A £00,000,000 WARSHIP

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5228, 18 January 1928, Page 1

A £00,000,000 WARSHIP

AMERICAN AIRCRAFT CARRIER.

A REMARKABLE VESSEL.

The United States, aircraft carrier Saratoga is the most remarkable wai ■ shiii now in existence. Laid down seven years ago as a battle-cruiser of. 43,000 tons, to be armdd with eight 16-inch guns, her construction was suspended as a result of the Washing" ton Conference. Together with a »:s--ter ship, the Lexington, she was subsequently redesigned as an aircraft carrier. By deleting the heavy guns the displacement was reduced to 33,000 tons, this being the maximum tonnage permissible for a ship of the carrier type under the Washington Treaty. The Saratoga is .10*, 000 tons larger than H.M.S. Eagle, our largest aircraft carried - , and her length of 888 ft—nearly 300 yards—exceeds by 28ft that of H.M.S. H«od, hitherto the longest warship afloat (writes a naval correspondent of the London Obseiver). The Saratoga’s, upper deck is fitted as an aerodrome, 880 ft long by 90ft in breadth. It is 60ft above the waterline and has an area of five, acies. American wits suggest that the completion of the ship adds a new State to the Union. The flight deck is equipped with landing nets and other devices which will, it is claimed, enable aeroplanes to fly off from and alight on. the ship with perfect safety in almost any weather. All, the boiler uptakes are led into a single gigantic funnel casing, 120 ft in through which ten railway trains could pass abreast. This funnel, is eliptical in shape, and, together with the gun turrets, bridge, anftl other top-hamper, is placed on the extreme side of the ship, leaving the flight deck practically clear for aviation purposes. This arrangement of the upper works was first adopted by British naval designers in the carriers Eagle and Hermes.

The, Saratoga hersef is a vast electrical generating station. Never before has electric power been put to such multifarious uses afloat. Steam turbines operate the dynamos, which have an output of 180,000 horsepower. This power is transmitted to electric motors coupled to the four propellers. shafts, which drive the, ship at a speed of forty miles an,h°ur. The Saratoga is, therefore the high-est-powered and fastest wiarship of major tonnage in the world. It is of interest to note that boilers of British design, Yarrow and ■W.hitq-Forster, are installed in the Saratoga and her sister ship, the Lexington. Auxiliary to the main driving units there are upwards of. a thousand electric motors on board, ranging from air-blowers of 400 1 b.p, to tiny motors not much larger than am egg-cup, which operate the delicate fire-control instruments. Every mechanical operation in the ship, from propulsion, to peeling potatoes, is performed by electricity. The searchlights, mounted in the superstructure, have an illuminating power of 3% million candle-power.

Seventy-two aeroplanes are carried in> the spacious hangars, below deck, varying from tiny one-seater fighters to heavy bombers and torpedo planes, with a crew of three men. Aeroplanes are brought up from the hold 'to the flight deck by storied lifts. Single machines can be flown off by means of a catapult, regardless of the direction of the wind. The ship will be; manned by a crew of 1200, but, in addition, she will have about 250 aviation ranks and ratings, so that the total complement will be 1450. So extensive and elaborately fitted are the workshops in the lower compartments that they could,' it is stated, build any kind of aeroplane, complete with its motors. Not content with making the Saratoga the, world’s greatest floating aerodrome, the American designers have contrived to endow her with powerful fighting qualities of her own. The hull is heavily armoured against gunfire, and anti-torpedo bulges of thq British pattern are fitted along the greater part of. the of the waterline. Eight 8-inch guns with a range of 12 miles are mounted in twin turrets. T here are also 12 5incli anti-craft guns and four torpedo tubes. The Saratoga is therefore, armed more heavily than: a modern cruiser of the “ County ” class. Her consort, the Lenxington, is to be ready in January. American naval opinion as a whole is hostile to these ships'on account of their prodigious size, vulnerability, and cost. By the time she is commissionedt he Saratoga will have cost £10,000,000, a sum which would have paid for four or five of. the largest cruisers. A Washington service journal says that “ the huge size of the two new carriers will, be a serious handicap to their efficiency. So valuable and vulnerable are they that the mere question of protecting them in. warfare presents a grave problem.”