New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-10-17
More than 1000 Men Aboard

The new superdresdnought, which
was built in the New York Navy Yard,
is COS feet over all, has displacement
of 32,567 tons and is built for a cruis-
ing speed of 81 knots. She carries 43
officers in addition to the Gil men gath
cred from the three battleships that
have gone into reserve. An additional
20 marines will join her to-day from
the Vermont. She will be commanded
by Captain Macdonald, with Lieutenant
Commander W. r. White as executive
officer, and as engineer officer Com
mander S. II. R. Doyle, who built her
machinery and who will be held re-
sponsible for her future internal ac-
tions.
The average layman doubtless will
be dismsyed to find out that in the
back waters of the Philadelphia Navy
Yard is going to ruin a greater feet
of battleships than that which Rear
Admiral Evans commanded in his
famous trip around the world. Rear
Admiral Evans set sail with sixteen
ships. Eighteen ships are ain re-
serve" or have been placed out of com
mission, at the Philadelphia yard. The
reason in nearly every case is that
there are not men enough in the navy
to man them and take them to sea. The
following is the list:
North Dakota, superdreadnought;
SattieshPs Kansas 6h, Wisconsin %s;dn Ala Ala
sschusetts, Indiana and Iowa, to which
the Nebraska will be added next week;
the cruisers Chicago and Minneapolis
and the destroyers Beale, Downes and
Mayrant. These ships, when new, cost
in excess of S10O,000,000. They are
being reduced gradually to scrap.
Held Up for Turbines.
The North Dakota, costing originally
$4,000, 900, has been waiting for over
two years for Congress to appropriate
100000 for some new turbines. The
forgings for these turbines will take
another year to turn out, since Con-
gress only at the eleventh hour appro-
had orders for forgings months in ad-
vance. IL will take another six months
at least for the turbines to be installed
II will be a year and half before this
ship can do service with the feet.
The Kansas, New Hampshire, Yer
mont and Missouri have been stripped
of their enlisted complement that the
new dreadnoughts of the Nevada and
Arizona types may be placed in com
mission. In every case concerning
which information can be obtained, the
crews of these ships in cold stor-
age" have been reduced far below the
complement authorized by law for
ships in reserve, which is 40 per cent
of the complement when in full com
mission. There are scarcely enough
men on the North Dakota TO keep her
sanitary and clean, to say nothing Of
keeping her valuable machinery up to
the mark.
In the case Of the Maine. for another
example, the remnants Of her crew &C
tually have been painting the ship for
the last twenty-four days, job which
FORMALLY consumes twenty-four hours,
and in the meantime it has been i'm
possible to undertake other work OF
any description, even 70 sweeping the
passageways. An officer said yesterday
with a grin, that recently with i'm
mense surprise he saw through his port
hole one man scraping the stack of the
Alabama. and with absorbed interest
watched his progress day after day. as
shown by the clean portion he left
behind on his way down. For the scene