The Washington times., 1901-08-05
WORK ON THE VIRGINIA.
The Keel Plates to Be Laid Within a
Few Days.

NEWPORT NEWS. Aug 4-The draw
inss for the keel of the powerful United
States battieship Virginia, which will be
built by the Newport News Shipbuilding
and Dry Dock Company. have been COM
pleted and the keel plates will go down
in few days. The Virginia and her
sister ships-Nebraska, Georgia, New
Jersey. and Rhode Island-are off the
speediest and most powerful class Of bat
tleships ever designed, and in the con-
struction OF fhe namesake of she Old
Dominion, the shipyard will have ample
opportunity to embody that finish and at
tention to detail which has marked its
work in all of the warships built there
The other four ships of the Virginia
class are building elsewhere. The ether
warships now building here. in addition
to the Illinois. which is nearly ready to
go in com mission, are the armored cruis-
ers Maryland and West Virginia, and the
protected cruiser Charleston. the con-
tracts for which were awarded about the
time that for the Virginia was signed.
The five 'battleships last contracted for
Were originally for three to be copper
sheathed and have superimposed turrets.
and two to bc unsheathed and have or
binary turrets; however, the designs have
ticai. all being unsheathed and having
superimposed turrets.
The general dimensions as revised are:
Length on load water line. 435 feet:
breadth extreme. at load water line, 7G
feet 2iz inches; trial displacement, about
1850 tons; mean draft at trial displace-
ment. about 3 feet inches; greatest
craft, full load. about . feet inches.
In the 1000 tons represented in each of
these vessels the many antagonistic quail
itics essential TO a perfect fighting ma
chine have been compromised and incor-
porated in proportions which experience
seems to have pointed out as the most de-
sirable and efficient To begin with, these
battleships Will have speed of at least
nineteen knots. which compares most IA
vorably with any battleships under con-
struction abroad. as well as any in the
projected stage. As all of the vessels
previously designed by the Bureau of
Construction and Repair have shown ma
terial excess of speed over that called for,
1t may be expected that the figure will be
exceeded by from quarter to half a
knot.
The vessels will be propelled at this
high speed by twin screws driven by two
four-cyliEder, triple-eXpansion engines of
about 10000 indicated horsepower. having
a stroke of four feet. running under con
ditions of maximum speed. at about l2O
revolutions per minute. The steam neces-
sary TO this power will be supplied. at
pressure of 25D pounds per square inch, by
straight water-tube boilers.
Each ship will carry four l2-inch guns,
forty caiibres in length. mounted in pairs
in eIlipticnl balanced tarrets, having an
arc Of train Of 30 degrees. one forward
and one aft in each vessel. Of the S-inch
guns. Is calibres in length. which will be
carried, four Will be mounted in turrets
superposed upon the 12-inch turrets above
mentioned. and four in two separate tur-
rets amidships, the amidship turretS hav-
ing an arc train of 1SO degrees. In each
vessel there will he breadside of twelve
6-inch rapid-iire guns, 50 calibres in
length mounted six on each side, on the
main deck. each with an are of train of
10 degrees. and each will also have twelve
15-pounders and twelve S-pounders
mounted in commanding positions and
having very large arcs Of fire In the
TWO lower tops there will be four autema-
tic 1-poundcrs and in the upper tops four
single-shot i-pounders.
The magazines Of the vessels Will be
specially fitted to enable them to carry,
with absolute safety, in all climates. the
new srnokeless powder, and with this end
In lew, provision is being made for their
artificial cooling. 10y pipes led from the
cold storage system Of the vessels, in such
cases as may be necessary.