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VOL. 39. CLEVELAND, NEW YORK No. 7 BATTLESHIP DELAWARE LAUNCHED. The launching of the United States battleship Delaware occurred at the plant of the. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock: Co, Newport: News, Va., Feb. 6, in the presence of a distinguished assemblage including Assistant Secretary of the Navy Satterlee, Gov. Pennewill, of Delaware, and his staff, Lieut.-Gov. Mendinhall, a delegation from the Dela- ware legislature, as well as Rear Ad- miral Taussig and other naval officers. The ship was christened by Miss Anne Pennewill Cahill, of Bridgeport, Del., a niece of the governor. The Delaware is one of the four sister ships authorized by congress which are to surpass any battleship. now known, either completed or under construction, in any navy in the world. The other constituents of this formidable quartet are the North Dakota, now completing at the plant of the Fore River Ship Building Go, at. Quiney,. Mass.;° the Florida, which is to be built at the New York navy yard, and the Utah, which will be constructed by the New York Ship Building Co., Camden, N. J. A POWERFUL VESSEL. The Delaware is to carry as_ heavy armor and as powerful armament as any known vessel of its class, will have a speed of 21 knots, which is_ be- lieved to be the highest practicable for a vessel of this type and class, and will have the highest practicable radius of action. The arrangement of her main battery guns is such as to permit a broadside fire 25 per. cent greater than that of the broadside fire of any battle- ship now built, or, so far as-is known, under construction. Her defensive quali- ties, other than those dependent upon armor protection, are such as to give the maximum degree of protection to all the vital portions by means of un- usually effective compartmental sub- FEBRUARY 18, 1909. division, so that, in conjunction with her armor protection, the defensive qualities of this vessel are believed to be distinctly superior to those of any battleship hitherto designed. The hull is protected by a water-line belt of armor 8 ft. in width, whose maximum thickness is 11 in. This armor belt gives effective protection to the boilers, machinery, and magazine spaces. The side above the main armor belt is protected by-.armor 7 ft. 3 in. wide and of a maximum thickness of 10 in. Above the main casemate armor amidships the side is protected by armor of 5 in. thickness, which affords protec- tion to the smokepipes, the major por- tion of the secondary batteries of 5-in. guns, and the hull structure. PLANNED BY BOARD. The plans for the Delaware were pre- pared by the board of construction of the navy department in competition with plans submitted by various naval archi- tects and ship building companies and which were submitted to a special board under the presidency of Truman H. Newberry, formerly assistant secretary of the navy. These plans were later approved by congress and the contract for building the Delaware was placed Aug. 6, 1907, on a bid of $3,987,000. Her keel was laid Nov. 11, 1907. The Delaware is 510 ft. in length on the load water line, 85 ft. 2 in. beam and has a mean draught of 27 ft. Her coal bunker capacity is 2,500 tons, which is sufficient to send her at. a ten-knot speed a distance of 6,720 knots, or twenty-eight days' steaming. Provision is also made for the stowage of a large amount of oil fuel without in any de- gree reducing the capacity of the coal bunkers. She will have triple-expansion reciprocating engines, and will require over 900 men to man her. Her armament will consist of a main battery of ten 12-in. breech-loading rifles and her secondary battery will include 14 5-in. rapid-fire guns, four three- pounder saluting guns, four one-pounder semi-automatic guns, two 3-in. | field pieces and two machine guns of 0.30 calibre. The Delaware is equipped with two submerged torpedo tubes. This great fighter will have a displace- ment: on trial of 20,000 tons; or 2,100 | tons greater than the British Dread- nought and 750 tons greater than the Vanguard, Britain's latest vessel of the Dreadnought type. MAURETANIA MAKES RECORD. The Cunard line steamship Maure--- tania, which left New York, Feb. 3, for Queenstown and Liverpool passed the Daunt's. Rock light at 5:10 P.M yen 8, thus establishing a record for the eastward passage across the Atlantic. The distance covered was 2,934 miles and _the passage was made in 4 days, 20 hours and 27 minutes, the liner main- taining an average speed of 25.20 knots. The time is reckoned from the passing of the Sandy Hook light and the Maure- tania on this remarkable trip not only broke the record for the eastbound pas- sage but that for the highest day's run, which was 605 knots for a 23 hour day, equivalent to 660 knots for a 25 hour day. The Mauretania covered what is known as the "long course," for which she also held the. previous record for the east- ward run, 5 days and 5 minutes, made in March, 1908. The best time over the course was made by her sister ship the Lusitania, in December, 1907, when she covered the distance in 4 days, 22 hours and: 29 minutes. Owing to the heavy seas the Maure- tania was unable to land her passengers and mail at Queenstown and they were carried on to Liverpool. This circum- stance is believed to indicate that even