The San Francisco call., 1899-09-11
NEWS OF FOREIGN NAvIEs.

NEWS OF FOREIGN NAVIES.
The Niclausse water-tube boiler, which
like the Belleville boiler, is FrencH m
vention, is installed in twenty-seVen
war vessels of which sixteen are in the
French navy. Their collective horse
power is 9O2, 100 and range in sets from
20 200 to 5000 horsepower.
The London Engineer of recent oate
has an editorial on battleshfps conteHu-
ing in substance that a battleshlp may
have too great speed. The OPINION 10
expressed that guns and armor are Oh
more value than speed. That in a swift
battleship the coal supply will run snort
at a critical moment perhaps, ana tnaC
thus her superior speed may lead TO the
ships destruction in that way. AS oaLIle-
ships go in squadrons, 10 knots Oh
homogeneous company is better tnall
when composed of ships OF VarylnS
speeds. and II knots is really the h1ghest
at which fleet evolutions have yet peen
done.
The British battleship Ocean has passed
through a thirty-hour trial at sea
under three-ffth power The boilers
carried a steam pressure of 259 pounds'
giving 102 revolutions and developing
1914 horsepower, which gave speed Oh
1872 knots. The coal consumption was
only I63 pounds against to pa pounds
In the Majestic class built six years ago.
Two formidable battIeships are in
course of construction at italian dock
yards, one named Regina Marghertta at
Ipezia and another called AmiVag1la
Benedetto Brin at Castellmara. They are
sister ships, 413 feet in length at water
line, rs feet beam and displace 14,OOO tons
on a draught of q feet. The horsepower
L q n
$4,000 under forced draught, calculated to
give a speed of 1S and q knots under
above respective conditions. The hull
armor consists of a 6-inch belt extending
from three feet below water TO the main
deck and reaching to within so feet OF the
stern. The bulkheads are 10 to II lnches'
the gun positions 6 inches and the pro-
lection deck 80 to 1.5 inches. The arma-
rnent consists of two 12-inch guns, one
forward and another aft, placed in bar
bettes. ten S-inch quick-frers placed In
pairs in five turrets, sixteen R-pounders
and eight 3-pounders. The normal coal
supply is 1000 tons and the capacity Is
1000 tons, calculated to give steaming
radius of 5000 and 10000 knots at the rate
of speed of 10 knots an hour.
The Coroner's jury in the case Of the
accident to the British torpedo-boat
destroyer Bullfinch rendered a verdict on
August IT, after a session of nearly three
weeks The disaster which resulted In the
scalding to death of nine men occurred
on July q, and was caused by the break
ing of the piston rod of the port engine
high-pressure cylinder, the broken rod
smashing the cylinder head and thereby
filling the engine-room with scaldtng
steam. The jury came to the conclusion
that the breakage was due TO faulty
design and an absence of uniform good
quality of material. The most conclusive
evidence covering the first finding was
the testimony of an expert mechanical
engineer who stated that he had dis
covered a slight longitudinal flaw In one
of the other piston rods very similar TO
and in the same place as in the broken
rod The rods are made hollow, chiefly
to save weight, but the accident Will
have a tendency to make the margin of
safety considerably greater, and the
Admiralty officials have already given as
surance to that effect.
An armored cruiser named Varese was
launched August from the Orlando yard
at Leghorn. She is the third vessel of
that name recently built at that yard for
the italian navy, the first two, however,
having been sold to Argentine. the
latest ship is an Improvement upon those
previously built and is 1856 feet in length,
SO feet 1013 beam and displaces 1892 tons
on a draught of "a feet. The belt and gun
positions are of 6-inch Harveyized steel
and her battery is composed of one 20
inch, two S-inch, fourteen 6-inch, ten Il
Founders and six 6-pounders. Her speed
under natural draught is to be 19 knots,
and the coal capacity is over 1000 tons.
The Spanish armored cruiser Cristobal
Colon, which led our ships race of fifty
miles In the sea fight off Santiago on July
8 one year ago, was of the Verese type,
class of ships which if properly handled
have proved to be the best yet produced
or. moderate displacement.