Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1891 — OUR LATEST TORPEDO CRUISER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR LATEST TORPEDO CRUISER

A Powerful and Sptedy Vemtei for DestroyIng Torpedo Skirmishers. The torpedo cruiser for which bids were opened on Feb. 11 at the Navy Department is to be much larger than first-class torpedo boats. It will retaiu many of the characteristics of the smaller vessels, Buch as great speed and quick maneuvering, to which will be added a steady gun platform and great stiffness. Her general dimensions are: Length. 246.5 feet on deck and 259 feet on load line, with 27.5 feet beam and 9 feet normal draught (8 feet forward and 10 feet aft). She is to have twin screw propellers, driven by direct-acting, inverted, triple-ex-pansion, four-cylinder engines of 3,000 indicated horse-power each, with eight Thornycroft boilers for supplying steam. The whole machinery plant weighs only 250 tons, which is much less than the ordinary weight required to get such power, being only 83 pounds per I. H. P. The hull is to be built with a double bottom under the magazine and machinery, and framed on the longitudinal system, the transverse frames being ten feet apart and the continuous longitudinal girders being eighteen inches apart, which, taken with the bulkheads and protective deck, give great freedom from vibration due to the high speed of the engines. The protective dock extends the full length of the ship, sloping down to two feet below the water line at the sides. The slopes are to be three-quarters of an inch and the flat deck one-half an inch, covering the magazine, machinery space, electrical appliances, steering gear, and all the vital parts, and, with the coal in her bunkers and the coffer dams, provide protection from the fire of guns. She is to have a rudder of

about eighty square feet area, actuated by direct-acting, oscillating, hydraulic cylinders, which will be capable of turning her around in about her own length—a necessary feature for a vessel whose duty it is to catch and destroy the torpedo boat flotilla thrown out by modern battle ships as skirmishers. Her lines are carried out forward and aft beyond the deck to give easy entrance and run, thereby making less disturbance in passing through the water at the speed of twenty-three knots.