Northampton & Houston

At Quincy, Mass., there was a sultry, grey sky, a wet mist falling. An elegant lady in white shoes and stockings, in a white flannel coat .and a white felt hat with a white straw brim, with white teeth shining in a broad smile, advanced through the crowd. One white arm held a sheaf of pink roses; the other white arm waved gaily. There in the yards of Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Grace Goodhue Coolidge--for it was she--took a full-arm swing and smashed a bottle of sparkling mineral water on a stout steel hull, crying, "I christen thee Northampton."*

At Mrs. Coolidge's elbow, Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams in a stiff white collar, holding his white straw hat aloft with a gesture of dignified salutation, watched the new hull slide slowly down to the wet sea. The representative of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee saw nothing--neither the grey hull, the grey mist nor the white apparel. But he, blind Senator Schall of Minnesota (see p. 16), heard the patriotic whistles of the harbor shipping.

At Newport News, Va. It was a boiling hot day under a blazing hot sun, but Texans thrive in such weather. There were two good Texans looking the part, Senators Morris Sheppard and Tom Connally. Through the crowd came tripping a little Southern maid, all flowers, Miss Elizabeth Holcombe (daughter of a former Mayor of Houston) followed by a maid of honor. She struck the steady prow of the monster gingerly with a flask of bottled water. She struck again. No damage was done. Up stepped manly Homer Lenoir Ferguson, President of Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. (see col. 1), took the bottle in his hand, shattered it to fragments. The monster slid away before his blow, slipped into the shining waters of the River James. "Ah christen thee Houston," murmured Miss Holcombe.

The Northampton, first of its name in the U. S. Navy, and the Houston, second of its name, are the sixth and seventh of eight light cruisers authorized in 1924, laid down in 1928. Six hundred feet long, 65 feet broad, displacing 10,000 tons, they carry nine 8-inch guns, three to a turret. Each ship will be manned by 597 officers and men.

* The Coolidges, as few have forgotten, live at Northampton, Mass.