The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-06-18
B1ITL ESHIP TERMONT

Boston, June 16.-The big 16, 1000 ton
battleship Vermont which, in accord
ance with the government contract
placed June 10, is to be built at the Fore
River shipyard at Quincy Point, on
the southern shore of Boston harbor,
will be one of the six largest vessels
in the United States navy and will
give its name to a new type-the
"Vermont class, " which includes, be-
side the three ships begun some
months age. two others, the Kansas,
to be constructed at Newport News,
Va, and the Minnesota at Camden,
N. ]. While the three big boats or
dered are of the same displacement as
earlier ones-one of which is the
Connecticut, building at the Brooklyn
navy yard-they are different in many
details. All six, however, constitute
the heaviest class in the United States
and are surpassed in size among the
warships of the world only by the 49,
0O0- ton man. of-war which Great Brit
ain has under construction That the
Green Mountain State, which gave
birth to George Dewey, should furnish
the name for the leading vessel of this
powerful class is, of course, peculiarly
appropriate. Some of the statistical
facts regarding the new Vermont are
these: She is to be 400 feet long on
the water line and 456 feet inches
long over all, which is about 10 feet
longer than the next largest United
States battleships-those of the New
Jersey class, of which the New Jersey
and Rhode Island are the most nearly
completed and will be launched at
Fore River next winter. The mould
ed breadth of the vessel is rs feet, 519
inches but the extreme width outside
of the armor is feet, 10 inches. She
will draw "a feet, 6 inches of water,
when she has two-thirds of her stores
and supplies aboard.
Some idea of the eXtensiveness of
her plans may be gained from the fact
there are seven decks--the upper
deck, which is the superstructure,
decks, and the upper and lower plat
forms, which are occupied largely by
magazines and storerooms. The pro-
tective deck is the foundation of the
floating citadel and divides the ship so
that, theoretically, she would con-
tinue to float and remain under control
even if all her guns were silenced and
in fact, if everything above it had
been completely shot away. The
broadside batteries of the new finch
rifles are on the gun deck, and there
are six turrets on the main deck, two
big ones-one forward and one ATTN
which are the 12-inch guns, and four
smaller ones-one at each corner OF
the superstructure-in which are the
S-inch rifles. With this tremendously
heavy armament, typical of modern
American ships of the battle line,
there must, of course, go correspond
ingly heavy armor. The main belt,
along the water-line on the most vul-
nerable part of the hull, is 8 feet 3
inches wide amidships, tapering to
about feet wide at the stern and
stem and is inches thick for 2S4 feet
of its length, reduced in three reduc-
tions to a thickness of inches at
the ends. Other parts are of corre-
spending massiveness. The 12-inch
turrets, for example, are 10 inches
thick at the front and ~ inches thick
in the rear above the gun deck and =
inches thick throughout below it,
| while the S-inch turrets are 6 inches
thick in front and inches in the rear.
To all old Vermonters this new bat
| leship will certainly call up recollec-
tions of the former ship-of- the.line
V 6TuOnb WulUil, ultoI pdosinS thlOuRh
| three generations of naval history,
was destroyed only few months be-
fore her namesake was designed. 1t
will perhaps be remembered how this
| famous warship, whose keel was laid
in 1918, lay seasoning on the stocks at
the Oharlestown navy yard full thirty
years before she was launched-a long
time, but she outlasted all the other
ships Of her class, serving in useful
capacity in the civil war, during part
of which she was stationed at the Ber-
mudas, and later moored as hulk for
the reception and keeping of seamen
at the Brooklyn navy yard where she
made comfortable home for. some
times, fully 1900 men. There many
a Vermonter has seen her lying in the
East River, her large hulk. painted
in the yellow of the navy, making her
a noticeable object In 1901 she was
condemned and sold to Boston junk
dealer who towed her, from New York
to Eastport, Maine, where she was
beached and burned for the iron and
copper fastenings in the hull. When
she has her full complement, the new