Show new cruisers well veil protected savings in weight allow for heavier armor washington the last of the ten eight ach inch gun ton washington treaty cruisers to be built by the united states under the london treaty have the most formidable armor deck protection ever built into a vessel 0 of this type these vessels wui will have an armor deck skin thick enough to stop the eight inch gun projectile up to ranges of yards the sixteenth seventeenth and eighteenth eight inch gun cruisers of this class may have even greater deck protection than the seven bull building ding one element in the navy now favors gling giving the an extra estra deck armor thickness at the cost of speed the navy high command however Is understood to favor retention of the present speed of better than 37 knots an hour increase armor protection every new batch of cruisers built of the eight inch gun treaty type have been given greater deck and side armor protection than their predecessors each batch also has been equipped with a greater number of antiaircraft anti aircraft weapons the first vessels were designed for four five inch gun antiaircraft anti aircraft weapons the next nest group had eight now the last ones cries to be built are to be armed with an increased number of antiaircraft anti aircraft machine guns the first eight inch gun cruisers had so little armor protection they were referred to by high ranking flag off officers leers as tin dads had the navy designers known as much as they do today the first eight eight inch gun cruisers could have teen as well protected as the last ten are going to be investigations have shown that the first erst eight are each about 1000 tons under tinder weight the total lost tonnage for the lie eight vessels Is tons this unused tonnage could have been used up in armor protection had not designers made the weight safety factor facto r too high bonus offered builders in buil building dlug the new ships bonuses were offered those builders who saved tonnage electric welding was employed to a hitherto unknown degree lightweight metals and aluminum were used where possible A high safety factor was used because of fear that the finished vessel might inight be over the 10 ton displacement permitted ty the london naval treaty figures discovered today place the tonnage of these ton class vessels at slightly more than tons their displacement is as follows chester bous ton northampton 90 ia pensacola salt lake lahe city chicago louisville and augusta all of these vessels could have been 10 tons displacement the lost tonnage cannot be built into eight inch g gun cruisers as the united states Is limited to 18 W whether 1 et lie r it I 1 t can be transferred to six inch gun cruiser tonnage Is a moot question |