The Lamar register., 1903-06-10

Two frst-class battleships for the
United States navy. the New Jereey
and the Rhode Island. are being built
side by side from the same designs
and at the same time at the new Fore
River ship yard, down in the south
eastern corner of Boston Harbor. The
like is not being done in any other
American ship yard. SO that the Wis
itor who takes pleasure In watching
his white navy in actual process of
construction may find here sugges-
tion of the formidable power of this
new class OF fighting ships that he can
hardly look for elsewhere.
The battleship is built to take many
hard blows, as well as to give them.
though knowing all the time that
these hard blows. coming from mod
ern, twelve-inch rifles, will probably
shatter the heaviest armor she can
float under. For there are certain
vital organs within her-above all.
her engines and boilers-that must
be made absolutely safe against
shots. and the only way to make them
SO. since impenetrable armor has not
yet been invented. is to add one safe
guard to another until chance of injury
in practically eliminated. So If you
will Chamber down the slope of the
protective deck" and look over the
side you will see below you a jog or
shelf running along the vessels side.
above which she is narrower than she
is below. Upon this is to go the
eleven-inch nickel steel armor plating,
extending few feet above and below
the water line. and going nearly all
around the vessel from end to end.
like stout belt around a mans body.
This is to take care of all small shots
from the enemy's guns. For the larg-
er. more penetrating shots, the V-shap-
ed space between the upright side of
the vessel and the slant of the protec-
tive deck, will be filled solid with coal,
as a part of the ships bunker capacity.
to horizontal thickness of nearly ten
feet. This is q much more efficient
shield than the steel armor itself, on
the same principle that a rifle bullet
can be shot through chilled steel
plowshare, but not through feather
pillow.
AS for any destruction which may
take place above the armor belt and
the protective deck, there are here but
two points which at the last resort.
are really indispensable-the two tur-
rets. that is. which carry the twelve
inch rifles. And these. from their
combination of rounded shape and
extra heavy armor, are supposed to
be invulrerable. After all, then, we
have in the modern battleship little
more, as far as principle goes. than an
old.fashioned monitor-or impene-
trable "whaleback." if you like-with
a few stories of superstructure added
above it, and II our vessel really lived
up to the naval constructors ideal we
might find her at the end of hard.
engagement totally dismantled above
the protectivedeck. with all her small
er guns disabled and her gallant crews
killed, with her deckhouse knocked
into junk, and her funnel. masts, boat
derricks and all the rest of 1t over
board, but with four twelve-inch rifles
still swinging toward the enemy and
below decks a perfect set of boilers
and engines and a still workable
emergency steering gear.
In order to appreciate the reasons
for the tremendous strengthening in
special plates one has to think of the
battleship not as on the stocks but
in action. In the first place the hull
of such craft, according to the recent
calculations of n Japanese naval Off
Ger, comprise only about 3S per cent
of her total weight. The remaining 62
per cent is simply loaded on In the
shape of guns, armor, machinery and
general outfit. Yet this weight is not,
like the cargo in a freighter, evenly
distributed nor can it be got rid of
while the vessel is in dry dock. Then
again as soon as the officer in COM
mand orders her full speed ahead"
the engines in the narrow space al
lowed them, must begin to put forth
the energy of about 10000 horses on
the run, pounding on the shaft bear
ings, and from them on to the very
keel itself. with a pressure of about
sixty tons-or say six times the
weight of an ordinary trolley car. The
pressure on the thrust bearings. as
well as ON the foundations, which