Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-04-03
The NEW CRUISERS.
Six Identical Ships Nearing
the Launching Stage.
Colorado Will Go Over at PhiladeI-
phia, April 9.
Others Soon After.-The Nays Rapid
Progress. r.,f-

delphia to launch the armored cruiser
Colorado on April 8, and 10 days later
the Newport News Shipbuilding Com
pany will send from their ways sister
ship, the West Virginia. A short time
later the Cramps will also launch the
Pennsylvania and the Newport News
yard will follow shortly after with the
Maryland. The California and The
South Dakota, building at the Union
Iron Works in San Francisco, owing to
strikes, are not so far advanced, and
IT will be some months before they
will be ready for the water.
These six ships were provided for by
the successive acts of March 3, 1899,
and June Z, 1900, but, owing to a pro-
longed discussion as to whether or not
they should be sheathed or unsheathed,
it was not until January, 1901, that the
contracts for their construction were
finally signed. By the delay, however,
the navy secured six identical vessels,
a gain that will be felt should they ever
be required for concerted action in
time of conflict.
The modern armored cruiser is really
akin to a second-class battleship, and
these six ships are fine specimens of
their type, although somewhat severe
ly criticised regarding their turret
guns. Compared with their pioneers,
the New York and Brooklyn, the ships
are certainly improvements in several
important directions, and the enemy
that measures strength with them will
have to be very powerful indeed.
The future service for which the ar
mored cruiser is especially designed is
y that of an armored scout-the heavy
dragon of the sea, and, to a great ex-
tent. she is to form the eyes and ears
Of the feet and yet be able to take
her place in the line and to stand a
fair part of the brunt of battle.
To do all these things, and they are
a good many for one ship, the craft
must be speedy-an expensive element
in an armored ship-she must have
wide radius of action. and coal stow
age enough to insure that mobility,
armor protection of stoutness enough
to withstand the blows of ships of her
own class, and, finally, she must have
gun power enough to give any ship a
pretty severe tussle and carry a fund
of ammunition that will make it pos
sible for her to fight for hours.
At the time these ships were de-
SlSUcu IL was tuou5 lhuS eiiCy mt
all of these requirements with reason
able fitness, but, compared with yes
sells of like displacement built abroad,
their batteries are notably weak. Such.
however, is the yearly record of naval
advance. and, for once, we have not
outwitted our foreign rivals, ton for ton
of ship and accomplishment.
The ships are 5O2 feet long on the
I'M anti IF n,iIa-Q nd
they have a maximum beam of nearly
20 feet. When laden for sea, with nor
NAL coal supply, they will draw one
inch over "a feet of water. BY COM
mon comparisons, the ships would fill
the average street from house to house,
and from the keel up to the main deck
would be as tall as the general run of
city residences.
When full laden, with her bunkers
CARRYING their maximum load of coal,
each of these ships will represent a
dead weight of quite $1,000 tons, a mass
graphically represented by string OF
loaded one-ton carts nearly 40 miles in
length. To move this mass against
wind and tide, in calm and in storm,
is the task set the driving engines of
these ships, and, to accomplish this
twin screws with twin triple -expen-
sion engines of united energy of 49,
900 indicated horsepower.
To make this plain by a comparison
with facts commonly known to most OF
us, 90 knots represents the equivalent
of quite rs 1-3 statute miles. and the
average freight train, laundering along
at a speed of 20 miles an hour, repre-
,hn nd MnltiyIy
such train by Is, and attach to it a
locomotive for every thousand tons
Doing its best over the smoothest OF
roadbeds, 1t still falls short of the
speed of these armored cruisers by a
full five miles an nour. and that greater
speed must be made over the broken
surface of a troubled sea and in the
face of a stiff wind. If the propelers
lie feet in diameter-of these ships
were driving wheels, and the vessels
were set on tracks, at 120 revolutions
a minute, the rate they will turn when
the ships make % knots. the Colorado
and her mates would go overland at d
speed Of rs miles an hour.
To supply these engines with steam
and to feed also the scores of mechan-
ical auxiliaries, the Colorado and hei
mates Will Io lc"ci tiidii .,
boilers of a quick steaming water tube
type working at a pressure of 25(
pounds to the square inch, a hazard
Gus tension unless everything be tigh
and sound.
To feed the greed of these 80 boil.
ers. and to guarantee the wide range
of action demanded of these craft. the
bunkers will be able to hold fully 200t
tons of coal. With this supply. it ha.
been estimated that the ships will cover
1000 miles at a. 12-knot clip withou
need of reooaling.
The ships are pretty heavily armore'
throughout the water line region, amid
ships in the wake of the broadsde G
inch guns, and about the barbettes an
turrets for the S-inch rifles. All of tn
armor is of the most improved Krupp
lied type. Its distribution is as follows
The water line region is guarded by
broad 7Is-foot belt. reaching from bow I
stern. Amidships for a distance of q
feet, abreast the engines. boilers and mag
azines It has a maximum thickness of ST
inches, and a minimum. at the lower edge
of five inches. Forward and aft of thi
heavy section-to the bow and to the ster
this belt will have a uniform Thickness
of 31x inches.