The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-03-08
WILL BE OF MAINE CLASS
But Their Dimensions In Every Way
Will be Slightly Greater.
EIGHI-INcH GUNS TO BE DISCARDED
But in Their Stead Will be Placed Bat
terry of Six-Inch Rapid Fire Rifles
Speed of the Vessels VIII
be Eighteen Knots.

Washington, March THE plans for the
three big battleships authorized by the ma
val appropriation bill just passed are being
worked out. The general features of the
ships have been defined, subject to the APP
proval of the secretary. The battieships
will be 1000 tons larger than the Maine and
Missouri class, of total displacement of
10, 500 tons, making them by far the largest
ships in the American navy and about equal
in dimensions to the best type of battle
ships now being constructed abroad under
the new practice. Though larger than tha
Maine, the ships will be laid on almost the
same lines, being only little greater IN
every dimension. They will carry each four
twelve-inch guns In turrets. This calibre
is an inch less than the guns carried by the
Oregon, but by an improved design they
will be almost equal in penetratiye power.
The eight-inch guns of the Oregon type, al
though they did very effective work at San
tiago and Manila, have been abandoned.
But instead of eight-inch guns the
ships will have no less than sixteen guns of
six-inch calibre, all rapid firers and twenty
six-pounders.
The Ideal Proportion
This battery represents the ideal proper
ton between guns as taught by the expert
ence of our own fleets during tho Spanish
war and the Chinese and Japanese vessels
during their late war The speed of the
ships will be eighteen knots, advance
of two knots over the Oregon class, but just
equal to that of the new Maine. For pro-
lection against the enemys shot the battle
ships will have but one belt of armor, seven
feet six inches broad running clear around
the water line, three feet six inches above
and four feet below. 1t was originally
planned to have this armor sixteen inches
thick, but the designers have now reduced
the thickness to twelve inches. This
change was made in order to strengthen the
easements, which will be made seven and a
half inches thick, instead of five inches.
Altogether there is a notable absence of
new features in the designs of the battle
ships, which fact may be an indication that
our naval designers have very nearly APP
preached the ideal battleship in their work
AS far as these particular ships are con-
cerned. the fact that the navy department
is limited to $500 per ton in the purchase of
armor makes it impossible to build them in
the absence of further legislation, and the
department will be obliged to content itself
with the mere proposition of detailed plans
during the coming summer.
Can Build tx Cruisers
The six cruisers of the .unarmored type
provided for can, however, be built, and
Chief Constructor Hitchborn has already
been working out the designs upon lines ap-
proved by the board of bureau chiefs IT
is the purpose of the navy department to
place contracts for these ships at the ear
Test possible moment. They represent
type of cruiser which would be of the great
est value just now for our foreign service
The plans call for vessels of about 26Oo
tons, and the ships will be improved Mar
bleheads, so to speak, being 900 tons larger
than ships of that class and with better
batteries and much more coal capacity The
battery will be made of six five-inch guns
for each ship. The cost is expected to be
considerably more than that of the Marble
head. which was 1914 900. for the amount
allowed by congress was $1141, 900 each This
difference Is accounted for by the many i'm
provements made in the Marblehead's de-
signs, a notable one being the use of water
tube boilers, giving much greater speed and
economy