The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-12-31
TO BE LAUNCHED TODAY At NEWPORT
NEWS SHlPBUlLDING YARD.
A FORMIDABLE ENGINE OF WAR
Some New Features i'm
the Construction of this Warship.
Built for Speed, Heavy Offensive
Work and With Strong Defenses.
She Carries Two Submerged Torpe-
do Tubes-Members of the Cabiner
and Other overnm Officials to
Attend the Launching.

IOH, december ZI.-MemDrr
of the presidents cabinet, with their
families and several bureau chiefs of
the navy department, guests of the
Newport News (Va.) Shipbuilding and
Drydock Company. left here for New
port News, Va, at 10 o'clock this even
ing by special train, to attend the
! launching of the battleship Missouri at
IL o'clock tomorrow morning.
c. B. circuit, president of the ship
building company, accompanied the
party. a large number Of senators.
members Of the house and others, in
Guiding Senator Francis NJ. Cockrell, Of
Missouri, and his daughter, Miss Marion
Cockrell, who is to act as sponsor at
the launching, sailed for Newport News
tonight n will arrive there early in
the morning.
The Missouri is a sister ship of the
Ohio and the Maine. Her contract price
was g. 85. 900. Her keel was laid Feb
ruary z, 1900. and on the latest construc-
ton report she is set down as 81 per
cent completed. The Missouri's con-
tract speed is Is knots an hour, so that
she will rank next to the battleshiDs Of
the Georgia class in regard to speed.
Her complement will be forty officers
and 511 men.
The hull is built Of steel. 1t is 3SS
feet long on the load-Water line: " feet
2h inches extreme breadth and, at a
mean draught of % feet 6 inches. dis
places II, 230 tons. The hull is protected
abreast of the boilers and engines by a
side armOr belt of from ~ to IL inches
thickness and by the casemate armor, 6
inches thick. In the casemate are plac-
ed ten of the 6-inch guns the vessel car
ries. Above this on the upper deck four
6-inch guns are placed. in the vicinity
of which six inch armor is worked far
enough forward and aft to afford pro-
lection to the crews of these guns.
Protection is afforded the walls of the
ship below the water line by a protec-
tive deck with armor from 2k to s
inches thick =
The main battery OF the ship consists
OF foul 12-inch rifles placed IL two bal
arced turrets and sixteen finch guns,
The turrets are turned by electricity,
and can revOlye through $50 degrees in
one minute. Ten of the 6-inch guns are
within the casemate as before stated;
two others are in the berti; forward
in s-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 directly.
astern, in addition to having a broad
side fire.
The secondary battery consists of six
3-inch guns. eight 6-pounders. six l.
Founders, two Colts and two 3-inch
field guns.
A new feature introduced into the
offensive power of this ship is two sub
merged torpedo tubes. While German
warships have been equipped with these
tubes for a number of years the Mis-
souri, and her class are the first bat
tleships of our navy to be supplied with
them.
There are two military masts fitted
with the usual signal yards, tops and
topmasts, one mast as usua being over
the forward coming tower.
The Missouri carries fourteen boats,
of which one is a 40-foot steam cut
ter and another a 36-foot steam cutter
of the usual navy type. The boats are
handled by -four cranes operated by
steam and each of which can lift the
heaviest boat that 1t has to handle at
the ate of forty feet per minute. Bllge
keels to reduce rolling are fitted to the
vessel, experiments in recent years in
our own and foreign navies having
demonstrated the great efficiency or
these keels in preventing excessive roll
Ing.
Hydraulic gear is used in steering the
vessel and can put the rudder from
hard aport to hard astarboard in TWEEN
~ seconds when the vessel is moving
az full speed. Electricity is used for
lighting the vessel and operating the
turrets and hoists and for communicat-
ing between parts of the ship and for
other minor purposes. Four powerful
search lights will give warning OF the
approach Of hostile vessels For night
signalling the ship carries two sets OF
electric signalling apparatus
The normal GAL supply Is 1000 tons
and the capacity Of the unkers is 1000
tons The arrangement OF the ounkers
Is such as to afford considerable Incl
dental protection to the machinery.
The Missouri and her class are the
fist battleships of the United States In
which water tubes are provided. Steam
for the propelling machinery Is sup
piled by water tube boilers of the
Thorneycroft type placed in four water
tight compartments. There are three
smoke pipes. The two propeling en-
gines are of the vertical cylinder direct
acting triple-expansion type. having
four cylinders. The collective indicated
horse power is about 10000 the
vessel is making eighteen knots