Arkansas Armor Chipped.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 25, 1913:
Capt. Roy C. Smith Says This Is No Sign of Defect.
    The battleship Arkansas, the largest and most powerful of the dreadnoughts, was made ready yesterday for repairs in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she arrived from gun practice in Tangier Sound following the accident off the Cuban coast on Feb. 11, when an uncharted coral mountain in deep water dented several of her forward bottom plates and punched a hole two feet in diameter in the outer hull. While this damage is being repaired a new system of forced ventilation will be installed in the engine rooms, the trial tests having demonstrated that the natural ventilation does not meet the requirements because of the great turbine steam chests.
    On the starboard side of the groat warship several large pieces have peeled off from the surface of two of the big plates, and on two plates on the port side similar "chips" have broken the surface of the twelve-inch armor above the water line. From some source yesterday the report started that the armor of the Arkansas was defective, and that trial tests and the gunnery practice had shown it. Capt. Roy C. Smith, Commander of the Arkansas, was seen aboard the warship and asked to give his opinion of the condition of the vessel.
    "There is not a better battleship in the navy, and, aside from the damage to the hull, the Arkansas is in perfect condition," he said. "The largest 'spall,' or chip from the plates, is not more than a half-inch thick, and is of such slight importance that the Navy Department does not consider it even necessary to replace the plates. It is due to the hardening process of the steel necessary to acquire the proper resisting qualities, and sometimes a plate exposed to sudden change in temperature, a hard knock, or gun fire explodes on the surface, leaving no serious defect except to the smoothness of the plate. As regards the hull, I never saw batter material than that used on this warship."
    During the gun practice there was not a failure to any part of the ship, it was said. Some of the springs regulating the recoil block for the gun fire were found to be too strong and these will be adjusted. The Board of Inspection, it was announced in Washington yesterday, had found no defect in the battleship.
    Capt. Smith would not discuss the details of the accident to the Arkansas, because the subject is now before the Department for investigation. From unofficial sources it was learned that the Arkansas was in ten to fifteen fathoms of water when she hit the coral head. It
is impossible to guard against these obstructions, which grow to great height and stop only when they approach the surface. It is difficult to chart or even locate these coral growths because their pinnacles offer but little chance of discovery by soundings.
    During the trial tests of the Arkansas off the Maine coast last June she ran over a reef, but the impact did no more harm than to dent one or two plates. The Arkansas took President Taft to Panama in November, when she averaged nineteen knots an hour during the run of three days. She is capable of 22 knots. She was built by the New York Shipbuilding Company, which also built the battleship Utah.

Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, D.C., March 24.— The breaking off of the armor plates of the Arkansas as well as that of several other battleships has been discussed by experts on ordnance and general belief has been expressed that no serious damage has resulted from the few such occurrences recently. The chipping on the plates of the Arkansas was inspected before she went to Panama with President Taft's party last November, and a report was made to the effect that the flaking did not affect the plates at all seriously.
    The flaking is due to the piping in the ingots at the furnace. Many lives are lost annually in the United States because of these defects. The piping in this case is the same as in railroad rails. There was some talk in Congress a few years ago of passing legislation to make it a penal offense to turn out such rails, but the measure was abandoned. The Pennsylvania Railroad keeps its own inspector at the rolling mills and rejects, by a rigid inspection, all such rails. Thus far battleship armor plate has in no way caused any loss of life or detracted from the estimated efficiency of a ship.