Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 265, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1911 — CHILDREN LAY KEEL PLATE OF BING BATTLESHIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHILDREN LAY KEEL PLATE OF BING BATTLESHIP

AT the Brooklyn navy yard recently there took place a ceremony unique in the annals of naval construction. This was the riveting of a horseshoe onto the first keel plate of the New York, that is to be the latest, largest and most powerful of the ships of the Dreadnaught class in the navy of this country. After the emblem of good luck was thus fastened in place, the keel plate, nominally with the assistance of the children, was lowered, to its assigned position on the frame of the ship and riveted there. The sturdy little chaps who participated in the ceremony were all the children of naval officers or attaches of the yard. The picture shows one of them taking his turn with the hammer and driving a rivet through its appointed hole in the horseshoe and the white keel plate beneath.