Omaha daily bee., 1902-09-21

RIVER NAVY YARD.
* OSTON. Sept. 2O.-CSpecial Core
spOEdcnceD-A radical departure
- was made from the previous
IpG83H practice Of the Navy department
- when, on March 3, 1899, congress
authorized the building Of six new cruisers
~ the Dos Moincs claRs which should in
every respect be up-to-daie and At for all
the requirements Of the new American navy.
One striking feature, for example, was to
be the wooden sheathing and the copper
bottom which should cover the steel hulls,
For many years Chief Constructor HIGH
born stood almost alone in his advocacy
Of sheathing ships bottoms; but per-
sistent argument, combined with object
lessons from the reports Of ships in serv-
ice, at last Overcamc the prejudice against
It..
SO the United States protected cruiser
Des Moines which was launched at the
yard Of the Fore River company this after
noon Is typical Of "A new class OF naval
vessels in it's construction and Is equally
distinctive in many other respects. II is
about the size Of Cincinnati and Raleigh, ,
but improved and modornized. These
earlier vessels were designed at a timeF
when the craze for speed at all costs
reached its maximum, and to attain this
speed-which could only be maintained for
a few weeks after they were docked and
cleaned on account Of their rapidly fouling
ursheathed bottoms-many other qualities
were sacrificed.
In Des MoinCs It $ emcd desirable to
have a type OF cruiser which should be a
m protector instead of a m
destroyer. and which should not be too
large to follow the flag into the island
harbors OF the Pacific. For this service
a good sea boat was desirable which should
show an economy of fuel and a large steam
ing radius at a reasonable speed, and be-
cause such a vessel might spend much OF
its time In southern harbors, where dock
lag facilities are not obtainab'e, 1t was
deemed especially necessary to provide the
copper bottom to which Larnacles and OBJ
structive sea growth would not adhere.
with these requirements and the limit
Of cost in mind. the Navy department
spent some weeks drawing plans, and
then began to publish books about the new
cruiser. These books contained many
thousand specifications, telling in detail
how the hull and engines should be built
what sort of material should be used
and enumerating everything down to a
paper Of screws or a milestone that the
builder would be expected to furnish,
Hundreds or dollars worth OF paper were
required for the plans and hundreds OF
dollars worth of print sheets wer,
required for the specifications and finally
after the various builders had made theiI
bids the contract for Des Moines was
given to the Fore River Ship and Engine
company-the new yard in Boston harbor
in December Of the same year.
The contract called for a cruiser, for,
and aft rugged, with two masts and twa
smokestacks. with a straight bow and an
oveThanging stern-altogether a boat that
without the guns would look not unlike
a passenger steamer. with a length on the
water line of 292 feet and an extrcm,
breadth Of a feet. Il should have a draft
Of less than 16 feet, which would
let It into many a barlocked hlr-
Dor, which the deeper war vessel could
not enter. The specifications gave tn new
cruiser twin screws and vertical triple
expansion engines, capable of forcing the
hull, which ii was estimated would have a
full load displacement Of $500 tens,
through the water at the rate of sixteen
and a half knots an hour. a task which.
according to the accepted standard Of
power, would reqUire the combined efforts
of 400 horses. Although the earlier
Raleigh, for example, was designed fer a
speed OF nineteen knots, II could scarcely
maintain a speed Of fifteen knots, even
with an excessive consumption of coal.
While Des Moines is expected to maintain
its designated speed practically indefinitely
and without an eXtravagant use of fuel, and,
inasmuch as Raleigh required 10000 horse
power, il has been possible to reduce the