The evening times., 1900-03-27
THE WISCONSlN'S TRIALS
New Battleship at San Francisco
Almost Ready for Sea.
Dimensions of a Great Nesscl-A Sis
ter of the Illinois and Alabama.
Famed Oregon The Armament
and Heavy Armor-Pfate Belt.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 27.-The bat
| tleship Wisconsin will go out for its Sc
| ries Of trials within the coming week The
vessel is now at the Union Iron Works,
/ and is all but completed. The machinery
Of this new sea fighter has been comp etc /
only a short time, but has already been
! given several tests.
The heavy guns Of her battery are in
! place and mounted, the last OF the four
thirteen inch guns being placed .ast week.
So far all the working parts of the war
ship have been given every sat sfact.on to
her builders. and it is expected that she
! will be fully up to the standard Of the bat
tleship Oregon.
The battleship Wisconsin is essentially
the same as the battleships Illinois and
Alabama. 1t is the same in hull and ma
chinery as the Kearsarge and Kentucky,
but different in armor. The Wisconsin's
details are as follows:
Length. 36S feet; breadth. - feet 2l2
inches: draft, % feet inches; displace-
ment, 11,52S tons; speed. 16 knots; horse
power, 10000; coal-bunl1er capacity, 1,200
tons; batteries (main), four 13-inch, four
teen 6-irch, secondary battery, sixteen g.
Founders, four 1-pounders, one Colt gun,
two field guns: torpedo tubes, four White
head; armor (sidesl, top. 10 IL inches;
bottom, 3 1-2 inches. waterline, l3 ga inch
es turrets IL inches, 10 inches; barbettes,
Il inches. 10 inches; protective deck, slopes
forward inches, aft inches: fiat. 2 ga
inches; waterliBe protection, cocoa or corn
pith, cubic feet, II, 464; complement, Off
GERS, 30; men, 449: contract price, hull
and machinery. $2.674.950.
The Wisconsin was launched November
last from the yards of the Union Hoa
Works. in San Francisco. She is from the
hands of the builders of the Oregon and
the Olympia. The Wisconsin was author
lied in 1895, and the contract was let in
October, 1897. The keel of the ship was
laid in February, 1898.
Naval officers call the Wisconsin an I'M
proved Iowa. The 15-inch rifles consti-
tuting the main battery of the ship viii
be mounted in couples in Hichborn tur
rets placed in the centre of the vessel, with
an arc of fire of 135 degrees on each side
OF the centre line. These with the un-
usually large battery of 6-inch rapid-fire
guns in broadside each with an arc of 90
degrees. and her upper deck armament
capable of firing directly ahead or astern,
will make the Wisconsin a formidable
fighter.
The heavy armor belt OF the Wisconsin
extends from the bow beyond the after
tUrret and maintains its maximum thick
ness amidships between the turrets and
over the entire space occupied by the en-
gnes and boilers. Above the belt Of armor
the sides Of the vessel form casemate
Of five and one-half inches of steel
protecting the six-inch gun positions.
Along the entire water line there is belt
III FTs,1n
deep TO prevent the ingress of water in
the wake Of an effective projectile.
Independent OF the numerous water-tight !
pockets or cells forming the entire scheme
of cofferdams the inner bottom and hold, |
the platforms and splinter and berth decks |
are subdivided into nearly 300 water-tight |
compartments for the accommodation OF /
motive power and storage of coal. provi- /
sions and ammunition. They would also |
protect the ship in the case of damage to |
its outer walls.
In addition TO the driving engines. more |
than eighty auxiliary engines will be dis /
tributed through the ship for use in op- |
Grating machinery.
The height of the freeboard forward is |
twenty feet and at the stern thirteen feet |
The floor of the pilothouse is forty four |
feet high The forward thirteen-inch |
guns viii be twenty-siX feet above the wa |
ter and the after guns ten feet. The six |
inch guns are set from fifteen to twenty |
two and a half feet above the water. and /
the lighter guns from thirty TO seventy |
feet Naval authorities agree that height |
above water is an important element in /
the effectiveness of a ships batteries.
The Wisconsin is provided with bilge |
keels. which contribute to her steadiness as |
gun platform Her searchlights command |
a cOmplete all-rOurd range Srom height |
Of twenty-five feet above the water.