BRITAIN’S SEA POWER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1294, 8 September 1914, Page 4

BRITAIN’S SEA POWER.

REVIEW AT SPITHEAD

INEFFACEABLE MEMORIES

“ Not until you have impertinently sailed or impudently steamed down the thoroughfares of steel which these grey and grim battleships, cruisers, and destroyers form —not until you have seen them by night, filling the Solent between the mainland and the Isle of Wight as if a great city bad been builded by magic where once was only tossing water, can anyone realise the utter majesty of this seascape of Britain’s battle power.” Thus the naval correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph graphically described the opening proceedings of the great naval review at Spithead. “ This has been a day of ineffaceable memories,” he wrote on Monday, July 20, 1914, when the King bad inspected Britain's battle power. “ Everyone who was afloat to-day in the Channel will always retain the most vivid impression of the gorgeous and impressive scene. Bright sunshine beat down on the sparkling waters, dyed the deepest blue, as the stately procession of men-of-war —battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, in their dark grey liveries of grim suggestiveness—passed before the supreme head of the sea service. Then in the heavens above seaplanes—the new arm of the Navy—swept in one long line over the royal yacht at a speed of 70 miles an hour, each hour, each one gracefully dipping, by way of salute, as it came abeam the Victoria and Albert and reporting its number, banking with assurance against the fresh south-easterly breeze as it did so. Finally two groups of aeroplanes filed past His Majesty. flying even higher in the air, and they curtsied as it were one of them describing from a great height a spiral over the very mast of the King’s yacht, which bore the Royal Standard of the United Kingdom.

MILE 3 OF NAVAL POWER. The naval ceremony :.Icue. occupied two hours. During this period, without any interval, ship succeeded ship, as though the tally would never end. The battleships and cruisers advanced in divisions, line ahead —that is, two by two — while the destroyers were grouped in fives in line abeam. They were in as close tor (nation as war, possible, with due regard to safety, and they steamed- at a speed of eleven knots. Twice eleven is twenty-two; his Majesty, therefore, witnessed a parade of twentytwo sea miles of naval power. Then, when this spectacle was concluding, the aerial craft came into view, at the speed of the fastest express train in the world, challenging the naval theories embodied in the design of battleships, cruisers and destroyers, which the new arm, in association with the submarine, is destined probably to modify radically. The air-craft overtook the men-o'-war with ease. Those who will may interpret the moral. The flying machine has arrived as a permanent extension of our naval power; with about 140 sea and aeroplanes, we are for the moment as supreme in the air as we are on and under the waters. THE NEW ZEALAND. No Englishman could witness the scene which followed without emotions of pride, A picture of the British sea power, on which depends our every interest—our freedom, our territorial possessions, and our wealth —was presented on the broad blue bosom of the sea without pomp and ceremony. The clouds bad gone. The sun burst forth, making the face of the waters reflect its brilliance as they crested in white foam under the invigorating summer breeze. On every hand splendid yachts could be seen, taking up positions of advantage to view the sea pageant. The contrast between their Whitesides, their bellying sails, the blue of the water, and the sullen aspect of the advancing fleet contributed to a scene as beautiful as it was tremendous.

The Lion, with her eight rain, guns, her armoured belt, and her speed of round about 2S knots, was the first to pass before His Majesty, followed by the Princess Royal, the Queen Mary, and the New Zealand—a splendid group of battle cruisers, all of them appropriately named to have the honour of precedence. In line ahead these great ships, each of them about 700 feet long over all, advanced. On each one the crew had been drawn up, the marines standing at attention on the quarter-deck, with the band near by, and the bluejackets lining the other decks and the bridges—immobile statues, waiting to pay their homage to the King. Let it be added that the ships were in war trim ; they carried not even masthead flags, but were lean and warlike giants prepared to fight.

PROCESSION OE DREADNOUGHTS

Thus heralded, the Dreadnought battleships came into view in divisions line ahead the Iron Duke bearing the flag of Admiral Sir George Callaghan, the Com-mander-in-Chief of the Home Fleets, at the head of the starboard column, and the King George V. the flagship of the Admiral, Sir George Warrender, Bart., the port column. By two and two came the other great mastodans, succeeded by the eight battleships of the King Edward VII. class, which constitute the third battle squadron and the incomplete fourth battle squadron—the Dreadnought, Bellerophou, Agamemnon. Then followed the cruiser squadron vessels large and small —and the destroyers in their dead black paint, the white foam creaming round their impertinent noses. Thus the First Fleet passed His Majesty, the cheers of the crews the only departure from the ordinary routine.

The second fleet —with nucleus crews on board in ordinary circumstances but now manned with full complements of active service ratings—next succeeded to the stage—the observed o r v! observers —two battle squadrons, two cruiser squadrons, and other ships; and finally came the vessels of the third fleet —representing the crowning triumph of administration. These ships are not obsolete, but obsolent —men-of-war which have passed their prime. They have skeleton crews only—some of them very skeleton crews—but last week these were completed more or less to war strength with royal fleet reservists—all trained seamen, who have served under the White Ensign—a quota of naval volunteers, with sundry active service ratings. These men-of-war, which had not moved for a year until they steamed to Spithead to take up their stations, now made a brave show.

the; navy of the; airJust as the navy, representing all the accepted theories of war, which have accumulated during past ages, was passing in procession before the King, and before the last of the ships had come abreast of the Royal yacht, a cloud of witnesses of the new age of naval warfare could be discerned sweeping across the water from the direction of Calshot, the naval air station. The moving scene had been kept under close observation by one of the seaplanes which had acted as scout over Spithead and on the pilot sending back a wireless signal that the moment had come for the air fleet to depart, seventeen sea planes rose from the water off their base in Southampton Water in one long line, and at a speed which could not have been much less than 70 miles an hour, they swept across the heavens. Every type of vessel incorporated in the air service was represented : Short’s, Farman’s and Sopwith’s. With perfect assurance the pilots guided their machines out over the restless water and, then, as each machine came abreast of the Royal yacht, she dipped gracefully by way of a salute, and, banking against the breeze, reported her number, and then swept back towards Calshot. It was a spectacle unprecedented in its character, and unprecedented in its suggestiveness. It may be that we witnessed what may be regarded as the birth of a new age of naval warfare at the moment when these representative aerial crafts paid homage to t he King.