Show OF jae W MAW beside perpetuating a name which must ever have a prominent place la the history of the world aa written in these later days the launching in philadelphia of the new battleship maine is to american hearts a sad reminder of one of the most terrible tragedies of modern times it Is now three years and more sine the enactment of that horror in hava na harbor and since then the survivors have been to all quarters of the globe capt charles D sigsbee who corn banded the maine at the time of her destruction has applied for the corn baand of the new maine and it Is more than likely that the request will be granted and that she will fly his pen nant when commissioned for ce of the 25 officers who were atta hel to the maine at the time of her tion four are dead aleut F W jen kins and engineer darwin R merritt losing their lives in that tragedy john J blandin fl i n g shortly erward in his baltimore home and more recently chief engineer S charles P howell flied in this city bill anthony who was the first to no city capt sigsbee of the explosion on that fatal night in havana harbor sui aided in new york last year capt sigsbee who was given corn mand of the st paul when the war broke out and who did so excellent fe ervice while commanding that vessel is now chief of the naval intelligence office in washington his most efficient first lieutenant of the maine lieuten ant commander richard wainwright he who commanded the gloucester in that bloody reprisal off santiago is now superintendent of the naval academy at annapolis with the rank of commander having been advanced 10 numbers for his gallant work in destroying the spanish destroyers between the new maine and the old are few points of resemblance the first was rated as a second class battle ship with a displacement of only 6 tons her namesake is nearly twice as large displacing 12 tons at normal draught the principal dimensions of the new battleship are length between per ulars feet length over all feet 10 inches extreme breadth 72 feet mean draught 23 feet 6 inches displacement at normal draught 12 tons estimated displacement at full load draught 13 tons As to type the new vessel is to be an am proved alabama two knots faster than that fine battleship equipped with a more powerful armament and hedged about with a greater area of armor protection in the contract it ts stipulated that she must on her official trial maintain a speed of 18 knots for four conseco alve hours krupp armor the kind which has recently given such striking proofs of its resisting qualities Is to be used throughout the armor belt which is to be li inches thick at the top taper ing to 71 inches at the bottom ex tends to within 60 feet of the stern shielding the aidea 3 feet above the water line and tour feet below it the armor Is to be six inches thick the barbette 12 inches in front tapering to eight inches in the rear the protective deck will be 2 inches thick while alt where there 1 no belt armor protection it is thick ened being tour inches on the slope and three on the flat the forward con ning tower will have 10 inch ar mor and the signal tower 6 inch armor leading from the conning tower to the protective deck is a steel tube in tended to protect the voice tubes and telegraphs extend ing from the corn manding officer s station to the sta eions below this tube is 12 inches in diameter inside and is protected by a steel covering seven inches thick the engines are 0 the twin screw triple expansion inverted vertical type the 24 Ni clausse boilers which are al ready well advanced and which will be nearly completed when the ship strides the water are expected to give 16 horse power the vessel will have a bunker capacity of 2 tons this at an eight knot speed will give her a steaming of 8 knots almost sufficient for two round trips from new york to queenstown Queens town ireland or a trip halt around cape horn |