New-York tribune., 1901-12-29
DESCRIPTION OF THE MISSOURI.
MORE THAN HALF COMPLETED-FEATURE
OF THE BATTLESHIP.

Washington. Dec. 2s-The Missouri is a sister
ship OF the Ohio and the Maine Her contract
price was S2, sS5, ,O0o Her keel laid Feb
ruary :, 1900. and on the latest construction re-
port she is set down as 81 per completed The
contract speed is eighteen knots an hour, so that
she will rank next TO the battleships OF the Geor-
gia class in regard speed Her complement will
be 40 officers and 511 men The hull is built OF
steel and is unsheathed- II is SSS feet long the
load water line y feet "a inches extreme breadth.
and at a mean draught OF . feet inches, dis
places u go The hull is protected abreast OF
the boilers and engines by side arnOr belt OF from
n. II inches in thickness and by the caseulats
armOr. inches thick In the casemate are placed
ten Of the 6-inch guns the vessel carries. Above
this the upper deck, four 6-nch guns ara placed.
ia the vicinity OF which 6-inch is worked far
enough forward and aft to afford protection TO the
crews OF these guns
Protection IS afforded the vitals OF the ship be-
low the water line by protective deck with
from q. to inches thick
The main bas:ery OF the ship consists OF FOUR
12-inch rifles. placed in two balanced turrets. and
sixteen 6-inch guns The turrets are turned by
electricity. and revolve through 500 degrees
minute
Ten OF the S-nch guns are within the casemats
two others are the berth deck forward in s-inch
armcred sponsOns. and four the upper
deck Those in the sponsors forward and two on
the upper deck fire directly ahead, and the
other two the upper deck directly astern, IN ad-
dition 10 having broadside fire. The secondary
ers six 1-pounders, two Colts and two S-inch field
guns.
a new feature introduced into the offensive power
OF this ship are two submerged torpedo tubes
While German warShips have been equipped with
these tubes for number OF years. the Missouri
and her class are the first battleships OF navy
to be supplied with them.
There are two military mastS. fitted with the
usual signal yards. tops and topmaSts. mast,
usual. being over the forward coming tower.
The Missouri carries fourteen boats OF which one
is a +O-foot steam cutter and another 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
il has 10 handle at the OF forty feet minute
Btlge keelS 70 reduce rolling fitted to the ves-
sci. experiments in recent years in own and
foreign navies having demonstrated the great ef-
hciency Of these keels in preventing excessive
rolling
Hydraulic gear is used in steering the vessel and
can put the rudder from hard apOrt to hard astar-
board in twenty seconds when the vessel Is nov
ing at full speed
Electricity is used for lighting the vessel and
operating the turrets and hosts and for commJnf-
minor purposes Four powerful searChlights will
give warning OF the approach Of hostile vessels
For night signalling the ship carries two sets OF
electric signalling apparatus.
The normal coal supply IS one thousand tons and
the capacity OF the ounkers is two thousand IONS
The arrangement OF the bunkers Is such as 10 az
ford considerable incidental protection the ma
chinery-
ships OF the United States Navy in which water
tube boilers provided Steam for prOpeIIinx
machinery is supplied by water tube boilers OF the
ThorneycrOft type. placed in four Watertight com
partments There are three smoke pipes The rive
propelling engines OF the vertical cylinder df-
rect acting. triple expansion type. having four evil
nders The collective indicated horsepOver is abour
1o,Ooo when the vessel Is making eighteen knots