GREAT NAVY IN BRITAIN'S YARDS

Marlborough Express, Volume L, Issue 222, 29 September 1916, Page 6

GREAT NAVY IN BRITAIN'S YARDS

TREMENDOUS ACTIVITY IN

SHIPPING CENTRE

SHIPS ON WAYS EQUAL THIRD NAVAL STRENGTH OF WORLD.

Somewhere in li:dustiial Britain, July 20.

Iron and steel, brass and copper, metallic alloys into which. I suspect, one would not be allowed to enquire too: closely—.these and sturdy, grimy human labor obtrude themselves hero overwhelmingly. One scarcely can look nt these masses of metal, raw, shaped, and In course of shaping, without the- thought 'that mother oarth must have been beggared. As

for the labor—the skill ,of it, the tenacity of it, the magnitude and delicacy and beauty of tho things in which.it .issues! ■;, : • -: .

■£iver.' j?3s ,m;'»: '^rk}'^6^iit^f^^---jp^i\ Mpverwido.•■.in the;;!tow2:. but deep arid vfeuoyant.": .-;. Itsi. --&anks ; vfor;.;m]^^a;r©\.a; lifve of toil that, .-surpasses' credibility! Steaming towards the sea one passes endless lines of vessels moored to the 1 woks, loading or unloading. Above these vessels on either side rise unbroken masses of scaffolding. Almost hid within these masses, hnriying to completion, are the skeletons of .ships so numerous, varied and powerful that I am assured the-y alone, when they take the water, will equal the third naval strength of the world.

GIGANTIC SIZE: APPALLING POWER.

There are battleships—morose, fat •in the middle, with grotesque super.struefcures,. tripod masts, observation -platforms, oddities of construction no laymon can urae. Looking down from the bridge of one of these prodigies is like looking down from a /skyscraper. To stand beneath, viewing the stveiliug hull and towering blasts is to be awed by a combined suggestion olf gigantic size and appalling power. Lymg low under their flat turrets, the prodigious guns of these ships remind one- of aullon rions patiently biding their

time to spring. . But there are cheerful ships, too— ships that do not glower like a burly champion disdainful of all challengers. These, also, are big ships-. They soar high above the water. Their | long cannon are huge of mouth andi ? gr6a.o of range. But art and gaiety I have been insinuated into their comI position. They , are incompaa'ably [■jaunty. Their hulls flaro-as-the hull foi -i yacht. They are beautiful. On© !.-fools, one- would like to go into a.ction ! \vibh them. They are the last word \ ill battle- cruisers from the best yards ; and engineering works of a natien ; whose genius is'the genius of the sea. •••■. -.POWE-ttlJltT-L SIJBMAJIINES

Merchantmen—-bnge, some armed, all a cilatter-^-ai'e found in. thejsov&ca&r

fold labyrinths- ' And those;-, wonderfulcraft that more beneath the >ea hi© stumbled tcrnss .-again1 and again, concealed now by timber almost as hereafter they will bo concealed' by water. How many of these incomplete boats I saw I do not know, bnt certainly I saw a score or more, and I have reason (o think I saw a small fraction -of the whole. They are snb«f;;iri))e.s of a \ rery po-Arermi type, for cliis war, from its first day, has not mossed, to teach tho jnilvers of'.shiDS

and guns and armies ."that they must go from, big to bigger in unflagging progression. Battleships 1 hnve mentioned. Also |yn.t.+lo ./lvnicnw !'»'!(?Tf'il?.T>tTr!f vn< nXulCfl in .thin jungle of poles and hulls and

unarmed submaiines/ These are but a fe\v of the craft rising rapidly in this juuxgle of poles and hulls and naked ribs.and «wnrming men. There are> cruisers,, toi-spedobonts,' monitors, patrol 'baats\ destroyers.. In theso yards aione—and there are 20 rin Britain-tiafc- leit-st <»ne .< destroyer of ■powei-ftil tj'pe. is launched each Week. The total capacity of Britain is nearer one >a day than one a" week. Beforei long the British waters will be «o thronged v» ith destroyers that enemy submarines pan operate hero only m extreme jeopardy. TREMENDOUS ACTIVITY IN ; SHOPS. ' Quitting the yards for the machine shops of a single •manufacturer, I found under the roof turbines of a total of 000.000. And one shop seemed, to follow another interminably., in each scores of machines, hundreds of workers, thousands of different noises—tap, scrape, thud, rattto; bang, screech, until the oars throbbed and the brain ached. Iron shavings showered the air and fell in deep, shining, coily heaps. Mechanical hammers, dropping fast and hard on glowing metal, lit a sombre scene until it was pyroftechnic. From machine shops I passed through designing rooms crowded mth^raftsmen and strewn with acres «>i: blue prints. Those who read the di'spatdties of Sir John Jellicoe and Sir I>avid Beatty on the battle of Jutland Bank will remember their praiso of the enaine departments. S^ngines and engineers—gave admirable service Vecause of design; materials, manufacture" and engine room efficiency. These explain, say British naval men, why' both their battleships and battle cruisers outsteamed the Germans at every stage of the Jutland fight. ' Oricb^Ori this river reigned keen competition between various celebrated shipyards and engineerinc; firms. Once there wero 'abor troubles. Now the employers and the workers, I am assured, are at one, and there ,is no coniipetition except ; a competition of patriotism for ihe purpose ;of,: winning' the' war.