The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-01-18

Eartner aft still you see daylight shining
through the places where the stern --T ,osts
are TO be fitted in. One notes. too the
s.ouser ribs and rigid reinforcements
uliuer engine beds and boilers, the great
er uepth of keel at certain points. and
the hrm braces at the points where any
unusual strain may be expected to come.
nut IN order to appreciate the reasons
LOT TINS tremendous strengthening In
special. places one mas to think Of the
pattleship not as on the stocks but in
action. In the first place. the hull Of snch
a craft, according to the recent calcula-
tlons or Japanese naval officer, COM
prlses only about 3S per cent of her
totaI weight. The remaining GO per cent
is SIMPLY loaded on In the shape of guns
armor, machinery and general outfit, Yet
TINS weight is not, like the cargo in a.
Irelghter, evenly distributed nor can It
De got rid of while the vessel is In dry
COCK Then, again, as soon SIS the Of
ncer IN command orders her full speed
anead the engines in the narrow space
aloWed them must begin to put forth the
energy or about 20, 600 horses on the run
pound1ng on the shaft bearings and from
them on the very keel itself with a pres
sure of about sixty TONS or say six times
the weight of an ordinary trolley car.
Inc pressure on the thrust bearings as
receive
the push OF the propellers in their strlg-
gle to drive the ship ahead is collectively
over 100 tons. Seven heavyweight freight
engines coupled one ahead of the other
coulo hardly exert the same force So.
TOO, whenever the commander wants to
turn quickly and orders the helm put
nara over. the stern posts and adjacent
Trainings must standsthe strain of pull
ing go square feet of rudder surface
fhx1Ta
ooor-sldeways through the water at
the rate OF 20 miles an hour. Every time
one or the twe1ve-inch rifles is fired the
result is much the same so far as
stresses and strains on the mountings are
concerned as if healthy passenger loco
motlVe running at ten miles an hour were
10 md the gun sitting inopportunely on
the track and engaged it in end-on COLI
sion, while as to the strains resulting
from actually ramming an enemy in hat
tie, nobody has more than vaguely
guessed at what they may amount to.
Notwithstanding the let that every
point of construction seems to be pro-
ceedlng with the greatest rapidity-as
Wen as the utmost accompaniment of
notes.-the. visitor might come to Fore
river after months absence and notice
no extraordinary change. A battleship
is inevitably a creature of very slow
growth. Take, for instance. the mat
ter OF shaping and attaching one of the
trough-shaped plates under the keel.
wooden templates" or patterns must
nrst be made to cut 1t out by. Then.
upon an iron floor, iron clamps and
gauges must be painstakingly arranged
on which to shape it.. 1t must spend a
long time in the fierce heat of a Pc
troleum furnace, growing red and limp.
pefore, the actual shaping can be begun.
Hair a dozen men, when it finally
energies, must attack 1t with hammers
ana bending levers and even then re-
turn it several times over, for further
heattngs. BY the time it is ready the
best part Of day is gone. Another day
Will be spent in planning the edges
smooth and marking and drilling the
r1vet holes: When at last it is sent
swinging off through the air on the end
of crane hoist, third day goes in
placing It, roaming the holes out fair
and driving the rivets. A single rib. with
IT'S queerly shaped web, its f1anges to he
heated, and bent and the scores of rtvets
needed 70 driye 1t down into a solid
piece with the whole ship is nearly as
great problem; and vessels like the New
Jersey and Rhode Island require scores
of ribs and thousands of plates, MANY of
the latter as complicated as the keel
plates.
Meanwhile. of course, many things are