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Show BIG SUSP AFLOAT Launching of Battleship Delaware Witnessed by 8,000 People , Newport News, Feb. fi. Tho great battleship Delaware was successfully launched from vards ef her builders, the Newport News Ship Building it Drj- Dock company, today. The launching launch-ing was witnessed by 8,000 tpeople. Among those present were, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Satterlee and Governor Pennewell of Delaware and his staff. The battlesbip was christened with champagne by Miss Anne Pennewell Cahlll, of Bridgeport, Del., niece of the governor, who had as her assistants, Misa Hazel of Dover and Miss Ellen Coleman Dupont of Wilmington. The launching was followed by an elaborate banquet. Compared with the battleships, completed com-pleted or under construction, of tho, navy of any foreign country, the Delaware Dela-ware surpasses all. She is one of the four sister ships authorized by congress con-gress which will form an indomitable squadron. The other vessels are tho North Dakota, being built at Qulney, Massachusetts; the Florida, which -will be hullt at the New'-York navy yard, and the Utah, to be built at Camden, New Jersey. . The Delaware is to carry as heavy armor and as powerful armament as any known vessel of Its class; will have a speed o$21 knots, which is believed be-lieved to he the highest practicable for a vessel of this type and class, and will have tho highest practicable raiiug of action. The arrangement of her main batterv gnms is such as to permit a broadside fire of 25 per cent greater than that of the broadside fire of any battleship now built, or, so far as is known, under construction. Her defensive qualities, other than thoso dependent upon armor protection, aro such as to give. the maximum degreo of protection to all the vital portions by means of unusually effective com partmental subdivision, so that, . in conjunction with her - armor protection, protec-tion, the defensive qualities of this vessel are believed to be dlstinctl;.-superlor dlstinctl;.-superlor to those of any battleship hitherto designed The hull is protected pro-tected by a water line belt of armor 8 feet in width, whose maximum thickness thick-ness is 11 inches. This armor belt gives effective protection to the boilers, boil-ers, machinery and magazine spaces. The side above the main armor belt is protected by armor 7 feet 3 inches wide and of a maxlmnm thickness of ten inches. Above the main casemate armor amidships, the side is protected protect-ed by armor of 5 Inches thickness, which affords protection to the smoke pipes, the major portion of the second-ard second-ard batteries of 5-inch guns, and tho hull structure. The plans for the Delaware were prepared by the Board of Construction inwcompeti'tion with plans submitted byS'arlous naval architects and shipbuilding ship-building companies, and submitted to a special board under the presldency of the former Assistant Secretary of the navy, T. H. Newberry and I861" approved by congress. The contrpxt for the Delaware was placed August fi. 1907, at a price. of $3,987,000 to bn built in accordance with the department's depart-ment's design for both hull and reciprocating re-ciprocating machinery. Her keel was laid November 11. 1S07. The Delaware is 510 feet In length on load waterllne. 85 feet 2 inches in breadth and her mean draft to bottom of keel at trial displacement about 27 feet. Her coal bunker capacltv is 2.500 tons which ! is sufficient to "send her at a 10-khot speed' a distance of 6,720 knots or 2S ; days' steaming. Provision is also made for the stowage of a large amount of oil fuel without in any de-I de-I gree reducing the rapacity of tho coal bunkers. She will have triple ex-! ex-! panslon reciprocating engines and will require over 900 men to man her. I Her armanent will consist of a main ' battery of ten 12-Inch breech-loading . rifles and her secondary battery will ' be fourteen 5-inch rapid-fire guns, j four 3-pounder saluting guns, four I 1-pounder semi-automatic guns, two 3-inch field pieces and two machine guns, of .30 caliber. She has two submerged sub-merged torpedo tubes. The' Delawaro will have a displacement displace-ment on trial of 20,000 tons, or 2.100 tons greater thiin the British Dreadnought Dread-nought and , 750' tons greater than Great Britain a latest vessel of that type, the Vanguard. |