Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-12-14

Drank Iced Ginger Ale.
A letter to his mother from Harry L.
Grant, who is taking a special course
at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology at Boston, gives an interesting
account of the trial trip of the battle
ship Kentucky by one who was on
her and who knows something about
a ship. says the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Mr.. Grant is a son of Z. S. Grant of
Covington. Ky, who is well known
in the export provision trade. and he is
in school at Boston for the purpose of
taking the shipbuilding course. 1t was
but natural. then, that when an op-
portunity presented itself for him to
accompany one of his friends on the
| trial trip of the battleship named for
his native state he should make the
best of it. The letter was written on
Nov. %, the same day of the trip, and
is in part as follows:
| 1--WE had to get up this morning at a
quarter after 3. The tug to carry the
officials and some 20 guests out to the
battleship left Lewis wharf at half
past 6. so we had little time to spare.
We had no trouble whatever getting
aboard. 1t took an hour to get 10
miles out to the ship. and after we
were aboard it took an hour and half
to steam Slowly 10 knots more to the
starting buoy off Cape Ann. During
this time Mack Chis roommate) and l
struck up an acquaintance with the
chief electrician and were shown all
over the boat
You have no conception what the
engine room Of a man-of-war on its
| trial trip is like. You know the ma
chinery Is all new and the surfaces un-
| worn. Under these conditions a fabu-
lous amount of fabrication is required.
Long before the run some half dozen
| oilers were going back and forth with
buckets full of oil and instead of drop
ping dainty drops here and there swab-
bed II on TO the bearings and recipro-
eating parts with mops. just like those
used in cleaning floors, though not
quite so long. Instead of using oil
cans to get at small bearings they used
syringe the shape of bicycle pump.
only about six times as large.
about ten barrels of lard oil were
used this morning for lubricating alone.
This gives you some idea of the quanti-
ty, but you still cannot comprehend
the effect. Instead of the shipshape
engine room you read of this was a
mass of grease Every crevice was
teemiDg with oil, from every projecting
point OF the seatings a continuous drip
ping took place, while from the re-
volving shaft the effect was more like
sawdust from circular saw or the
whirl of sparks from n fireworks spin
ming wheel Centrifugal force kept
the air filled with oil flying from the
shaft in every direction. As a result
il was impossible or rather fooIhardy
for any one with good clothes on to go
anywhere near the engine. OF course
there was large force of engineers
on to take data and Indicator cards.
These had to dress in oilskins through
out. The odor in the engine room was
something nauseatinG. This vast
amount OF oil coming into contact with
the hot surfaces of the cylinders of
course burned. and you know what
that means In a close space. l could
extend this description indefinitely and
not tell half. In the stokehole the
strain was even greater. Every lump
OF coal used was sorted by hand, wash
ed and polished. The test was run I'M
der the system of forced draft known
as closed stokehold. The fires were
kept so hot during the test that all
the paint on the stacks burned and
peeled off. During the test the fire
men and engineers drank iced import
ed ginger ale. Three barrels OF this
were furnished by the company at a
cost to them of IL cents per bottle.
After climbing all over the ship and
getting a quau.ity of valuable informa-
ton we went on deck just as We APP
preached the first stakeboat. Starting
at full speed a mile back from the
boat. the kentucky's full momentum
was acquired by the time she crossed
the line. and the race against time had
commenced. At this time in the MORN
ing there was a heavy sea on. and our
course lay straight into the wind. Not
withstanding the high freeboard of the
Kentucky-that is. height of bow
above level OF the water. nine feet
her nose struck into the water at ey-
cry wave. and these. breaking on the
deck, would send spray 10 TO II feet
into the air. Some most beautiful eff
fects were produced. There was a
stakeboat at every &C knots OF our
course, and the readings for speed
were taken at each stake. The course
was from Cape Ann. Mass. TO Cape
Porpoise, Me. 40 miles. and was made
without stopping in four hours We
crossed the line coming back at about
O'Clock. The official time was 1851
knots per hour. which is 0-3I Of knot
faster than the kearsarge and -SI1
knots above the contract speed The
Kentucky. then. is not only the lar
gest battleship in the United States
navy. but also the fastest After the
speed trial tests were made upon her
steering action and sensitiveness. To
all appearances her performance was
entirely satisfactory. We steered back
to Boston and. landing by tug. got in
Ut Cos D. m. We had left that wharf
az 6:3O a. ~. and in the liz hours in