BRITISH SHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 123, 21 November 1932, Page 9

BRITISH SHIPS

i-; SOME NEW VESSELS

A FAST CRUISER

Two important ships for the/British Navy' have been launched.: ■

H.M.S. A.chilles, a 7000-ton cruiser,: took the water at Cammell-Laird's yard, Birkenhead,' and H.M.S. Guardian, a net-laying ship, ■ was floated. out of the dry dock at Chatham in which she has been"built. Anew submarine^ the Porpoise, was also launched from Vickers-Armstrongis works at Barrowin Furness," writes Hector By water in the London "Daily Telegraph." ..... The Achilles is one of three cruisers authorised under the 1930 Navy Estimates, and the first to reach the launching stage. Laid down in October, 1931, she was less than eleven months on the stocks. ■'/■-.,_ ' ■■

This isa creditable performance which may presage a return to less dilatory methods of construction than have prevailed since the war. . .-,•"'

Although very similar,to: the Leander, which is now completing at Devonport," the Achilles embodies a number of novel features.. . She was the first cruiser to be designed by Mr. A. W. Johns, the. present Director of Naval Construction. Her length will be 554 ft,' and with her turbine machinery of . 72,000-h.p." going "all out" she should be capable of steaming at nearly 33 knots. With one large funnel, two pole masts, a towering bridge, and eight 6in guns in turrets at bow and stern, the new cruiser should make a most impressive appearance. Her sisters Neptune and Orion," building at Portsmouth and Devonport respectively, are due to bo launched later in the autumn. AJfTI-STJBMARINE DEFENCE. - H.M.S. Guardian's keel was laid in No. 4 dock; at' Chatham in October, 1931, and she is scheduled for completion next- year at an estimated cost of £409,5.30./ V One of 'tho duties of this ship—the first of her type to be built—will be to form a zareba of anti-submarine nets for the protection of fleet anchorages. She will also tow the big targets' used in battle practice, a duty now performed by the sloop Snapdragon, or.naval tugs. ' , , , The design, however, suggests that these are not the only functions for which the Guardian has been built. She is of no less than 3050 tons, and is equipped wtih machinery of 6500-h.p. for tho relatively high speed of eighteen knots. Only 310 ft in length, sho has the remarkable beam of 53ft. Two 4in anti-aircraft guns will form the armament. Another launch at Chatham, that of the sloop Dundee, will make, her the fourteenth sloop of her class to go afloat since 1928. *•- These little ships, of 1100 tons, and 16J knots speed, have been built to eke out our slender cruiser resources, especially on foreign stations. Their fighting value is negligible, but in time of war they ivould be employed as mine-sweop-ers. ■ ■ ■

The submarine launched is H.M.S/ Porpoise, one of the largest built since the war, and displacing about 1500 tons.