WARSHIPS SCRAPPED

Hokitika Guardian, 9 September 1926, Page 4

WARSHIPS SCRAPPED

PART OF GRAND FLEET. LONDON. July 31. Twenty vessels are to he struck off the Navy list during the current financial year—four battleships, fifteen destroyers, and a submarine. The battle si rips have to he sacrificed under the terms of the Washington Treaty: the other craft are to lie dispensed with for reasons of economy. Such new construction as may he added to the Fleet in the course of the year will re pla cc only a part of the outgoing tonnage. Each year since the Armistice has brought a. heavy net reduction, thanks to the impending completion of the battleships Nelson and Rodney, and file first group of "County” cruisers, the wastage will lie checked. 'Hie condemned battleships arc the ing George V.. Ajax. Thunderer, and Agamemnon. Excepting the lastnamed. they are super-Dread non edits of a type considerably more powerful than mimv of the capital ships retained in other navies. The King George V and the Ajax are sister vessels, built under the 11710 programme. Displacing 23.00 b tons, with a speed of 21 knots, and an armament of ten 13.5 in guns, they formed the .spearhead of the Grand Elect on the outbreak of the war. Both were heavily .engaged at Jutland, where the King George V. carried the Hag of Viee-Admiial Sir Martyn .Terrain, commanding the Second Battle Snuadron—the strongest section nf the .Fleet. The Thunderer, another unit of tliis Squadron, was the last big warship to he built on. the Thames, where she was launched in 1!)11. She was also the first hattleshin to mount the modern 13.5 in gun, thus becoming the progenitor of tlit* long line of superDreiidnouglits culminating in the two Nelsons, with their tremendous armament of nine loin guns. TH E AG AM EM NON. Few battleships in the Navy saw harder war service than the Agaiiieiiiiiimi. Ordered to the Dardanelles early in IDIS. she was on almost continuous duty until the evacuation of Gallipoli nearly a year later. Her baptism of fire occurred on February 25th, when the Turkish gunners plastered her with heavy shell. In the bombardment of March 7th she was Hit by a l lin projectile which blew a cavernous Hole in her quarter-deck, wrecked the wardroom, and drove splinters through the maintop 100 ft above the deck. During the naval, attack of March IStli she was hit twelve times. When the invasion of Gallipoli began a month later her guns covered the landing of Mortor Ray. H was most fitting that the Turkish capitulation of October. 1918, should he signed in the cabin of a ship which had borne the brunt of the campaign in Near Eastern wafers. If battle scars count for aught, the Agamemnon is uue of the most historic ships afloat, and the passing of this gallant old veteran will lie regretted by all who care for the traditions of our great sea service. Hi the normal course of events these three ships would have been kept on the active list for years to come. They are larger, more heavily gunned, and hotter protected than many of the battleships which remain in the navies of the United States. France and Italy, and it deserves to he recorded tie they are being scrapped solely as a pledge of Britain’s good faith, and not because they are deficient in fighting value.