CORONATION REVIEW

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 159, 2 April 1937, Page 8

CORONATION REVIEW

Four Miles of Ships THE NEW CRUISERS The staff of the Navigation School of the Royal Navy at Portsmouth is working strenuously to marshal, on paper, the vast array of warships and merchant vessels which will stretch for four miles at Spithead on May 20, when the King will hold the coronation review of his fleets.

It is now almost certain that at least one warship from each naval Power will be present, and invitations will be sent to trawler-owners, yacht club members, and the lifeboat officials to send one or more vessels to Spithead for the ceremonies.

Following the review Londoners will see a numbet of warships in the Thames, and the public will be allowed aboard for inspection. Floating Hotels. Thousands of holiday-makers will be living in liners at Spithead for the two days of the review, and the navigation officers at Portsmouth are arranging for the .berthing of passenger vessels of all sizes and from many countries. In liners such as the Aqultania and Lancastria, which the Cunard-White Star Company is sending to Spithead, the passengers, having watched tlie review in the daytime, will see the brilliant. night illuminations for which the Fleet are at present making ready, and they will take part in special festivities in their own ships. On May 21 they will wake up to see the warships set off for exercises at sea, at which the King will be present in the royal yacht. Victoria and Albert. A novelty of the coronation will be the “streets” of floating “hotels” in Gravesend Reach, on the Thames. British and foreign liners, including the Orion (23,371 tons), the Kungsholm (20,067) and the California (16,792), will be berthed at Gravesend for the whole of coronation week, and their passengers will be taken up to London every morning, and back to bed at night, in fleets of motor-boats and small river steamers. It is hoped that these liners will be illuminated at night, and special trips may take Londoners down to see them. New Cruisers. A feature of the Spithead review will be the presence of the two new cruisers, Southampton and Newcastle, the first of the new class of 9000-ton cruisers mounting 12 6-inch guns. The public will also see two other new and interesting warships for the first time, the patrol vessels Kittiwake and Sheldrake; and it is hoped that the coastal submarine Sunfish, at present being built, may lie ready by May 20. It has not yet been decided which ships of the Home and Reserve Fleets will take part in tlie review, although those of the .Mediterranean Fleet have already been selected, including the Queen Elizabeth, Hood, Repulse and Glorious.