Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-05-14
WARSH|P
AFLOAT IS NOW
PART OF NAVY

BATTLEsHlP FLORIDA LAUNCHED
! IN NEW YORK TODAY, COULD
NOT BE TACKLED ON EVEN
TERMS BY ANY ONE BOAT.
New York, May 12.-The biggest
ship in the American navy slid off
the waves today at the New YORK
navy yard, when the battleship Flor
ida dropped into the water. Later on
when the Arkansas and the Wyoming,
now under construction. are afoat.
they will exceed the Florida in size by
three thousand tons, difference suf-
ficient to make a pretty good little
liner in itself The Florida is b.; no
means finished, for as she went off
! the waves today she was only about
sixty per cent advanced toward COM
pletion. which means that she was
not much more than vast empty hull
and still awaits all Of the thousand
t boilers and main and secondary en-
gines ard armor and equipment that
go to make up the ship ready for COM
mission.
! Probably there is not battleship
afloat that could tackle the Florida on
even terms, when her commander
| flag flies from the ungraceful, but for
midable, skeleton masts which will be
/ placed upon her, that Is, provided the
naval designers do not change their
minds, as to the utility Of This novel
feature OF marine architecture within
the next eighteen months, by which
time the Florida should be in commits
sion.
Built by Government.
The ship is the first of any real i'm
portance to be constructed in a gov
eminent navy yard for number OF
years and naturally her performance
will be watched with keen interest
by the private shipbuilders, who are
now building her sister-ship. the Utah,
, in Camden. N. j.. AS. matter OF
, fact the North Dakota built by the
Fore River Ship Building company,
and the Delaware, constructed at New
port News with the Florida and Utah,
will make what is described as unit
in naval parlance, meaning that these
vessels are practically of the same
type and may be expected to operate
together in naval warfare. The North
Dakota and the Delaware are nearly
two thousand tons smaller than the
other two vessels, though the arma-
ment is practically the same and the
smaller vessels indeed are rated at
about quarter of knot faster.
The Florida is 521 feet inches
long, nearly as long as city block;
her beam is SO fee: 21a inches; she
draws 2S1b feet of water and displaces
|21S25 tons in light order, while when
fully loaded, with her supplies and
ammunition she will measure up to
23.O33 tons. Her estimated speed is
20% knots per hour, which would
have been regarded few years ago
as the top-notch for swift unarmored
cruiser. She will carry $500 tons of
coal in her bunkers which should en-
able her to make the round trip across
the Atlantic at half speed. Parsons
turbine engines. built in the New York
navy yard of the enormous power Of
$4,000 horsepower will maintain the
high speed of this big ship and the
steam will be supplied by sectional
boilers.
The Ships. Armament.
The main battery of the ship will
consist of ten twelve-inch rifles ar
ranged in pairs in turrets. Looking
at her bow-on one would think that
the Florida had what is called super
posed or double-decked turre'' like
the Kearsarge and the Kentucky, but
as matter of fact there are only
two guns in each of the turrets and
the second turret in the fore-part of
the ship is necessarily elevated on a
super-structure, so as to be able to fire
freely over the top Of the foremost
turret. There is very formidable
secondary battery composed of six
teen five-inch rapid firers, four three
Founders, two one-pounders and a
number of machine guns There are
also two twenty-one-inch submerged
tubes for torpedoes.
Just what the armor is to be on
these ships the naval designers will
not tell That marks the adoption of
a new policy in the American navy,
where heretofore 1t has been custom
airy to set out in smallest detail in the
chief constructors annual reports the
thickness of every inch of armor on
the ship. It is believed though that the
side armor will average about twelve
inches and that it will be extended
over the length Of the ship heretofore
uncovered and will be much wider
than the ordinary armor belt so as
not to expose the under body of the
ship when she rolls in a seawave,
1t will take more than thousand
men to manage this great fighting
machine: the minimum requirement is
sixty officers and 954 enlisted men.
The enlisted cost Of the ship complete
is s6,OOO,OOO as fixed in the act Of
May 10, 1908 Her keel was laid
March 9, 1909, so that the naval con-
structors have reason to be proud Of
the rapidity with which they have
carried on their work.