H.M.S. "THUNDERER."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1079, 18 March 1911, Page 8

H.M.S. "THUNDERER."

LAUNCH OF SUPER-DREADNOUGHT, SOJIE INTERESTING FIGUBES. The end of nine mouths' .strenuous work in one of the poorest ami most dij-mol districts of East London came on February 1, when the Archbishop of Canterbury said a prayer and recited a familiar appeal "fcr those who go down to tho sea in shins"; the wife of the Archbishop bloke bottle of wine over the hull of a. new "super-Dreadnought"; and the great Thunderer slipped slowly down the ways on which she has grown up, in the shipyard of the Thames Ironworks, and cnino to rest at the mouth of Bow Creek.

Procession of Great Warships, In a remarkably short space of timesince April 13 last —tho Thunderer has been gradually built up until, as she took ; the water for the first time, with nothing to give her unnecessary draught (since 13ow Creek is but shallow, and she must go into deeper water, farther down the river, to have her engines, her great guns, and the enormous mass of metal that will go to complete her equipment put into her), she weighed . somo 9600 . tons, or nearly as much as any earlier Tlnmdorer has weighed ill fighting trim. During those nine months (says the "Westminster Gazette") the building of the ship has foiled employment for .1000 men—in district where .skilled workmen aro many and work is otten hard to find—and has brought them c£iooo a week in wages. She comes at tho tail of a procession of great warships that tho same yard has produced—the old Warrior, lirst of all British armoured shins; the Benbow, and the hans Pareil, that carried guns heavier ei than these of to-day; the more modern Albion, Duncan, Cormvallis, and Black Prince—but sho is the largest, the J"®', ami the most powerful of them all. iho men who have been moulding plates and hammering rivets lor months past to fit her lor the du'.y that lies before her were proud of their work, and they made holiday to celebrate her launch. But the yard will seem empty, with her big bulk no longer obscuring the light; the i7OOO a week will be filling Canning Town .with prosperity no longer; and, .it is to be feared, we shall hear the familiar crv of unemployment" ouco more. The Ship and Her Armament. The Thunderer and her'sister-ships, tho Urion, which is mw completing at Portsmouth, tile Conqueror, and tho Monarch, show the great advance (hat has been made in tho design of giant warships since the Dreadnought came into being and gave rise to the idea that everything earlier and less ibrmidablo could be ignored. The Thunderer is 58ft. longer than the Dreadnought—s64ft. in total length—and nearly 7fi. broader. Her normal displacement will be 5(i00 tons greater than that of the older vessel, and she is designed to develop 27,000 horse-power, equivalent lo a speed of twenty-four knots, whereas the Dreadnought, ill her trials, developed 24,712 horse-power, and a speed of 21.02 knots. She will carry ten 13.5 in. guns, each firing a 12501b. shell, as against tho ten 12in. guns, with their 8501b: shell, of tho Dreadnought; her secondary armament will consist of twenty-four -Jin. guns, whereas the Dreadnought has twenty-seven 12-pounders, andshe has three 21in. torpado-tubc-s, as compared with'the five ISin. tubes of the Dreadnought. The Thunderer "is the more heavily armoured of the two, moreover, for her armour-plates, a foot thick on the. water-line, give her an extra inch of steel.

Ihe armament has been modified sinco she and her sisters figured in the Admir- \ alty programme as "conditional Dread- . noughts" when it was designed to equip \ hoi with I—in. guns; and the nrrangei ment of. tho armament still depends to ; some extent on the gunnery .-.trials. r t|iat the Neptune—another super-Dreadnought —is about to undergo in tho Mediterranean. The Dreadnought has two of her turrets abreast, so that sho can • only bring eight of her ten big guns to bear for broadside fire. The guns of. the Neptune are mounted "en echelon;" except that one of her two after-turrets overlooks the other and they are in line, so' that all the big guns are available for broadside, fire. Tho original plan was to have the five turret's of the Thunderer in line, bringing all the guns into the broadside, hut leaving only four for cither forward or stern fire; and it is not too late t-.i make some alteration in this arrangement if the experience of the Neptune suggests that it is advisable. A Speed Record. There is much work to be done, of ccitrse, before the great ship will be fit to take her place in the first lino of defence. Her width is so great that none of the various wet docks in and about. < lie port of London will hold her, so that ut Dagenhuni, down below Barking, where she can find the thirty feet or so of water that she will require before her development is complete, a jetty has been constructed, at which she can lie while Hie big ISO-ton crane—the crano that suggested "German spies" to certain members of Parliament'a few moiUhs ago— lifts guns and machinery into her. Here, on the i'erro-concrete jetty, extending more' than a hundred yards into the river, which forms a small harbour for her, are an electric power station, punchin; and shearing sheds, in which plates of steel neighing many tons can be bent and moulded at the will of tho designer, fitting-shops, offices, rtores—another shipyard, in fact, as busy and almost as important as that which she'has left. And hero the work will go on until, some time next year, the "Thunderer" is complete. By that time, it ,is expected, a new Irecord in speed of naval construction will have been established, and the Admiralty will have been convinced that, with Canning Town and Dagenham working together, the'largest warships can be'built as well and at least as rapidly on. tho Thames as they can in the Governme,:* "yards" or in any of those to which important contracts more frequently go. As an instance of this rapidity, a few of the important dates in the career of tho Thunderer may be quoted. On October 7, 1009, tho builders wore invited by the Admiralty to tender for her construction. Less than a month later the tender was submitted, and on December 17 following it was accepted, by telegram, under certain conditions. On January 23 of last year the work was commenced though the order was not * confirmed uutil 1' ebruary 13. It ouly extended, of course, to the laborious task of preparation, for the Admiralty drawings aud specifications were still to come. The ways had to 1m widened, for. warships are greater of beam now than they were when the Black Prince came down those sauio ways nearly eight years ago—aud great piles had to bo driven for this purpose, and the kcel-blocks laid. And on April 13 the first keel-plntc was laid and - tho actual building of tho vessel had commenced.

An Early Thunderer. The Thunderer bears a name to which a distinguished record is attached iu our naval annals. There was au "oceangoing turret shin" bearing it nearly forty years ago, which had a chequered "career; but a greater Thunderer did good servico in the days when nothing seemed more impossible than the "entente eordiale." She sailed under JCennel a century and a half ago,, and fought in a furious drawn battle with the French under d'Orvilliers, oIT Ushant, in 1778, only a few weeks after her consort, the Saucy Arcthusa, and La Belle Poule had met in their memorable duel. She was with Lord Howe on "tlie glorious first of June" in the same neighbourhood, sixteen years later, when six French shins were" captured and one was snnlc. And she fought afterwards at Trafalgar and at Copenhagen. It is to be honed that her new namesake will have a more peaceful record; but that, if the need should arise, she will acquit herself as well.