Ottumwa tri-weekly courier., 1904-06-07

and 81 feet high 1t will be used as q
storage house for combustibles, shells
torpedoes, ammunition, ETC., with fa
cilities for handling them. !.
The cruiser Chattanooga, which was
seized in the Nixon shipyard is near
ing completion. She was 81 per cent
done on May 1. She is a sheathed
cruiser of $500 tons and 400 horse
power. She is 292 feet long, A feet
beam and Is feet 9 inches draught. Her
speed will be 161a knots. She is
sheathed with yellow pine and copper
below the water line to prevent her
bottom from fouling in the tropics and
to relieve her from the laundry pro.
cess in the dry docks. She is one of
six cruisers known as the Denver class
of which the Denver, Des Moines,
Cleveland and Tacoma are already in
commission, and the Galveston is near
ly done at the Norfolk yard.
Pushing Work on the Connecticut.
Shipwrights are building the heavy
wooden track alongside, on which the
worlds biggest battleship, the Connec-
ticut, is to be launched some time
between now and autumn. When COM
pleted the track will be hauled out,
floated behind the battleship, and
fastened On the piling now being put
down. On the wharf alongside work
men are constructing her big twenty
seven-foot turrets. Near by men are
making shapes, angles, and channels
at the shears. The twenty-fve-ton bal
ance rudder is being put in it's steel
frames in the foundry. The eighteen
ton struts, which uphold the ten-ton
screws, are already riveted in place. A
squad of men, who look like flies on a
molasses paper, are putting the fin
ishing touches to the great ram,
which will have a force of nearly O.
000,000,000 foot tons when the 10000
ton Connecticut steams at 1S knots.
The upper deck, A feet above the
keel, is laid. The rail will be put up
next, four feet higher. The military
top will bring up the height of the
vessel to 80 feet. on level with the
top of the three smokestacks, and the
signal and wireless mast will extend
up to 140 feet. On the starboard side
men are making the boat cranes. The
sixty-four guns are being cast in the
Washington Navy Yard. The four.
Cyllucl lllplS-GApoiioioii WI eiSoi VII
gines are already on hand, ready to
produce 16,500 horse power. The tubu-
lar boilers are about completed at Bay
onne, N j. Most of the armor plate
has arrived from Pittsburg.
Larger Vessels Contemplated.
Inside the Connecticut workmen are
riveting in the water-tight compart
ments and testing them as fast as
completed, and plumbers are installing
the sanitary plant of drainage pipes
and the salt water fire-quenching out.
fit. There are 500 men at work in the
yard on various parts of the battle
ship, which, besides those mentioned,
include, templates beams, castings of
iron and brass, stem and stern post,
valves, air pumps, magazine light box
es, forgings, ETC., for finishing in the
machine shop; furniture, ETC., all of
which shows where two-thirds of the
eight millions go to make the battle
ship, over which some people are fuss
ing because of the success of one lone
Japanese mine.
The three battleships of the Connec.
ticut class ordered by congress. are 500
tons larger than the next largest class
England contemplates two vessels still
larger.
In the dry docks are the cruiser,
Minneapolis, the battleship Illinois
some tugs, and torpedo boats. These
Rre receiving needed repairs.