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Show t . Retviza.n, Grcetost of X it SeckS Battleships, Just Completed When the Russian unfurls the blue cross of St. Andrew on its field of milky white over the taffrail of the Rotvizan, a few weeks hence, he will possess the greatest battleship, in many respects, of which any navy can now boast. To find out if all this is so. the Cramps, who created the vessel, ves-sel, are ready to take her to sea for a preliminary trial, which promises to be of world-wide interest. This ship, more than any other that Is even approaching completion, embodies em-bodies every development of the monster mon-ster man-of-war which had for its first model Ericsson's tiny monitor; and the czar's officers, who have watched her grow from the simple center keel plate smile now and are Impatient to exhibit their prize to naval Europe. A battleship of nearly 13.000 tons, that can run as swiftly as an ordinary ordi-nary accommodation train on a first-class first-class railroad; that will house neary 800 men, and which, at a distance of ten or a dozen miles, can hurl 3,400 pounds 'of chilled steel and high explosive ex-plosive against an enemy from the four great guns that peer out of turrets tur-rets of steel, which resemble in shape I when the vessel is forced at top speed over the deep course between Cap Ann and Cap Porpoise for foul hours, would never satisfy the czar's men. They have a set of tests of their own devising that, if practiced on all the ships of foreign navies, would likely result in half of them being declared failures. First they wanted no assisted or forced draught used; next they, insist that the vessel shall maintain the contract con-tract speed for twelve consecutive hours, and incidentally they "stand about to watch the indicator cards and see that it is done. When it is considered that the United States government "proving course off the New England coast is only fifty knots long and that Uncle Sam's ships steam it over twice to prove their merit the difficulty of having deep-sea room enough to run a vessel twelve hours on a stretch and all the time at eighteen eight-een knots an hour must be evident. Builders' Test Is Interesting But there is a way to overcome this difficulty. The modern battleship Is nothing if not a piece of machinery, and machinery well geared, like figures except for tha pusuing of the shell into the yawning breech. There are four twelve inch, twelve six-inch and twenty three-inch guns in the main battery, while the secondary second-ary group is made up of twenty forty-seven-millimeter Hotchkiss rapid-fire cannon. Every cne of these has to be tested, not because the Russians fear the efficiency of the guns themselves, them-selves, but to enable them to learn just how the carriages and the fittings stand the strain and also what sort of a gun platform the vessel is. Therefore the Cramps will man the ship 'with a crew from theii- yards, all of them skilled engineers and firemen, and Capt. Stechensnovitch. the future commander, will take aboard gun crews made up from the 100 or more men who are here as a part of the crew that will take the ship home. Once compasses are adjusted the nose of the Retvizan will be pointed out of the De'aware capes to the open sea and she will be run slowly to the deep water that lies just beyond the Five Fathom, banks, perhaps sixteen miles off shore. Then, between the northeast and southwest, light vessels of the Bank, known to be just 11 knots apart, the first speed run will be made, and when all is found satisfactory satisfac-tory a northwest course will carry the vessel far away from the track of any regular liners or coasters and the swarthy Russian sailors will be given their chance to participate in the affair. af-fair. This they will do by firing each gun at nothing but the water, first with half a service charge of powder and &en with the regular war charge and projectile. The effects of each shot on every plate, beam and stanchion will be noted, for the great guns use: 210 pounds of the highest power smokeless powder to hurl their 850-; pound pointed clyinders of steel, and. the crush and shock of such a discharge dis-charge Is little less than a small earthquake. There Is one thing sure in connection with the Retvizan. She will never, catch fire. The lessons of the Yalu river, Manila bay and Santiago are now too deeply rooted in the minds of the Russians to permit them to use wood in any form In the construction of their ships. So she has asbestos bulkheads in all the living spaces and the entire Interior is sheathed with the same fire-proof material. EJ en her boats will be of metal, a Jtep which has not been taken oy the United States yet, though the newer ships have precious little wood about them. It will be only a few days berore the world will know whether this $3,000,000 combination of steel Is a success or a failure, and if she proves the test, as everybody believes she will, then the world must bow, for the era of the 18-knot battleship has come. NEW RUSSIAN BATTLESHIP RETVIZAN- LOOKING AFT I nothing so much as the skull of an orang-outang elliptical balanced turrets, tur-rets, the plans call them that Is the Retvizan. Warship builders the world over knew that the czar wanted ships a few years ago, and all figured on how best to please the imperial marine ministry. But the czar not only wanted vessels he Wanted them of a type vastly im-' im-' proved and, moreover, he wanted them quick. Then '. it was that Charles R. Cramp figured out the possibilities, pos-sibilities, first of the Variag, now the crack protected cruiser of the Russian navy, and second of the Retvizan. . A Hard Problem. It was the latter which needed the most figuring. To build a ship of the speed required, displacing approximately approxi-mately 13,000 tons-12,775 to be exact and float it in less than twenty-six feet of water, was the proposition, and its answer Is the huge craft now about to seek the sea to try herself. The hull, which carries the typical sweeping sweep-ing American lines that mean grace and speed, is 384 feet long between perpendiculars, and seventy-two feet two and one-half inches wide, and as she lies now there are nine inches of Krupped armor spread over the massive mas-sive sides for two-thirds the entire correctly totaled, never lie. So they will run the Retvizan over the measured meas-ured course, and knowing the exact distance from mark to mar!:, will keep a record of the revolutions of the big twin screws until the time comes when a carefully measured space is covered exactly at the required speed. Then the time will be ripe for the main test, and for twelve hours the ship will be forced onward over a course laid anywhere In the sea that gives the required area of deep water, and throughout the revolutions of the i propellers must average at least up to the turns that were found necessary to make the contract speed. The coming first trial of the big battleship bat-tleship is called a preliminary, or builders' test, but it Is much more interesting, and far more important than the final acceptance trial of twelve hours, for it really shows the qualities of the ship for the first time, and in addition, every gun will be tested, a feature totally eliminated from United States warship trials. Their guns keep silence until long after the vessel is In commission, then the firing trial Is ordered. Has a Terrific Battery. The Retvizan carries a terrific battery bat-tery and the big gun3 are novel to length. Above this belt there is six Inches to the deck line; the gun positions, posi-tions, in casements above, have, five inches of plating. Back of the armor is the curved protective deck, which covers the vitals of the ship. To keep out any stray raking shot that might go through and disable a gun or two, heavy armored bulkheads are worked in at the ends of the main and casemate case-mate belts. This is the first battleship built in this country with a complete installation installa-tion of water-tube boilers. This was one of. the novel features involved in the Cramp plan" awl all the machinery machin-ery Is particularly 'adapted to thi3 type of boiler'. They will make the Steam that will give the two ponderous ponder-ous triple-expansion' engines the power pow-er to whirl the shafts with the strength of 16,000 ''"fiorsos. - Then the twin 25,000 pourid: propellers will be called npon to push the ship ahead at the rate of eighteen knots an hour,, though it would be hard to find a man at Cramps' who does not believe that the indicated horse power djveloped will be much In excess of the requirements require-ments and that the ' speed will be nearer nineteen thun eighteen knots. Russians Require Severe Tests. When the Russians accept a ship there is no chance of their g tt ng anything any-thing but what they order. A United States government trial, sevora as is, ONE OF THE RETVIZAN'S POWERFUL GUNS. American eyes, for the Russians manufacture manu-facture all their own heavy ordnance at the Obrukoff works. They are really a modification of the famous FrenchCanet type and have practically the same style of breech block and, like all such weapons, are fired by electricity and loaded by machinery, |