LAUNCH of the LORD NELSON

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 257, 3 November 1906, Page 9

LAUNCH of the LORD NELSON

The Lord Nelson, which was launched' on August 4th from Palmer's works on the Tyne, is a sister ship to the Aga- ; meinnon, which wa"s iloated on June 23 from "Beardm ore's Naval Construction Works on the Clyde. Both ships j are alike, and as regards the progress, it may be said that the launching weight will be about 7000 tons, and that there is about 1200 tons of armour in place. The Lord Nelson was designed by Kir Phillip Watts almost immediately upon his appointment to the Admiralty as Director of Naval Construction; but' at the same time he produced his general plans for what has since developed into the Dreadnought. The Lord Nelson is smaller than the Dreadnought, but the difference in cost is comparatively slight. In the one ship there are eight sets of gun-mountings, and in the other five. It is true that the gun-mountings for two 9-in. guns are lighter than for the pairs of 12in. guns, but the cost is cot proportionately less. Thus in the case of the Dreadnought the gun-mountings are estimated to cost £342,150, whereas in the Lord Nelson the estimate is £445,208. This gives a large margin to compensate for the cost of the increase in the length of the Dreadnought and for the corresponding increase in the weight of the armour required. One outstanding feature is that all the guns are on the npppr deck, and have exceptionally large arcs of training. This is a feature which has characterised Sir Phillip Watts' ships since

GKEAT BRITAIN'S KEWEST BATTLESHIP.

'he returned to the Admiralty, and affords an enormous advantage in height jof gun platform, which, again, tends to improve the accuracy as well as to increase the range. j The secondary guns are located on a flying deck 13ft. above the upper deck, extending for about one-third the length of the ship and occupying only about one-half the width. This is a new feature, or, rather, is a revival of the old feature. The speed of the Lord Nelson is only eighteen knots an hour, to the Dreadnought's twenty-one knots. DOUBTS ABOUT HUGE WARSHIPS. Speaking at the luncheon which followed the launching of the Lord Nelson, Admiral Cleveland remarked that he could say wjth confidence, after all the years during which lie had teen connected with it, that he had never known the Navy to be in a better position than to-day. Commenting on the latest types of battleship, he observed that the Dreadnought was nearly 1500 tons heavier taan the Lord Nelson. The wisdom of building such large leviathans seemed to him rather doubtful, in view of the fact that they had to go to all parts of the world to protect our shipping, and had to find accommodation for docking and repairs, and in view of the risks they ran in navigation, greater in the case of large vessels than smaller ones, he was not rjuito sure that they were wise to put two millions ,;n one horse.