A FLEET IN BEING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 15

A FLEET IN BEING.

PRESS REVIEW AT SPITHEAD.

In -Khe absence of any representation of the colonial press at the great naval review at Spit-bead, one cannot do better than quote Mr H. W. Wilson's narrative from the Daily Mail: —

"The "inspection of the fleet assembled at Spßbead in honour of the Imperial press delegates will long live in the memory of all' privileged to be present. As a spectacle, words cannot do justice to ft* impressive grandeur. As the jrueete assembled at Victoria, Sir John Fisher, who was present on the platform, showering' upon the delegates kindly attention*, looked tit* picture of energy and' animation, organiser of tbe greatest event of the Press Congress. Moored at the Portsmouth, jetty was the steamer Volcano, -whieaa -was to take the guests through the feet- TOmb

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.jhe train arrived the sky was overcast, j and there was a sharpness in the air which, j sorted rather with November than with ! June. No gi*e«t might reach the steamer j •without exhibiting a pass, and so energetic t were the police that even Sir John Fisher, ' who was in mufti,- was challenged. Out in the harbour lay the Victory, painted as ">~ I ••Jead Ne-lson and his half-dead crew hi 6 foes from near and far 1 We/c rolled together on the deep that night at Trafalgar." I Beflagged aloft, her sides manned with a long row of motionless dark blue figures, I she lay, battles done; monument of the j old, order passed for ever. A cloud of j smoke broke from her side as a 24-pounder began a salu-te. The Voloano followed the Admiralty yaoht Enchantress towards Spithead. Far off on the horizon towered a forest of tall masts and funnels and tops, multitudinous, wonderful to see. This •was the greatest and strongest fleet ever assembled in any anchorage — the fleet which keeps watoli and ward over the safety of England. The Volcano drew nearer, and the am shone. The colour effect* .-wolf woaderfnl. Now the scouts were-.' passed, low-lying, graceful, with the air of greyhound;, heading each a division of destroyers. Their sides were manned with the row of impassive figures. - They wore the eombre dress of war. Khaki for the fighting man on land; lead. colour for the fighting- ship at sea, save only the destroy«rs, which are black as the night in which they use their Terrible weapon. j CITY OF WARSHIPS. | "The big ships were anchored in three' ■lines, each line close on six miles long — a muster of giants. marshaJled with absolute perfection. The grandeur of the sight rtooto the breath away. Battleship on battleship, rising like immense fortresses, grim ririth guns, solemn with the air of force and resolution, businesslike with their absence of all adventitious trappings, a city jof ships majestic, dignified, forceful, gloomy on a gloomy sea— for the sky had now onoe more clouded over. In* that great ' array there were no 'dummy' ships, no ■* duffers.' The oldest of the battle fleet ,w«s not 11 years launched. The vast hull of the Dreadnought towered above us with ber huge tripod mast and its fire-control position and wireless network by which she can talk with Gibraltar as she lies off Portsmouth. Now the eye looked down j between the lines. It was a marvellous ' sight, this avenue of behemoths, interminable, unbroken. It was the road of 'Empire, kept by battleshfcs of the Prince of Wales and King Edward classes. Away to the right. showed' the four Dreadnoughts, fhe most wonderful group of ships in 4 wonoarful fleet, with their giant 12in guns in ifceir hu#e grey turrets. Nearer was .the great bulk of the eight King Edwards, .•with their 9.2's protruding menacingly. In each ship the marines, m red tunics and white helmets, made a little patch of colour below, while aloft' against the windy 6ky the flags flew out in gala fashion. Enormous armoured cruisers succeeded the 22, Jj&ttfeships. Here away on the right were the three Invincibles, the fastest armoured pruisers in the world, and as fighting malehdncs unsurpassed by anything of thzh

kind. There was the Indomitable, ' Cock [ of the Seven Seas,' with her record of tho I fastest Atlantic- passage. There was the Invincible, which disputes the Indomit- ' able's laurels; there was the Inflexible. 1 What strikes the eye is their monstrous bulk and their appearance of speed and power. They are floating fortresses, with | tho air of factories, not ships; but these are fortresses and factories that can move , with the swiftness of the wind. Grey hull succeeded grey hull ; one monster followed ! ■on another. At last tfhe Volcano turnedI The passage down the avenues of ships I had taken just over half an hour. SALT OF THE SALT. j " Now leaving behind the great ship 3 of to-day, we headed towards the Gosport shore, and there broke upon the gaze a number of sinister craft. These were the vessels of to-morrow — the 55 submarines. ] Far off they showed like the Monitor when she came out for her .fight with the Merrim«o — 'cheese boxes on rafts.' Steaming closer, the cheese box became an uncannylooking pepper box of a conning tower, from which two long periscope tubes protruded, planted* on a long, low, narrow deck that rose up from the cigar-shaped . hull. On each' conning-tower or deck stood 12 or 14 officers and men, the men clad in white duffle 'jumpers,' blue trousers, and heavy sea boots. They are the e*lt of the navy, as the navy is the salt of the race. Leaving the submarines, we steamed for 20 minutes through another avenue of monstrous grey hulls, anl made fast to the Dreadnought. On her deck was a great gathering of officers— Admiral May, the Commander-in-Chief of this gigantic fleet, conspicuous among his staff. We were in the great battleship almost before we knew it, Sir John Fisher showing the way, master of the ceremonies_, with words of explanation for all who wished to ask him about his darling Dreadnought. Then the order ' out nets ' was given. In a few • seconds the thing was done, the triumph j of electricity. Down the avenue came the submarines, moving at nine or ten knots. First were three m cruising trim, officers and men standing upon the conning-towers, whioh rose high above the surface and with decks just awash. Then came a trio in diving trim, hatches closet! down and periscopes vp — only one periscope is put up by each boat at c time, the other being held in | reserve in case the first is shot away. In this position they can scarcely be made out at a mile's distance. One grasped the devilish nature of the submarine. But the last three were the uncanniest of all. As they neared the battleship they dived and motored under water with but the very tip of their periscopes appearing. Id real w*r, in the last minutes of the approach, even this would not be seen. In manoeuvres j they have again and again bagged the Dreadnought. Indeed, as ' an officer said : 'After looking for half an hour for periscopes ou the water you see them, everywhere, and while you are seeing them the real submarines have slipped in and unleashed their torpedoes unchallenged.' TORPEDO ATTACK "The turn of the destroyers came next. Sixteen of them were to deliver an attack ' on the Dreadnought, each alternate de- • atroyer firvr.g a torpedo. Black La hull,

they tore up th© avenue at }8 knots. They were 30-knot boats, but they were not lei out to their full speed because of the tremendous wash which such fast motion causes in an anchorage. There was a slight puff of smoke; a bright steel something leapt into the water; and on the surface of the sea showed a straight green trail moving swiftly towards the Dreadnought — a splendid) shot. The steel nose of the , torpedo bobbed up angrily from the sea and ' butted the net again and again, as if trying to force a way in, while from it burst flame and .smoke — the phosphide of calcium, attachment which is fixed for peace purposes in the torpedo's head, to enable the crew to find and recover the weapon after it has been fired. Torpedo followed torpedo as riie destroyers came by, the alternate. ' boats which did not discharge torpedoes • firing guns or rockets to show that they ( ! had made their attack. Now and again j i a torpedo failed to take its depth at onoe, I and rose on the surface of the water as j it left the tube like some gigantic fish, but j for the most part they* came straight as a ' bullet to the foot of the Dreadnought's ! mast. Soon there was not one torpedo, j ' but a perfect herd of them buffeting against j the steel netting, rubbing their noses upon it, smoking and. flaming like a pack of < horrible monsters from Dante's ' Inferno,' j fighting to reach their quarry. One caught . its nose in the net; the stew flew up, ] showing the propellers revolving with tre- j mendous speed; there was a loud hiss, and the compressed air oame out with a rush from a valve in the stern.' As a naval spectacle thie torpedo attack was amazingly [ impressive. "Tea in the Dreadnought's wardroom and an inspection of the wonder-ship folt lowed. The guests were taken in lifts down to her engine-rooms — rooms clear ot the tangle of machinery, with only a perfect maze of dials and indicators. We entered the turrets and saw the loading arrangements. The ammunition Ihoist came up with a fearful crash, like the report of a gun ; another lever was touched, and the chain rammer crashed into the gun, driving a projectile before it, and then the ammunition ; another lever moved, and the immense breech-'blook swung home with a bang. The 60-ton gun was handled as though it had been a toy. The 6hip seemed to contain everything, and Dr Engelenberg, present with the Boers in the South African war, was delighted to discover a complete printing press on board. HANDY MAN AS ACTOR. " Sir John Fisher gathered hie flock, and we were steaming up to Whale Island, the famous jfunnery school of the British navy. Landing at the jetty, the party was driven to the scene of the most realistic battle ever rehearsed in time of peace. On the edge of Portsmouth Harbour, hereabouts a quiet lake, was a complicated syatem of entrenohments, a miniature camp, a number of field guns, and a force of bluejackets. Parallel to the water ran a line of rails. Out on the still watei rode a number of gunboats and launches, which | were to 'deliver the attack. Herei and there were bluejackets on guard ashore watching the enemy. Suddenly there were signs of movement among the gunboats. The sentinels signalled the akim. Officers

i and men doubled up and lined the trenches. Then the battle began. Field guns open«d a rapid fire ashore, usinj? blaok powder. Flash ! Crash ! Bang ! fcar-splittimf concuesions succeeded each other ; the shore was ablaze. The rifles cracked. Smoke brofee from the sides of the gunboats, and the deep note of heavy guns was heard. The enemy was bombarding the position to clear the way for the landing party. A few seconds after they had fired, perfectly timed, their shells began to bur6t among the trenches. Now they shot up great masses of turf and stones; now there - were the rings and jets of shrapnel in the air overhead; now, again, there came spurts of flame in the very midst of the defenders. Charges had been laid beforehand, and these were detonated at the right moment to simulate ©hell bursts. It was wonderfully done. No words can convey a picture of the scurry and rush, ot tho air of action and reality about this mimic battle. Dim blue figures moved to and fro in dense clouds of smoke and spoute of flame. The shells came faster and more furious fronu the gunboats. Figure.3 dropped and fell everywhere. Here and there- one 6aw through the smoke what looked like streams of blood on the heads of the fallen. But on close inspection the blood resolved itself into red ink. There was attack and counter-attack. The buejackele entered into the spirit of the performance ; indeed, it almost looked as if they might, be carried away by theii zeal and exohange the mimic for the reality. One saw little pictures of men with clubbed rifles striking furiously in the smoke ; officers covered with mud leading rushes with drawn swords, the defenders being steadily driven in. Then came th«i tour d« force. A hug© 4.7 in gun was landed and dragged by the assailants up the steep bank. A trench just under the visitors' eyes was taken and retaken ; a Maxim jammed, as is the way of Maxims. Men fell dead with a spring; the ground was covered with the fallen. But it was written in the programme that the assailants were driven to the water. The life, vigour, and colour of the scene carried away the spectator. Suddenly a bugle sounded, the firing ceased, the killed 1 returned to life, and the band played God Save the King. This display had its more solemn side. It told something of the hor- j rors of war. OVATION TO SIR J. FISHER. " From "Whale Island the procession of guests was driven through the dockyard , past the mighty hull of the St. Vincent, past the etern of the newest battleship yet ! laid down, the Neptune, and so back to the station and the train. Punctual to. the minute the special pulled up at Victoria., and there a singular and spontaneous ovation was given to Sir John Fisher. From first to last he had been omnipresent, with a thought and a word of greeting for everyone, the most accessible and the most ' ooneiderate of men. The guests assembled '. round him. 'Three cheera for Sir John j Fisher,' someone shouted, and they wiere given with a will, the guests then singinsr j 1 For he'e a iolly good fellow ' with equal spirit, while he stood bareheaded and smilinif In their midst. Wfoein the cheering subsided he turned and paid simply with a smile, ' I hope you will all come again.

i 'And that, to our ears,' said a delegate,. ' is the moat eloquent speech which we have* jet heard.' "