READY FOR ACTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 83, 2 September 1914, Page 7

READY FOR ACTION.

THE BATTLE FLAGS. OK BOARD A BRITISH WARSHIP. "The final war preparation is of a dramatic nature, the only dramatic touch permitted, perhaps—for the British Xav£ is very averse to anything that savors of an appeal to the gaJlery," writes Mr. F. T, Jane in describing the operations of clearing a British, fleet for i action. "Six big battle flags are hoistLed —one at each masthead, and two to support it in the riggiing of each mast. This, too, is purely utilitarian. It is one of the many obiter dicta attributed jto that great practical seaman, Admiral Sir John Fisher, that a patriot of the hysterical type once said to him anent the battle flags: 'Ah, I am indeed glad to see that you preserve the glorious old taditions of this flag!' 'Traditions bo blowed!' the Admiral is said to have replied; 'it means that wo don't have to waste men replacing an ensign shot away.'

"The story may or may not be true, but the sentiment expressed is the sentiment of the British Navy through and through. And so, as the British fleet goes into action, and the boom o? the battle guns sounds'at last in deadly earnest over the water, there witl be no men saying, 'Remember Kelson, and Trafalgar!' to each other. Probably nothing will be said at all, but if anything does break the silence before the guns begin it will most likely be the voice of some sporting bluejacket trying to get a chum to lay odds on his chances of survival! SHIPS OF RESERVE.

'To return to my subject. Commissioned ships have nothing to do in preparing for war beyond preparing for battle. It is otherwise, of course, with the ships in reserve, of whose mobilising we heard of so much the other day. That mobilising was more of a test of our 'preparedness than else; and I much that appeared' in the newspapers as being done was not done at all in I reality. But we had the shadow of wjiat might be, just as we had it at thq time of Fashoda, and at the time ' of the Flying Squadron. . "The first men to ibe affected arc the ( dockyard men; in a sense they axe the I only people much affected at all, for I the Navy is happily now so organised I that it can actually mobilise without hitch or excitement. The dockyard men are first affected because they have to put the finishing touohes as , quickly as possible to any work in hand. That means overtime, night shifts, and, if necessary, work on Sunday. Every officer doing duty in harbor ships or anywhere else in the Home ports has hi? "war appointment." On receiving the mere order to take this up he knowg exactly where to go. Simi- I larly the men are told off—it is all ar- I ranged beforehand; the authorities have only to switch 011, as it were, and the wheels go tound.

IV THE STORES. "'ln the store establishments all the stores for individual ships, other than those always in place, lie nearly apart and ticketed. Thither go the crew, and in a very short time things are got aboard. Much, of course, always , is on board the reserve ships. There is coal in their bunkers, ammunition in their magazines, and, best of all, a 'skeleton crew.' There is a chief engineer'who knows tile tricks of the engines (and the engines of warships have often the most strange individualities). He, too, knows the state of tile boilers, which ones had better be dealt gently with, which repairs ordered to be done have been shelved for other work, and he lias his private list of dockyard repairs not done as ho wimld have bad them done. Some of these perhaps he will put his people to see. to at once if time admits—it is often the privilege of engine-room complements to have to do over again work supposed to have been done for them in the yard. I ".Probably the ship has Belleville boilers. and the engineers will get ready all the spare tubes they can, for any day may bring a shot in the boilers. If the hit is not too serious, damaged tubes can be taken out and fresh ones screwed in, this ability to repair being the 'military' quality of the BeUevilles of • which we hear so much now and again. I it is only found in boilers of French in--1 vention, and has been the cause of bother before now in peace time when badly serewed-in tubes have leaked, but when war is in the air it is an inestimable advantage, for no ships that can possibly be kept with the fleet ean be spared for dockyard repairs after a battle.

CLEARING FOR ACTION*. "While our ship is getting up steam the people above will have 'ljcen busy clearing for action as they clear in eommisioned ships. The men who. nac-h with his Mumiock and hag, stuffed with liis world!,' goods, crawled on board like a disturbed coterie of ants carrying eggs. will now be running to and fro with sacks of coal from lighter?; alongside or from trucks upon the jetty. In every possible corner these coal bags will be stowed, reinforcing turrets, filling cabins, everywhere; for in war every ounce of coal is worth its weight in gold, and the fleet that can steam longest is the fleet most likely to win. Woe betide the stoker who shovels coal anyhow under his Bellevilles in defiance of the ethics of that cannv Frenchman, who said, 'Coal it is that will win the naval battles of the steam age.'

THE WiAY ABOUT. '•The next (to the landsman) most unexpected worry is teaching the crew their way about the ship. A modern warship is such a vast conglomeration of doors and passages that it is no exag"eration to call it three months work to learn them all. The problem when war is towards is an acute one. "For the first few days the best will in the world will not enable the men to get quickly to their stations, and the efficiency of the ship will bo correspondingly hampered. The men, too. have got to get to know and rely upon one another. It is an old and true saying that one commissioned ship is probably worth two mobilised ones; and there are those who assort that for the first six months of a war the only efficient ships will lie those which were in regular commission when the trouble began. 'Hence the mischief wrought by those who advocate a small peace navy with large reserves. For such a fleet victory is well-nigh impossible, and it cannot be too clearly laid down that to win a iiavv must be on a war tooting auc ready in the piping times of peace. The British Navy has fulfilled that condition, and the hour of trial has not found it wanting.