting
shell may be localized. Each of these
guns has a service rate of speed of quite
six aimed shots minute; and as each
shot weighs fifty pounds, little arithme
tic tells the story.
The six-pounders are mounted in part on
the berth deck forward and aft. The rest
of them are placed in the superstructure
above the five-incf guns, where they have
very desirable range of fire. The one
Founders and the Cuttings are placed on
the bridges and up in the military tops.
To feed all these guns each ship will
carry five hundred tons of ammunition
enough to welcome an enemy with exceed
ing warmth.
Well Protected.
The water-line region of the sides will be
protected from attack by broad band of
161a-inch armor, running along the sides
amidships for u distance of liza feet, and
tapers thence to four inches at the stem.
This belt is ~ feet wide, and under
normal conditions only 31a feet will be
above the water-line. At the extremities
of the thickest part athwartship bulkheads
turn inboard and end against the barbettes
or heavy tubes of 15-inch steel, which rise
from the protective deck and shield the
ammunition hoists and the turning gears
of the turrets The forward bulkhead is
10 inches thick the after one II. A pro-
tective deck of hardened steel. 2% inches
thick, rests on the four walls formed by the
athwartship bulkheads, and the inner edge
of the inlaid side armor. Under the pro-
tecting shelter of this heavy roof and
many feet of coal lie the engines, the boil
ers and the magazines and the shell
rooms-the ..vitals," in fact, of the Ship
A broad band of cellulose, extending from
stem to stern, and back of the 5-inch armor
which protects the sides amidships from
the heavy armor belt up to the main deck.
will automatically plug all shot holes adj
hitting water.
The protective deck covering the vitals
amidships is run slantingly to the bow and
the stern. and forward forms the back
bone of the murderous ram which lies just
t-below the water.