The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-06
Disastrous Powers OF
The Massive Steel
Structure Thai Hdrls
Shots Weighing Half a
Ton With Deadly
Him at Targets Sig
Miles Distant.

r. q. sRcrrett IN the Chtcogo rimrs-li"r-
aid.
The battle ship in action is not an
untried factor i'm modern warfare. We
know something of its disastrous pow
ers in the hands of Chinese, even hamp-
cred by tampered ammunition and oth-
er CONSEQUENCES of official peCulation
But Just what To expect of
strictly modern battle ship i'm the hands
of either Europeans or efficient Amer
leans is something too m1ylentous to
predict.
A modern battle ship is the most
! typical aggregation nf all the fruits OF
present cunning, and the man that can
utilize successfully all the poHers
placed there at his command will be
able to deal such blows as only the
most vivid imagination can begin to
compass. Awed as we are by natures
working in the evidence of thunder
storm, still the worst fury of lightning
is modest beside the individual force
of some Of the guns carried by mod
ern battle ship.
AS the most formidable example of
our commissioned battle shirs, con-
slider how we have prepared the Iowa
to give and take. and try TO follow in
part what might reasonably be expect
ed of her in action
MASSIVE STEEL STRUCTURE.
Clothed in her peace-time dress of
white paint, one scarcely imagines her
/ n massive steel structure of something
over 10000 tons. so lightly does she
| seem to rest upon the water and cloth
ed in her wartime garb of ghostly
Oh, 4
But wait till she is seen to lie un-
moved upon a white-capped sea that
makes her smaller neighbors rock and
then her ponderous might is realized.
Think of the force within that must
he generated to make her move along
against wind and tide at the rate of
sixteen knots an hour, and then try
if possible, to picture the blow that
would fall upon the craft SO unluCky
ac to lie across her rushing course.
The Iowa is really a navigable fort
ress $50 feet long, a triile over seventy
two feet wide, and, emitting her smoke
stacks and bridges, is fifty feet tall
from her keel w to the top of her
superstructure amidships. Laden for
sea half Of this body lies below the
water line. That she may be compare.
lively insensitive to moderate injury
DelbW WATER Sne mas q double or inner
bottom reaching from the keel up to
short distance below the load line. and
the space between these two skins. 50
to speak, is minutely subdivided into
numerous water-tight compartments TO
further locali2e injury.
GIRDED BY ARMOR.
Her loins for a distance of quite two
thirds her total length are girded by
Il broad band of heavy armOr seven
and one-half feet wide. about equally
divided above and below the water line.
Along the sides, amidships, for lS5 feet
this belt is fourteen inches thick and
proof against all but the heaviest en-
emys shell a very close range The
outboard ends OF this Girde then turn
.nboard at sharp angle and termin-
ate on the center line. where they form
the main support for the ponderous
barbettes that shelter the vital mechan-
: isms of the big Pinch guns This for
nation results in a massive hexagOnaI
bulwark of hardened steel. which pre-
Sents well-nigh inVulnerable front tC
shot or shell from any point off the
bow. the stern or either of the sides
Upon this siX-sided wall is laid tho
middle portion oc the protective decl
two and three fourths inches thick
which houses over the Vitala Of tn,
craft Below this deck. behind mann
feet of sheltering coal. so wisely is hel
supply of l,S60 tons distributed ant
beneath the water. lie her engines hel
boilers and her 310 ions OF ammunition
that await IN" coming Of formal
worthy Of that powder and hardened
steel. From the lower edges Of thi
armur belt inhOard the prOteCtiv deck
slightly thicker, runs forward ana af
L.. 4 .
spine for the ponderous ram which lie
lust far enough below the water lin,
I" gore an enemy where he Is weakest
TORPEDO TUBES.
For a distance of ninet. Zee, amid
ships and to a height of seven fee
above tna heavy Watcr-lne beig. IN
sides are % armor five inches thick
| and il Is from behind the protecting
shelter Of this steel wall that thu tN'
torpedo tubes on each side are worked
Th" ends Of this thinner belt also tur
slantngly nboard ana athwartship
ana terminate likewise against the bar
bettes for the lwelve-inCh guns FOI
ward and abaft this lighter aImur IN
sides are re-eniorCed by a broad ban
nf corn-ptch Cellulose, which will swe
ana automatically plug all shot hole
admitting water
The whole interior Of the craft is rlI
up into something like liO water-tigh
compartments, and powerful pumps q
great capacity stand ready Io hold (
1 check the consequences ot accident a
leak. Woodwork is grudgngly allowed
ground cork ana white paint sIaudiu
instead for appearances ami healthful
less, and such rs is present. from tn
seaman's ditty-hoX to the admiral
easy chair. Is drepruof b. Il process {
tried efficiency.
The fewest possible passages aIr cr
through the protective deck, and wit
the exception Of the air passages
IN" engine rooms and thcroOmS AN
the uptakes for the snokestackr. aI
covered by heavy armored grating.
keep ont shell. The rest of the ouer
ings are closed with solid coverings Z
heavy as the neighbOring deck.
FORMIDABLE GUNS.
The main battery consists of ful
l2-inch and eight S-inch rifles of grej
power. secondary force Of six 4-int
and twenty 6-puunder rapid fire gun
will guard against the approach
torpedo craft and sweep destructive
the exposed positions and lightly a
mored parts of an enemy's deck.
The l2-inch guns are mounted i'm ~
massive turrets of 15-inch Harveyiz,
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