The Washington times., 1901-07-28
DESCRIPTION OF THE MAINE.
The New BnttIeship One of the Fin
est of Its Class.


The Maine is a sister ship of the Ohio.
building at the Union Iron Works. San
Francisco. Cal, and of the Missouri.
building at the yard of the Newport News
Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.
Newport News, Va.
The hull which is subdivided like those
of the most recent battleships, is built
of steel and is unsheathed. 1t is 3sS feet
long on the load-water line. 70 feet 21k
inches extreme breadth and at mean
draft of % feet inches displaces 1890
tons.
The hull is protected abreast of the boil
ers and engines by side armor belt ex-
tending 3 feet inches above the load-wat-
er line and feet below 1t, having a thick
ness of II inches for a depth of 4 feet 6
inches. tapering to III inches at the bot
tom of the belt and by the casemate ar
NOR. inches thick, which extends from
the side belt TO the upper deck and is
worked from the centre of the forward to
the centre Of the after barbette At the
ends of this casemate armer diagonal ar
NOR inches thick extends from the sides
of the vessel to the barbette armor
In the casemate thus formed are placed
ten of the 6-inch guns. Above this on the
upper deck, four of the finch guns are
placed, in the vicinity of which 6-inch ar
NOR is worked far enough forward ana aft
to afford protection to the crews of these
guns.
Protection Is afforded the vitals of the
ship below the water line by protective
deck worked fiat within the easement and
with slopes forward and aft OF it. The
deck is worked in two thicknesses of plat
ing. the total thickness on the fiat being
two and three-fourths inches, while that
on the slopes forward and aft is respec-
lively three inches and four inches. Cof-
feTdams are built on the protective deck
from the diagonal armor bulkheads to the
bow and stern in the vicinity of the water
line and on the berth deck for nearly the
length of the vessel. All of these Golfer
dams are filled with cornpith cellulose.
The main battery of the ship consists of
four l2-inch breech-loading rifles, placed
in two balanced turrets, and six 6-inch
rapid-fire guns.
The turrets are turned by electricity and
the motors used for this purpose
volve one of the great turrets through
$50 degrees in one minute. The armor of
both the turrets and barbettes is twelve
inches thick
Ten of the s-inch guns are within the
casemate. as before stated: two others
are on the berth forward in 6-inch ar
mored sponsons and four are on the up
per deck. Those In the sponsonS forward
and two on the upper deck can fire di-
rectly ahead and the other two on the up
per deck directly astern, in addition to
having broadside fire.
The secondary battery consists of six J.
inch rapid-fire guns. eight 6-polnder rap
id fire, six 1-pounder rapid fire, two Colts
and two 3-inch rapid-fire field guns.
new feature introduced In the offen-
sive power of this ship is the submerged
torpedo tube. While submerged torpedo
tubes are not new abroad. German war
ships having been equipped With them for
a number of years the Maine and her
class are the first battieships of our navy
to be supplied with them, though prior
to her construction many vessels of the
United States Navy were lifted with tor
pedo tubes above the water line.
The Maine viii have two of these tubes.
one on each side of the vessel, situated
about so feet from the bow and about 10
feet inches below the water line
The magazines and shelfs rooms of the
ship eau stow 240 rounds of Finch am
munition. 3.2o0 rounds of 6-inch ammuni-
tion. 900 rounds of 5-pounders, and 400
azines 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 top
masts; two tops are built to each of these
masts. The >foremast is located in the
usual way over the forward coming tow
er, the foundation of the tower forIairg
the lower part of the mast The armor
of the forward coming tower is 10 incnes
thick and that of the after or signal tow
iiches in diameter inside and inches In
tl.ickLes extends from the forward con
ming tower down to the protective deck |
and projects the voice tubes and tele- |
graphers from the commanding officer to
the important stations in the vessel
Tho Maine carries fourteen D,-ts, Of
winch one is a 40-foot steam c-itter and
a.icther 36-foot steam cutter of the usua.
navy type over each end of the boat
deck two small upper bridges are located
on which is placed a portion of The sec
ondary battery. The boats are handled |
by fur cranes all operated by steam, the |
engines for this purpose being located on
the working platforms of the cranes
Each crane can lift the heaviest boat |
that 1t has to handle at the rate of forty |
feet per minute and can also be revoived
by its hoisting engine at the rate OF a |
revolution in one minute.
Blge keels to reduce rolling are fitted
to the vessel. Experiments In recent
years in our own and foreign navies have
demonstrated the great efficiency of these
keels in preventing excessive rolling Ihe
forward bilge kees extend for length OF
about 81 feet while those aft have a |
length of about 70 feet.
Hydraulic gear is used in steering the
vessel and can put the rudder from hard |
aport to hard astarboard in twenty sec
onds when the vessel is moving at full
speed. The valves of the gear are con-
nected by an electric telemotor with the |
coming tower besides the mechanical
connection with the pilot-house.
Tho electricity both for lighting the yes
sci and operating the turrets and hoists
and minor purposes is furnished by eight
thirty-two kiIowatt generating sets, all
having n pressure of eighty volts at the
terminals.
There are four dynamo rooms, one on
each side of the vessel just forward of the