The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1904-10-04
NEW WARSHIP is LAUNCHED
BattIeship Connecticut Christened at
New York Navy Yard.
10000 SPECTATORS PRESENT

NraHurA@auSnIdE Oh EhosAuSNA AtAAVOAA ?
Secretary of tho Navy was the spon-
sor q Rear A dmiraI Barker the Onicer
in Command - Fourth Ship Of Her
Name to servo Uncle Sam.
New York City. Despite the ugly
rumors of attempts to tamper with
her cradle, the battIeship Connecticut
was successfully launched, gliding
with silken case down smooth, I'M
trammelled ways. Fully thirty thou
sand persons In the shipyard and as
many more from outside saw the pom
derous mass of fighting steel sweep
down into the water Of the Wallabout
Channel, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard,
at exactly Ills a. m.
AS early as eight o'clock the vast
crowd began to stream into the navy
yard, special details of marines and
yard policemen being stationed near
every entrance and along the road
ways leading to the scene. BY 1915
o'clock, fifteen minutes before the
hour set for the launching, the throng
had become fairly settled, and made
spectacle not lightly to be forgotten.
Dressed rainb0w-wise, the Connecticut,
red lead hued from keel to gunwale,
a section of main bridge and a stumpy
aft turret alone showing above her
hull, lay stern on. toward the river,
resting on her ways. On her starboard
quarter lay the Kearsarge, flying the
red pennant of Rear-Admrai Barker
the blue jackets laying aloft to her
signal yards and manning her fighting
tops as thick as swarming bees.
Over on the Hancock, on the Ken
lucky and the Texas further thou
sands gazed and waited. Two hun
dred feet away from the Connecti-
cut the big Cob Dock showed black
with living humanity, and within the
Enclosure was the same dense throng.
BY the time the patrol fleet of tugs
and cutters had cleaned the navy yard
waters of all moving craft it was 1885
a. m.
Then suddenly from the waiting war
ships six bells sounded. Then across
the water a bo'sun's whistle began to
blow, and the excitement mounted.
Then upon the narrow waIkway di-
rectly under the Connecticut's bow,
Naval Constructor Baxter was seen
to raise megaphone. A moment later
he called "Stand byr'
At that a hush fell on the crowd.
From somewhere a muf1ed bell began
to whir. On the sound men sprang
to the keel blocks, bled the sand bags
and knocked the blocks away.
For the fraction of second the
watchers saw the red lead hulk hang,
then culver as If she felt a thrill of
life. "She movesw the cry ran from
mouth to mouth. In less than twenty
four seconds she was in the water, and
new battleship had been added to
Uncle Sans feet.
Those on the stand alone knew that
Miss Welles, the sponsor, who is the
granddaughter of President Lincoln's
Secretary Of the Navy, had failed to
name the vessel or crash the cham
payne bottle across her bow.
The bottle swung from decorated
lanyard attached to a slender boom.
Just how 1t happened that Miss Welles
failed at the critical moment to do her
part was not made clear
Quartermaster Byrnes stepped into
the breach and saved the day. He took
the lanyard short and swung the bottle
down. 1t shiyered into fragments, and
the fr0thing champagne streamed down
over the steel plates as the vessel
cleared the ways and shot out into
the channel.
After the launching Secretary Morton
with his party attended an informal
luncheon at the officers pavilion,
Rear-Admirals Rodgers and Barker
making brief speeches Afterward
Secretary Morton, with Colonel John
J. McCook and Miss Ellen Miller
Gould, paid brief visit to the Naval
Y. M. G. A.
The Connecticut is sister ship of
the Louisiana, and both vessels were
authorized by an act of Congress in
1902. The Connecticut was built In
Government yard and under Gov
eminent supervision, while the Louis
lana was built by a private shipbuild-
ing firm at Newport News, Va.
This is the fourth United States nav
nj vessel to bear the name of Connec-
ticrst. The first served In the Revol-
utionary War on Lake Champlain.
The second was in. the little Franco
American naval shindy of 1893 1901.
Tfln third gnrvpd in tho civil War