The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-08
BIDS OPENED YESTERDAY FOR
ELEVEN NEW FIGHT
ING SHIPS
BEST OF THEIR TYPE AFLoAT
Will Be the Five New Battieships
and Six ArmOred Cruisers,
Which Are Practically
BattIeships Also.


prising the largest consignment of Ma
terial for the navy ever contracted for
at a single bidding. The three battle-
ships authorized by the act of March.
1899, were never contracted for, owing to
delays in the procurement Of arnaor
bids, in the completion of designs and
! controversy as to whether the new
superposed turret should be used in their
construction Inability to reach salts
factory conclusion as to sheathing, de.
layed construction Of three armored
cruisers authorized by the same set.
Five new battleships, namely the Penn
/ sylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia
and Rhode Island are divided into TWO
classes to compromise upon the con-
| troversy as to their turret systems.
! Three are to be sheathed and coppered
| and will carry superimposed turrets; the
! other two are to be unsheathed vessels,
| having the 'quadrilatoral arrangement"
| Of Gig ht-inch turrets. To meet the con-
! tingency that bids may not be in excess
of the authorized cost, the bidders were,
/ however, invited to submit plans in each
! case for both sheathed and unsheathed
ships.
! The sheathed vessels are to be of 1900
| tons displacementS, with a length of $50
! feet, BREADTH &c feet 10 inches, and great,
est draught Of 26 feet. The unsheathed
ships are slightly smaller and on the
same length are ~ inches narrower and
| 40 tons less displacement. Both classes Of
! battleships will compare with any in the
world, not only afioat, but projected for.
| They will have speed of at least 10
! knots, which is expected to run up to
! 1917, a great pace for a battleship, which
will be maintained by twin screw en-
| 9ines of $4,000 horse power, supplied by
| twenty-four water tube boilers.
ARMAMENT AND ARMOR.
rri,o ,o7;oo1 1;ffora,,oa - tho no ++loCbir,e,
to the outward appearance will lie in the
! trrrets. Each ship will carry four IL
| inch guns. These are of the extra
ordinary length of forty calibres, Of the
new type just turned out by the ordnance
| bureau, and superior in efficiency to any
Pinch gun in the world and at least
| equal to the 13-inch guns which have
! marked the maximum calibre in the
| American navy. In the three sheathed
vessels, a pair Of eight-iIlch guns will be
mounted on top of each Of the Pinch
turrets Four other S-inch guns will be
! distributed in two turrets amid-ships OH
| these two vessels.
The unsheathed vessels will have all
of their S-inch guns mounted in four IN
dependent tuTrets, one placed at each
corner of the oblGpg SuperStructure.
Beth classes of vessels, sheathed and un-
sheathed, will have a brOadside Of twelve
6-inch rapid fire guns on the main deck,
Founders and a number Of automatic
guns, making the battery more formid-
able than any afioat as far as ability to
| concentrate fire and throw weight Of
metal is concerned
In the matter of defensive power, the
battleships of both classes are unsur-
passed, carrying an eight-foOt wide
water line belt of armor, eleven inches
thick, over the vitals of the ship, taper
ing to four inches at the ends The six
inch guns will be placed behind the pro-
lection of six inches of solid hardened
steel, and the turrets will vary from ten
to eleven inches in thickness. A curved
turtle-back protective deck, and a cof-
ferdam belt all around the water line
stuffed with cellulose, will afford further
protection. Electricity will be used in
the battleships to much greater extent
than in any other ships afoat. and the
use of wood will be restricted to the
minimum.
SIX POWERFUL CRUISERS.
The six armored cruisers represent the
highest development of the naval con-
structor's art, for Chief Hichborn has
not only managed to design in them
ships as fleet as any foreign navy can
boast, but has endowed them with the
qualities of battleships at many points.
Three of these ships are to be Sheathcd,
and three are to be unsheatned. OF q
less displacement than the battleships,
! 1880 tons in the case of the sheathed
and 13, 400 in the case of the unsheathed
cruisers, these vessels are still consider
ably longer, being SOP feet on the water
line, with breadth of seventy feet and
a draught of tWenty-siX feet six inches.
Quadruple twin screws of $4,000 horse
power, supplied by thirty boilers, will
propel these great ships at a speed of
twenty-five knots per hour, and with ca
pacities for 1000 tons OF coal in their
bunkers their endurance viii surpasS
that of SINH ar foreign vessels. Each cruis-
er will carry four eight-inch guns in HIGH
born balanced turrets, four six-inch guns
in Sponsors at each corner of the super
structure and ten six-inch broadslde
guns besides the usual second battery1
Six inches of hardened steel will extend
in a belt around the ships, seven feet six
inches broad, and the guns in the citadel
and superstructGre are proportionately
protected. A heavy protective deck and
cofferdam belt complete the protection.
! Secretary Long left the cabinet meet
! ing to preside at the opening of bids
! With him were the chief of the bureaus,
! Admiral Hichborne, Admiral Melville
and Admiral ONei1l. Among the spec
tatcrs were Messrs CramD. Trigss. rep-
resenting the Richmond Locomotive
works; Lindsay, of the New York Ship
| Building company, the new Delaware
| river concern; Manager Cask, of the Mil
! ston company; Lewis Nixon, of the Cres-
! cent works; President Olcott Judge Pay
son and Mr.. Post, of the Newport News
! works; T. o. Wellington and II. T. Ell
| well, Of the Fore River works, of Mas
sachusetts; the Moran Bros, of Seattle;
! President Taylor and Mr.. Tarban, of the
/ RiSdon Shipbuilding company; John Dia-
| logue, of Camden. and number of 9TH
| ers Unidentified with shipbuilding There
! We're enough bidders, and most of the
/ bids We're well within the limit of cost
| allowed by congress for the ships. The
! notable feature was the attempt on the
| part of the younger and smaller concern
| to break the line of the ones which have
| constructed nearly all of the new navy
! up to this time. While it is not possible
| at this moment to forecast results ac-
| curately there are indications that in at
least one instance ard, perhaps two in
| stances, the estimates will be amended
and the attempts will be attended with
some degree of success, for it looks as if
some of the work viii be bestowed upon
! the Fore River company, which appears
| for the first time as d bidder for the con-
! struction of armored ships. The Pacific
| coast, too, presents a likely candidate in
! the shape of the Moran Bros bid. Be
! cause of the specifications it is not pos
sible to tell yet which bids are actually
| the lowest. As received they are az fol-
| lows:
WHAT THE SHIPS WILL COST.
Armored Cruisers
| Union Iron Works. San Francisco, one
shea thed ed and and c9ppeTed, So s 500 GOO;
Another under the same conditions.
/ IS, 100000, making two in all
William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia,
| one sheathed, but uneoppered, S3.5g9. ;I59:
| mo haH