The Washington times., 1901-07-07

sand Men Employed for Two Years
Mt Philadelphia in the Construction
In her dock at Cramps shipyard lies
the Retzivan, a floating fort being COM
pIeted for the Czar of Russia When sha
goes to sea it will be as the embodiment
Of the work Of 1.oc0 men for about two
years. More, for the work OF those other
men who dug the ore and the coal with
which that ore was smelted. and who
worked the railroad which brought the
iron TO the sea. and Of the men who mada
the great guns. and the electric appli-
ances, and the air-compressors, should
be counted as well.
Yet the work of all these men may one
day be undone In an instant by the explo-
sion OF a single she'll. And the iron mon-
ster. with it's human freight, may go ia
the bottom in a few minutes.
However, men continue to build battle
ships. America claims TO have recently
added some of the best to her navy; YET
the Re1zivaa. which goes to the Russian
navy, is the first battleship of her class tc
be built in America In the manner which
now commands general approval. In sizs
she is not of the largest. her total dis
placement in normal trim being less than
i3. 900 tons. That Is, she is about the size
! Of the new battleship Maine but not so
great as the Illinois or Wisconsin.
The noticeable feature Of all these new
ships including the Retzivan. is their
speed. That OF the Retzivan Is required
10 be at least eighteen knots per hour.
That is to say, she must be able TO steam
at that rate for twelve consecutive hours
to entitle her TO acceptance. 1t is re-
cent matter TO demand such speed IL a
battleship. 1t is not so long ago that
eighteen knots was regarded as remark
able speed for cruiser. Yet cruisers now
exceed that speed by a considerable num-
Der of miles.
Turning back to that revelation OF naval
architecture and work, the performances
OF the battlehip Oregon in coming from
the Pacific Station to the East around
the Horn it looks very much as IL
the speed attained there was the pre-
cursor of the high requirements exaeted
nowadays of battIesfips. Sixteen knots
were once deemed almost the limit for
battIeships.
The length Of the Retzivan on the load
water line is SS4 feet In normal trim she
would draw twenty-five feet of water.
Now. given her speed, which in action
is not likely to be maintained at eighteen
knots per hour, and indeed. win probably
in practice not exceed sixteen knots, how
will she compare with the American bat
tIeships? leaving personnel out OF ac-
count, we turn to the dimensions Of the
ship Her depth from keel TO main deck
is forty-three feet ten inches-leaviDs a
freeboard of more than eighteen feet
when she is drawing twenty-five feet.
The ar1nOr of the Retzivan is OF the
Krupp variety. the main belt at the side
having a maximum thickness OF nine
s -, .
same as that of the American battleships-
She carries four 12-inch guns in elliptical
nirrets, paired fore and aft. She has Two
submerged and four above water rorpe-
do tubes. twelve 6-inch rifles and forty
six rapid-fire guns.
In the American ship. It should be here
noted, the recent tendency is 10 utilize the
s-inch gun, in preference to any other
II was demonstrated that the s-inch gan
is most effective, taking into account the
ability to handle ana FIRE g as wen as
the effect OF the missile.
Between the Pinch guns in the turrets
and the 6-inch rifles, the s-inch gun oc-
cupies a point of considerable vantage
1t is doubtful if any of the u or 12-inch
shells fired at Santiago hit mark The
big guns are slow to work, cumbersome,
necessarily difficult to point. and 50 un-
trustworthy. On the other hand, the g.
inch shells, BY reason. of their diminished
size, lose much effect in long range firing.
The effect OF the S-inch shells was am
ply demonstrated at Manila They liter
ally swept the Spanish feet there.
There is therefore little to choose be-
tween the two types Of vessel, barriris
the superior size of the American craft,
unless it be the S-inch guns. The 6-inch
guns may be said to have an advantage
in rapiditv of G-e, but it is slight BY
the most recently devised mechanism the
S-inch guns are brought into the quick
firing class The old S-inch mechanism,
such as was used at Manila was slow.
1t took two motions of the lever
cranks to load by-it. Now it takes but
one
So. after all, comparison comes back to
speed, and in speed, theoretically at least,
the American ships have but little ad-
vantage. In effect, the belief is that their
advantage will be very great The ad-
vantage, if there be one, Will be
chiefly in the superiority of the men.
IT rather in their greater mechanical
skill and capacity-an advantage which
Americans claim. and probably claim
rightfulIy. but which should be assumed
with much conservatism In material
there viii be no choice. and in ships. ex-
cept as pointed out above, the Retzivan.
being an American-built vessel, there
should be none
The Russian navy has one advantage
however which may ultimately be very
great. and that is its power OF conscrip-
tion. whereby a full personnel may al
ways be depended upon. Recent expert
ence in America has demonstrated that
volunteer enlistments in the navy are in
adequate to secure full force for the
ships Indeed, when some new ships were
lately put in commission others had 10 De
put in reserve for lack of crews. A bat
tleship calls for many skilled men-ma-
chinists, electricians, and such like, to
whom neither the pay nor the chances Of
are enticing-
Indeed, a battleship is a huge machine
shop compressed into small space. Skill.
mechanical and scientific, wins the day.
Skill is needed to run the machinery, to
utilize the hundreds of scientific appli-
ances for loading and firing the guns, for
the air for the torpedo mo-
tors. for determining the range. for ham
ding the ship. for keeping her in motion
when partly disabled by an enemy's fire
and almost all of the details of her Oper-
alton slight calculation only viii be
necessary to show how great the advan-
tage to the party possessing the more
skillful men. 1t is no dispara cement to
the Russians TO say that their mechani-
cal requirements are not on a par with