Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1914-03-18
NEW NAVY MONSTER
WAS BEGUN YESTERDAY
Battlesbip No. 80, Greatest Of
Superdreadnoughts, viii be
Built
NEW YORK NEARLY READY.
Powerful Craft Soon To Have 'Shske.
dOwn"-The Texas Near CON-
pIetion.

The great sea warrior New York,
the most formidable of this nations
battleships, is in the Brooklyn navy
yard all but ready to make her first
voyage. In sixteen days she will
be put in service. In a fortnight
more, after putting provisions
aboard, she will steam out for her
maiden trip.
As the New York goes out the
pneumatic hammers of the navy
yard will be ringing in the ccn-
struction Of newer aud bigger
vessel, Battle ship SO, whose keel
was laid on Monday in the ways
that were used for the construction
of the New York.
This battleship will carry two
more 14-inch guns than the New
York and will be 81 feet longer
with a slightly different form Of
construction. Until Secretary of the
Navy Daniels decides on name the
battleship will be known by number
SO.
1t was thought at the navy ward
that she may be called the North
Carolina, which would necessitate the
change of the pame of an armored
cruiser. If we get two other ships
they will take up the namts of all the
states. Only New Mexico and Ari-
zona now have no battleships named
for them. A sister ship of the 80.
the PennsJ Jlvania, is being built by
the Newport News Company.
The new ship will be more heavily
armed than any United States or Eu-
ropean battleship. Were it not for
the Limitations of the Panama Canal
locks the new ship would have q
greater beam. 1t is expected that
the ship will make more than cne knot
over the twenty-one knots the New
York is to make.
They have built big ships before
at the Brooklyn navy yard. although
none so formidable as the New York.
but the significance in the completion
of the New York lies in the fact that
the ship has been finished In six
months less time than it took the
Newport News Shipbuilding Company
to build the Texas, sister chip.
The Texas is ready to leave the
private company's yards and is ex.
pected in at the Brooklyn navy ward
in a week, it is said. Even then il
will be two months before the Texas
will be ready TO start out for the
"shske down, as the first trip of a
battleship is called. This is because
Of minor changes that are to be made,
cut these changes ought not to bC
chalked up against the Texas, it il
said, because they We're not in the
contract.
Hundreds of visitors streamec
past the battleship New York on Mon
day, which lowered above the other.
in the navy yard, and inspected tn,
great hulk that it has taken thre,
years and millions of dollars to float
The bid of the navy yard was 81, 600,
600 and this did not include armor ans
other equipment, which brings th,
total valuation to about $4,000, 00C
enough to build the Woolwortl
Building.
But then it is the latest thing il
superdreadnoghts, until the new un
named battleship SO and the sistei
ship, the Pennsylvania. are finished
and would stand, to use the familiar
illustration, higher than the Wash
ington Monument if placed on cad
Her ten 14-inch guns put the ship il
class by herself. Their range il
more than twelve miles and at five I,
six miles the shot will penetrate TEN
pered armor plate sixteen inche
thick. These big rifles cost s62, 00I
each for the gun itself and $50, goo TO
the mount.
Naval Constructor Robert Stocker
who has built the New York, has mad
every effort to get his ship out ii
record time. The first step was
plan to launch the New York with he
engines in her hull, a feat not befor
attempted. The New York wa
launched with a new method of re
lease from the ways on October so
1912. The keel bad been laid Sep
tember l, 1911, Capt. Thomas C
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