Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1903-06-18
THE VERMONT.
Magnificent New 6sttleship Contract
Placed in New ENGLAND.


| The Vermont. the l6,0OO-ton battle.
ship just ordered by the Navy Depart,
ment, will have the honor OF giving
name 10 new type OF warship, 81
that we shall henceiOrth hear of ..tht
Vermont class Contracts for three
vessels OF this class were awarded
June 10, Of which the Vermont viii
be constructed at the Fore River
shipyard, Quincy Point, Boston Har.
Dor, the Kansas at Newport News
and the Minnesota at Camden. They
are all OF the same size as the three
l6,OOO-ton battleships begun a few
months ago, the six representing the
heaviest vessels ever designed fol
the United States navy; but the new
members OF the Vermont class differ
in many points Of detail from the
earlier ones. The contract price OF
the Vermont is s4,179,000,. and she
is 10 be completed in AZ months.
To all old Vermonters this new
battleship will call up recollections
of the former ship-of-the-line Yer
mont which, after passing through
three generations of naval history.
was destroyed only two years before
her namesake was designed. II will
be remembered, perhaps, how this
famous warship. whose keel was
laid in 1918 stood seasoning on the
stocks az the Charlestown navy yard
full 80 years before she was launched
long time, but she outlasted all the
other ships Of her class, serving in a
useful capacity in the Civil war and
later moored as a hulk for the recep-
ton and keeping of seamen at the
Brooklyn navy yard. There many
Vermonter has seen her lying
in East River, her large bulk, painted
in the yellow of the navy, making
her a noticeable object. In 1901 she
was condemned and sold to a Boston
Junk dealer who towed her from New
York 20 Eastport, Maine, where she
was beached and burned for the iron
and copper fastenings in the hull.
The new Vermont bids fair TO be
a not less notable ship In the Amer
lean navy than her famous namesake.
In fact the only larger battleship in
the world will be an ls,000-ton man
Of-war for which the English govern
ment has Just placed a contract. The
American vessel will be $50 feet long
on the water line or ass feet, inches
over all. being IS feet longer than the
next largest battleships, those of the
class OF the Rhode Island and New
Jersey now building under the Fore
River shiphouse. where she is soon
to take her place.
There will be seven decks in the
Nermont-the upper. main, gun,
berth and protective decks. and
the upper and lower platform which
are given over TO magazines and
storerooms. She will have six tur-
rets for her biggest guns-two more
than any American warship has ever
had beforehand will carry the most
powerful armament ever put on a
ship. with correspondingly heavy
armor that makes her a real floating
fortress.
The engines that propel so heavy
ship at speed of Is knots must, OF
course. be OF tremendous size. Those
OF the Vermont-there are two Of
them-are of the four-cylinder, triple
expansion type, capable of developing
800 horsepower. and are driven by
steam from u watertube boilers of the
latest design, having heating surface
OF as, $50 square feet, above 100 square
feet OF CRATE. and a working pressure
of 265 pounds TO the square inch.
Like the other large naval ships OF re-
cent design, the Vermont will have
three smoke tunnels and two military
masts. There will be several auxiliary
engines, too, the electrical generating
plant alone being of a capacity suffi-
Gent to run the trolley cars and street
lights of city the size of Darlington.
More than l,200 incandescent lamps
will appear in the completed vessel.
Such are few facts and figures
about the new Vermont. Work upon
her detail plans has already begun and
her keel will be laid at the Fore River
ward late in the fall. She will be the
seventh vessel constructed for the
United States government in this the
Youngest Of our great steel shipyards,
where the Des Moines is nearly COM
pleted and the Rhode Island and New
Jersey are so well along that they will
be the first ships of their
class to be launched. Among these
war vessels the new Vermont will
stand pre-eminent, the greatest piece
OF shipbuilding ever undertaken in
New England and a boat worthy the
state that gave George Dewey to the
nation.
New Library for Dandy.