Selling a Battleship

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1922, Page 1

Selling a Battleship

(By an Auctioneer). Although it might be thought that the sale of an obsolete, battleship would lie a difficult tusk, yet when the Admiralty gives instructions for such a vessel to be disposed of. there is usually no lack of would-be purchasers. The vessels are usually sold by auction and bidding is generally keen.

Auctions aro held not on board tbe vessel but at one of tbe dockyards usually tbe one nearest lo where the vessel is lying, though it is quite possible that a ship lying: off tlie const of •Scotland nifty be put up for sale as fur away as Portsmouth.

Intending purchasers are, of course, allowed to visit tbe vessel and inspect her equipment before the sale takes place. The equipment of the vessel is not divided into lots, blit she is sold coin, plete “as she floats,” and before the auction can take take place an immense amount of work must lie carried through by the auctioneers, on whom falls the task of preparing the detailed particulars of sale. The counting, measuring, and estimating will take several weeks to complete. Even in a 9,500-ton ship built as long ago as 1886—a mere pigmy beside tlie modern battleship—there is an enormous amount of •machinery and perhaps between two and three thousand tons uf armour plating, besides the tens of thousands of other items, all of which must lie carefully inventoried .

The buyer of an obsolete battleship is never free to tlo as be likes with his purchase, ami must observe stringent restrict ions regarding the disposal et his property. In some eases, for instance, he is not allowed to move the vessel from the United Kingdom, and no war vessel is sold except on the express condition that she shall be broken up within a certain tixed limit of time, which may be any period up to two years from the date ol delivery ot the vessel to the purchaser. Ant gups that may be sold with tin* vessel will have been rendered useless by the removal of their mechanism before the sale, but the purchaser unis: agree to break up, to the satisfaction of the Admiralty, within the same period all guns and mountings lie has purchased. To ensure the fulfilment ol these conditions notice must bo given before the ship is removed as to where she will he broken up, and further notice, immediately she is berthed alongside the breaking-up ground. The authorities must also be advised when the vessel has been broken up to the extent of three-quarters of the total weight of iron, steel, or other material of which she consists, and where and when any guns sold with her are in course of destruction. Apart from the old armour, which goes to the steel works, the engines, boilers, pumps, and machinery of