NEW SPEED RECORD.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 643, 21 October 1909, Page 7

NEW SPEED RECORD.

•' BY A CRUISER. ■ i; THE INFLEXIBf.E*S 26 KNOTS AN HOUR. A BREAKDOWN. (Bj ToleEtaph.-Press Ae»r,rlnllon.-Oi>t)»rti:ht.l London, October 19. The British Dreadnought-cruiser Inflexible, which has been attending the Hudson-Fulton celebrations at New York, made twenty-six knots an hour while returning across tho Atlantic. • She Was compelled, however, to abandon the effort because of a breakdown, which was largely dua to the fact that half of the engineroom staff had deserted in Now York. [The Inflejtible's 26-knots ocean speed in the Atlantic is'ln oxcess of 'all ocean record?. Her sister ship tho Indefatigable, in hir famous trans-Atlsntic run last year while returning from the Champlain tercontenaty celebrations, was credited with an ocean speed of 25.13 knots, In a rtcont run from New York to Queenstown, 2807 miles, tho Cunarder Mauritania made an average speed of 25.41 knots. In her trials the Indexible steamed ovtr 28 knots.] "Not playing the game." Under this heading, an English paper somt time ago made the following remarks, which no doubt are apropos to the present occasion:— "Once more tho visit of a British equadroi to American waters has been attended by o large number of desertions. While tho Tirel Cruiser Squadron was in Hampton roads recently, th 6 Argyll lost three men, tho Good Hope thirty-two, tho Hampshire thirty-seven ana tho Roxburgh eighteen—ninety men in aV from a squadron of four ships. "It is a fact which everybody knows, bul of which few care to talk, that it is consistent with American ideas of 'playing the game' t< offer heavy inducements ti the trained men ol foreign Powers to desert their flag. Tho. thin( is regularly organised, with agents appointee to scauco the men from their allcgiance witl drink and promises. If the Amorican author: ties will not cease to wink at this breach o neighbourliness, it will' be necessary for- thi Admiralty to decline all invitations to iAmeri can ports by way of administering ft mild lessoi in the virtue of ploying fair. 1 ■ "It is high' time that public attention wai called to the matter. l We do .not provide ai expensive training in order that the America] hovy may profit by it, howevor much wo hopi and desire that that navy may 'be found ii alliance with our own, if tho occasion shouli arise." ~