Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-09-20

voyages, and that with an extrlvagant
use of fuel. while the Des Moiles can
maintain her full speed indefinitely
without straining her engines or vast
ing fuel and would, therefore, come out
ahead in long race. To carry the COM
-parison one step further, the Raleighs
engines, required 10000 indicated horse
power, while the Dies Moines requires
but 400. which means that she will
carry less than one half the weight OF
ipropelllng machinery.
The new cruiser is 30S feet over all,
and has O load wate,. line length OF 292
feet, an extreme bre;ldth of "A feet, and
a mean draught OF iii feet 8 inches. Her
displacement with two thirds stores on
her trial trip will be 5000 tons and her
full load displacement will be about 81.
500 tons. She has twin screws, vertical
triple expansion, four cylinder engines
and six water tube boilers. Her normal
coal supply is estimated at 467 and her
bunker capacity 700 tons, or enough to
carry her $500 miles at full speed, or
about 10000 at a ''joIy rot of ten knots
an hour. She will have 300 square feet
of CRATE surface unGer her boilers. and
the top of the stacks will be seventy
feet above the CRATES.
In the building Of the Des Moines the
latest methods of ship construction
were employed. Tie steel hull was
built complete and holes We're cut for
gun ports and other necessary OPEN
ings. The lower half Of the hull was
sheathed with planlls of Georgia pine.
each plank being lent and cut away
to fit precisely to the steel skin Of the
ship, and then fastened in place with
bronze bolts. When the bureau of con-
struction and repair decided upon the
bronze bolts which would be required,
1t was discovered that bolts OF this
character are not c:lrried in sock and
that no machinery existed for making
them. There were $4,000 bolts required
and, therefore, 1t WIS necessary to de-
lay the work until machines could be
devised for turning out these bronze
fastenings with sufficient rapi,iity.
The sheathing was done with great
care and so successfully that 1t is pros
.nounced by naval experts as the best
work of the kind ever done. The bolt
heads were countersunk into the pine
and puttied over ant. the seams between
the planks We're thoroughly caulked
with hemp. Wherever there was q sus-
picion of a crevice where water might
find lodgment, a hole was bored in the
plank, red lead wa., pumped in under
hydraulic pressure. and the hole
stopped up again. Altho hundreds of
holes have been bored and the lead
pumped in under pressure of fifteen
pounds to the square inch, only few
hundred pounds have been used, which
is pretty good indication of the work.
manship, when it is remembered that it
recently, took nearly 100 tons TO fill up
the crevices in the case of one of tho
English battleshirs. The wooden
sheathing is necessary to protect the
steel skin, by thoroughly insulating the
copper, from the coa.roding influence of
the galvanic action setting up between
copper and steel by the presence of salt
water.
Altho she is rnarmored, the Des
Moines has a turtle back deck which
starts from below the waterline and
furnishes some protection for the en-
gines and magazines, since the slopes
are made of two-in,.h nickel steel from
which shots of moderate weight would
be likely to glance off with eompara-
lively little harm. A hundred water
tight compartments are provided so
that the ship shall keep af1oat even tho