THE FINEST SHIP AFLOAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 229, 21 September 1908, Page 3

THE FINEST SHIP AFLOAT.

PRINCE OF WALES AS STOKER. Loudon, August 7. The Indomitable, which brought the Prince of Wales back from Canada this week, has proved herself the swiftest) warship in the world. Her race across the Atlantic is a feat unequalled even by the Lusitania, which hitherto had held the Atlantic record. From coast to coast the Indomitable crossed the £..' lantic in 2 days 18 hours. Her full time for the whole journey frani Quebec to Cowes was 5 days 18 hours 40 minutes. The fastest time for a passenger ship between Livenpoo! and Quebec was made last month by a Canadian-Pacific linei' in 6 days 2 hours. The Indomitable averaged 25.13 knots .per hour on her voyage across from hind to land, and 24.8 knots per hour from Belle Isle to Land's End. iSpeed was reduced by fog in the vicinity of Bell e Isle, and by icebergs after passing Cape Norman. The fastest speed attained was 26V! knots per hour.

Of the 78 men on board the cruiser every one, from the Prince of Wales downwards, took his share in the laborious work of stoking. To exhibit a cloan face was almost a mark of reproach where there was so much stoking to be done. The Prince went down ono afternoon into the stokehold in a spick) and span white uniform, but when he emerged half an hour later the evidence of his contact with the coal iwas only too evident. He had put in thirty minutes of stoker's work, first pulling out the coal and then feeding the furnace. As with the Prince so with his staff—all underwent a spell in the stokehold. Apropos of coal, it may be mentioned that the cruiser left Quebec with 3000 tons, and the supply i 3 not exhausted. The experience from first to last has teen one that officers and men would not have foregone for anything. The highest praise has been accorded to the general sea-going qualities of the vessel. On the outward voyage she battled for days against a head sea, and was as nnn as a rock. When steaming on the return journey at twenty- ! live knots an hour or more, it was difficult to realise the pace, so steady was she going. It was a marvellous ! experience for those accustomed to the I sea. In these days of ironclads, the I absence of 'beauty in warships is a cry [ often heard, but naval men grow eloI cpicnt over the graceful lines of the Indomitable.

On the voyage from Quebec only half of the warship's available boiler pressure was utilised. "If we had put on the extra 130," said an ofliccr of the ; cn"inecr's staff, "we could have done , twentv-seven knots with case and thirty •, knots' j«st as well. The builders it , Fairfield guaranteed that the Indomitable could do thirty knots just as easily as twenty-seven, and with all her turbines going she did twenty-eight knots on the measured mile on the Clyde, and averaged 20.78 on her trial trip. Oil , the voyage from Quebec we disconnected two turbines, so that she was running with all that power less. There was the additional difficulty that we had \" transport the coal some distance from the bunkers to the stokeholds. Thar is where the labour came in. and that is why it was necessary to make a call for volunteer help, although it was only for a brief ncriocl. 1 only wish we hadl "picked up the Mauritania or the Lusitania. We should have shown them a clean pair ot heels, I assure von. The Indomitable is the finest ship in .the world, vou mav take my word for it.'' The British Navy leads the world in speed as well as in numliers. There are several other British cruisers besides tinIndomitable which can do or exceed 24 knots an hour. Among these are the) Kent. Lancaster, Bedford. Berwick. Donegal. Cornwall, and Cumberland, all vessels of 0800 tons; the Hood Hope anil the Drake, of 14,100 tons: and the King Alfred, also of 14,100 tons, which in her ninth year can do her 25 knots, and is (he fastest armoured cruiser afloat after the three vessels of Hie Indomitable clis- .Amongst heavy battleships the n'riti'sh Dreadnought easily holds the record for .speed with 21 knots. Tim fastest foreign battleships, properly socalled, are the Trench Democratic class and the Ocrman (laiiovers. each of winch can do 10 knots, .lapan this month, however, will complete two new' vessels, the \ki and Satsuma. of in,inO tons, the deemed speed of which is 20.5 knots. Most foreign Dreadnoughts now bml ling are designed for 21 knots. The shovel" which the Prince of Wales used in stokina i- being burnished, anil will be preserved on tin- Indomitable a- a memento ot a marvellous voyage.