AUSTRALIAN SQUADRON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 33, 7 February 1906, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN SQUADRON.

THE LONG-DELAYED CRUISER. A CONDEMNATORY PRESS DESCRIPTION. • After months of weary waiting for the cruiser which is to take the place of the Mildura and Katoomba on the Australian station, the Admiralty (started the- Encounter out for this part of the world at the end of December. If the following account of that vessel's many structural defects, as given by the London "Daily Express," should prove substantially correct, it is a matter of some doubt whether she will ever reach here:—' "The cruiser Encounter is under orders to sail for the Australian station. The vessel was laid down on 28th January, 1901, launched on 18th June, 1902, and since that time her progress has been one long chapter of delays and mishap-:. Her engines were found too big, and had to be reconstructed before they could be put into the ship; the main shafts were then discovered to be out of alignment, and then came the startling discovery that the hull was beginning to 'sag. , "However, by the spring of the present year the Encounter was declared to be ready for carrying out her power trials, and accordingly went out from Plymouth Pound for that purpose. Why she came back within a few hours has never before been made known outside official circles. It was vaguely rumoured that she had 'broken down.' Her defects were in reality much more serious than is implied by the usual signification of this phrase." The ''Express" states on authoritative information, that on the attempt being made to develop four-fifths power, the main engines moved bodily forward three-sixteenths of an inch. The bedding and holding-down bolts remained solid, but the thrust blocks had*,yielded to the terrific stress thrown npon the shaft collars, and had come forward to a corresponding degree. Careful investigation in the seclusion of a dockyard basjn revealed the alarming fact that this serious dislocation of the propelling machinery- was due to structural weakness. Thewnain frames of the hull were not sufficiently strong to resist a strain of 12.500 horse power. In other words, as a naval constructor tersely put it, the design of the Encounter is "no good." Then began a process of reinforcing the ship by building in a series of girders beneath the engine bed plates. This work occupied six months, and the Encounter again went forth on her power trials. The results of these tests, which lasted for twenty-four hours, were officially declared to be entirely satisfactory. Down to last March the Encounter had cost £331,109, a further sum of £50,408 was provided for her in the Estimates, and it is believed that she has now cost another £30,000. "Melbourne Age."