The evening times., 1899-03-21
DESIGNS. FOR new
NAVAL CRUISERS
improvements Planned in
Constructing Battleships.
C0pper-Sheathed HullS as a Pr0tee-
ton Against Barnaeles.
Woodwork to BE Reduced to n Min
imum-First-Class Men-Of-War to
Use SmokeIess Powder.

Admiral Hichborn, Chief Constructor of
the United States Navy, is now engaged
in preparing plans for the new third-class
cruiser of about $500 tons displacement
authorized by Congress- The plans and
specifications will be ready for the bid
ders within a month, and the contracts
will be Immediately let as no armor is to
be used. The action of Congress in speci-
flying the price to be paid by the Govern
ment for armor will prevent the letting of
contracts for the other vessels authorized
by the Naval appropriation bill.
This third7class cruiser is intended pri
marily for use in the Pacific Ocean and
will probably be built by the Union Iron
Works. The vessel will be sent to the
Asiatic squadron Immediately upon her
completion.
Many improvements will be made in the
| vessels now being designed by the Bureau
of Construction and Repair. During the
Spanish war many changes suggested
| themselves to the officers who were detail
| ed to carefully watch the performances of
| the various ships of the navy. The most
| important will be the sheathing with cop
per of all the vessels of the new navy.
The steel hull vessels become foul from
| ITOplCdi sIOWtHS anu dltcI Dt-
ing afioat four or five months The VIII
! mington and Marietta have been sheathed,
| and the experiment has proved of great
| value, particularly where there is an alb
| sence of dry docks A copper sheathed
vessel can remain at sea without becoming
foul about five times the length OF time
| Of an ordinary steel hull.
In preventing the vessels from becom-
ing foul by the sheathing process greater
speed is obtained with less expenditure of
| coal. Thousands of dollars have been ex
pended by private corporations in eXpe-
| rimenting with points to prevent touling.
When barnacles and tropical growths
| attach to a sheathed vessel an erosion
takes place, and within a short while the
copper begins 10 scale off. thus relieving
the ship of the growth. The additional
cost OF sheathing is about per cent.
The woodwork on warships will be er
| duced to the minimum, and al every case
| the freproof material will be Used. it
will be omitted from all the decks except
the upper. for which it is used to give
protection from the heat.
In the matter of coal bunkers many
changes will be made. During the late
war with Spain, il was demonstrated that
the bunkers of the swift cruisers ColuIn-
bia and Minneapolis had been divided into
such small compartments that il required
an unnecessarily long time to coal. This
was adopted because II was D2l'eYed the
small compartments would give greater
security in the event of injury in battle
The bunkers will henceforth be made
larger and more accessible. Increased
coaling capacities Will demand more coal
ing scuttles to get the fuel from its stor-
age TO the furnaces.
The irst-class battleships will be armed
with the 12inch high-power guns, using
smokeless powder. The guns will be
slightly increased in both length and
weight. A high-power 12-inch gun has
been demonstrated to be equally as effec-
tive as the 13-inch rife.
The 6-inch guns for armored cruisers
and 5-inch for the second and third cass
cruisers will all be high power, using
smokeless powder. The battleships will
be fitted with submerged torpedo tubes.
The illustrations at Santiago showed
that a shot striking an exposed torpedo
tube loaded would create greater damage
than any other projectile.
The battleships. as they are being de-
signed, will be crowded with the Hichborn
balanced turret, having an inclined port
plate. The use of electricity will be great
ly increased in the new vessels. The tur-
rets, ammunition hosts, and ventilator
blowers will all be operated by electricity.
The contracts for the new vessels au-
thorized by Congress will not be made
until an agreement has been reached re-
garding the price to be paid for armor
| plate.