The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-03-30
THREE MONSTERS
Greatest Fighting Machines
Ever Set AflOat
Have Been Arranged For by
Naval Construction Board.
SIXTY-SIX FIXED GUNS
To Be Provided on Each of New
Cruisers.
California, Nebraska and the
West Virginia.

w est virginia.
New York, March 30.-A special to the
Tribune from Washington says:
No warships OF such fighting power
@have ever before been planned abroad
or at home as the three cruisers whose
details have just been practically COM
pleted by the admiraIs of the naval
construction board. They are really
most formidable battleships. with the
speed and staying powers of an ocean
liner Never has such a tremendous
battery been mounted afioat as the Cal
ifornia the Nebraska and the West
Virginia will carry. Sixty-six fixed
guns constitute their armament, and
their magazines are to hold over 400
tons of ammunition.
The board has given these ships 900
tons displacement. % knots speed, and
with coal bunker capacity of :, 1000 tons,
a Steaming radius of 900 miles. They
will be the only ships in the navy lit
orally armored all over, their protec-
tiOn extending from below the water
line above the entire superstructur
In appearance they will mark a notable
departure from existing cruisers and
battleships of their class in that they
will stand much higher out of the water
giving better distribution of batteries
and quarters and making them most
impressive.
Until congress gives the navy de-
partment authority to contract for the
best possible armor for these vessels,
the final drawings cannot be made, nor
can shipbuilders secure all the informa-
tiOn required by them to enable the
preparation of alternative plans. The
general characteristics of the ships are
now settled beyond material mOdi1ica-
ton, except that triple screw machinery
may be substituted for twin screws.
The machinery is to develop over $4,000
tr, Irix 10 oh knots
and this with the standard naval water
tube boilers, must not exceed 1000 tons
in weight
The armored protection is to include
a water line belt of Kruppized steel six
inches thick abreast the engines and
boilers, tapering to 315 inches at the
bow and stern. Above this belt there
viii be a five inch easement extending
half the ships length, to protect ten g.
inch guns The S-inch turrets will be
six inches thick. the coming tower
inches and the signal tower inches.
The total weight of armOr, including
the 4-inch protective deck, will be 1,421
tons.
Among the novelties. the lower decks
will be covered with linOleum, all wood
work reduced to a minimum and fire
prOofed, the magazines covered with
conductors of heat, and cooled by
refri igerating apparatus; coal bunkerS
arranged for extremely rapid filling and
enptVing, automatic water tight doors
between all compartments operated
from several stations. fire main laid be-
low the protective deck. laundry for IS
men and machine shop Space is pro-
Vided for six months provisions, tanks
for 5000 gallons of drinking water and
an ice machine to make three tons
day, and a, distilIing plant for ten thou
sand gallons a day. Electricity will op-
crate the turret turning gear, blowers
for ventilation, mechanical bread mix
er, laundry, ammunition hoists, gun
rammers and air compressors for tor
pedOes.
The armament will consist of 66 guns,
distributed as follows: Main battery,
four S-inch breech loading rifles of A.
calibres length; fourteen 6-inch rapid
fire rifles of 50-calibres length. Sec
onGary battery, all rapid-fire. eighteen
14-pounders, twelve 3-pOunders, four L
FOUNDER automatic, four 1-pounder sin
gle shot, two 3-inch field guns and two
Gatlings. In addition the hand battery
will include 800 magazine rifles and 200
reVolVers The S-inch rifles will be
mounted in pairs in elliptical balanced
turrets. having inclined pOuts. located
on the keel line of the ship fore and aft.
On the upper deck the tremendous tor
pedO boat destroying 14-pOunderS will
be located and at each corner of the
superstructGre a 6-inch gun with an
arc of fire of 145 degrees will be pro-
tected in a sponsor.
On the main deck in the casemate will
be placed the battery of six-inch rapid
fires in brOadsides, five on each side,
with not less than llO degrees arc OF
fire, except the forward pair which are
to be spOnsoned so as to permit them to
aim directly ahead. The automatic one
Founders will go in the lower military
tops. and the single shot of the same
calibre in the upper tops There Will
be two submerged torpedo tubes in one
compartment forward and six White
head torpedoes viii be carried. The ag-
gregate weight of this armament eX-
ceeds 400 tons
AS indicating the rapidity of destruc-
tive fire to be attained with this great
battery, provision is made for the am
munitiOn hOiStS to deliver charges to
each gun at the following rates: Eight
inch, one every fifty seconds; 6-inch,
three rounds a minute; 14-pounders, six
rounds minute; 3 and 1-pOunders, ten
rounds q minute. The rounds and
weights of the ammunition TO be carried
on each ship are as follows: Five hun
dred rounds. S-inch complete, 91.5 tons;
$500 rounds, 6-inch complete, 227.5 tons:
tons; six thousand rounds, 3-poundeIs
complete, 1S.S tons; all others twenty
tons Total 1895 tons.
The construction board has also prac-
tically completed the design for the
battleships Pennsylvania, Georgia and
New Jersey. no material modification
from the original plans having been
made.
They will represent as distinct an ad-
vance in their class as the cruisers do
over the New York and the Brooklyn.
The armament of the battleships is not
to be positively decided until the double
turrets of the Kearsarge are tested.
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