Ship With Three Skins.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 27, 1912:
Launch of Iron Duke at Portsmouth Marks New Era In Building.
    LONDON, Oct. 19.— The launching of the Iron Duke at Portsmouth this week marks a new era in British naval construction. The vessel is the twenty-eighth British dreadnought to take the water. Her displacement is 26,400 tons and her main battery consists of ten 13.5 in. guns firing shells of 1,400 pounds, or 150 pounds more than the projectiles fired by former weapons of this calibre.
    The chief feature, however, of the new dreadnought is the improvement that she demonstrates in her protection against submarine attack. Over the whole length of the "vitals" (from the first turret to the last) the hull of the ship consists of three separate skins, so that even if the two outer ones should be pierced by rocks or torpedoes the stability of the vessel would not be impaired.