TOWER SHIPS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 42, 13 November 1920, Page 11

TOWER SHIPS

9 WEIRD DEFENCE FOB'THE SOLENT. The-strangest ship iu nil the world was launched at Shoreham, Sussex, on September 12. It has ft concreto hull >built in four tiers surmounted by a steel tower Msing to- a height of 180 feet. Nervous mariners who s&w it being towed along the Enelish Channel might well have imagined "that a sort of Tower of London had drifted out to sea. The weird craft is one of two that were built in the'shallow waters—mud flats ,at low tide—that do duty for_ a harbour at Shoreham. When theships were begun ill' June, 1918, they were to bo a surprise for the Huns. Everyone who knew their purpose was sworn to secrecy. v The original intention was to build 16 of these concrete ships to sink them in position across, the bcraits of Dover in order to fasten submarine nets to them and thus protect the from submarines, states the "Daily Mail." This purpose being no longer neccssary, the only two existing will bo used lu tu» defences of 'the Solent, The tiers of the ships are of irregular hexagon shape,.'and made of. hollow blocks of reinforced concrete. .Nearly 100,000 of these blocks- have been used in each of the two ships, and the total woight of concrete- employed is ynoiii 8000 tons. Tho steel work adds roughly 1050 tons to tho weight of the ship. "In spite of this the draught when afloat is only 14 feet, so that nearly 170 feet rise* above the surface of the sea. - Scores of pipes lead from an emergency, deck on the steel superstructure to holes in the concrete decks, nnd when the ship is in position linuid concrete will ;be poured, down these to fill every hollow concrete block in the "hull." Thus she ■ will. be gradually 6unk until elie rerts on the bottom of the sea—» blcclc of Concrete solid enough Apparent- 1 ly to remain thero till the crack of doom. The first of the vessels to be sunk in position near the Nab Lightship, off the East Coast of the Isle of Wight. Theso craft were designed by a Scottish engineer. Mr. Menzies. .Mr. H. A. Clift, a Canadian engineer, who had already lost an arm fiphtincr in Franco and was then employed at the M>nistr«r of Munitions, volunteered to build the filiTp; and ivas' 6ent to Shoreham in June. 1918, with orders to. simply eight within six months—an order which tho armistice subsequently modified.