H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND.
INTERESTING DETAILS. The details of the cruiser New Zealand may be summarised as follows: Built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan, Glasgow, to the charge of the Government of New Zealand. Laid down June, 1910. Launched July, Commissioned at Devonport by Captain Lionel Hasley, November 2li, 1912. Length. 590 ft. * Beum, 80ft. Draught, 30y 2 ft. Displacement, 19,000 tons. Main armament, 8 12in B'.L. Mk. X, 45-calibre guns. Weight of broadside, fi,Boolbs—3 tons. Auxiliary armament, 1Q 4in. B.L. Mk. Vii. 50-calibre guns. Armour protection, belt 12ft. wide, 4 to Gin. thick.
Two submerged torpedo tubes. Eight twin searchlights. Complement, 789 officers and men. Turbine engines, four propellers. 44,000 horse-power, 31 boilers. Speed, 27 knots—3l% miles per hour. Ship carries 3,200 tons of coal and 830 tons of oil fuel. Cost, £2,000.000.
I As becomes the first of Imperial ships, the New Zealand is manned by members I of the British navy, and by New Zealaiulers. Two of her officers were bom in the Dominion, and 40 or ,50 of her crew. Captain Halsey himself will be ; remembered as Flag-Captain on the Aus-
v tiuiHbiau .-Muuuu —spare, wiry, aierc, ana , altogether competent. Commander Grace, the second in command, and a \ son of the redoubtable and world-fam-f ous "AV.G.," is a chip of the old block, j Officers, warrant-offcers, petty-officers, [and men, from the highest to'the low- ( est, all bear that hall-mark which is characteristic of the British navy. I DEATH-DEALING ARMAMENT. J The control of the armaments of the giant craft is marvellous. To svicli a pitch of perfection has gunnery been .brought that these huge sun.-.' which drive a shell weighing 1,2001b. to a distance of seven miles, are practical! v ! ■ fool-proof. Except for handles and levers, which a child could operate, none of their j vital parts has to be touched. The I j shell down in the bunkers in the maga-i I zinc is lifted by a little hoist, which car- 1 ries it along' to a lift, which, again' • deposits it in the casement in a com-' •; partment, from which it rolls into a i kind of slot, and from the slot '-
pushed up by machinery into the brei-' Rammed home, the breech is closed, ••••■> >' the gun is fired. At a trial of the s 1; . the operation took, fro::i the moim t>: the men were told to '"stand ready." until the trigger was pulled. 18 seconds. So there is every reason why it is expected that three rounds a minute could be fired from these monsters. The bin. guns, with their lesser charge and their lower penetrating power, carry grim evidence of their death-dealing qualities. The super-Dreadnought of to-day has her battery of guns so arranged that she can rain practically the whole of fhem on any given object at the same time. The only exception are the two llin. guns aft. which, in consideration of their nature, are circumscribed in their arc, and could only be used to fight a rear-guard action, or to drop a parting shot on to some opponent for another broadside. AN ELECTRIC NETWORK. j
There are telephones everywhere. The modern warship has become a kind of electrical laboratory. Everything is done by electricity, from (he cooking of food to the blowing of the lire in the blacksmith's shop, the firing of the great guns to the lighting of the captain's stove iii his sitting-room, tlit- working oE the lifts to the hoisting out of the boats. There is apparently nothing that an electrician cannot do with this strange power. When once the order is given to "clear decks," therefore, every part of the ship instantly becomes in closest conlact with every other part by this network of'.electrical lines, and no chances are taken. If the enemy should clout the coljning tower, and render it necessary for'the gun lire to be. directed and controlled from some safer place, there is a room embedded in the armour forward, where this work can lie carried out without the slightest breajv in the continuity of operations, and if bv anv chance' the enemy were to plunge'a shell into this den. there is a second secret cabin amidships, an emergency cabin, fitted with every requisite where for a third time the brains of ihe ship can work coollv and quietly. .Ignite the hail of death" raining outside. ' -• m® PNTBXOSF.D D'RASTET!.
Dc=t ruction disaster. desolation, despair, and death lurk in the shell magazine in the centre of the ship, yet thev look to the uninsit'ueted eye harmless lumps of iron. They are great; long long cylinders, with iron shell and snub noses.' formerly thev were made wiih pointed tips, hut it was discovered that Hie suub-nose has an even belter pen"tr.ilive power than the point : and within (hose iron eases lie three kinds -d ,].,,,., ,l„.,ih bv a !-olid -ma-h of iron, death bv shrapnel (which explode-. shrieks, and screams like furies let loose
from hell), and death by lyddite, timed by a fuse to explode at a given distance, and if the distance 'be right, sufficiently disruptive to bear the greatest battleship that man has made to the bottom of the ocean. SEARCHLIGHTS LIKE SUNS. The searchlights are an amazin<* achievement. The heliograph lias disappeared in (the British iiavv, for it is no longer required. These electric suns, eacli of u5,0()0 c.h.p., throw a beam of light up the sea as if it were day for a distance of four miles, rendering 'it almost impossible for the fastest and smallest craft to approach a battleship without detection, and the searchlights serve a double purpose. They are not only employed to sweep the sea to prevent the enemy creeping up without notice; they are also used for signalling other ships of the fleet. A quaint shut-ter-like apparatus is worked bv hand, and blinks out Morse signals across the waters. The men's quarters do not allow of a person of fift'. high standing upright, and are constructed so that onlv the man of comparatively small stature can walk about with any freedom. Off it are the officers' cabins. Delightful places they all are. with bedstead bunks, and writing tables, and reading desks, and reasonable accommodation for clothes and laundry and books. Beyond those, again, are the captain's cabin and the captain's sitting room. They are the last word in gentlemanly bachelor luxury at sea, and the captain's messroom and the officers' messroom and the middies' messroom are each of their kind excellent and pleasant to the ere. The men's sleeping quarters are in the men's eating quarters. They have their meals and they sleep in the same place between decks. The tables are fairly high off the ground, and not very far from the roof, so that there is not a great deal of space for the hammocks, which are fixed when the last meal, supper, has been eaten, and there is no great elbow room between the hammocks, and of fresh air there is not much, because the port-holes are almost awash when a battleship is at sea. and therefore the men's quarters are almost always lighted with eleetricitv.
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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 287, 3 April 1913, Page 8
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1,187H.M.S. NEW ZEALAND. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 287, 3 April 1913, Page 8
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