Show COALVILLE LADY VIS ITS US AIRCRAFT CARRIER written for the benefit of af the young people who have never see seen m a warship il 14 during my visit in seattle sea t tle I 1 view 1 ed the U S S lexington anc anchored anchoria horid in elliott bay and was indeed impressed by its massiveness and unusual arrangement of construction the flying deck stretches over the entire hull the bridge brid tunnel funnel turrets and masts being placed at the extreme edge ofte flying deck on the starboard side the ship is feet aver over all and has a normal displacement of 33 tons it carries eight 8 3 inch and twelve 5 inch guns forty combat planes and thirty two bombing planes and is electrically driven the steam is furnished by sixteen pil oil burning boilers to turbine generators totaling horse power these supply power to the propulsion mol motors 0 rs which turn the four propeller shafts the ship has a contract speed of from thirty four to thirty eight knots originally y it was intended as a battle cruiser the tha U S S saratoga is her sister ship the lexington was sent from seattle to tacoma where its mighty turbines were used to utilizing electric power to aid the crippled power situation which chAvas was becoming critical because of the long drought western washington has always been noted for its abundance of rain and water power but the ele merits ments are depended upon entirely for the supply of 0 power and when it falls fails to rain for a long period of tune time the rivers are consequently lowered and no power can be generated by ordinary means through the lower plants thus the U S gov eminent loaned the lexington t to 16 the city of tacoma for a period of one month af afa bicok cost of 1500 per day in addition to this tacoma pays 00 a day for use of the baker dock at which terminal the lexington is berthed and also pays I 1 cent a kilowatt hour for the electricity manufactured by the airplane carrier an unusual winter has been ex perien perlen ced here there has been no rain but abundant snow and very severe cold weather lakes and rivers are frozen over to a bickness tic kness of fourteen inches old timers dont remember ber of 0 any such weather in this part of the country the logging camps are closed until the weather moderates and some of the schools in the city of everett evereti are closed until water can be supplied for the city everetts water supply was crippled by a break in the main and a frozen intake but at the present time the situation is being relieved by emergency pumps installed on the pilchuck ucb river a short distance from snohomish fire engines from everett are pumping the water at this point I 1 visited visited the lakes to see the skaters hundreds out day and night hot coffee and hot dog doa stands are in evidence all around the lakes and we could hardly make our way through the parked cars seems to be the joy of their lives MARGARET R SALMON |