Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-05-19

Jne william CfdnD o. SONS snip anu
Engine Building Company, and OF
the Missouri, building at the yard OF
the Newport News Ship Building and
Dry Dock Company.
The hull. which is divided like those
of the most recent battleships, is built
Of steel and is unsheathed. 1t is 3SS
feet long on the load water line; 72
fee ~ inches extreme breadth, and.
at u mean draft Of 23 feet 6 inches dis
places 1920 tons.
The hull is protected abreast of the
boilers and engines by side armor
belt extending feet inches above
the load water line, and feet below
it, having n thickness of II inches for
a depth of 4 feet inches tapering to
~ inches at the bottom of the belt:
and by the casemate armor inches
thick which extends from the side
belt to the upper deck, and is worked
from the center of the forward to the
center of the after barbett. At the ends
of this easement armOr diagonal ar
NOR 8 inches thick extends from the
sides Of the vessels to the barbett ar
NOR
In the casemate thus formed are plac-
ed ten of the G-inch guns. Above as
on the upper deck. four of the 6-inch
guns are placed, in the vicinity of
which G-inch armor is worked far
enough forward and aft to afford pro-
lection to the crews of these guns.
Protection is afforded the vitals of
the ship below the water line by pro
tectiye deck worked fiat within the
casemate, and with slopes forward
and aft of it. The deck is worked in
two thicknesses of plating, the total
thickness on the fiat being 22i inches.
while that on the slopes forward and
aft is respectively and inches. Cof-
ferdams are built on the protective
deck from the diagonal armor bulk
heads to the bow and stern in the vi
NAhiIy VI t!It NuIti llhC, anu Ou Lue
berth deck for nearly the length of the
vessel. All of these cofferdams are
filled with corn pith cellulose
The main battery of the ship CON
sists of our four Pinch breech- load
ing rifles, laced in two balanced tur-
rets. and sixteen G-inch rapid-firing
guns.
The turrets are turned by electrici-
ty; and the motors used for this pur-
pose can reyolve one of these great
turrets through $50 degrees in one
minute. The armor of both the tur-
rets and barbetts is ~ inches thick.
Ten of the 6-inch guns are within
the casemate as before stated, two
Others are on the berth deck forward
in 6-inch armored sponsors, and four
are on the upper deck. Those in the
sponsors forward and two on the up
per deck can fire directly ahead, and
the other two on the upper deck di-
rectly astern, in addition to having Il
broad-side fire.
The secondary battery consists of
six 3-inch rapid-fring guns; eight g.
pounder rapid-fring guns; six 1-poun-
der rapid-fring guns, two Colts and
two 3-inch rapid-tiring field guns.
A new feature introduced in the of :
fensive power of this ship is the sub
merged torpedo tuDe. While submerg-
ed torpedo tubes are not new abroad
German warships having been equip
ped with them for a number of years.
the Ohio and her class are the first
battleships of our navy to be supplied
with them though prior to her con-
struction many vessels of the United
States navy were fitted with torpedo
tubes above the water line. The Ohio
will have two of these tubes, one on
each side of the vessel, situated about
fifty feet from the bow and about ten
feet six inches below the water line.
The magazines and shell rooms of
the ship can stow "a Grounds of the 12-
inch ammunition; 5000 rounds of the
G-inch ammunition; $500 rounds of the
G-inch ammunition; $500 rounds of the
G-pounder and 1000 rounds of the l.
FOUNDER. The forward magazines are
located Immediately forward of the
dynamo rooms, and the after ones
just abaft the engine rooms.
There are two military masts fitted
with the usual signal yards, tops and
topmasts; two tops are built to each of
these masts. The foremast is located
in the usual way over the forward
coming tower; the foundation of the
tower forming the lower part of the
mast. The armor Of the forward con-
ming tower is ten inches thick, and
that of the after or signal tower is six
inches thick. A steel tube twelve
inches in diameter inside and seven
inches in thickness extends from the
forward coming tower down to the
protected deck and protects the voice
tubes and telegraphs from the conn