The May 25, 1906 NYT is full of interesting stories. The headline "Battleship Building Race: Private Firm Beats Government Both in Time and Cost" caught my eye. Evidently, there was an "experiment" in which two battleships were to be constructed at the same time, one by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company and the other by the government at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The keel of the Louisiana was laid on Feb. 7, 1903, at Newport News, and the keel of the Connecticut, which was to be built in competition, was laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard March 7 of the same year. The Louisiana was launched Aug. 27, 1904, and the Connecticut followed her into the water a month later, Sept. 29. So far the race had been close, but soon the private workmen forged ahead, and the result was that the Louisiana was delivered ready for service probably some months in advance of the Connecticut.

The article implicitly assumes the quality of work and the characteristics of the two ships are basically identical. Moreover, it is not indicated whether the amount of man-hours spent on each ship was equal.

The last sentence is a doozie:

The Louisiana cost $3,992,000, while the Connecticut has already cost all of the total appropriation of $4,212,000, and the department has asked Congress for $380,000 more.