Biggest Battleship Launched This Week.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 27, 1912:
The Superdreadnought New York Will Take the Water at Brooklyn Navy Yard.
MISS CALDER TO NAME HER
While the President, the Governor, the Mayor, and Naval Officials Look On.
    The giant new superdreadnought New York, which, with her sister ship, the Texas, is to be the first American battleship to carry 14-inch guns in its turrets, will be launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Wednesday. The New York, which is 60 per cent. finished, will be, when she goes into commission, 1,000 tons greater in displacement than the superdreadnoughts Wyoming and Arkansas, and, where those two ships carry main batteries of twelve 12-inch guns, she will mount ten of the new and more powerful 14-inch type, and more than 1,000 officers and men will be required to properly man her. She is over 6,000 tons greater in displacement than the other Government-built superdreadnought Florida, which is the flagship of the first division of the Atlantic fleet. The New York is the fourth battleship to be built at the navy yard in Brooklyn, the others being the Florida, Connecticut and the old Maine, which was blown up in Havana harbor in the Spring of 1898.
    Miss Elsie M. Calder, the young daughter of Congressman William M. Calder of Brooklyn, has been designated as the girl who will name the New York. The flower girl for the ceremony, which will be one of the most imposing in the history of the navy, will be Miss Kathleen Fitzgerald, the little daughter of Congressman John J. Fitzgerald, also of Brooklyn. Thus the occasion will be non-partisan, for Mr. Calder is a Republican and Mr. Fitzgerald a Democrat. When it comes to working for the navy yard, one of the principal attractions and largest industries of their part of the city, they always work together.
    The New York will be the third battleship of what is known as the new navy to be built at the yard in Brooklyn entirely under the supervision of naval officers, the work of construction being done by naval workmen in the employ of the Government.
    The giving of the building contract for the Now York to the navy yard was due more than anything else to the activities of Mr. Calder and Mr. Fitzgerald, who fought day and night until Congress inserted the mandatory provision that the New York was to be built in New York by Government working-men. Prior to the authorization of the New York, Messrs. Calder and Fitzgerald had jointly led in the battle that resulted in the construction of the battleship Connecticut and the dreadnought Florida in New York.
    The naming, therefore, of Miss Calder. who is 10 years old, as the sponsor, and of little Miss Fitzgerald, who is just 9 years old, as the flower girl is taken in the navy as a recognition of the efforts of the two Congressmen as friends of the service. Miss Calder is a student at the Packer Institute in Brooklyn, while her little associate is still in the primary school.
    The launching will be a red letter day in the navy yard. President Taft, Vice President Sherman, the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Admiral Dewey, Rear Admiral Osterhaus, the Commander in Chief of the Atlantic Fleet; Gov. Dix and his staff, Mayor Gaynor, Senators Root and O'Gorman, the Congressmen from New York, and hundreds of people prominent in every walk in life are among those who have' been invited to witness the initial plunge into the water of what is to be one of the greatest fighting craft ever launched.
    A luncheon to the visitors will follow the launching, and Wednesday night the men who have actually built the ship will entertain at a dinner Naval Constructors Stocker and Bailey and the other officers of the construction corps who are in charge of the construction of the battleship. Before, during, and after the luncheon one of the finest bands in the Marine Corps will entertain the navy's guests.
    The New York is a sister ship of the Texas, which is under construction at a private yard, and both vessels should be ready for commission some time in the Fall of next year. The New York will displace 27,000 tons, and, in addition to her main battery, will carry a secondary battery of twenty-one five-inch and ten guns of smaller calibre. She is a four-screw battleship, fitted with Parsons turbines, and is designed for a speed of about twenty-two knots an hour.