New British Warships.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7920, 28 September 1904, Page 8

New British Warships.

Outclassing the World.

Larger than any existing vessel, more powerfully armoured, and much more effectively armed than any - battleship ever made, the two new battleships, to belaid down for the British.navy are said to have created considerable stir among the ; naval: authorities of other Powers.' Recently several exports have declared against building'larger vessels, and only the other day attention was vividly drawn to the powerful armament of German vessels.-. It is therefore all the more valuable to haye this evidence that the British naval authorities are wide awake ' and :that they have, the courage of their convictions to build leviathans, the like of which the world has never seen. . . -

To Germanj'-.the decision must be disturbing, for the Kaiser's intention of having as powerful a navy as that of Great Britain has been for the .present thwarted. For. to build as large vessels as these Germany must in the first place enlarge her docks, and the cost of that alone would' be enormous.

Thanks to the genius of 'Mr "Watts, the "designer of the' British vest-els.-ic has been possible to get. the heaviest armament on a given tonnage, and in doing so it is not too much to say that a revolution has been- created in naval shipbuilding. • Ten years ago all naval experts were agreed that four large armour-piercing guns were sufficient for each first-class battleship, but here in the new British vessels we have no fewer than fourteen. In the naval engagements around Port Arthur, the 6in. and smaller guns have never been: used. To all intents ■ and purposes they have even so much lum•ber on the larger battleships. Whether our authorities held this/opinion before the war, or whether - their decision was. ■_. a result. of recent observations, the fact remains that the two n6w battleships and the four- new cruisers are to be armed with powerful guns of a new pattern, the smallest gun on the battleships being 9-2, a gun which easily pierces eleven inches of Krupp steel at,a distance of two miles. The weapon is one of the most powerful in existence, firing a shell of 8801b twice or thrice a minute, anddrivingit through thirty-five inches of iron. ' It is far more powerful than any gun of similar type in the Jships of other nations. It is longer than the German guns of similar make, and carries further. ■ ■

The new vessels, the Lord Nelson and the Agamemnon, in addition to ten 9.2 guns, carry four 12in guns. These immense guns fire a shell of 8501b, which can crash through some 4ft of iron. The most_ powerful of the German vessels to be laid clown carry four llin guns and probably ten 8.2, so that at long range the German could oppose only four guns against the fourteen armour-piercing weapons of the British. The superiority of the latter is overwhelming. The four new armoured cruisers are , also ■to be of remarkable pattern and •great,size, being, in short, the- largest' cruisers ever'built.- They are to have a speed of twenty-three knots and displace 14,600 tons. The will be armed with four 9.2 guns of the'same type as those of the Lord Nelson, and ten new 7.5 guns. The latter fire 2001b shells four tunes a minute through more than 2ft of iron.