CRUISER YORK

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 247, 19 July 1928, Page 9

CRUISER YORK

LAUNCHED AT YARROW-ON-TYNE ' i ’ TYPE FOR TRADE ROUTE | PROTECTION I NEW 8000-TON CLASS (Australian I’ress Association.) Rugby, July 17. The cruiser York, one of the three large ships authorised in the Navy Estimates for 1926-1927, was launched this afternoon at Yarrow-on-Tyne by the Duchess of York. Unlike the earlier cruisers built since the Washington Conference, which have been of 10,000 tons, the York will displace only 8000 tons, and she is regarded as being' of the most useful type for trade route protection purposes. Owing to the decrease in tonnage it has been necessary to reduce the weight allotted to armament, which in the Kent class comprises eight 8-inch guns. The York will mount only six of these weapons, but, as the new 8-inch gun is a weapon of exceptional range and power, throwing a projectile of 280 pounds, the new cruiser, despite her reduction in size, will be a very formidable fighting craft. It is probable that she will be somewhat faster than the Kent ships, which are engined for 314 knots. It will be recalled that at the Geneva Naval Limitation Conference last year Britain proposed that tlie maximum tonnage of cruisers should be restricted to 8000. This was resisted by the United States. The two other cruisers of the 1926 programme which are building are of 8000 tons, and the only cruiser provided for in the 1927 (estimates will shortly be laid down at Devonport. She will have a displacement of SOOO tons.