The San Francisco call., 1904-06-20
BRITAINS DOCKYARDS KEEP PACE
WITH SH|PBUILDING CONTRACTORS
All of the Armored Cruisers of the Kent
Class Are Now Afloat, the Period of Con-
struction Averaging About Three Years

! through f1eXlble pipe is an easier ono
than that of coaling, even under the
most favorable conditions.
NEW PAY SYSTEM.
new pay system, affecting all sal
aried Government employees, goes into
effect in the United States on July l.
A years pay will be divided into twelve
equal parts and in making payments
for a fractional part of a month, one
thirtieth of the monthly compensation
is to be the rate each day. Thus per-
sons serving a month having thirty
one days, or February Of twenty -eight
or tWentynine days, will receive one
twelfth of an annual salary and de-
ductions are made on this same basis
of thirty days to the month.
The torpedo boat O'Brien, built by
Lewis Nixon, had another unsuccessful
speed trial on June 10. The contract
of May 4, 1898, called for q speed OF
| 26 knots, to be maintained for one hour,
but this was reduced two years ago
to "a knots. The last trial had to be
abandoned after a en-minutes run
owing to weakness developed in one of
the blowers. This defect is now being
remedied and another trial may come
off before July 1. The O'Brien and
Nicholson are the last of the twelve
torpedo boats contracted for in 1898,
to be completed, and should have been
delivered, September 26, 1899.
The cornerstone Of the new chapel
for the Naval Academy has been laid
The building will have a seating
capacity of 1900 and its estimated cost
is $3.50, 600.
The summer cruise Of the midship-
men at the Naval Academy began on
June and 1t required quite a fleet of
vessels to carry the three classes, num-
bering 514 members. There was the
battleship Massachusetts carrying 127;
Texas, 10; monitors Arkansas, Florida
and Nevada, 9S each; the old Hartford
had 127 and the Chesapeake III. Three
torpedo boat destroyers, the Worden,
Whipple and Stewart, each carried six
midshipmen.
BRITAIN CONDEMNS OLD SHIPS.
Three old ships in the British navy
have been condemned as useless for
any further service and are to be sold
at auction. They are the Voltage, a
corvette of 30S0 tons, built in 1869, and
the Comus and Curacao, each of 1880
TONS built in 1873. They were removed
from the effective list about four years
ago and were until recently utilized as
harbor vessels. These ships are the last
of the fleet of eighteen vessels built be-
tween 1858 and 1878 and which have
been of more service than any later
built unarmored cruising ships. They
were of the sheathed class-that is,
metal hulls sheathed with wood plank
ing and coppered. The idea originated
with Sir Edward j. Reed, chief con-
structor in the British navy, who built
the frigate Inconstant and later the
Raleigh and Shah The builders the
ory was that vessels designed for cruis-
ing purposes, and in order to maintain
as nearly as possible their trial speeds,
would be more economical in coal con-
sumption if sheathed and coppered than
with an ordinary painted metal bot
tom, and this theory proved successful
in practice, notwithstanding the crudity
of the system as first applied. Six
sheathed corvettes, varying from 4130 TO
1880 tons, weret built between 1869 and
1876, and nine smaller corvettes, known
as the &C" class, were launched in 1878.
The latter ships had steel hulls, while
the earlier ones were built of iron. The
speed of the Inconstant class was about
16.5 knots, that of the large corvettes 10
knots and that of the "C' class 13
knots, and this fleet was found espe
cially serviceable on foreign stations,
where unsheathed vessels would have
been less efficient and more costly to
maintain, owing to limited docking fa-
cllities and consequent additional coal
bills. The &c" class in particular proved
efficient ships. One of these, the Co
mus, served for many years on the Pa
cific station and was frequently seen In
this harbor. The period of active ef
fective service of these eighteen ships
has ranged from twenty-eight years
down to twenty-one years, a record
that Is not likely to be excelled by ves-
sells of modern construction.
The original Trafalgar prize list was
sold at q London auction, with a lot of
other books and manuscripts, two
weeks ago. The list was in manuscript,
of two volumes folio, giving the amount
of money awarded to individuals of the
various ships companies engaged in the
battle of Trafalgar. 1t was sold for $3.50.
SOME MODERN WARSHIPS.
There are twelve battleships of mod
crate size built or under construction
for the navies of Austria, Germany,
Great Britain and the United States.
In the American ships the plan of max
ing gun power paramount is adhered
to, while in the foreign ships higher
speed and lighter guns is the object
aimed at. The contrasts in guns and
speed between the Idaho class in the
United States navy and those of foreign
navies-notably the Swiftsure in the
British navy-are quite marked, for the
British ship has three knots greater
speed on 1900 tons less displacement,
and only an apparently small sacrifice
of gun fire. The American battery is,
of course, the most effective because of
its longer range and harder hitting
power, but foreign designers evidently
believe that guns Of smaller caliber,
which can be more rapidly served, an
swer the purpose of dismounting the
battery guns of an adversary. The
weights of the projectiles of the sew
eral guns in the annexed table, which
shows the number of ships building,
their dimensions, armament and effec-