“BLISTER SHIPS"

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10282, 17 May 1919, Page 9

“BLISTER SHIPS"

——«€*■ ; TORPEDO PROOF INTERESTING NAVAL INVENTIONS. One of the most successful devices Invented by British naval experts In the war time was one known as a “blister,” which served to protect ships against torpedoes. It is an outer steel easing fitted to the sides of ships. All of its technical details of construction have not been revealed, but naval experts assert that shipS equipped with blisters run no greater risk from undersea attacks than from surface fighting dangers. In tfio war the Germans torpedoed several “blister ships,’’ but in every case, it is asserted, the vessels were able to reach port and be repaired. Sir 10. H. ,T. D’Eyncourt, director of naval construction, invented the blister, which was first attached to four old cruisers. Patiently the Navy wait- j ed for a tost for two years; then, in Juno, 1917, the cruiser Grafton, while steaming at ten knots, was struck amidships by a torpedo, fired from a Gorman submarine only thirty yards Distant. The blister, which stuck *ut from the cruiser’s sire about fifteen feet, exploded the torpedo, and . ne Grafton steamed back to port with only a slight list. MONITORS USED “BLISTERS.” Improvements were made on the “blisters,” and they were fitted to the sister monitors Erebus and Terror. Both these vessels, mounting 15-inch guns, bombarded the Belgian coast for months. Both were torpedoed within a week, 'and but for the protecting blisters they would have been sunk. Three torpedoes struck the Erebus, two hitting the fore part of the monitor, where the blister tapers off. As a precaution, the Erebus was beached, but it was afterwards found that she was less severely damaged than bad been thought, and shb was subsequently repaired. No ship over before survived three torpedoes. ' The Navy now has about fifty blis ter ships in commission, including some of the first battle-cruiser squadron. Tin* now Dreadnoughts Rodney, Howe and Hood aro also being fitted with blisters. A self-propelling projectile charged with 500 pounds of TNT was perfected by tiio naval exports only a short time before the Armistice was signed. It is believed to havo strengthened materially the power and effectiveness of thtBritish fleet. The projectile can be discharged without concussion from small boats or a light platform, ex ploding on the contact,, or, when fitted with a special device, below’ the W’ater,

thus serving the purpose of a depth charge. ' ‘ . MANY INVENTIONS PERFECTED An apparatus for throwing a flame for a distance of 240 feet, as water is thrown Irom a hose, was rigged up on one of the vessels that took part in the raid on Eeebrugge. - But 1 before' it oould bo used a shell from the enemy batteries, put it out of action. Another invention is a gun to fire signals from submerged submarines. It sends a star shell 800; feet into the air. Several kinds of smoko screens were invented, most of them for the purpose of baffling U-boats. A powerful flame equal to a million candle-power was another achievement of the naval inventors which was used with groat effect against enemy submarines waiting on the- surface at night to attack merchant ships., These flares, suddenly ignited, turned night into- day, and in the Straits of Dover alone seventeen 0-boats were caught by their aid and sunk. i _ The work of developing these inventions was carried on by the Royal Navy Experimental Station near London. Its staff comprised 25 officers and 1050 men, all experts, either in research or constructional work, most of them being chemists or engineers.