The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1906-09-12
BIGGER THAN THE BRITISHER.
The Dreadnaught and the South
Carolina.

The British board OF admiralty
has lately issued memorandum ex-
p,anatory OF the programme Of new
/ constructions, for the information OF
| the members Of Parliament before
submitting to them the annual naval
budget. The matter Of leading i'm
portance in this memorandum is the
description of the great battle ship
Dread.aught The main character
istics Of this vessel are given, and
while these have been known to our
navy department for some time, they
have not heretofore been made pub
| lic
The main battery of the Dread
naught consists OF ten 12-inch guns
| in five turrets-three on the centre
| line and one in each broadside. By
this arrangement a fire of eight IL
inch guns can be obtained on each
beam and of six 12-inch guns for
ward and aft The rest of the battery
consists of. 26 small guns for repelling
torpedo attack. The arnor belt
is slightly thicker than that Of our
larger battle ships. The vessel is to
be driven by turbine engines and is
expected to attain speed Of p
knots. Her coal capacity is except
ionally large and will afford great
radious of action. The load displace-
ment is estimated at 1900 tons, but
this will be exceeded under service
conditions.
The Dreadnaught is of interest to
our navy department in view Of the
law passed at the last session Of the
Congress, requiring that plans be
drawn and submitted of a battle ship
of a power equal to that of any known
ship. This great British vessel is
probably the greatest and most
powerful battle snip yet laid down, al
though both Italy and japan claim
TO have begun the construction of
ships of still greater power. But
both these countries are in the habit
of claiming greater things in the way
Of naval construction than they actu-
ally. expect or hope to accomplish,
and, therefore, naval people seem TO
attach little importance to the claims
that they are now building ships big
ger than the Dreadnaught
It is said that the members Of the
corps of constructors of the United
States navyido not anticipate any Sc;
rious difficulty in meeting the require
ments Of the new law. Indeed, some
of these officers have been quoted as
saying that the South Carolina and
Michigan, two 16,000-ton battle ships.
contracts for the construction of
which have recently been placed, are
practically equal to the Dres dnaught
except as to speed. They are to have
the same hroadside fire Of eight 12-
inch guns and are only lacking in
fore and aft fire, which will be only
four Pinch guns. But naval tao
ticians do not seem now to attach
as much importance TO the fore and
aft fire Of battle ships as they for
merly did. The South Carolina and
Michigan are to have four 12-inch tur-
rets all on the centre line, placed in
tandem. Their displacement is to be
$4,000 TONS and so it would seem to
be a simple matter TO design a ship
of two or three thousand tons ad-
ditional and so surpass the great
Dreadnaught.
When it is cnsidered that with the
building Of the Texas in 1883 the
United States naval constructors
made their debut in. modern ship
building, and that it was even neces-
sary to purchase the plans OF that
ship in England, it is seen that rapid
progress has been made by this corps
in designing and constructing mod
ern war ships. They are able now to
meet the worlds competition in de-
signing, and when our shipbuilders
are able to equal those OF England
in completing large ships in from i
to IS months we will be on par IN
constructive ability with the worlds
greatest navy.