THE FUTURE NAVY

Hokitika Guardian, 7 January 1920, Page 4

THE FUTURE NAVY

THE AEROPLANE-CARRYING SHIP A MONEY-EARNER. LONDON, Oct. 30. “Fifty Years in the Royal Navy” is the title of a book just fresh from the pen of Admiral Sir Percy Scott, who, in narrating his work on the Loudon air defences, says that the War Office' “was as certain that a Zeppelin could not come to London as the Admiralty was that a submarine could not sink a ship.”

Putting before himself the query, “What is the future Navy to be?” Sir Percy Scott mentions that lie has seen it change from sails to steam, from fighting on the water to fighting under the water and over it, and lie continues : Some officers say. that the battleship is more alive than ever; others declare that the battleship >is dead. I considered that the battleship was dead before the Great War, and I think her more dead now, if that is possible. The battleship of to-day costs, roughly, £8,000,000; she carries about 1000 shells containing about 100,0001 b of high explosive; her effective range is, say, 15 miles; she is vulnerable !o aircraft with bombs and aerial torpedoes, and to submarines, the latter carrying possibly a 15iu or 18in gun, and the ordinary automobile torpedo is still in process of development, and may in the future carry a ton of high explosive, which would probably sink any battleship. “For £8,000,000 we could build many aeroplane-carrying ships, equipped; with aeroplanes carrying over 100,0001 b of high explosive. If these aeroplanes carried fuel for five hours, their range would be about 150 miles out and 150 miles home.

“lii the battleship we put all our eggs into one basket. In peace time the aeroplane-carrying ships could be used as passenger ships, and the aeroplanes for carrying passengers instead of bombs.” As to the relative cost, the battlesliip, with its full staff, provision and stores, and coal, might cost about £120,000 a year, while the aeroplanecarrying ships and the aeroplanes would cost nothing—they would -be . earning money, and the officers and men form-, ing the crews of the ships w r ould belong to the Merchant Navy. “Aeroplane pilots will be as numerous as taxi-driv-ers, and get about the same pay. The battleship waddles along about, 20. miles an hour ,and cannot waddle very far, and, in comparison with an aeroplane, has a very low rate of speed. “The object in war is to introduce high explosive material into your enemy’s ships or country; transmitting this high explosive by guns is expensive. It takes a battleship weighing 30,000 tons to carry ;100,0001b of this explosive. Ten aeroplanes, weighing about three tons each, would carry the same amount so the relative weights of the carriers is as 30 tons to 30,000 tons. When the battleship nears the end of her coal or ammunition, she must waddle home at about the same speed as a South-Eastern Railway train—(l ani told: tliat this is the slowest line on earth) —and it takes her several hours to fill up, even if she uses oil fuel. The aeroplane does not waddle, but comes back at 100 miles an hour, and it takes three minutes to fill' her up with fuel and ammunition. The battleship is dead. The future is with the aeroplane, which is going to develop rapidly in the next few years.” Sir Percy tells a remarkable story of a visit paid- to Kiel and of a warning which he gave in 1905 that took the battle Jutland to drive home. “In 1905,” he says, “we had a very high appreciation of the German navy, but our information about it appeared to be very limited, and as we knew nothing of their gunnery, I thought 1 would pay a visit to Kiel. Prince Henry of Prussia, who was then in command of the High Sea Fleet, sent his flag-com-mander and flag-lieutenant to meet me at the station, and I was conducted straight to his schloss, my luggage being despatched to the hotel: He put at my disposal his flag-commander and flag-lieutenant to show me round, but he added that I must not ask to see their range-finder as it was very secret. I did not want to see their range-finder. I had tried it and condemned it. Zeiss, the maker, always brought bis inventions to us before taking them to the Germans.”

For four days Admiral Percy Scott was in the society of German officers, all of whom spoke English fluently and were all connected with naval gunnery. “I am quite sure that they were selected officers, and that they decided day by day what questions should ho asked ine, because I was never asked the same question twice. We were under the impression then that the Germans knew everything about our navy,” but, ‘‘I 1 came to the conclusion that they knew very little.”

After visiting Kiel and seeing the enormous elevation the Germans were giving their guns Sir Percy realised that they contemplated: firing at very long range, and that “we might expect a large proportion of hits on the deck instead of on the side armour. To test the matter I suggested using an ar- [ moured hulk as a target, and a drawing ! of the ship was made. Admiral Jellieoe, who was at the Admiralty, was keenly, interested, and some experiments were carried out. Money could not ho obtained to plate the hulk with the hardest armour, and the idea was dropped. The information wo should have gained from this experiment we learned at the battle of Jutland by tho destruction of some of our ships. After this battle additional deck protection on an extensive scale was provided in the majority of our hoavy ships.”