IMPLACABLE MAY BE SCUTTLED

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25811, 24 May 1949, Page 5

IMPLACABLE MAY BE SCUTTLED

OLDEST WARSHIP AFLOAT < LONDON, May 22. Negotiations’which have been going on for some time between the London County Council and the Board of Admiralty over the disposal of the famous old wooden ship of the line Implacable have broken down, and it is now possible that the ship will be taken to sea and scuttled. The Implacable, which was launched in 1800 and was captured at Trafalgar as the Duguay-Trouin, is the oldest warship afloat. She was condemned in 1908. but was saved from destruc--tion by. the personal intervention of King Edward VII. She is now lying in Portsmouth harbour, but her timbers have rotted to such an extent that unless she is either repaired or removed she may sink at her anchorage. and obstruct the harbour. The Admiralty estimates that to repair the timber alone would cost £200.000? in addition to a further heavy outlay for docking. The London County Council has been considering the possibility of towing the Implacable up the Thames and establishing her on a concrete bed hear the Royal Naval College, at Greenwich. It was found, however; that the ship’s timbering had so deteriorated that it was doubtftil whether even on a concrete bed she could Support her own weight. The Admiralty is now trying to obtain a last-minute offer for the ship.

of others,” he said. “To enter the dollar markets in a really big way and hold them, our goods must be competitive in price and quality.” Mr Brendan Bracken told a National Liberal meeting that Sir Stafford Cripps had failed in his duty in not telling the country that “we are drifting into one of the worst economic crises in our history.” Mr L. Hore-Belisha said price was one handicap in Britain’s export trade. He added: “The real explanation of high costs is rising prices for coal, gas, electricity and transport—services provided by nationalised industries—and the abuse of bulk purchase and the rationing or raw materials such as steel.”