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FOHU1NU THE ENU1NU STANCHIONS.
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ON THE PROTECTION DECK.
OSTON, Jan. 14. (Special Corra
poDdenca of The Baa.) Two
flrat-claaa battleablpa (or tua
Unltad SUtea navy. New Jeraey
and Rhode laland, are being
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built aide by aide from the aame deilgat
and at the aama ttma at the new Fore
River ablpjrard down in the aoutheaatern
corner of Boaton harbor. The like la not
being done In any other American ahlpyard,
ao that the vlaltor who takea pleaaure In
watching hla white navy In actual proceat
ot conatructlon may Ond here a auggeetton
of the formidable power ot thla new claaa
of fighting ahlpi that he can hardly look
for elaewhere.
The flie and general outline of theae two
heavywelghta are only Juat beginning to be
apparent, however. At you come within
hearing dlatance of that dull, contlnuoui
roar of hammera, without which bo bat
tleship can proceed, and atand oppoalta the
huge akeleton "ahlphouaa" with ita elec
trlo cranea traveling back and forth over
head, like ao many trolley cara on an In
verted four-tracked atreet, two belligerent
looking caat ateel prowa atlck out at you
from a couiused maaa ot wooden ataglng,
their lower cornera projected forward like
the under Jaw ot a bulldog. Theae are the
"buelneaa enda" of the two great ateel
hulls, which are reckoned among the
largest and are, indeed, quite the widest
that have aver been built for veaaela of war
In thla country or any other. Each la ex
actly alike to the laat rivet, but neither
detaila nor ahape nor alaa can be more than
gueased at on account of the maaa of pro pa
and platforma that surround and hide them
and the ganga of busy mechanic every
where at work.
But by way of the Inclined runway one
la soon up on deck or what appeara to be
the deck at thla atage of conatructlon.
Here the whole ehlp, as far aa It haa pro
ceeded. Ilea In view beneath one. The
deck on which you atand aa It approachea
the veaael'a aldea and enda alopea down
ward, giving the two ahlpa th appearance
of Nosh's arka or of enormous twin tur
tles) with their lege drawn aafely In 'under
their shells. Thla la aa little aa possible
what the veaaela will finally resemble, for.
although It look a like a long way dowa
Into tha cavernous hold, much mora hull
remains to be added above and we are
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atlll only a tew feet above what will ulti
mately be the water line.
The advantage of being on band so early
la that certain very essential feaiurea ot
modern battleship uulldlng are plainly evi
dent which will later on be built over and
hidden from view. The heavily armed bat
tleship, like these two monster turtles, la In
a claaa by Itself and Oghta by Its own par
ticular methoda. It makes no boast of
fieetness of foot, like the alender "de
stroyer," or ot combined pugnacity and
long-dlatanco endurance, like the protected
cruiser, or even of sheer defensive strength
like the monltor a. It expecta, unlike the
proverbial policeman, alwaya to be at the
right place at the right time, alwaya to
take up the moat dangeroua position it can
find in the line ot battle, and everlastingly
to atlck there to the despite and destruc
tion of Ita enemies.
The battleship, therefore. Is built to lake
many hard blowa, aa well aa to give them,
though knowing all the time that these
hard blowa, coming from mortem twelve
Inch rifles, will probably shatter the
heaviest armor It can float under. But
there are certain vital organs within It
above all, Ita enginea and boilers that
must bo made abaolutely aafe against shots,
and the only way to make them ao, alnce
Impenetrable armor haa not yet been In
vented, la to add one aafeguard to another
until chance of Injury la practically elim
inated. So, If you will climb down the
alope ot the "protective deck" on which
you have been standing and look over the
aide, you will see below you a Jog or shelf
running along tha vessel'a aide, above which
It la narrower than It la below. Upon
thla la to go the eleven-inch nickel ateel
armor plating, extending a few feet above
and below the water line and going nearly
all around the veaael from end to end like
a stout belt around a man'a body. Thla Is
to take cara of all email shots from the
enemy'a guna. For the larger, more pene
trating ahota, the V-ahaped apace In which
we now atand, between the upright aide
ot the vessel and the alant of the protctlve
deck, will be filled aolld with coal, aa a
part of the ship's bunker capacity, to a
horlsontal thickness of nearly ten feet
Thla la a much mora efficient shield than
the ateel armor Itself, on the aame principle
Sam's Biggest Battleships
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FINISHING
A BATTLESHIP'S STERN PART.
that a rifle bullet can be abot through a
chilled plowshare but not through a feather
pillow. Furthermore, In order that water
shall not follow In where the ahot baa
entered, there la to be a three-loot apace
between the armor and the coal bunkera
which will be filled with compressed corn
stalk pith, called cellulose, which swells up
aa aoon aa It la wet and closes the shot hole
iii the platea. And even suppose the en
emy succeeds In sending a ahot through
armor and coal both, then when Ita ateel
head finally reaches the slanting "turtle
back" beneath our feet It la deflected up
through the vessel's upper works, and. If
t atill haa the force to carry It, out InU
the air, precisely as a skipping atone will
glance upward Irom the aurface of a pond.
As for any destruction which may tako
place above the armor belt and the pro
tective deck, there are here but two points
which, at the last resort, are really Indis
pensable the two turrets, that la, which
carry the twelve-inch rifles. And these,
from their combination of rounded ahape
and extra heavy armor, are supposed to be
Invulnerable. After all, then, we have In
the modern battleship little more, ao far aa
principle goes, than an old-fashioned moni
tor or Impenetrable "whaleback," If you
like with a few atorlea of superstructure
added above It; and If our vessel really
lived up to the naval constructor's Ideal,
we might find it at tha end of a hard en
gagement totally dismantled above the pro
tective deck, with all Ita smaller guns
disabled and their fallant crewa killed,
with Ita deck house knocked Into Junk and
Its funnel, maata, boat derricks, and ail
the rest ot It overboard, but with four
twelve-inch rltlea still swinging toward the
enemy and below decka a perfect aet of
boilers and enginea and a still workable
emergency steering gear.
In the two Fore River battleships prog
ress haa been made to the point where
one may begin to trace out the general
plan within the hold. Wo can follow the
outlines ot the six boiler rooms, all eep
axate from one another to insure greater
safety; then, aft of theae, the narrow apace
which la to be filled with coal to guard
against explosion, and beyond thla the two
larger apacea for the twin enginea. Far
ther ait atlll you see daylight shining
through the places where the atern poata
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A CYLINDER FOR ONE OF THE BIO BATTLESHIPS.
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A SHIP FITTER AT WORK.
THE FORE
are to be fitted In. One notes, too, the
stouter ribs and rigid reinforcements un
der engine beda and boilers, the greater
depth of keel at certain points, and the
firm bracea a the polnta where any un
usual strain may be expected to come.
In order to appreciate the reasons tor
thla tremendous strengthening In special
places one haa to think ot the battleship
not aa on the atocka, but In action. In the
first place, the hull of such a craft, accord
ing to the recent calculations ot a Japanese
naval officer, comprises only about 38 per
cnt ot Its total weight. The remaining
82 per cent la simply loaded on In the shape
of guns, armor, machinery and general
outfit. Yet thla weight is not, like the
cargo In a freighter, evenly distributed,
nor can It be got rid of while the vessel
Is In dry dock. Then, again, aa aoon as
the officer In command orders It "full
speed ahead" the engines, in the narrow
apace allowed them, must begin to put
forth the energy ot about 20,000 horses on
the run, pounding on the shaft bearings,
and from them onto the very keel Itself,
with a pressure ot about alxty tons or
say, six timea the weight ot an ordinary
trolley car. The preasure on the thrust
bearings, aa well as on the foundations,
which receive the push of the propellers
In their struggle to drive the ship ahead,
la collectively over 100 tona. Seven heavy
weight freight enginea, coupled one ahead
of the other, could hardly exert the same
force. So, too, whenever the commander
wanta to turn quickly and orders the helm
put hard over, the atern post and adjacent
framings must stand the atraln ot pulling
230 square feet of rudder aurface much
more than the area of a big barn door--aldewaya
through the water at the rate of
twenty miles an hour. Every time one ot
the twelve-Inch rifles la fired the result Is
much the aame, ao far aa atresses and
strains on the mountings are concerned,
aa If a healthy passenger locomotive run
ning at ten miles an hour were to find the
gun sitting Inopportunely on the track and
engage It In end-on collision, while aa to
the atrains resulting from actually ramming
an enemy In battle, nobotfy haa ever more
than jraguely guessed at what they may
amount to.
Notwithstanding tha fact every point ot
construction seems to be proceeding with
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111
RIVER SHIP HOUSE.
the greatest rapidity aa well as the ut
most accompaniment of noise the visitor
might come to Fore River after a month's
absence and notice no extraordinary change.
A battleship la Inevitably a creature of
very slow growth. Take for example the
matter of shaping and attaching one ot the
trough-shaped platea under the keel.
Wooden "templates" or patterns must first
be made to cut It out by. Then upon an
Iron floor Iron clamps and gauges must be
painstakingly aranged on which to shape it.
It must spend a long time in the fierce heat
of a petroleum furnace, growing red and
limp, before the actual shaping can be
beg.n. Half a dozen men, when It finally
emerges, must attack it with hammera and
bending levers and even then return it
aeveral times over for further heatings.
By the time It Is ready the best of a day
la gone. Another day will be spent In
nt.nln, th, ahi amAntli and marking and
drilling the rivet holea. When at last It
la sent awlnging off through the air on the
end ot a crane hoist, a third day goea In
placing It, "reaming" the holea out fair
and driving the rlveta. A single rib, with
Its queerly shaped web, Ita flanges to be
heated and bent, and the acorea of rivets
needed to drive It down Into a solid piece
with the whole ahlp, la nearly aa great a -jC
problem; and vessels like New Jersey and
Rhode Island require scores of rlba and
thousanda of plates, many of the latter
aa complicated aa the keel platea.
Meanwhile, of course, many things are
going on apart from the vessels themselves.
At present the engines that are to propel
them are well under way. Here la a pyra
mid of cyllndera already cast and waiting
to be finished; there a atalwart connecting
rod or a length of shafting revolving slowly
In a huge lathe which la driven myste
riously by electricity with no algn of pul
leys or belts. Then there are the great
caat steel atern posts being made ready to
go Into place ao large you can walk under
them aa they atand In the ahop without
hitting your head. Last and moat Interest
ing ot all la the giant ateam hammer
one of the largest In the world which la
forging out the steel engine stanchions
from bara aa big as the body of a horse
with the customary accompaniment of hot
(Continued on Fifth Page.)