The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-19
REPAIRS TO THE MAINE
THE BATTLEsHIP's DEFECTS TO 3 Al BE REMfDIED.
Construction and Ordnance Depart ments Very Much Interest as
 Long Waged Conflicts May
 Be Decided by Present Case.

Long waged Conflicts May
 Be Decided by Present Case.
 Washington. April lS-tSpecial. .)-Naval | experts will pay close attention to. the repairing of the battleship Maine which will be done at the Cramp Shipyards at Philadelphia where she was constructed. This vessel, the. latest to be launched of the greater fighting machines of the navy and only placed in commission with in the past few months, typifed, 1t was believer, the highest development in the art of building war vessels up to that time. That the mounting ot its guns should have proven defective is disap- pointing to all interested regardless of the cost, whether due to a mistake in the plans or not 1t is confidently expected. however, that in the progress of the re- pairs much valuable information will be gained as to the proper mounting of guns on war vessels. It is well known that as the length of the recoil of gun Is shortened the strain becomes more severe and the parts sustaining the strain must be correspondingly strengthened. That they were not so braced in the Maine is quite as likeiy to be due to inadequate provision in the plans as to faulty con struction. Intimacy of the closest cha:- acter necessarily exists between the gun and it's mount and an increase in the caliber or range of the former calls Tor change in the latter to meet the new requirement..
 A failure to properly adjust the carriage | to the gun is nothing new in naval annals and the accident to the guns on the Maine has recalled to ordnance experts the fate of the gunmounts on the Brook | lyn, Scarcely had Commodore Schley I L A; dao ho D. \ ton Roads preparatory to his departure l for the West Indies at the beginning of l the Spanish War, than. in the firing of | ,broadside saluta.. the mounts Of the hve- l inch guns were upset and displaced so as | to render extensive repairs necessary. l Time did not suffice to remove the Brook l lyn to the Cramp yards where she was l built, so that she was taken to Newport l News and work on her continued night and day until she was pronounced nt TOT duty. But still the mounts were inse- cure. for, in the battle of Santiago, all the fiye-inch guns used on the Brooklyn | were again similarly disabled
 l Conflicting views are held of the report l ed damage of the boilers of the Maine. | Accidents to boiler tubes are of com- mon occurrence and all ships using the water tube boilers carry with them ex- | tra tubes, so that as weakness develop Tn | the original tubes they may be replaced 1 by new ones, which may be done by me- chanics of ordinary skill. In the case of the Maine. however, exceptional interest l attaches as the repairing of her tubular l boilers so soon after she was placed in l commission. furnishes Rear Admiral Mel ] vile, Chief Constructor, an additional ar | gument against the use of the Niclausse | boilers with which the Maine Is equipped | A contest of vast importance to the boil- | At~A | Navy Department for sometime past. | Similar contests have been waged in the naval establishments of Great Britain, 1 France and Germany, the prizes being | of great value. All the water tube boil { CTS are protected by patents and the of 1 ficial endorsement of the Government means millions of dollars to the firm l manufacturing the boilers which receives such endorsement. Aside from the fact that 1t would mean a virtual monopoly | of furnishing the boilers for all vessels built for the Government, the standard set by the navy in all it's requirements | Is so high that the business of furnish ing boilers for the merchant marine would naturally follow.
 The English admiralty recognized the grave responsibility attaching to an off, ficial endorsement in requiring any Ger tain type of boiler to be used in the
 
 testing thirty-six types reported that none of them showed such unquestioned merit as to justify its recommendation as standard for naval use. A particu- lar test was made of the Bellvlle, but the committee confined its choice for large vessels to the Niclausse ,Babcock and Wilcox, Durr and Narrow. The com mittee compared the merits of the cylin- drical and water tube boilers and report. I vynf t1,n the cylindrical boiler is unquestioned from military point of view, that is the necessity of making steam quickly
 the water tube boiler must be deemed . more suitable for naval purposes. Tn oroer to meet all emergencies, therefore the committee recommendd a mixed hat. tery Of boilers of both types, the cyIin. } drical for steaming at ordinary speed and the water tube boilers for raising thf
 speed quickly,
 In the United States navy the wate, 3 tune boiler Is preferred and Admiral Mel
 xlaie strongly favors the Babcock ant
 @ WILCOX boilers. His opposition to the Nj
 advocacy of the ''B and W" and wher
 the specifications for the new sixtee, thousand ton battleships recently con
 insert,a seeI TOT were drawn he secured tho clause requiring the use of the Babcocl and Wilcox boilers. A fierce contest en Sueu, loT the mdnuIacturerS of the OtheI
 boilers felt an injustice had been don,
 them in shutting them out from competi
 tion by prescribing the use of particulal
 kind of boiler and the Howenstein. Mic
 lausse and others struggled for recogni
 tion. The bidders also protested agains
 being compelled to install the "B. and W Iboilers for as the makers of this type wer
 thus given a monopoly they were enable,
 to charge what they pleased. It is sai,
 the "B. and w." boilers on the new bat
 tleships will cost the contractors, the Ney
 York Shipbuilding Company and tn
 Cramps. respectively, nearly $9OOOO nor
 than if the Niclausse type could be used
 Contractors for war craft have almos
 uniformly maintained that as they are re
 quired to guarantee the speed of the yes . sel they construct they should be entitle to choose the type of boilers to be used
 It may be reasonably expected that Ad
 miral Melville will use the accidents t
 the Niclausse boilers in the Maine as a - evidence of the correctness of his conclu
 sion that this type is inferior to the F
 and w." and as a confirmation of hi
 refusal to permit the Niclausse boilers t
 be substituted for the "B. and w." i
 the new ships.
 The opponents of the Niclausse boile
 sought to make capital out of the report
 ed failure of the Maine on her oficia
 trial triD to make the reOuired Snaad n