BRITISH ARMADA OF TO-DAY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 65, 16 March 1916, Page 3

BRITISH ARMADA OF TO-DAY.

BATTLE-SCARRED CRUISERS,

.WICKED-LOOKING

SUBMARINES AND DESTROYERS, HALF A MILE OF STOREHOUSES’

Undes escort of officers assigned by the Admiralty a correspondent of the Associated Press and a party of foreign journalists had their first opportunity to inspect one of the great naval bases on the coast, where cruisers, destroyers, and submarines are assembled for their watch over the North Sea, and from which point big .oceangoing submarines are sent on forages to the Baltic and the Dardanelles, says a recent article in the “New York Herald.”

It was an impressive sight of concentrated power and alert readiness, wit hlong lines of battle-scarred cruisers stretching seaward, back of them a vast flotilla of destroyers, then a countless number of submarines of the latest D and E type, which recently have performed such brilliant work from the Dardanelles to the Bosphorus and throughout the Baltic. The day was typical of the rigors the British Fleet is now experiencing in the North Sea, with rain pelting the sailors in oilskins, a north wind cutting the sea into foam and seagulls everywhere. The little fishing village on the coast had been transformed by the war into a vast naval rendezvous, with storehouses stretching half-a-mile prepared to re-equip an armada and send it back to sea within two hours of its arrival.

Here also were the “mother” ships ranged in long lines along the quay ready to receive back their fighting children each tim© they came from a raid or a battle. HIVE OF ENERGY. The huge establishment was vibrating with energy, and in the harbour mine-sweepers were coming back from their work,. Hydro-aeiroplanes were manoeuvring from the decks of their craft, and black smoke from the funnels of the cruisers and destroyers to'd of their readiness to dash out to sea after an enemy craft. The light cruiser squadron had just returned from scouting along the German coast in search of a German fleet which was said to have ventured out from the Kiel Canal, t Nothing had been seen of the German ships, and the British officers —the same who,had received their stars in the famous fights under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty—were derisive at the idea that the Germans would venture forth. One of the officers was in command of the torpedo tubes when they fired the deadly missiles which struck the German cruiser Blutcher and sent her reeling to the bottom in the great fight last January. He pointed out these self-same tubes and told how they worked. “First we let go that one,” he said, “and then this one. It was this one that hit the Blucher amidships. She

was lying off there about fifteen hundred yards. The thing that impressed me after we hit her was the deathly stillness. It was terribly still until the great big ship threw up her bow, turned clean over and sank. “Yes, this is the on© that did it,” and he patted this terrible deathdealing engine affectionately, as though it were his child, as in truth, it has been since he laid the'Blucher low.

DESTROYERS AND SUBMARINES

This occurred on board the Arethusa, which since that time has been lost. After leaving the Arethusa the party went aboard the latest type of big destroyers, which are here ranged in great battalions with steam up. They are very fast, some of them making 37 or 38 knots, and even touching--42 knots on‘a measured mile, while all of them regularly do 35 knots on regular service.

Lying outside of them were the submarines of the D and E type, the latter being sea-going craft of great radius, which are now making distant undersea voyages to the Baltic and the Dardanelles. The smaller D boats

have the trim outlines of an eightloared racing shell, but the big new ocean-rangers are as ugly as some submarine monster, with a steel fin running fore and aft and a camel’s hump amidship for a deck. One of the commanders indicated their fine

qualities. “They can stay under water for 72 hours,” he said. “Yes, three days, Without any inconvenience to /the crew from lack of air. The D boats ar© good for runs of 24 hours under water.” FROM SHIPYARD TO BATTLE. “During these long deepwater runs .they thread their way through the Skager Rock or skirt around Teneriffe and past Gibraltar with 7 as much ease under water as though afloat. “The direction and proximity or distance from land ate all determined with mathematical accuracy, by the science of navigation, and the steering goes on as easily under Avater as above. There Avere many famous sea fighters among the destroyers, including the Lance, which helped to sink the Koenigin Luise off Harwich, and was in the Heligoland battle. In fact, all these ships had seen battle service unless they had just come from the yards. As an example of rapid Avork, an officer of the lamented Arethusa told the party that the late cruiser had got out of the shipyard on a,. Saturday, had been in a fight by Wednesday, had sunk a battleship, and reached the yard again by the next Saturday. He concluded by asking: “How is. that for a record?”