"Hush-Hush" Cruisers.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 12 January 1918, Page 1

"Hush-Hush" Cruisers.

BRITAIN'S NEW WEAPONS. GREAT FIGHTING POWER. The first description of the famous British "Hush Hush" ships, about which, as regards their characteristics, the authorities have previously maintained profound secrecy, was given, with the authority of the Admiralty, by M. A. Rouseeau, the naval critic of the Paris Temps, shortly after his return to Paris from visiting the Grand Fleet.

"We were passing in front of ships pf unusaul aspect, specially constructed craft for war purposes-; monitors, trawlers, and the like,'' writes M. Rousseau. "Certain of these vessels caught our attention, especially by their outline and dimensions. They were very long with immense decks for and aft. They appear to lie low in the water. Perhaps this was an optical effect produced by their length. They have two tripod masts, the first of which carries tops apparently armoured, and in the middle of the vessel rises a very squat central castle, at the extremities of which are the heavy artillery turrets— turrets for two guns of the biggest calibre. The secondary artillery, the calibre of which is the same on all vessels of the same type, is at the limit of the average and small artillery. The stem of these craft is tapered, more like the beam of a yacht than that of a battleship; it is not vertical, but curving upwards—to use a sailor's phrase it is 'cut-water.' The shape of the stem has certainly been determined in order to realise very high speed and, as a matter of fact, these vessels are very swift, much fleeter than the fleetest of pre-war cruisers. ,

'' These craft—we may call them battie cruisers—are of two types, or, rather, of two dimcnsionl, for their elements of power are, we believe, the same, except as regards protection. As for speed, it is as high on the small as on the big craft, the radius of action having to be the same; and the armament, if it differs in number, is the same as regards calibres of the principal and secondary artilleries. "These vessels have been created since the war. I say created, because it was stated to me that they were inspired by the lessons of the war. They were begun in 1915, and have been twelve months in service—an admirable result of the organisation of labour in the British dockyards. < I know not whether they have all been built in private yards, but the most important of those actually afloat, which is commanded by Captain Michael Hodges, formerly naval attache at the British Embassy in Paris, was turned out by private industry. Other vessels of -the kind are under construction, their dimensions being yet more considerable. "We were received on board two of these vessels; on one, the smaller, as we went through the officers' quarters, I was fairly astonished; two officers were playing billiards. True, the ship was at anchor and in a roadstead as shut in as possible, but it is my opinion that she must have fine qualities of stability to have on board a permanent billiard table. On the second the captain invited us to lunch, and afterwards we visited the fighting quarters—blockhouse, look-out station for submarines, a turret with its enormous guns which fire two shots a minute and which, according to the Germans, weight 96 tons and throw a 19471b shell.

"Everything is organised to have the fire control in one and the same hands, and the laying by one and the same eye. The system invented by Admiral Sir Percy Scott a few years ago has made great progress. The heavy artillery and the secondary artillery are no longer autonomous; everything acts under one and the same direction, and if the guns have a fuse fired in the turret itself, they have another electric one operated from a central station. It is a truly remarkable system, and one which, beyond all doubt, has produced highly satisfactory results. Its installation on the new ships shows that it has stood the test.

'' The two ships are closely related. They are sisters, one being smaller built to travel together because they have the same fighting power, and can carry that power to any distance at equal speed; they are capable of surpriso actions, against which the enemy cannot guard himself, and their speed is a guarantee against the torpedo. None the less they are fitted with devices to neutralise the explosion as far as possible. They are a proof of the confidence of the British Navy in the jowerful surface vessel, capable o f heavy hitting, the only one which appears ablo to assure the mastery of the seas.

"England is building many submarines, but the development of this new weapon has not affected the theories which have made the naval power of our allies, and this is proved by the new building programmes, which are the outcome of experience."