The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-14
THE nATTLEsHIP GEORGIA.

THE BATTLESHIP GEORGIA.
Plans for the battleship Georgia are now
far enough advanced to get from them a
pretty accurate idea of what the great
craft will be when she goes into commits
sion; ana Il is risksng nothing TO say that
she wiz be one Of the most formidable
| fighting machines adoat under any flag.
barring none Snip to ship. England
win have nothing her superior, if
indeed anything her equal. 1t is
certain that If England matches
the Georgia. she will have to
build the craft to do it with she hasn't
got it ia her naval list now. She may
have heavier ships, to be sure, and ships
that carry larger guns than the Georgia
win mount but for ali-around fighting
qualities the Georgia Will rank anything
at present flying the British flag The
naval fight off Santiago demonstrated that
il is not always the heaviest ordnance
that does the most execution. In that bat
Tie there was only one hit by the maximum
calihcr, while the Spanish vessels Were
literally rlddled by 5-inch, 6-inch and g.
pound guns. At both Manila and San
iiago the value of the S-inch gun and Of
the rapid-hring smaller pieces was demon
strated. Admiral Dewey attributes his
success in a great measure to the fact
that the American ships were able TO fire
five times to once by the enemy
All of the valuable lessons of the war
are TO be taken advantage of in the con-
struction Of the Georgia. She is to be
made faster than even the Oregon, that
now famous greyhound of the navy. She
will, indeed, have almost as much speed
as an armored cruiser, meanwhile carry
ing the armament of a first-class battle
ship But she VIII not mount any of those
monstrous and unwieldy 13-inch guns. The
day of such pieces, IL is believed, has
passed. Their effectiveness does not be
gin to compensate for their enormous
weight their slowness of fire and their
great bulk. The prepouderance of expert
opinion is in favor of a smaller gun cap
able of greater rapidity of fire The
| Georgia will, therefore, carry four 1O-inch
or Pinch guns in her main turrets. These
will be backed up by four s-inch guns,
twelve 6-inch guns, sixteen 3-inch guns,
sixteen 3-pounders, six 1-pounders, ten
machine guns and two field pieces. Thus
ii win he seen that the craft viii carry no
less than seventy guns, all of them of the
highest efficiency and most modern types
Except the very largest guns and the s.
inch pieces, all of the ordnance will be
rapid-fre; and the 8-inch will be semi
rapid fire.
The armor of the Georgia is to be nine
inches thick at the vital points, tapering
to four inches at the ends This is some
what lighter than had been contemplated,
but il is claimed that nothing of resist
ing power viii be sacrificed, owing to the
recent Improvements in armor plate max
ing. By tightening the armor it will be
possible TO give the ship greater speed
and enlarged coal capacity, two very val
liable considerations in a war vessel. A
novelty in the construction of the Georgia
will be the isolation of the 6-inch guns
in separate classmates, so that bursting
shell will not put more than one gun
out of action. Very little wood, if any at
all, is TO be used in the construction of
the vessel. 1t Is probable that practically
all of her interior fittings and the greater
part of her furniture will be of metal
possibly aluminium, which is light clean
and durable.