The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1919-11-22

orally recognized that the navy de-
partment has decided to equip all Of
IL its new capital ships with electric
-ZEA propulsion apparatus.
The New Mexico Is most impress
sve fighting machine She built at the Brook
Ign navy yard and launched in the summer of 1917.
She is 624 feet all. She weighs (dispaces)
$4,000 tons. She draws 80 feet of water. She has
81 feet Az inches beam at the waterline. At full
speed she make slightly in excess of II knots
an hour She generates $4,000 horsepower for
propulsion. Her crew numbers nearly 1,2OO men.
She burns oil instead of coal fuel and has a
total fuel capacity of about 100000 gallons
It's not an easy thing nowadays to get permits
sion to examine battleship from stem to stern
and to take photographs of her interior But rep
resentatiyeS of of the big concerns wh:rh
had hand in making the New Mexico what she
is was recently allowed the prvilege--whicb has
been exceedingly since the beginning Of the
great war. The following account of an inspec-
ton of the superdreadnaught at drydock in the
Brooklyn navy yard is the result.
Lieut. Com. 2. l.. Carroll chief engineer turns
us over to one of the Junior engineers We start
with the navigating bridge and examine the vari-
Gus pieces Of apparatus for transmitting signals
to the engine room for the control of the YES
sci and to half dozen other parts of the ship,
each of which has a particular and important
function to perform. Next we begin a systematic
survey of the ship, and to begin as far down into
the vitals of the vessel possible are led
through circuitous routes, down steep hatchways,
through narrow alleys, and down ladders,
through deck after deck until We have lost all
knowledge of time and space.
We find ourselves at last the very bottom of
the ship. directly behind the rudder. A cOmp
Gated mass of machinery, pistons, rods, valves
dials and electric motors, combine to make up
the steering gear engine This machinery is oper
s..ted and controlled directly from the navigating
10 of
five different methods of steering the ship In
water-tght compartment directly aft is what Is
known as the auxiliary steering gear. And here
We four large wheels connected to shaft
which when occasion demands, be used to
move the rudder by hand-whch takes eight men.
But this shaft is also connected to electric
motor and by the simple turn of switch can be
operated electrically. Two other electrical units
are situated i'm this compartment for rudder con-
troll and if all steering methods fail, jury rud-
der may be rugged off the stern. 2
Going forward along the bottom of the ship we
come presently to the propeller shafts--four in
number--each operating immense propeller.
These shafts extend from the motors which oper-
ate them back through the ship and out at the
stern, through what are known respectively as the
starboard cupboard shaft alley, starbOard inboard,
port inboard and port cupboard alleys. Following
forward along the inbOard shaft we go through
several more water-tight compartments, drop
down a hatclway and find ourselves in the pro-
Polling motor room. This is the section of the
ship which actually drives the propelerS.
The tremendous motor which meets gaze
gives an nkling of the power necessary to make
the big shafts revOve.
This motor stands II feet high from the floor
and is II feet wide 1t generates 1000 horsepower
Like the rest. it is inclosed in water tight COM
partment protected by bukheads, and if anything
should happen to it, the current may be cut off
at and directed to the operation of the other
three propeers.
To see how the motor Is controlled, reversed
started stopped. etc, We follow 1.-The wire cables
further forward still almost the bottom of the
ship until come to what the engineers call the
center engine room. Here spread out before us
lies switchboard containing levers dials. tele
phones, Indicators, and instruments for measur-
ing electrical currents. 1t is the main control
station Of the ship containing the arteries
through which, courses the life blood of the YES
sci. the electrical current. In fact it is often
called the heart of the vessel.
Here in this compartment the electrical current
is received, measured and passed on to the motors
which We have just left. From this station the
propellers mag be made to reverse. to go at
full speed ahead two propellers may be reversed
while the other two are driven ahead Here also
any combination of control may be made up The
fexibiliiy of control made possible by this CEN
trail control station constitutes one of the advan-
tages of the system of electric drive The captain
of the ship communicates directly to this station
and gives instructions concerning the control of
the vessel
Having seen how the ship is propelled. and con-
troed we are naturally curious to see the source
from which the tremendous energy comes The
cables from the switchboard lead forward into