Bisbee daily review., 1914-07-12
UNCLE SAM LAUNCHES .DREADN AU GIFT THAT
 SURPRISES FEM ALL
Latest Addition to Navy Is a Leyiathan in Fighting
 Strength and Burns oil.

ANA Ait DAiAANA olaNto or any OlueE country was successfully launched today at the yards of the Fore River Ship Building company. As the yes. sel slid off the ways little Miss Elean- Tor Anne Siebert, the ten year old niece of Governor Oddie of Nevada, broke a ribbon encased bottle of cham. pagne over the bow of the mammoth sea fighter and christened her Ne vada. It was 1:3O o'clock when the massive hull started slowly down the incline, and a few moments later 1t was floating gracefully in the waters of the Fore River.
 The launching of the great ship drew to the yards a notable gathering of distinguished people In addition to the official party representing the State fin whose honor the battleship was named, and which was headed by Governor Tasker l.. Oddie, the nos table guests included Secretary of the Navy Daniels and Assistant Sec .retary Roosevelt Naval officers from .Charlestown, Portsmouth. Newport and other places also were included lin the attendance.
 The Nevada is sister ship to the Oklahoma. mich was launched on March 23 last at Camden, N. J. The two vessels are of the latest dread nought type and present some fea- lures of interest entirely apart from their great size. In the first place, they are the first large battleships ever built in which oil will be used exclusively for fuel purposes. This has enabled the designer to dispense entirely with coal bunkers-the oil being carried chiefly in the double bottom of the ship. The commission of bunkers sets free a large amount of space below decks, which has en- abled the designer to concentrate all 'of the six boiler compartments at the center of the ship, where they occu- py only sixty-fve feet of her length. Hence it is possible to use a single smokestack, placed immediately above the boiler rooms.
 The keel of the Nevada was laid on Nov. (. 1912 At the present time she is more than seventy per cent completed, or about ten per cent more than the average of such ships at the time of their launching. The dead weight of the ship as she stands to- day is upwards of 12,OOO tons and she has her boilers and the backing for her armor in place. There are no guns aboard as yet Her displace- ment will be 27.50O tons and she will have 24.8OO indicated horsepower.
 The Nevada and the Oklahoma rep resent, to a greater degree than any of their predecessors, the united eX- perience and thought of the various branches of the naval service, and the officers of both line and staff unite in the belief that these two ships will be the most powerful in the world.
 The principal interest of the new ships lies in their great defensive power. Not only will they carry much greater weight of armor than has been carried, or is to be carried, by any ship built or building but the armor will be disposed to greater ad- vantage. The armor belt is thirteen and one-half inches thick, and the casing of the barbettes thirteen inch es In the turrets the armor varies from nine to eighteen inches in thick ness, and the armor of the coming tower and tube is sixteen inches. The covering of the gun deck is three inches thick. and that of the protec' tive deck two inches.
 An important feature of the side armor is the way the plates are at tached to the ship. In the older ships
 the plates are arranged horizontal .ly in two strips, with continuous hor- izontal seam, which is slightly above the waterline. between the upper and lower strps. This arrangement presents a continuous point of weak ness near the waterline at a most vulnerable point. In the Nevada and the Oklahoma the armor plates are laid vertically and extend the whole depth of the belt.
 The ten iOurteen-iuch guns m the main batteries are to be placed m four turrets. The turrets are placed two forward and two aft and the ar- rangement is such that each of the fourteeninch guns can be fired fin broadside from either port or star board. while with a little maneuver- ing all of the guns can be fired al- most dead ahead or astern. In two of the turrets, the one most forward and the one in the stern, there will be three guns. Each of the other tur- rets will contain two guns. They are the first three-gun turret ships built for the United States navy.
 The Nevada is 554 feet long When going at full speed she will make more than twenty knots an hour