The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-09-15

and when all was ready Captain Folger,
watch in hand, signalled the engine
room full speed continued" Immed-
lately the great ship gave slight
swing to port and began perfect cir
Gle, still going at a II knot gait To
stand upon the bridge and look back
over this aquatic wonder while so rap
idly swinging about the great ribbon of
boiling wake showing all the shades of
blue and green in her track, the brief
alert glances thrown by Captain Fol-
ger and Mr.. Post to their watches and
the compass, and the very grandeur of
action of the majestic ship herself dur
ing the maneuver all combined to
make the incident at once thrilling and
delightful.
At the completion Of the circle Cap
tain Folger shouted to Captain Chester
1.-TWO minutes and a quarter, that's
better than the New Orleans"
The look of i'll suppressed satisfaction
on Mr.. Posts face, ordinarily unreadi-
able, revealed his sentiments.
Certainly surprising the rudder action
of the New Orleans is remarkable
| fact as the New Orleans Is cruiser, of
| less than half the tonnage and larger
relative rudder control. Next the wise
heads tackled the log record and af-
| ter a brief calculation by several repre-
Isentatives of both the navy department
and the company, 1t was announced
with much unction: I'VE made
speed Of 1925 knots in spite of oysters
| and grass" This was verified and was
the cause of much joy; for did not the
Cramps test of the Alabama last week
| fall short Of this, though the Alabama
did not yet have in place 1000 tons
| of her armor and not gun nor
mount for one? Thus does history re-
| peat itself and a second time the Kear-
sarge defeats the Alabama, this time to
| the extreme satisfaction of us
sOutherners.' Capt Folger made no
effort to conceal his satisfaction and
pride in his new command, and it is nc
idle assertion to say that if your Uncle
Samuel gets mixed up in dispute with
| any other nation, the kearsarge and
Captain Folger will be a potent factor
in necessitating a new issue of geogra-
phies TO the rising generation.
On the return of the Alabama from
her trial new broom graced her main
truck. On starting on our return trip
| two sailors climbed to the topmast of
both main and fore trucks and lashed
new broom to each. The signal was un.
derstood by each craft we passed and
continued all the way home, until just
at c o'clock, we were safely berthed at
the shipyard, No. dock.
The Newport News Ship Building
and Dry Dock Co., began business in
1891 Their initial year saw four com
pleted Tteamers delivered to the Nor
gan line for Brazilian trade. In 1893 they
took these same four ships in hand
again and transformed them into the
famous quartette of United States
cruisers, the Yankee, Dixie, Yosemite
and Buffalo. They are now making the
Morgan line three ships to replace the
above named boats, the fourth one hav-
ing been completed last month and now
in the service of the line. Other famous
ships turned out by this company are
gunboats Wilmington, Helena and
Nashville. On the stocks today are two
of the Morgan liners and two doubly
large for the Pacific Mail s. S. Co. On
the board are drawings for the battle
ship Ohio and the monitor Missouri and
the present capacity Of the plant is now
contracted for until after 1904.
To meet rapidly increasing demands
the company is now building the largest
dry dock in the word. 1t will have a
working area of $40 feet by 80 feet and
can accommodate ship with draft of
80 feet. IT will be ready for ships in
side of four months. It's immensity can
probably be better conceived when it
is stated that two such marine wonders
as the Kearsarge' can be docked in it
at one time. During the nine years
which the yard has been in existence
there has not been a serious casualty
and the company has the phenomenal
record Of never having ship of any size
fall short Of the specifications in any
detail. The officers of the company
comprise notable list: President, c.
B. Orcutt; general superintendent, w.
A. Post; superintendent of machinery,
James Rowbottom superintendent Of
hull construction, M. V. B. Doughty;
chief engineer, Ernest Bochman.
Mr.. Post is a quick, gentle spoken
man, is said to never get ratified, and
is one Of the kind that gathers hun
dred details in a single glance. The
Kearsarge Is q striking example of his
ability as a master of detail. Probably
next in relative Importance comes Mr.. |
Doughty, superintendent of hull con-
struction. He also has charge of the |
launchings and gained the proud dis,
tinction for this shipyard of success
fully launching two first-class battle |
ships in one day, viz: the Kentucky and |
Kearsarge, March "a, 1885, The area of
the yard is about 100 acres and at pres
ent rate of development it will soon re- |
quire additional space. The shortage
of iron has as yet had no effect on the |
work of the plant. over 6,O0C men are
constantly employed and no labor
trouble of any movement have ever dis |
turbed the even tenor cf the industry. |
The Kearsarge (and the Kentucky ! |
an exact counterpart), is $50 feet long, |
and 70 feet beam. Her draught today |
is about inches short of her commits !
sion draught and was % feet, inches
aft-2l feet inches by the head. Her
coal capacity is over so cars and she |
has steaming radius of at least 8, 400
miles. The temperature of the engine
rooms ranged about so. In the fire.
room, under forced draft, it reached 1870
but the air was good and freely sup
piled by powerful blowers. Under nor
NAL draught the thermometer showed
liz. Naval Lieut.. Woodward and two
assistants took a record of the tempera-
ture In magazines, coal bunkers and
compartments on all four decks, and
he expressed much satisfaction with
the records secured, although to a
landsman ii would seem difficult to
contract chills anywhere down below.
The propelling power is furnished by
two sets of triple-eXpansion engines
aggregating 10000 horse power. Dur
ing the speed trial they revolved the
twin screws 106 times per minute under
steam Dra9Sl1ra Of 1T0 Mounds