the lower deck floor was two-inch steel and was not divided into
compartments, having no partitions, so that if solid shot or shell
entered the side of the ship it could not scatter a shower of steel
splinters to kill or wound the men, and for further protection against
fragments of shell heavy woolen blankets were hung on the inside from
the ceiling. A double partition of two-inch steel ran bow to stern
through the center of the ship, reaching from the floor of the hold to
the lower deck, with a space between the partitions of four inches
filled in with concrete, and the gun deck was supported by heavy steel
pillars, as the space between the lower deck and the gun deck was twelve
feet. A fireproof platform four feet wide with a railing four feet high
of netting, encircled the smokestack about twenty feet above the gun and
connected with it by a rope ladder. It was the lookout station and the
Captain's post in battle from where he directed the action.

There was only one smokestack on any battleship and no bridge or
superstructure or any inflammable material above the waterline, and the
officers and men eat at the same tables and partake of the same food. If
any officer or private objected to it or violated this rule, he was
dismissed the service, for it was considered injurious to the service on
board ship to keep any discontented person. The crew consisted of two
hundred privates, fifty corporals, five sergeants, ten lieutenants, ten
captains, one chief engineer with two assistants, one lieutenant
commander and the commander, who was captain of the ship and had the
same rank and pay as a colonel in the army.

The gunner and assistant gunners held the same rank and pay as captains
and lieutenants in the army. The chief engineer received the same as the
commander and took orders only from him, and his assistants received the
same pay as majors in the army, and the sergeants, corporals and