The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-27
Superdreadnought Scheduled Take the Water This
Week, Largest and Latest of Floating Fortresses-
The Sixth Ship of Her Name, She Will Be
the Queen of the Fleet

TIME great superdreadnought Ten
nessee, the latest and largest
of our navigable fortresses to
near completion, will be launched from
the New York Navy Yard next We'd
nesday. How many realize the sig
nificance of that event?
Here in the metropolis we have
grown used to engineering tasks Of
titanic proportions but from a tech
nical point of view none Of these lay
quite the same burden Of responsibility
ecutives as does the Haomentous prob
lem Of shifting a great ship from the
shore and safely into her designed
element. In the course of the last few
years our naval constructors have put
overheard from the neighboring Gov
eminent yard a humber Of gigantic
craft of increasing magnitude, each
Weighing many thousands d tons at
the time OF the transfer. nat now we
have come to climax totalIing a
lightweight burden Of 1900 tons!
Picture a structure s24 feet long, al
most 971z feet wide and reaching from
the keel to the line Of the main deck
to height of fifty odd feet, and one
gets an approximate idea Of the mass
of this ponderous fabrication Of steel
But this does not begin to give to the
lay mind a notion of the weight OF that
cunningiy assembled body of plates
and angles and channel bars. Ton by
ton these structural elements have
been put together upon line of regu-
larry spaced blocks Of sturdy timber.
and other supports. in the form OF
Ioglike shores, have been canted into
place beneath her spreading bilges 10
steady her upon a seemingly preca-
rious and certainly narrow temporary
foundation.
Now comes the very ticklish job of
transferring this towering, ponderous
bulk f4Dm the building blocks to the
launching ways, and then moving her
onto the bosom of the East River with
out straining the structure or starting
a rivet anywhere.
where the Risk Lies.
To a large extent a ship wher
building Is virtually in the same condi-
ton as a person lying prone with his
entire weight centred upon the thiT
edge Of a plank, but with this decided
differences: the mans spine can benC
without serious consequences, while 6
corresponding fiexure Of the keel oil
backbone Of the vessel would NEAR
reformation and probably her ruin. II
IL for this reason that the task OF get
81 hA Ia nj IN
water is one involving great risks les
q sudden failure of something tnvit'
disastrous strains.
Now it Is easy to grasp why the con
structors must be very sure OF tn
ground upon which the slip IL bull
and on which the blocks are laid upoI
which a superdreadnought Is to b
reared. The foresight OF our navs
EXPERTS In this respect has been estab
lished In the cases of the dreadnought
that have been wrought at the New
York Navy Yard; and to-day the!
have come to the stage OF assembling
the launching ways which are to carr.
the Tennessee out upon the hisl
sprinR tide that win food the Eas
River next Wednesday.
In anticipation Of this the launch
ing WAYS have been ready for som
time. They have been fitted In place
taken apart, oiled. and then purposel
exposed to the weather that they the
might season and be reliable durin
the brief period Of the supreme tes'
They are now being expertly reasseIn
bled under the ship, and every Join
must 1T exactly and every bolt mus
lie snug lest a stray head Or sprun
seam invite an accident.
The launching apparatus is an Iii