COST OF A BATTLESHIP.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2080, 15 May 1907, Page 4

COST OF A BATTLESHIP.

In Casior’s Magazine Mr. A. S. Hurd gives some interesting particulars about tlio cost of modern ships of w r ar. The figures are indeed most startling. , . The King Edward VII. battleship of 16,350 tons cost £1,426,266, and of this enormous sum wo aro told that n, less than a quarter of a million goes in armour plato. The armour of tlio present day is twice as costly as tlio iron armour ol 20 or 30 years ago. The result is that we have reached a point at which the vertical armour on a ship costs double that of all the other materials of the hull, including the whole of the fittings and the equipment as in the Royal Sovereign class, and whore it amounts to nearly halt the total cost of materials and labor of the hull, fittings, and equipment, as in tlio Magnificent class. It is satisfactory to be again assured that we get better value lor our money than any other Power, and can build more quickly and better, but while this is still so Mr. Hurd says the pre-eminence of tlio United Kingdom is more threatened than ever before by tbe United States and Germany. Italy is now knocked out of tlio race by the cost, and it is clear from a consideration of all the points advanced by Mr. Hurd that material dominance in the world is becoming more and more a mere question of cash, Germany is a poor country, hut makes the best of all slio has; the United States has illimitable wealth while the United Kingdom had already developed all her available resources, and, it is feared, cannot gi much further unless the Empire becomes ;; reality instead of a name.