AMERICAN FLEET

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 71, 24 March 1920, Page 5

AMERICAN FLEET

BIGGEST SHIP LAUNCHED EIGHT 16-INCH GUNS. (BHIIIS PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPMIfIBT.) (AUSTRALIAN - NSW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATipNp (Received March 24, 9 a.m.) NEWPORT NEWS, 20th March. The Maryland, the largest super-! dreadnought in the United States Navy, has been launched. Her displacement is of 32,600 tons, and she will carry eight 16-inch, fourteen 5-inch, and several smaller guns. Her speed will be 21 knots. [The Maryland is the first of a number of United States warships to be armed with the 16-inch gun. She is one of a group, the others being Colorado, Washington, and West Virginia, all how under construction. Five great battle-crui-sers, of 35,300 tons, vitk a similar equipment of big guns, and fourteen 6-inch •guns, a designed seed of thirty-five knots are. also being built. These are Constellation, Constitution, Lexington, Ranger, and Saratoga; and-a sixth is also on the building programme. The 16-inch gun is the largest naval gun in extensive use. Japan is building two, and proposes two other battleships carrying eight 16-inch guns each. The standard biggest gun in the British Navy at present is 15-inch, which provides the main armament of all the latest battleships and battle-cruisers, including the Hood (41,200 tons, eight big guns), '.but the great seaplane carrier Furious (19,500 tons, 31£ knots) was designed to carry two 18-inch guns. The design was changed, however, and the big guns were omitted; and one was used in a monitor during the war. Two of the latest German ships scuttled at Scapa Flow (Baden and Bayeru) were armed with eight 15-inch guns-l