The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-12-24
BattIeShip Utah Takes the
Water
BIGGER THAN LATEST SHIPS
An Armament of Ten Twelye-inch Guns.
A Great Crowd Attends the
Event at Philadel-
phia,

Philadelphia. Dec. 2A.~ Declared 70
have no equal ehoat as a first class fight
ing machine, the Utah, the biggest bat
tleship III The United States, was yester-
day launched from the yard Of the New
York Shipbuildine company at Camden,
NJ u, in the presence Of several thousand
persons.
As the big hull started down the ways,
Miss Mary Alice Spry of salt Lake City,
daughter Of the governor Of Utah. broke
a gaiy beribboned bottle Of champagne
against the keel Of the great ship and
spoke the words that gave the vessel
its name.
Among those on the launching plat
form were representatives Of the navy
department, Governor Spry and members
Of his family, a congressional delegation,
including the members from Utah, many
guests from New York and other cities,
and nearly an the officers Of the ship
building company
The Utah is the FIRST Of all the big gun
type Of the battleship for the United
Sta1es navy to be launched When com
peted, she win be more powerful than
The Delaware and North Dakota, Of the
Dreadnought class, and has been dubbed
by member OF Congress the "skeered
o. nuthina The Utah has length on
the load water line of $40 feet. or 52lh
feet over all and beam Of SO feet
two inches. Her trial draft win be 2si6
feet displacement. 2ls25 tons, or 1000
tons greater than the Delaware and
North Dakota, and her speed IS expected
to develop 20M knots or more an hour.
There will be ten l2.inch breech.load.
ing guns in her main armament. mounted
in five turrets on the central line Of
the ship. Two Of the turrets will he
Each turret will be protected by armor
eight and ~ inches thick and viii be
supplied with ammunition BIZ electrical
hoists from the magazines and she'll
rooms Immediately below The entire
handling Of the guns win be done by
electric motors
Sixteen fve-ineh guns protected by
armor will be provided for defense
against torpedo boat attacks Close sub
division and strong bulhhcads will form
additional protection against mine aud
torpedo explosions.
The Utah Is also fitted with two sub
merged torpedo tubes and will have 10
small guns for boat service and saluting
purposes
The main armor belt o. the great nip
viii be about eight feet wide. with an
average thickness 81 10 inches. Above
this will he another belt Of an average
thickness u nine inches, and still higher
viii be the easement armur protecting
the secondary battery and funnel bases
Each harhette viii be made Of armor
varying from four to 10 inches IN thick
ness and viii protect the entire ammuni
ton handling machinery for the l2-inch
GYMS III the turretH above
Ten turbines six forward and four
astefn. capable Of developing q 000 horse
power. will be installed Steam will be
supplied BY 70 water tube boilers and
coal or oil may be used for fuel. The
two smokestacks will extend 70 feet
above the water line.
The Utah viii Be fitted for flagship
and her complement as such win consist
~ q crew Of 1000 81 whom 60 will be
officers.
While the Utah viii have no equal
completed, she will not hold that proud
position long, as the naval program fol-
lowing the one which called for two
ships Of the Utah class provides for YES.
sells that will be considerably heavier.
The later ships will mount two more
l2-inch guns than the Utah and wilt
have heavier secondary battery.