LESS VULNERABLE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 93, 19 August 1942, Page 6

LESS VULNERABLE

TRAVEL ALMOST AWASH

SEMI-SUBMEIIG ED TYPE

The construction in Australia of reinforced concretc ships, built to a revolutionary design, was urged l)3 r an Australian structural engineer Mr E. Giles Stone, at one time chief designing engineer for the Sydney Harbour Trust. Mr Stone contemplates an ambitious programme of building large numbers of semi-submerged types of freighter, resembling in some respect. a giant submarine. Such a vessel, he maintains, 'travelling almost awash, heavily gunned and cunningly camouflaged, would be invisible from the air and would be less vulnerable to torpedo attack than any ship now afloat. Concrete ships of 4000 tons, built to his design, could, he estimates, be constructed in Australia in half the time it takes to build a steel ship and at a quarter the cost. Built 20ft Model "Stresses and strains," he said, "are such that if you build in concrete as you do in steel you might j/ust as Avell not build at all. My design, which lias been greatly improved in the last 25 years, is such a departure from the steel ship design, that all the conventional arguments against the practicability of the concrete ship are put out of court. '* He added that lie had built a 20ft model. To prevent water seepage the hull was lined with an imperious material. Mr Stone said that, desspitc the additional weight of the ships, they could be driven at 18 knots. No launching ways were required. The cost of building the hull would be perhaps £00,000.