MERCHANTMEN CRUISERS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1234, 16 September 1911, Page 5

MERCHANTMEN CRUISERS.

SOUTH AFRICAN PEOPOSAL. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Cape Town, September 14. Several of tho newspapers advocate the creation of iS'tate-owned mail boats convertible into fast cruisers. FLEET AUXILIARIES "AND THEIE COST. The Union Castlo line, which carried tho mails between England and South Africa ever since its tormation, has decided not to tender under the conditions of contract fixed by the Union Parliament, takipg particular objection to the clause* against rebates. .The Union Government at present pays a naval subsidy to the Imperial Government. In an articlo on mercha.it cruisers in the current "Naval Annual," Lord Brassey says:— "In a paper read at an engineering conference cold under tho auspices of the Institution of Civil Engineers in June, 1899, Professor Biles, arguing from the results of arming and fighting the mercantile cruisers of the United States Navy for the war on the coasts, of Cuba, took tho view that such vessels are not unable to cop© with thoroughbred warships. The issue of a fight between a warship and a merchant ship might not turn on the relative efficiency of its internal subdivision; but on tho protection of the guns. By placing the guns, as tho Americans did, in a box battery, a considerable number of guns could be as well protected in merchant ships as in firstclass cruisers. As to structural strength, Mr. Peskett, of the Cu'nard Company, in an address delivered in Liverpool, gave tho opinion that merchant steamers could .actually be built lighter than they are under the present system if they were provided with one very strong protective deck with sloping sides. "Tho cost of a fleet.of mercantile cruisers must depend.on tho number of ships in tho reserve on tho structural conditions insisted upon, on the conditions as to manning, and very largely on the speod required. The committee'appointed by tho Admiralty in 1903} with Lord Camperdown os chairman, gave tho figures set out in the tablo below :— First cost. Annual subsidy. Ocean speed. £ .'£ . ■ 20 350,000 9,000 21 „ 100,000- 19,500 22 470,000 40,500 23 575,000 . ■' - 67,500 21 850,000 110,500 "Ships capable of maintaining 22 knots over a long distance would not be ineffective for scouting duties Protective arrangements—at least, by coal and . arni"oar—should be iftflstoa-'Kpori.";"!' ,^-I '' l ''' l "