The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-11-25
.yAPaN's NEW BATTLESHIP.
Her special Feature q Belt Of Armor GIVING
Protection as Far az the Upper Deck.

yoNDoS, Nov 10 The following nre tho
details regarding the Japanese battleship
Mikasa. launched NJ Ba~rrow-in-Furness this
week She is. rouchlv speaking. a sister ship
10 the Asahi ard Hastuse. which she resembles
in the matter NJ displacement. dimensions ana
armament, though there are imrortant diver
gencies which tend 10 make her OF special inter-
est Hcr Dimensions are as follows. Length he
tween err diculars %4nofeet the over-alllength
being 49, feet. her beam ia "a feet, and Mt a
draught Of q feet 2 inches her displacement Is
about I5,lso tons The engines win develop
l5.Ocohorse power, calculated to give her a sreed
Of Is knots Her normal coal supply viii he zoo
tons with a capacity for l.4oo tons. which will
allow her travelling about o,ooo miles at ~
knots before replenishine her bunkers The
engines will be Of the triple e1ransiontyre with
three 80 finders. and there will be twenty-five
Belle vile boilers with economizers fitted to each
The Mikasa is protected by acomvlete armored
holt. consisting Of n Harveyed nickel steel NJ
NicEerS manufacture Of q inches thickness over
aspace ~ l5f feet amidshirs. covering the vital
portions of the vessel This is continued fore
aud aft by armor. tar ering from ! inches 10 Z
inches. terminated NJ the after end by a e-inch
bulhfead. thus forming a complete protection
over tho entire water line NJ the ship The telt
extends from s feet 2 inches below the water
lire 10 feet . inches above. and Is there net by
the d-inch citaGci armor. which continues the
protection from the top Of the belt to the UPPER
dock The citadel comprises tho chief de-
Tarture from tho ordinary practice in the design
of this ship. rs besides protecting the space
between the holt and the main deck battery. II
takes TIE place Of the ordinary arrangement
of usually found in British and
FOREIGN hattlcshirs and entirely protects the
G-irch guns on the fighting deck
Tho advantage Of this arrangement over
caecnatcs will be seen when II is considered
that throughout the whole OF The centre portion
Of the ship the crew are protected from injury
while working the guns. while the gun POSI-
lions themselves arc equally protected in front
as In the casemat arrangement. and are In
fni,ely loss vulnerable in the rears. which are
protected now by the C-inch armo- on the
opposite side 81 tho ship. az v ell rs by thethick
steel bulkheads which DIVIDE the gun positions
one from another. The coming tower is pro-
tect"d nv lA-inch ariror. and the observer
tower aft by three inches 81 armor.
In addition to the above protection there
is n protective deck below the main deck, which
extends throughout the whole length Of the
ship. and consists 81 two inchrs ~ arnor on the
fats. and three inch on the slopes, The heavy
armament Ia represented by four pinch
hrcech loading guns mounted In pairs for
ward and AFT. These are placed IN armored
barbe'tcS fourteen inches thick above TIE
upper deck and ten inches below. where they
are covered by the screen bulkhead. Tho
heavy Oulck-nrinE armament is COMPOSED 81
fourteen siv-inch runs. ten of them mounted in
the armored oitadol above described. and
four Of them mounted on the upper deck In
casem ties. In addition 10 these there are
twenty io-pounders. eight 3-pounders. and
four 2i--rounders. all quick-frinC guns: and
tho torpedo equipment consists of four sub
merged Tubes two forward and two aft. The
weight Of metal discharged by this armament
in one minute is eleven and n hnlf tons. repre-
sen'irg a striking energy Of ,237. $50 foot-tons.
while tho weight NJ metal discharged from tie
guns available on one hroadsidc in a minute
is seven md a hnlf tons, giving n striking
energy Of inst under ore million foot-tors