U.S. FIGHTING SHIPS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 97, 7 April 1934, Page 7

U.S. FIGHTING SHIPS

More Speed and Guns NEW CASTING PROCESS The United Statee Navy Department and the steel industry are working together in the development of a new process which officials believe will give America faster, larger and more heavily armed fighting ships. A series of experiments into the whole field of steel easting—important both to the industry and the navy—-are under way at the naval research laboratory here and steel company laboratories throughout the country. These experiments have been going on some time, and while naval engineers were reluctant to discuss P ro “ gress made, they gave indications they were pleased. No secret was made of the fact that the general purpose of the studies was to perfect steel castings for vessels which would reduce their present immense weight. This added weight to overcome flaws and imperfections in castings has been found to eat heavily into the tonnage limitations on vessels set by Paval treaties. A reduction in poundage, officers said, could be used to provide additional guns and added machinery for increased speed. Another possibility, they said, would be added armour protection, affording vessels greater durability in battle. “If under a process we can be sure that castings are always 100 per cent, perfect and always able under all pressures to do the work expected of a part of a fighting vessel, we would reduce considerably the cost of ships,” one naval engineer said. So important has the navy considered the development of more perfect castings that it sent Captain Louis Shane, naval engineering expert, to Europe to study processes there. In brief his report was that the European systems, like the American, are far from perfection.

The question of steel castings in naval vessels came prominently to the fore several years ago when the stern posts of five of America’s new, crack 10,000 ton cruisers had to be renewed. They were the Northampton, Chester, Louisville, Chicago and Augusta. To save weight, the stern posts in these vessels had been made lighter than usual.