DREADNOUGHT MAKER RETIRES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1176, 11 July 1911, Page 5

DREADNOUGHT MAKER RETIRES.

i SIR PHILLIP WATTS GOING. By TeleEfaptt— Press Association—Copyright London, July 9. Sir Phillip Watts, K.C.8., Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty, and the originator of the Dreadnought type of battleship in the British Navy, has retired. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. GENESIS OF THE DREADNOUGHT. The outstanding point of interest; in connection with the career of Sir Phillip Watts is the genesis and evolution ot what is generally known as the Dreadnought type of warship, though tho latest vessels of the class are as different from the first Dreadnought as the Dreadnought herself was from tho Lord Nelson which was her predecessor as far as types arc concerned. Tho genesis of the Dreadnought forms an interesting story, and Sir Phillip Watts was by no means creator of the new type as the coming of such a class of ship had been i'orseen long before ho became director of British naval construction. His predecessor, Sir William White, had set a fashion in regard to keeping the number of classes of. guns on any one ship as few as possible and this fashion has universally been recognised as tactically sound. 'His ships had each originally a primary and secondary battery of 12-iuch and 6-inch guns, but the extension of the quick-firing system to guns of 9.2-ihch calibre made a' change imperative and it thus came that' his last creation—the Lord Nelson and a sister ship—had to embody all three calibres. This multiplying of calibres has always been held to militate against the theory of the "perfect ship" for which naval architects are continually striving. Contemporaneous with this change was growing appreciation of the values of end-on fire which had previously been a feature in French designs and to which increased prominence was given by certain events in the Japanese war. This "end-on" theory (in conjunction with speed) was emphasised by the undoubted efficiency of a small type of Japaneso plated cruiser (Asama class) which, always retiring before an advancing enemy, were able to develop an astonishing amount of fighting power in proportion to displacement. These considerations in the main account for tho coming of tlio Dreadnought, towards which type Sir Phillip. Watts himself had perceptibly advanced in designing the Japanese battleship Katori and a sister. Tho Dreadnought was the next step. In this type the three calibres iu tho Lord Nelson and also in the Katori disappeared, but the "end-on" principle was adhered to, both in respect to bow and stern fire. In the original Dreadnought the proportion of end-on to beam fire was 75 per cent. The endeavour in subsequent Dreadnoughts has been to bring the beam firo up to 100 per cent in proportion to total guns. In the first Dreadnought that proportion was only 80 per cent. i At present a large proportion of competent opinion inclines to tho theory that the Dreadnought typo will in the course of a few years be superseded by tho funnel-less ship of, say, 5000-8000 tons mounting only 3 guns encased in a single turret. Experiments with this end in view are now in progress in Germanv. Sir Philip Watts was born in 1850, "and after being educated at the College of

Naval Archincture, became a Constructor at the Admiralty until 1885. He then joined the firm of Armstrong-Whitworth and Co., as naval architect, and in 1901 returned to Iho Admiralty to succeed Sir William White as Director of Naval Construction.