The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-08
THE IDEAL BAITLEsH|P
=
Has Nearly Been Reached by the
Designers.
PLANS FOR NEW VESSELS
The Three Battleships Will Have to
Wait fer Armor-Work VIII Be
Pushed on the Six
to" New Cruisers. .y~

Washington, March THE plans for
the three big battleships authorized by
the naval appropriation bill Just passed
are being worked out. The general feat
ures of the ships have been defined sub
ject to the approval of the secretary.
The battleships will be a thousand tens
larger than the Maine and Missouri
of total displacement of 1880 tsns.
making them by far the largest ships in
the American navy and about equal i'll
dimensions to the best battleships now
being constructed abroad under the new
practice Though larger than the Maine.
the ships will be laid almost in the
same lines, being only little greater
in every dimension. The eieht-inch
guns of the Oregon type, although thew
did very effective work at Santiago and
Manila, have been abandoned But in
stead of eight-inch guns the new ships
VIII have no less than 16 guns of six
inch calibre, all rapid firers, and 20 six
Founders. This battery represents the
ideal proportion between guns as taught
by the experience of our own fleet dur
ing the Spanish war and of the Chinese
ana japanese vessels during their lase
war. The speed of the ships will be Is
Knots, an advance of two knots over the
oregon class, but just equal to that of
the new Maine.
For protection against the enemy's
shot the battleships will have but one
belt of armor, seven feet six inches
broad, running clear around the water
llne-three feet six inches above and
four feet below 1t was originally plan
ned to have this armor 16 inches thick,
but the designers have now reduced the
thickness to - inches. This change was
made in order to strengthen the case
ments, which will be made seven and a
half inches thick instead of five inches
Altogether there is notable atsenoe
of new features in the designs # the
battleships. which fact, taken in COLE
nection with the small amount of reg
ress reported in the designs for the
Maine class. may be an indication that
our naval designers have very nearly
approached the ideal battleship in their
work. AS far as these particular ships
are concerned the fact that the navy
department is limited to $500 per ton
in the purchase of armor makes it i'm
possible to build them in the absence of
further legislation, and the department
will be Obliged to content itself with
the mere preparation of detail ed = ans
during the coming summer.
The six cruisers of the unarEtored
type provided for can, however. be built,
and Chief Constructor Hieaborn has al
ready been working out the lies gns NJ
on lines approved by the board of hu
reau chiefs. 1t is the purpo;a of the
navy department to place con racts for
the ships at the earliest possible mo-
ment. They represent type OF cruiser
which would be of the greaic it Value
just now for our foreign serTl:A. The
plans call for vessels of about $500 tons
and the ships will be improved Marble
heads, so to speak, being 600 tons larger
than ships of that class and with better
batteries and more coal capacity. A.
most important consideration is that
they will be sheathed with wood over
the steel hull and fully coppered, en-
ablng them to keep the seas even in
tropical waters for many months with
out being compelled to seek dry dock.
The battery will be made up of six s.
inch guns for each ship. The cost Will
be considerably more than that of the
Marblehead, which was $647 900, for the
amount allowed by congress was $l.141,-
500 each. This difference is accounted
for by the many improvements made in
the Marbleheads design, a notable one
being the use of water tube boilers,
giving much greater speed and econ
OmS