Salt Lake Tribune | 1904-10-31 | Page 1 | Defect in Battleships

DEFECT IN BATTLESHIPS. Vital Part of Ohio, Maine, Missouri, Eeft Unprotected. SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 30. Tho Chronicle today says: "Naval omcers have succeeded for many months In keeping- secret a peculiar structural feature fea-ture of the hew battleship Ohio, which, In their opinion, Is nothing' less than a glaring defect of a nature so serious, as one olllcer expressed It, that It amounts to nn Invitation to an enemy to do the vesyel enormous damage dam-age In action. "The defect consists In omitting to put armor around the after end of the superstructure, within which are mounted ten six-Inch rapid-flro guns. This omission, It is held, makes the big war vessel dangerously vulnerable In a vital part to hostile shots coming from either quarter. "Furthermore, shells entering this place might do great damage to the engine-room, the hatch of which Is well aft Inside the casemate and the shell bursting Inside the "casemate armor would probably send fragments Into tho engine-room. "The fault does not lie either with the builders or the naval constructors detailed to twpervlse tho work. The Ohio was built strictly according to the plans and specifications, which were made in the Navy department In Washington Wash-ington under the direction and scrutiny of the board of construction." Tho Chronicle further says: "The Ohio Is not the only one of tho new-battleships new-battleships with this fault. Her two sister ships, the Maine and the Missouri, Mis-souri, as well as the Wisconsin, Alabama Ala-bama and Illinois, have this omission."