EDITORIAL.

Thames Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 10346, 20 April 1911, Page 4

EDITORIAL.

DREADNOUGHTS IN DANGER.

A question put to the Fii'st Lord of tlia Admiralty in the House of Commons last month revealed thi> fact that Great Britain very nearly lost two first-clasy btet.tlships in lilg conirsa of the reidrait naval niiaiv&euvre's off the coast of Spain. The firtit indioation that anything of an untow'aixl chiai'iijcitei- had ocourted was an annou!noem,ent tha;b the battle.ship C'ollihg'wo'od had 'li'Cien ordered to 1 procleied direct from Foriol to Devonport instead of accompanyingl the Home Fleet to Berchaivcn. The hua-e;

vessel had bieen en.gaged in the Fleet exercises, and it was evident that an aclciident of some kind had itiaiken Wliien Mr MoKenna was quesitionc:l upon the subject, he Said that the Ciolluigwv.od had "razed an undiartered rock while en toring Ferrol harbour. The rock had penetrated the outer bottom, but no hiijuiiy had been dtone to thci inner biottom. Tho ship woiuikl have to bo docked in orclei' that the damage might ibo repaired. The Agamemnon had also grazed! the same rock, 'tint had not' suffered to any great extent. An official report issiued by the Admiralty a few hours later staitodl that neither of the ships had suffered severely. There siecms to.be nd doubt, howevetr, that a disaster of tevribld maia'nitude AVas very narrowly avont'od. Tho Collingwood is •tho ninth British battleship of the D'readncnight type, and Went into commission a. little morci than a yrar ag'rt. Tho ship is 500 feat long and 84 feat in bieani, with a displnccmlemit. of 19,250 tons 1 and 1 a speed of 2il knots. The main armaments) consist of ten 12in gjms. The vjessiel lias speoial undei'-water protection against torpedo atikidk, and pi'dbalbly would haye 1 suffered more serious injury but for this fact. Tha Agamemnon belongs to tJie Dreadlnoug'hiti class in everything but name, amd the two ships/ toppther reprcscint an expenditure on actt'Ulal cionstrtTicition: of about £3.500,000.