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1901.] MARINE REVIEW. 19 JOHN B. HARDY'S PLANT AT TACOMA. John B. Hardy of Tacoma, Wash., is gradually building up an ex- cellent business in vessel and engine construction. Lately he moved his shops from the foot of Seventh street to a more commodious location. There was a break of only four days between his shutting down at the old place and beginning to run in the same building, joined together again, at the new location. The building at the right of the illustration is JOHN B. HARDY'S NEW PLANT AT TACOMA, one that was already built on the property, and will be used as a store room and erecting shop. Mr. Hardy is building a foundry and black- smith's shop directly back of this building. The dock shown is 300 ft. long, with 15 ft. of water at low tide. The property comprises ten acres with 1,200 ft. water front. The machine shop is 50 by 1380 ft., the pattern shop 50 by 50 ft., the erecting shop 60. by 140 ft., the foundry and black- smith's shop 75 by 90 ft., and the engine and boiler room 25 by 25 ft. Mr. Hardy is at present building engines for several steamers. The second photograph shows a part of the engine room of the steamer Mainlander, ft 3 ENGINE ROOM OF THE MAINLANDER. which the Review recently had the pleasure of describing. The steamer runs from Tacoma to Vancouver, B. C., and has exceeded in all of her trips her guaranteed speed. The Mainlander is 162 ft. long, 29 ft. wide, and is the finest on the score of equipment of any passenger steamer on Puget Sound. The engine is 16, 27 and 44 in, by 24 in. stroke, and Mr. Hardy says it is the largest that has yet been built in the state of Wash- ington. The naval board of construction last week considered plans for the construction of two battleships and two armored cruisers authorized by the late congress. It was practically determined that the battleships should have a displacement of 15,000 tons and the armored cruisers 14,000 tons. The speed of the battleships will be 19 knots and that of the armored cruisers 21 knots. The question of the superposed or single turret was left open. Pan-American exposition rates to Buffalo are in effect April 30 via the Nickel Plate road at one-and-one-third fare for the round trip, good to return within fifteen days. A rate of one fare for the round trip will be made good going on Tuesdays in May and returning within five days. Write, wire, 'phone or call on nearest agent, or E. A. Akers, C. P. & T. A., Cleveland, O. 47, May 30. THE SWEDISH NAVY. From the Engineer, London. The Swedish navy is a subject whereon the average man is usually little informed; to many people, indeed, it will be news almost to know that the Swedes have no less than ten battleships built or building, and five 21-knot torpedo cruisers. This is exclusive of a dozen or so monitors. All the battleships are of light draught, specially designed for cruising in the Archipelagoes, and for this reason do not exceed 4,000 tons odd. Two 8-in. and six 6-in. is the staple armament of the vessels, but some recently completed carry a couple of heavier pieces. Having got together their battleships, the Swedes have begun to feel the need of cruisers, without which any fleet is blind. The torpedo gunboats do not carry enough coal, nor are they sufficiently seaworthy to scout in all weathers and cir- cumstances; hence the demand for large cruisers. It is still necessary, however, that these conform to the requirements for battleships, namely, great handiness and light draught, without which they would be aground inno time. The maximum possible armament is also dernanded. All told this, it will be readily seen is a problem calling for very careful handling, several of the desired qualities being antagonistic to each other. The required qualities were set before the designers in the following order: (1) Light draught; (2) great handiness; (3) the highest possible speed; (4) coal enough to keep at sea at full speed for a week or more; (5) as large an armament as possible, with the maximum arc of fire to all guns; protection to guns and water-line. In order to satisfy requirements No. 1 and No. 2, the limit of displacement was fixed at 4,000 tons. A vessel of this type, now one of the best in the Swedish navy, embodies a novel feature in gun placing. Such details as are accessible concerning the ship are as follows: Displacements 3.450. 05.. 4,000 tons Wength, 6 eos le a 328 ft. Beanie yaa ee ee About 50 ft. Dae Hts ie ilies ear About 17 ft. Agiaame tits ao tet ee Eight 45-calibre 6-in. Q. F. (Bofors) Twelve 6-pounder Q. F. (Bofors) Two submerged tubes (Elswick) Armor (Kruppized).Double turtle-back deck Eight turrets, 4-in. or 5-in. armored hoists to each Armored hoists, two, for 6-pounders Armored conning tower Armored connecting tube Complete cellulose belt rising 3 ft. above the water-line Speeds eu 22 knots Boilers... . Yarrow. It will be noted that the ship can fire six of her eight 6-in. pieces on the broadside--that is to say, just as many as the British 5,900-ton High- fliers, and these pieces, unlike the Highfliers', are protected very thor- oughly. Each gun is in a closed turret, and each turret is balanced and revolves on its armored hoist. Nothing carried by any cruiser afloat could hurt these turrets; even if only 4 in. thick this amount of Krupp armor inclined as it is on Swedish turrets is equal to from 20 in. to 24 in. of vertical wrought iron. On paper, therefore, the ship is superior to anything of her size built or building. ' The problem is, how will the superposed turrets stand the test of battle? They fire, it will be noted, over each other, in the end-on position. Swedes say that experiments have been carried out very fully, and that no harm results to the people underneath. This is a hard statement to swallow, but it is worthy of note that the firing over would only very rarely be required. In all normal positions there is no interference. Good, bad, or indifferent, the Swedish system is infinitely superior to the Ameri- can double-story turret. Swedish officers have no faith in a pair of guns in a turret for small ships; they consider the shock of the recoil to be too great, and here they are probably reasonable. Certainly to have had four turrets with the guns in pairs would have been a bold experiment, nor is it one that looks promising. It may be interesting to compare this Swedish design with some other cruisers of the same or greater tonnage--the immense superiority in the percentage of guns that bear on any one point will be apparent at once. : a Total guns 8 aS ~ : - bearing. '5 - 4 q Sey wo ° - © a 3 A ° a g 8 Pa ie ees Fe 5 o Sab 28.2 3 Se G f Zi Z Aas Hh A A ES a = p.c; pec. A B.C. 4,000 8 6 6 4 75 50 Highflyer 5,600 11 6 4 2 54 17 Diadem .. 11,000 16. 8 6. 4 50 25 Brogatyr . ; 6,500 12 8 6 3 65 25 Askold ghey i 6,500 12 7 1c 4 5814 3324 VRB iia Sores cise eee i 6,500 12 6 4 3 50 25 Pallada 000 8 4 5 2 50 274% J de la Graviere 5,500 8 216 oboe eo 271% ' The end-on figures are, of course, "paper" ones. We have not com- pared her to any smaller ships, for all are hopelessly inferior. So it will be noted are some larger vessels. The most noteworthy instance in this comparison is the British Diadem design. It is very nearly three times the size of the Swedish cruiser, but only on the broadside is the ship better gunned, and even so only by two guns that the first small shell will ob- literate. Practically the only advantage for the 7,000 extra tons is, so far as armament is concerned, a supply of 12-pounders, against which there is a knot less speed, and a good deal more than a knot's worth of unhandi- ness, no ships ever designed being quite so cumbersome and unhandy as the British Diadems. We might say much more about these figures, but they speak for themselves. If this Swedish idea has anything whatever in it, something like a revolution will be effected in cruiser design. The off-side battery in a cruiser is useless. The cruiser that gets most guns in will win and send her adversary below. Since our naval officers are allowed no voice in the question of armament per ton of displacement, the least we can do is to see that each gun has the widest possible angle of fire. Four of the guns in the Swedish design have arcs of 270, the other four of 180°. British ships rarely give more than 90°. Comment is superfluous,