ALL THE WORLD'S WARSHIPS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 91, 7 October 1911, Page 9

ALL THE WORLD'S WARSHIPS.

WHAT THK I'OVVKIIS OBTAINED FOR JCj.IXKUKMi.WH). (iKIi.UAXY CATCHING UP. In a work of live hundred odd pages Mr. Krcd T. Jam: describes with an amazing wealth of accurate detail some live thousand ships of war, representing the material and tangible produet of an I'XjK'iulit uvf that must run to about Ci.iMin.OOO.OOO. rt is no light task, as may easily be imagined, for everv elass of ship dealt with has at least four illustrations—a photograph, a plan, a prolile and a silhouette.

A point which readily strikes one on looking through the illustrations is the manner in which the desire for perpetual readiness for war has gripped the naval authorities of the world and impressed its mark deeply upon the ships. The older warships, particularly in some foreign navies, are crowded with top-hamper—all sorts of possibly useful, but probably useless gear scattered about or built upon the decks. The ships of to-day are vastly different. The deck is built clear and clean from end to end, and the only excresences allowed upon it are the gun-tur- : rets, the conning towers, the funnels and a solitary mast. The gun-turrets must . probably remain always*; but the masts will go when the "wireless" can be worked efficiently from the deck level, and when, as may be the result of many experiments now being carried out iri various parts of the world, the guns can he controlled from a similar position. Electric fans have replaced the old ventilating cowls, and internal combustion engines will oust the funnel. There are some who can see grace and beaut}' in the' super-Dreadnought of today. A few years hence the first-class fighting ship will be just a great, swiftlylocomotive, level-decked barge with a few gun houses that will appear to sight an instant before the guns are tired, and disappear with the recoil.

Another feature that will attract attention is the growing practice of giving ships funnels of unequal height. The object in doing' this is to carry the smoke from the foremost funnel well from the navigating bridge just beneath. Vessels built in this fashion are the twenty destroyers of the 1909-10 programme and the. battle cruiser Indefatigable; while several other ships, including those of the Invincible and Warrior classes, have had their fore-funnel lengthened after completion. Needless to add, the effect is not beautiful, especially as later ships have funnels of unequal thicknesses as well.

Two new fashions appear to be taking firm hold on the navies of the world, judging by the plans in Mr. Jane's book. The ftrst is that of putting all the gunturrets in the middle- line of the ship, arid the second, of putting three guns, instead of two, into each turret. The United States led the way in the first of these, and in all her Dreadnoughts, although the number of big guns has increased from eight to twelve, the centre line principle has been adhered to. Its great advantage is that it gives a free fire for all guns on either beam—the sacrifice of ahead and astern fire is not regarded as serious in view of the tactical ideas now generally held. At the same time, a ship that finds itself bows on to an enemy is likelv to find the new

ararngement rather uncomfortable, and tactics will for this reason play a very large part in the next naval war. The other nations which have adopted

the centre-line arrangement for all their Dreadnoughts are Italy, Austria and, probably, Russia. In our case, however, the development was gradual. Our first seven Dreadnought battleships had three turrets on the middle line, and two abreast on the beams. Then came the Neptune, Hercules and Colossus, in which the turrets not on the middle line are placed en echelon, or diagonally, so that both can fire on each broadside, though only through a small angle. In the Orion, Lion and the ships of the Thunderer class we have at last copied the

American system. How these and other differences affect the fighting power of ships may be seen in the fact that the American Michigan, the British Dreadnought and the German Thuringen all lire the same number of guns (eight) on the broadside, although the numbers mounted are eight, ten and twelve respectively.

There arc some startling changes to be noted in the distribution of naval strength. Reckoning in completed Dreadnoughts alone. Great Britain is, of course, first with 13, Germany fi, the Tnited States 4. and Brazil 2. 'The rest of the world is nowhere, since these nations alone have completed Dreadnoughts at sea. If we include Dreadnoughts in all stages of construction, the position of German is much better, although, of course, she remains in the seconl place. For the British Empire the total is 32, Germany 21 and the United States 12. Japan comes next] with seven ship, then Italy, Austria. Russia and France, with four each. Bra-, zil and Spain have three Dreadnoughts built and building, although the Spanish vessels are much less powerful than the Brazilian. Chili and the Argentine are building two apiece; and Turkey brings up the rear with one. The next Power to complete its first Dreadnought should be Italy, and then Austria, followed by the Argentine, France and Russia. Tt will be seen that when the time comes for the Dreadnoughts to stand alone as the gauge of naval power, the complexion will have been considerably altered.

Here are some more interesting—in some cases significant—facts to be culled from Mr. Jane's most valuable work. Aerial craft appear in it for the first time. All the naval Powers are devoting great attention to the provision of ships for using the submarine mine. Germany has more fast protected cruisers than we, although our sea interests are at least five times as great, and her newest vessels of this class are three knots faster than ours.