Greatest Warship Now In The Hudson.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 9, 1912:
Arkansas, Equaled Only by the Wyoming, Joins the Fleet In the Hudson.
THE ARMADA GROWS DAILY
By To-morrow Night Mobilization of the Atlantic Fleet Will Have Been Completed.
    The mightiest ship of war that has been seen in New York waters anchored off Eightieth Street in the Hudson River at noon yesterday. This was the new super-dreadnought Arkansas, a ship that, if it could be brought ashore, would occupy a space half a city block wide and more than two and a half city blocks long. The great battleship steamed into Quarantine early yesterday morning, and proceeded at slow speed to her anchorage, acknowledging the salutes of the other ships she passed. When abreast the flagship Connecticut she fired a salute of thirteen guns in honor of Admiral Osterhaus, the Commander in Chief of the fleet now mobilized in the harbor.
    The Inflexible, the mighty battle cruiser England sent to New York for the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, and the Moltke, mightier than the Inflexible, which the Kaiser sent to visit this country, are in every way worthy of the flags they fly, but the Arkansas is superior to them from every naval standpoint except that of speed. Naval officers discount even this. One of them said yesterday battles are not won by "running away." We have another ship just as powerful as the Arkansas, which will arrive here today. This is the Wyoming, soon to supersede the Connecticut as flagship of the Commander in Chief or the Atlantic Fleet. There are other battleships, building for this and other navies, that will be more powerful than the Arkansas, but none is yet in commission, and for the time being the Arkansas and Wyoming lead the navies of the world in point of size and armament.
    The new ships are as graceful in appearance as any in the fleet. Forward there are two twelve-inch turrets, and on the afterdeck there are four more, which means that either of these vessels carry twelve twelve-inch guns. The twelve-inch projectiles the Arkansas or Wyoming could fire at a single broadside would weigh approximately 10,200 pounds, A twelve-inch broadside from ships of the Connecticut class weighs 3,400 pounds, from those of the Michigan class 6,800 pounds, and from the dreadnoughts of the Florida and North Dakota classes 8,500 pounds. In size the Arkansas is twice as large as the Idaho, 10,000 tons greater than the Connecticut, and 6,000 tons greater than the Delaware.
    If propped up in Broadway, the new super-dreadnoughts would occupy a space from Fortieth Street and Broadway to a point about opposite the northern end of the Times Building, and amidships they would use up all the space for a quarter of a block in both directions. Stood end on end, the Arkansas would be nearly three times as high as the Waldorf-Astoria, she would extend 138 feet above the top of the tower on the Times Building, nearly 175 feet above the dome of the World Building, and her bow would be less than eleven feet lower than the top of the tower of the new Municipal Building.
    From the moment she anchored off Eightieth Street, yesterday, until sundown, the new dreadnought was the centre of attraction to all those in Riverside Drive. Capt, Roy Campbell Smith, a native of Texas, who was appointed to Annapolis from Virginia commands the Arkansas. Under him are 1,100 officers, sailors and marines.
    In addition to the Arkansas, the ships that arrived yesterday and which joined the fleet in the Hudson, were the battleships Michigan, the battleship Virginia, the scout cruiser Chester and the fuel ship Cyclops. By to-night every battleship in the regular Atlantic Fleet should be at anchor in the Hudson and sometime to-morrow the line of warships will be completed with the arrival of the battleships and armored cruisers of the new Atlantic Reserve Fleet under Admiral Knight.
    To-morrow the twenty-four torpedo boat destroyers of the Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla under command of Capt. Edward W. Eberle will arrive. These destroyers are now in Newport. The auxiliary cruiser Dixie, Capt. Eberle's flagship, will sail for New York to-day. The submarine flotilla and the other unattached vessels are also due to-morrow, while some time to-day the scout cruisers Birmingham and Chester are expected to arrive.
    The progress of the World's Championship baseball game between the New York Giants and the Boston Red Sox, at the Polo Grounds, yesterday, was sent by wireless to all the battleships and cruisers in the Hudson. There are no more enthusiastic fans in the country than the sailors on every ship. The tension was extreme from the moment Tesreau pitched his first ball until "Joe" Wood ended it all. The sympathies of the sailors seemed to be about evenly divided between the teams. There was considerable betting and most of it at even money for the Navy doesn't go in for odds.