TOUR OF THE PRINCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 March 1920, Page 6

TOUR OF THE PRINCE.

" A VISIT TO BERMUDA. By Telesraph.—Press Association. Hamilton (Bermuda) 21. It is announced tho Prince of Wales will visit Bermuda on October 5 upon his return from Australia.—Aus-N.Z. Cable Assn. JAPAN AFTER AUSTRALIA. CROWN PRINCE TO RETURN VISIT. The Japanese Consul at Vancouver lias learnt officially that the Prince of Wales will visit Japan after his trip to Australia, and later in the year ttee Japanese Crown Prince will probably proceed to London. Prijfee Hirohito, the Crown Prince of Japan, will be 19 years of age on April 29 nest. PREVIOUS AUSTRALIAN VISITS. COMEDY OF KING'S TRIP. Twenty years ago the arrival of the Prince of Wales, now King George, in Port Phillip (Sydney), was marked by a qflaint marine comedy. The ocean liner Ophir, in which the Royal party travelled, was a fast ship in those days. The cruiser escort Juno and St. George were also very speedy warships. The Australian fleet, or rather the British squadron in Australian waters, went out with great pomp and much smudging of the sky with smoke, to dip their ensigns to Prince George in the Southern Ocean. They met the voyageurs, and started to circle them in a majestic sweep, bin before they had half completed the manoeuvre the Ohpir, St. George, and Juno were showing them a white wake. The squadron -ceased Jits much, meditated minuet, and got down to business. En-sine-room signals read in red letters, "Full Speed Ahead," and away they pounded after the visitors with every ounce of steam on, but the further they went the longer the distance they lagged behind. The Royal party was listening to the convent bells off Mornington a couple of hours before the squadron grumpily thrashed its way to anchorage. History may repeat itself, for the giant Renown can shift her enormous bulk through the water at 4(1 miles an hour—faster than the Sydney express travels. Our cables say that her steel deck is being replaced by a wooden deck in order to lessen the heat of the tropics. Since this steel deck is Sin thickit cannot be that the Admiralty is ripping it up. What is more likely is that a thin wooden deck is being fitted over it. In any event, the speed of the Renown will remain the same. Our H.M.A.S. Australia can nnlv fin ?.! knots' at top. and the Sv'W- »-"i about 24 knots So if the Renown cares to' s v what she can do in the Pacific our Australian warships may distancedX- . THE RENOWN. VESSEL WITH A HISTORY. Of all the ships in the Royal Navy, the battle cruiser Renown, in which the Prince of Wales will cross and recross the Seven Seas, is best fitted to give dignity to the forthcoming visit and to excite in Australia interest in naval progress. She is a ship with a history, because she reflects the lessons conveyed by the Battle of the Falkland Islands, as well as by the actions in the North Sea in the early days of the war with which Admiral of the Fleet Sir David Bcatty's name will always be associated. . The Renown was to have been it battleship, one of the vessels of the Royat Sovereign type, which were included in the shipbuilding programme of 1914, when <ivar seemed a long way off. But the Battle of the Falkland Islands exhib'ted the value of high speed in association with heavy gun-power, and so about Christmas. 1914. on the initiative of Lord Fisher, who had recently become First Sea Lord, the Renown, which had already been laid down, was re-designed. Thus the battleship became a battle cruiser, because the war at that stage had already demonstrated the value of such ships.

It was arranged that she should carry the largest number of guns of the greatest power possible in such a vessel and have armour protection similar to the Invincible and other ships of that type, in association with a speed of no less than 32 knots. What that decision meant will be realised when it is recalled that the Powerful, which in the early days of this century was the swiftest cruiser in the Navy, attained a speed of only 22 knots, or ten knots less than it was determined to obtain in the Renown. Engineering science in the meantime had made great progress, and in the result the Renown attained a speed of 32.6 knots on the measured course off Arran. Sir Eustace d'Eynconrt has since stated that • the Renown, like her sister ship, the Repulse, has been well reported upon at sea, and maintained her speed well. The success of this ship constitutes no mean triumph of British engineering, for 32.6 knots is equivalent to something in the neighborhood of 40 miles, probably, at a spurt. SPEED OF 32 KNOTS Under the pressure of war, although the design was a new one, the Renown was completed for sea in about half the time usually occupied in the construction of such ships, and before she hoisted the pennant the plating over the magazine was considerably increased, thus embodying in this ship one of the lessons conveyed by the Battle of Jutland. It may be interesting to add a few particulars of this vessel, which will suggest to Australasians something of the skill of British designers, shipbuilders and workmenDisplacement 26,500 tons. Length over all 794 ft. Lead draught, mean. 25.Jft. Engines 112,000 shaft horse-power. Breadth, extreme, 90ft. Oil fuel, 4250 tons. Armament: 6 15-inch. 17 4-inch. 2 21-inch torpedo tubes. Armour: Side. M/.in t.o (tin. Bulkheads, 3 to 4in. Barbelies, 4 to Tin-* Gun houses, 7 to 11 in. Conning tower, 10inThese particulars indicate' the main characteristics of this remarkable ship, the cost of which has not yet been revealed, but was ccrtainlv heavy. She carries the same type of gun as t battleships of the Elizabeth and Royal Sovereign classes, and sacrifices a certain measure of their defensive qualities in order to attain' a speed exceeding 32 knots. Owing to the size of the Renown she will require the. deepest water for anchorage when she reaches Australia.