Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 180, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1916 — NEW BATTLESHIP IS EQUAL TO TWO [ARTICLE]

NEW BATTLESHIP IS EQUAL TO TWO

Pennsylvania Could- Demolish Vera Cruz From 16 Miles Out at Sea. HAS PICKED CREW OF 900 Navy Men Say She Could Do More Damage Than Any Other Two Ships—Burns Oil and Has Fourteen-Inch Guns. Norfolk, Va. While the United States is making active preparations to get the navy ready for possible service in Mexico there is unusual activity on board the battleship Pennsylvania, the latest and what naval men say Is the most powerful ship in the American navy. This big ship, but recently commissioned, has never seen any service. Her big guns have never been fired, and her hull has only once ventured outside the Virginia capes, and that when she was on her speed trial runs. But she is ready for service, and navy men say she could do more damage than any other two ships in the navy with her big 14-lnch guns. Her crew, too, Is made up almost entirely of men from other ships in the navy. Unlike most of Uncle Sam’s ships, the Pennsylvania has practically no “rookies,” or recruits, among her crew of 900 men. They are all trained seamen, engineers, electricians, machinists and various other mechanics. Her gun crew is composed of gunners of long experience, most of them coming from the New Hampshire, the Louisiana and the Vermont. The latter ship sent 72 trained men to the Pennsylvania. Vermont, New Hampshire and Louisiana have been added to the reserve fleet, and their crews sent to the Pennsylvania and various other ships whose complements were not complete. Burns Oil Exclusively. The Pennsylvania burns oil exclusively, and in a single day she took on board 150,000 gallons, just one-third of the quantity she will need when she goes on a cruise. She can fill her tanks in three hours, and only two men are required in the task. On coaling days It required nearly half of the crew to store the fuel in the bunkers. It also meant a dirty ship after the task was completed. With the use of oil there is no dirt to clean up after the vessel completes taking on a fuel supply sufficient to last from ten days to six weeks. Navy men say the Pennsylvania would prove of Inestimable service in

case of war with any nation. They say that American ships of deep draft cailnot lay very close to Vera Cruz or other Mexican ports during a storm. The Mexican coast, they say, is cursed with what marine men term “northers” —a storm with a wind velocity often reaching 100 miles an hour. When these storms break warships are forced to go out to sea to escape danger of being driven ashore. At Vera Cruz, when one of these “northers” hits the coast, all warships go out to sea for 15 miles. Sometimes they are required to remain there for three or four days. Her Long-Range Guns. The Pennsylvania, with her big gnns, would be able to bombard Vera Cruz, if it became necessary, from 16 miles at sea. She could remain that far out and drop shells from her 14-inch guns right in the heart of Vera Cruz as easily as she could at a 1,000-yard range. The battleship Nevada, of the same type as the Pennsylvania, has been trying out her big gnns off Tangiers sound, in Chesapeake bay, exploding big shells against the sunken hulk of the old battleship San Marcos, formerly the Texas, and the ram Katahdin, both of which were sunk by shell fire from ships of the Atlantic fleet.