The Richmond palladium. (Richmond, Ind.) 1906-1907, 1906-10-14

e-the latter a nrst cousin Of the battle
ship and pretty nearly as capable Of
taking care of herself in a prolonged,
close-range contest Of arms. To pursue
the subject further 1t may be added that
Of the % warships uncompleted at this
writing IL are battleships or armored
cruisers, whereas 1t Is proposed to submit
at the next session of Congress the plans
for a new battleship intended to be the
most powrful fighting machine ever de-
vised and that will Guido John Bulls
lately completed master Of the seas. the
Dreadnought.
Building battleships to keep the peace
Is, however. rather an expensive luxury.
The general public appears to have an
impression, probably dating from the days
before the Spanish War, that first
class battleship costs, complete and
ready for service, about S3,OOO,ooo
However. the price Of battleships, like
almost every other commodity, has
advanced during recent years To be
sure, the hull OF such a ship-the
framework, without armor or armament
costs less in proportion than formerly,
being available In most instances ut less
than $4,000, 600. but more guns are carried
on the up-to-date battleship than were
provided in days gone by, and this in
crease, together with the other added
frills that are considered essential, runs
the cost up TO $S.Ooo.oO0 or thereabouts.
The life of usefulness of the average
battieship Is much more brief than was
formerly the case, and this furnishes
another interesting factor In the recent
development of the United States Navy.
Thus a large proportion of the public
was surprised the other day by the an
nouncement that the battieship Texas.
which played Il rather pronninene part In
the Spanish war, had been retired from
the fighting line as obsolete and would
henceforth be used only as a station ship
at one Of the navy yards. The three
sister ships. the Indiana, Massachusetts,
and Oregon. are pretty near old as the
Texas, but by liberal expenditures for
overhauling and reconstruction these bat
tleships have been kept up-to-date. and
the same Is true of the Iowa. the last
battleship to be added TO the Navy prior
to the outbreak of the war with Spain.
Whereas Uncle Sans experience In
building battleships covers only about
quarter Of a century, the recent develop
ment OF the Navy. which has aroused
such enthusiasm on the part Of President
Roosevelt and thousands of other patri-
otto citizens. dates only from the year
1900. when those magnificent twin fight
ers. the kearsarge and Kentucky, went
into commission. These vessels We're
novelties among the fighting ships of the
world. In that they inaugurated the idea
of the superimposed turrets or two-story
armor clad shelters for the heaviest guns
four eight-inch guns being stationed In
turrets placed on top Of the regular tur-
rets containing the four 13-inch weapons
The Kearsafge and Kentucky were fol-
lowed by the batsleships Illinois, Ala
bama and Wisconsin, trio of floating
fortresses that virtual duplicates.
Then came another group of three sister
ships, the battleships Maine, Missouri
and Ohio, which brings the record of
battleship progress almost down to the
present day 1t has only been within
the past year or so that the first men,
beers OF another battleship class Joined