St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1916-11-04
s. HAS THE WORLDS
GREATEST BATTLEsHIP

ship California, which is to be the
worlds first electric dreadnought,
will be laid at the Mare Island Navy
Yard tomorrow. The California will
be a ship of innovations. There is
to be little ceremony when her
keel plate is laid, but the group OF
naval constructors and shipbuilders
who will stand with barred heads as
the faultlessly welded steel plate is
adjusted doubtless will feel that
they are witnessing no ordinary
keel laying.
In point of size the California will
be greater than any foreign battle
ship built or building. She and her
two sister ships, the Idaho and the
Mississippi, will each displace
$4,000 tons, almost 1000 tons more
than thenew dreadnought Penn
sylvania.
The California will cost S7,800,000
without her armor or armament,
which is expected to cost as much
more. She will have a speed of
twenty-one knots an hour, will be
ga feet long, ninety-seven feet
across her beams and will draw
thirty feet of water. She will carry
twelve f4-inch guns, mounted
three abreast in a turret, twenty
two 5-inch rapid fire guns and will
have four submerged torpedo
tubes.
The principal feature Of the new
dreadnought, however, is the ma
chinery for propelling her by cleo
tricity. She will be driven by mo-
tors which will deliver electricity
made by steam. The equipment
will consist of two 10000 -kilowatt,
or 10000 horsepower, alternating
current generators, each placedon
the same shaft and driven by a
steam turbine operating at 1000
revolutions per minute. For
operating at high speeds, as when
pursuing theenemy, each turbine
generator will drive two propeller
motors and all the machinery will
be working at full power. When
cruising at moderate speed only one
turbine will be required to drive all
four motors, tn e other turbine
being shut down, thereby eeono-
MIXING steam, coal and attendance.
On this basis the navy experts
figure that the electric installation
is cheaper than steam propulsion
and reduces the weight Of
machinery.
The saveing in space and weight
will enable the vessel to carry
more coal and thus have a greater
operating radius, or to carry a
heavier armament and become
more powerful, or to have more
powerful machinery and be capable
OF higher speed. The better
economy reduces the coal required,
and this again effects a still greater
economy of space. The convenience
OF operation is due to the fact that
electrical machinery is adapted to
give two economical speeds and
also to the ease and quickness with
which the propellers may be
stopped II reversed.
Outwardly the California will
bring a drastic change of line and
appearance to the battle fleet. In
stead of the blunt gray nose of the
preasent. day big fighter her bows
will be tapered into a graceful
yacht-lfke steam much like those
OF the famous clipper sailing
snip that carried theAmeriean
flag at the head of the worlds
sWlftest craft in hte '40s and sos.
It will be the first time since the
steel ship replaced the old frigates
and ships of the line that clipper
stem have been seen in the fleet.
Her overhanging bow will PROJECT
more than twenty feet beyond her
eutwater and will give place for
three anchors instead of two as on
the present ships. The third will
hang plumb over the stem. The new
bow will make her foredeek free of
water in all but the newest wealth
ef.Ihe fine underwater lines of the
other ships, which make for speed,
have been CARED above the water
line on the California, and her
bows will be flared near the deck
line, so when she does not cut
Through a wave she will lift her
head over it.
Some idea of great size of the
California may be had from the
statement that if the battleship
k4Io g o. p94IodsueIl 90 pInoa
street, it wolld cover more than
three blocks, filling Marlborough
fare completely from side to side
to the roofs of ~five-story build ings,
with the military masts towering
100 feet still further in the air: or,
II monument in the national
capital, on end alongside the
Washington with stem on the
ground, the bow would tower SO