SERVICE NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 307, 27 December 1924, Page 4

SERVICE NOTES.

LAND, AIR AND SEA. <J j THE ILL-FATED K. CLASS. (From Our Special Correspondent.)' . LONDON. November 13. The sloop Silvio, which was taken from Devonport to Pembroke in September in tow of the tug Retort, is being fitted out as a surveying ship for the Australian Government. The Silvio was one of the many sloops built during the war, and was completed in May, 1918, when she was commissioned by Lieut.-Commander (now Commander) Cosmo B. Hastings. Paid off in 1919. she had since been out of commission at Devonport. The Silvio has a displacement of 12r>0 tons, i 3 equipped with engines of 2000 horse-power, which give her a speed of from lti to 17 knots per hour. She is a single screw ship and a coal burner, carrying 200 tons of coal in her bunkers. Her original armament— which is to be reduced to a single gun —consisted of two 4-inch guns, four 3-poundor guns, and two 2-pounder guns. Like a.ll of her class the Silvio is a comfortable sea boat, economic of coal and crew power. Over 100 of these sloops were built during the war, and proved themselves excellent ships in every way. One of them was able to keep away three months from port in bad weather, without carrying away anything essential, and another performed the herculean task of towing a stricken battleship over 2000 miles. 111-luck persistently follows the "X" class of submarines. Last week K22 (Lieut.-Commander 11. A. Trevor) ran on to the rocks at the main entrance to Portland Harbour when leaving to take part in manoeuvres shortly after 2 a.m. on Wednesday. The lighter Moordale, with the Vulcan's tender, Nettle, and the Weymouth motor lifeboat, went to its belp, but efforts to move it failed, and the light cruiser Frobisher was sent out. After the submarine had been lightened, it was dragged ofli. Her bows were damaged, but divers have not yet reported the extent of her underwater damage. She was able to proceed under her own power into Portland Dockyard for a survey. Raised After First Loss. The K22 was formerly the Kl3, and was sunk by accident in the Clyde during the war. It was possible to raise the vessel and save the Uvea of those in her, as she had sunk in shallow water. Three of the "X" boats were lost in the war, two of them being rammed by mistake for German submarines. These were the X.l, the K4, and the Kl7, Built under the War Emergency programme in 1916, the K22 is one of the double-hulled type designed by the Admiralty for service as fleet submarines with the Grand Fleet, carries two 4in guns, one Lewis gun, has eight lfiin torpedo tubes, and burns oil fuel. The X class are capable of travelling twenty-four knots on the Rurface. The extent of the international traffic in arms is revealed in a volume of statistical information on the trade in arms, ammunition, and material of war which has just been issued by the League of Nations. According to this report, the export of arms, ammunition and material of war from nineteen countries during the three years 1920----22. amounted to over £r>0,006,000. This i total is exclusive of warships and aeroJ planes, but includes sporting guns and j rifles and explosives used for industrial purposes. The figures quoted are only i taken from official and public docu■menfs. such as annual foreign trade statistics; but the volume constitutes the firet regular effort to give a general picture of the extent of the anne traffic. The contract for both airships under the new scheme has been secured by Messrs. Vickers, who will manufacture , the parts and assemble the vessel at I Howden. In a speech at Sheffield Sir J Trevor Dawson, one of the directors of Messrs. Vickers, said that his firm was developing a system for the use of powdered coal for internal combustion engines. They had secured the controlling interest in the Combustion Engineering Company of America, and they hoped that these developments would in a measure assist their peace production. All these experiments would be of value to aerial transport, and eventually they expected to do the journey to America in two days, and come back in an even quicker time. The first airship is being*built by the Airship flunranteo. Company, at Howden, 'and at Crayford (Kent)'the work wai begun six months ago, when the eoni tract with Hip Air Ministry was signed, i The two ships. which will be the {largest ever built, will conform generally in detail, and will be about twice us large as the Z.R.2. Their dimensions will lie:-Length, "00 feet; cubic capacity, r>.(100,000 feet; accommodation. l.'iO passengers; speed, not less I than 70 miles an hour at ."iOOO feet. I The cost will be f.r>o.ooo each. I In order to ensure that the conditions of several A.C.O.'s of 1922 are complied with, it is officially intimated that soldiers who have leave to proceed to the Irish Free State are to leave tlioir units in plain clothps, and those who are proceeding tn lister in uniform are to go by Fleetwood, Liverpool or Hcysham Hues to Belfast, or by Hcysham to Derry, and not via Holyhead and Dublin. This is another tine illustration of the "passionate loyalty and devotion to the Empire - ' that the j people of Ireland were to demonstrate J according to the windbag oratory nf i Lloyd George, when justifying the I treaty he. made with the representatives of the Irish gunmen and mur- | der gangs in 1920. A British soldier dare not appear in uniform in the ' Irish Free State. In the same oratorij cal outburst Mr. Lloyd Georgo referred Ito De Valera —presently in Belfast i gaol—as a "great Irish chieftain," when as a matter of fact the great ; Irish chieftain is a Spanish-American, I and should be a -lew by religion if he 'followed the raith of his fathers, it is I stated.