Evening star., 1923-08-28
WORK Of JUNK|NG
WARSH|PS BEGINS
Hulks of Unfinished indiana
and South Dakota Being
Destroyed Under Treaty.
BY ROBERT r. SMALL.

Special Dispatch TO The Star
&. NEW YORK, August 2S = The
clangor OF pneumatic hammers on
steel, the glow and hiss of the acetyA
lenf torch and the clamor of the
overhead travelling crane are again
to he heard in the Brooklyn navy
yard. The work of "junking" two
great battleships that were to have
been the pride of the American Navy
has begun. The proclamation of the
arms treaty at Washington, following
Frances tardy ratification, has set
in motion the machinery to carry out
America Sacrifice in the heavier
ships OF helted steel and bristling
tlaret
Tha,s uncompleted huiks of the
mammoth superdreadnaughts South
Dakota and Indiana, abandoned on
word from President Harding when
the agreements of Washington were
signed, are being torn apart. For
more than year they have stood like
great red skeletons III the black
steel cradles which were erected to
serve as maternity beds for the
hattleships that Were to help the
United States climb to the highest
peak OF world naval powers.
Navy. Yard silent.
For a year scattered steel plates
and bars ans beams had remained
just where the workmen had left
them when the Washington confer
ence completed its work. For year
the Brooklyn navy yard has been
silent arsenal except for the oc-
casional repair of ship putting in
from the diminished Atlantic forces
From the moment work was stopped d
hphpmnthS n UaVS-daS-
tined never to reach the waves-it
was known that the task of construc-
ion must give way to the rougher
work of destruction. But, tech
until the last of the naval powers
officially had sanctioned the treaties.
Technically the United States want
ed to remain in the position where ii
could go ahead on the South Dakota
and the Indiana if the treaties finally
failed in any quarter. But the naval
experts knew that nothing could save
the two battleships. Rust and the
neglect of year had left them more
or less, as derelicts on the ways.
n Largest in the World.
The Indiana, which was to have re-
placed the famous Indiana of Spanish
war days and of Fighting Bob Evans
"reminiscences was laid down alongside
the South Dakota in 1920. These twins
of tire heavy fighting line were TO
have been the largest electrically
driven, torpedo protected battieships
in TIE world. Each was to have been
of $4,000 tons displacement. The new
naval treaty limits the navies of the
world to.SEaft of ten thousand tons
and&lesS. except for the replacement
now and then of the heavy ships
authorized to be retained as first
line tuf defense.
TIE South Dakota and the Indiana
were to mount eight 1B-inch guns in
four turrets
1t fS'intereSting. in this connection.
that i'the two new battleshps which
Grest Britain was authorized to con-
struct III order TO maintain her posi-
ton in the famous J-5-3 ratio are to
mount nine 16-inch guns in three
turrEtS. The triple gun turrets were
adopted in the American Navy SOME
years ago. but abandoned in the de-
sisH-uf the largest ships which came
under the. ban of the Washington
conference y .
-, Carry One More Gun.
Great Britain's long experienced
naval engineers did not approve of
the triple mounting. but they have
adopted it in their two new super
dfeaGnaughts. the Nelson and the
RpdneXl. in order to get the maximum
Of !: power within the displacement
Weight prescribed by the conference.
Ths. British ships will carry one more
1S-ineh rife, therefore. than their
nearest rivals in any Foreign navy.
As compensation against the CON
stfSIctfon of the two so-called Brit
i6h "hoOdS," the United States com :