Omaha daily bee., 1910-05-11

About the hour Of II Thursday morning
the fourth OF Uncle Sans naval dread
noughts" will slide down the creased ways
into the water at Brooklyn navy, as Miss
Elizabeth Fleming Of Jacksonville, breaks
bottle OF champagne over the nose OF the
ram. exclaiming, Il name the Florida
The navy yard and all the ships will be
decorated with bunting for the suspicious
occasion. Secretary OF the Navy Meyer
will represent the president, and 1t lie ex-
pected that fully 1900 spectators will be
present. The guests from the state OF
Florida invited to the launching include
the governor and his staff, Governor
Hughes of New York and his staff. and
United States senators and representatives
have also been invited.
The dimensions OF the Florida are $40
feet on the load water line, or 521 feet s
inches over ALL IS feet inches beam,
with IS feet inches draught. Its dis
placement will be 2l,S25 tons, with 5000
indicated horse power, which Is expected
TO drive the Florida through the water
at an average speed of 2O% knots. Its
will have bunker capacity for $500 tons
of coal with tanks for 400 tons Of oil fuel.
It's main armament win consist OF ten
Finch breech-loading guns, mounted
in five turrets. on the central line of the
ship-two forward, one amidships, and two
aft
The supplies of ammunition will be
brought by electric hoists direct from the
magazines Immediately below the turrets.
The entire handling of the guns will be
done with power from electrically driven
motors There will also be sixteen g.
inch guns In the turrets.
The armor will be OF sufficient thick
ness for defense against torpedo boat at
tacks, and there will be strong bulk-heads
as an additional protection against mines
and torpedo explosions. The main arma-
ment includes two submerged torpedo tubes
and ten small guns for boat service and
saluting The main armor belt is feet
wide Of an average thickness Of 10 inches,
with another belt above Of 9 inches in
thickness, and high easement armament
above that to protect the secondary bat
teries and funnel bases.
Each barbette has been made 4 to IL
inches in thickness to protect the entire
armament handling machinery for the
Pinch guns in the turret above.
of ten turbines of the Parsons type six
go ahead and four astern turbines which
will be driven by steam generated from
twelve water tube boilers with furnaces
which have been constructed for the con-
sumption Of coal or oil fuel.
The first Of the American fleet of this
type of vessels, the North Dakota, and the
Delaware of 10000 tons displacement, have
recently gone into commission and been
added to the Atlantic fleet, and the Utah,
the sister ship of the Florida, which is
being built at a private yard, was launched
a short time ago. The Utah and the Flor
ida, however are to be nearly 1900 tons
larger than the first pair of all big gun
ships. The third pair of this class of
ships. the Arkansas and the Wyoming,
which are to be 26,OOO-ton vessels, carrying
twelve 12-inch guns and which will be
the largest battleships in the world, are
on the ways. Congress is discussing a
fourth pair, which may be even larger
and carry 14-inch guns
In other words, the United States is
in the race with the other powers.
This race is so strenuous that no sooner
of the biggest Dreadnought of all thar
another proceeds to set new one afloat
| The North Dakota and the Delaware re.
tanned their laurels for only short time
| Hardly had they had their steaming tria
last fall and demonstrated their SUPER
ity over others of their type than the Br.,
! ish government launched the Neptune viii
displacement $50 tons greater and thu
| Vanguard, another British Dreadnough
| slightly smaller, broke the speed record OF
the North Dakota of 22.25 knots, by travel
ing at the rate of PA knots.
When the Utah was launched 1t wa:
| the lsrgest hattleship afloat, but a few
days ago-and this is the second ocur
renee OF the two referred to-that record
was nullified by the launching of the Colos
sus, number nine OF the British fleet Of
| Dreadnoughts to reach the water. The
! first Dreadnought was 400 feet long anc
] Of 1880 tons. The new one, the first Of
| a group of three vessels of 22,5O0 tons
each, is SIS feet long. The others are tn,
| Hercules and the Orion.
| Great Britain expects that she will have