The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1899-08-08
MOST POWERFUL
IN THE WORLD
Barbettes on Three Of Uncle
Sans New Battlesbips Are
Unequslled.
ADMIRAL O'NEIL'S PLANS
Dimensions Of the Heavy Batteries
which Exceed All Others
In Use.
ADMIRAL O'NEILs PLANS

1 HNANN hRsff~f fN~Nf " = ~
Herald from Washington saysi
The heay1es, bawenes yc, placed on
any naval vessel in the world w1ll be car
ricd by tho Georgia. New Jersey and
Pennsylvania. the nov ba,tleships au.
tispidIcd By the last congress Il the sug-
gesuon ot RearAdmial o'Neil, chicf q
the bureau Of ordnance. are ordered.
These ships are to have an approximate
displacemcm Of ia0D tons each and
speed and coal capacity en,N1ng them
to be oiansed aimos, a. ArnSored cruisess.
By the Tightening u thF armor bcR
made possible By the greatly increased
resisting power of the last armor Rear
Admiral Omen ls enabled to plan much
heavier batteries. lie has prepared nve
separate plans for the new ships Each
provtics for the same number Of guns
~ each cailbrc In the secondary batteries
ana me sane gcneal Arrangement but
modincd by differences In me main bat.
,erlca In the secondary baytcry OF zach
vess,l Is to carry sixteen ,hrce-lneh
guns. thirty caIbre Ia length, sixteen
tiree-poundors, four au'omaiic one
i,ounderu: six single shot one Founders
Ten ma,hlne guns and two held guns.
In the main bapieries. one plan con-
templates four i2-inch guns OF forty
cai.bre. foor clghg-lnCh guns Of forty
fvc oalibre and twelve six-inch guns
u aNy calGbrc, The 2.inch guns are to
be mounted In bar'bci,e turrcts fore aud
at OF the slpers,rustare. four eight.
inch guns In baFocyle turre, on each
beam and the slS-inoh guns IN broadside,
W. as TO gjye tho largest possible an Of
arr This Arrangement would give eacii
ship broadslde battery on zach side OF
,nour ig-lnch. two S-lnch and six 6-inch
guns. In addition to the large number
of secondary battery suns that could be
bn1pgh, to bear on each side. The guns
OF the main battery that could be
drought TO bear on each side, The guns
Of the main battery that could be
brough, TO bear direIly fore and az;
would be TWO is4nch four s.!nch and
two e.lnch In addition 10 numerous sec
ondary battery guns, This second plan
Gncrs from the nrst IN tha, II applies
so the eight S.inch guns In the barbe,'e,
uwO on each side The other proposes 10
substitute Two teo~uoh and tWO ls-iprh
Tor the four isAnoh guns, In these plans
tho fore and AFT hre Is the same as ia
nhc nrst pan, but the broad hre is In.
creased by two S-inoh guns, The frs, pmn
differs from the nrst In having no Slnch
guns and increased the number q e-inch
TO sixteen. eight airing on each brcadsde,
and four direSly forward and two di.
rectB aft.
The. plan that will probably meet with
mo6 favor. y Il Is found to be practica-
bo to carry II within the limit OF weights
ultimately assigned TO the battery, is
,hh OF the four l2-lnch guns and eight
s-lnch. The S-ineh gun Is OF course, great
ly favored by navy men and proved rs
value In the Spanish war. II can be fred
with rapidlty and Accuracy and Is very
destructive against light and even me-
dium weight armor.
II Il comes to the question OF retiuc-
ing the number Of S-lnch guns or reduc.
ing the guns from i9-inch to iO-inch
many officers would advocate the redue-
tion In the size or pam % all the heav-
lest guns, The plan Is more hkely to
be adopted because the now lO-Inch guns
90 caHbres in length, will have as great
power as the i9-nch guns
of the type now In service on the Iowa.
The saving in weight OF guns and am
is ve>y great n the lO-inch guns
ore used and the dimensions of the tur-
rets being less for the lo-inch guns,
thcVc is also a material savirg In the
weight OF amor
Admiral o'Nell suggestion contemplates
the use OF armor as light as is corsist-
emit with good practice The water line
belt, to extend the entire lngth of the
shop Is TO he nine inches thick along
the Vital portions and win taper to four
inches fore and aft o, the main har.
betteo Diagonal armor nine inches
thick ls to run from the side armor to
the main barOettes. The armor Is to
be much more generally distributed and
the smaller guns Of both the main and
secondary batteries are to be given much
better p-o.eStion than in any battleship
previously designed A novel feature forI
the American navy is proposition toI
ISOLATE the e.ich guns IN separate case
mtnts SO that a bursting sheli might not
put several guns out OF act'cn.