Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1911. BRITAIN'S NAVY.
The cables have been silent of late concerning the progress that is being made in. British armaments. English files, however, show that the construction of warships is proceeding apace. Two battleships were recently launched, and others are nearing completion. The London : Time® states that between . the original Dreadnought and the - latest ships of the type to be launched or designed there, is, to say the least, quite as much difference as there is between the original! Dreadnought and such of her immediate predecessors as are .still to be found in the first fighting line. The First Lord announced in his .statement that six battleships and two armoured cruisers are "expected to be completed by the end of the financial year." According to the Navy Estimates, these must be the Hercules and Colossus, both now practically complete, and the four contingent ships, together with the Orion battleship l , mow completing at Portsmouth, and the Lion, armoured cruiser, now completing at Devonport. Although full details are not yet available, and none are given even for the Orion and the l Lion, both of which were launched lasC August, in .the current Navy Estimates, yet it is. and has long been well known that the two ships last mentioned, together with the four "contingent" ships, represent a new departure in armament and ats disposition wbidh (Jifferentiates these so-called Dreadnoughts in a'very pronounced fashion from all their predecessors of the same nominal type. Their main armament consists of 13.5 in. guns—teu in the battlesihdps and eight in the cruisers—all disposed in pairs on the midship line of the ship. This,, then, is the type of t'ho capital ship of the immediate future, whether battleship proper or battleship cruiser. The Conqueror wall have a fire of four guns right
ahead and right astern, and of ten guns on either broadside. The Princess Royal, tawing two guns less, will have a iire of four guns riglit ahead, two gams right astern, a,iid eight guns on. either broadside, and ail these guns will be the most powerful yet afloat, eaoli capable otf maintaining its fire at till© rate of i one round in thirty seconds. It is not tUie first time tliat gfun& of this calibre have been mounted in British battleships, for the .ships of th© Royal Sovereign class were armed with them. But the guns of the i Royal Sovereign- class could only fire i at the rate of ia. round in two and a half minutes, and their ballistic quality was immeasurably inferior to tot of the 13.5 in. gun of to-day. By the end of the currant financial year, or very shortly afterwards, tlliis country, mil have twenty ships otf the so-called Dreadnought type conipJeted and ready for commission, if not al actually in, commission; ' but of these fourteen, will be of approximately the same type as regards armament, though differing very materially among themselves in other important .respect®, while 1 six •will be armed with a much more powerful weapon.
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10267, 20 June 1911, Page 4
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508Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1911. BRITAIN'S NAVY. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10267, 20 June 1911, Page 4
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