NEW JAPANESE DESTROYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 271, 13 November 1909, Page 10

NEW JAPANESE DESTROYERS.

LARGEST IN THE WORLD. Particulars have been received at Sydney of two destroyers, now under construction for the Japanese Navy. The pair will be the largest afloat. The "Japan Times" says:—. Two large-type destroyers are now being built for the Imperial Japanese Navy, one at the Maizuru Naval Dockyard, and the other at the Mitsu Bishi Shipbuilding and Engine \Vork3, of Nagasaki. In armament, speed and other respects, they are both of the same style, their dimensions being 1,150 tons displacement, 20,500 horse power, and speed 33 knots, and both will be I flitted with turbine engines. The largest 1 destroyer in th<- navy hitherto was of j 374 tons displacement, having 7,400 ] horse-power, and.a speed of 31.62 knots. I In England the largest of the five destroyers now in course of construeI tion has a displacement of 1,000 tons, 15,500 horse-power, and 33 knots speed; while the biggest of the nine destroyers built and launched in 1007 and 1908 ranged between 795 and 935 tons. The horse-power of the last was also limited to from 14,250 to 15,500, though their speed of 35.G7 knots is somewhat superior to that of Japanese destroyers. As t<3 the armament of the largest British destroyers, we are not in a position to give any accurate information here, owing to there being no official statement on the matter, but we shall noit be far out if we infer that they carry two 4-inch guns and two torpedo tubes. Germany has no destroyers displacing over 670 tons with over 12,000 horse power, having a speed of over and 30 knots. Thus the new Japanese destroyers now building excel the biggest British destroyers by 150 tons displacement and 500 horse power, so that they can be said to be the largest ever built. The reason why our naval authorities saw the necessity of constructing such a large type lies, it is needless to say, in lessons learnt in the late war with Kussia. For had our navy then been in possession of such destroyers as those now to be built, our fleet must have cut off the retreat of the enemy, and more closely pursued its vessels, as was the case in the battle off Ulsan. The construction of large destroyers, as well as big battleships, has become the fashion among the naval Powers the ■world over. As each squadron has it 3 flagship carrying the officer in command, so a flag-destroyer is attached to each destroyer flotilla for the same purpose. In the case of naval manoeuvres, when the destroyers of each, naval station are organised into separate flotillas, a flagship is necessary for the commaading officers, who act as umpires. In such cases hitherto ordinary cruisers have been nsed as the flagship of the commander of the destroyer flotilla; But considerable inconvenience has been felt_. as these could not fully discharge the function of a flagship, owing to their inferior speed; and from various other view points it has been felt a necessity to have in future the commanding umpire on a destroyer of superior capacity. This is one of the reasons that the sister vessels have been constructed.