LATEST CRUISERS COMPARED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 463, 23 March 1909, Page 6

LATEST CRUISERS COMPARED.

H.M.S. DREADNOUCHT. Trie type of Battleship offeree! by New Zea land,

WHAT WILL THE NEW BRITISH TYPE BEP The newly-launched German cruiser Von dor Tnnn is undoubtedly th'e cruiser "P"- which has been figuring for some time is press forecasts of the German naval construction programme, which was recently referred to in The Dominion. The tonnage attributed to "F" by English papers is 18,700. This at first seems to be a discrepancy, as the cablegram says 19,000 tons, but an English writer remarks that tho German figures represent metric tons, which work out at 18,700 English, or 1150 tons in excess of Britain's great armoured cruiser Indomitable, the trans-Atlantic greyhound. Undoubtedly, the Von der Tann is, to date, the world's largest cruiser, or cruiser-battle-ship, as this mammoth class has been called. She is expected to carry twelvo 11-inch and a number of 5.9-inch guns. By way of comparison, it may bo stated that the Indomitable carries eight 12-inch and sixteen 1-inch guns; while the Dreadnought battleship (the original one) carries ten 12-inch and twenty-eight small puns (the secondary armament, lacking in the Dreadnought, being mado good in later British battleships with twenty 4-inch guns). With regard to the statement that tho Von dcr Tann will be fitted with* turbines—the first German Dreadnought battleships having

position in 1911 and afterwards, in view of Germanyjs admitted acceleration of lier rate of construction and her probable ability to build still faster. But all this was known some time ago. For instance, under date December 13 of last year the Berlinfj correspondent of "The Tinies" wrote very plainly i "The total tonnage of ships launched for the German navy during 1908 is about 99,000 tons, as compared with 03,000 tons in 190G, which was hitherto the 'record' year. The fact that the output has increased by one-third in the course of two years is taken to reflect accurately the progress in efficiency of the German yards—the Imperial yards at Kiel. Wilhelmashafen, and Danzig, and the Gcrmania, Vulcan, Schichau, and Weser private j*ards. "In view of various statements and suggestions in the press with regard to a possible slowing down in the rate of construction of battleships and cruisers, the 'Cologne Gazette' points out in a telegram from Kiel that the naval estimates for the- financial year 1909 prove that the naval authorities have no intention of reducing tho pace. Whereas in the estimates for 1908 a sum of ,£430,000 was provided as a second instalment of the cost of each of the two battleships Elieinland and Posen, a sum of Z525.000 is provided .in .the estimates for 190!) as a second instalment of the cost of each of the three battleships which will replace the Oldenburg, the Siegfried, and the Beowulf. ■' "Moreover, I .while the second instalment of the cost of the large cruiser 'F' was estimatorl 'in 1908 at .£450,000, a sum. of .£550,000 is-pro-, vided in the estimates for 1909 as a second instalment of the cost of the. large cruiser 'G.' A difference of .£95,000 in the case of each battleship, and of ,£IOO,OOO in the case of the large cruiser, does not, appear to be accounted for by tho increased cost of labbur and of materials, and the Rhenish journal expects that the construction period will henceforward be reduced by several months." What has happened is certainly no wor6o tha was foreshadowed in the concluding sentence. And anyone may go back still further, to tho "Daily Jlail" of February 11, 1908— thirteen months ago—to read: "The German ships aro being built, and being built fast; moreover, unless; reports are wholly rit fault, they will be quito equal, if not superior, to anything yet begun in England." It.hris talten the British public mind all this time to "arrive"; and now that that has happened, the flare-up begins.