SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 20, 23 July 1910, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

KINGS " CRADLED " ON THE SEA. SOME ROYAL TARS. One day in the autumn of 1886 there artived on the old receiving-ship, Dronmng Louise, lying in the Copenhagen Navy Yard, a small boy with a Dig canvas bag full of clothes on his* shoulder. When the sentry growled, "Who goes there?" the boy dropped his bag in sheer fright, and would have fallen overboard it the marine had nofc caught him. "What do you want, boy?" the sentry gruffly demanded; and when the child (for he was no more) remained silent, he exclaimed, "You're a fine sailor-man. You don't know who you are or what you want. Now, what's your name?" "Karl," stammered the uoy. "Officer on guard," the sentry said, turning to Senior Midshipman Wisby, who tells the story, "I report a skinny little enemy outside, who's only got * name in front, and a poor one, too, and none behind. He doesn't know anything, and he looks it fore and aft." Such was the introduction to the Danish Navy of Prince Charles, 'who, la spite of his unflattering introduction, became one of the smartest sailors m Denmark, and who to-day ranks among the Sovereigns of the earth as King of Norway. "It was a hard and humiliating apprenticeship," he said, recently, "but it made a man of me." And so it has done of every other Royal Prince whose nursery has been the sea. Prince Henry of Prussia, who is acknowledged to be one of the finest sail ors in the German fleet, had a training almost as rougn as Charles of Denmark. Only the other day he recalled with amusement how his first mess-gear consisted of an iron knife and fork, <* tin spoon, two tin plates, and zinc mug ; now he was buffeted from pillar to post by the senior "middies," made to wash the dishes, and generally had such a rough time that he began to be sorry he had been born — at any rate, a Prince. Although the lot of King George and his two eldest sons has fallen in pleasanter places, their Royal rank has given them no advantages over their unroyal fellows, with whom they shared discipline, drill, and lessons, food and play, with such results, in the King's casa, as the world is grateful for to-day ; and no doubt his sons will benefit equally from the "rough nursing of the sea." William IV. was a "tar" to the backbone. He went to sea at 14, was a full-blown captain at 23, when he sailed Home from the West Indies without orders, and was promptly sent back "with a flea in his ear" ; and, though he* succeeded to the Crown, remained a bluff sailor-man to his last day. Among many other Royal sailors of note who lived to wear a crown, the most f aim us were Henry "the Navigator," to whom, as Sir Clements Markham says, ''the human race is indebted for the maritime discovery, within one century, of more than half the globe" j and Peter the Great of Russia, whose love of the sea was so great that for a time he worked as a common shipwright in the yards of Amsterdam, Zaandam, and Deptford. CEMENT HULLS. Experiments have foi some time past been in progress at the Spezzia Arsenal with the new system (fathered by the Ila'ian naval engineer Gabellini) of building pontoons and the hulls of vessels with cement on an iron framework. The idea arose, it may be remembered, out of a circumstance which occurred in the Far East during the Russo-Jap-anese war. The Russian ironclad Sebastopol, rammed by the cruiser Peresviet, put back to Port Arthur with a great rent in her side, which was provisionally stopped by a wall of cement three feet thick, and • this haphazard treatment enabled the vessel to put to sea again after only a few days' delay. Then came the sea fight of the lUth August, and in this engagement two shells of large calibre struck the side of the Sebastopol at the very spot where she had been repaired. Later on the vessel, while under shelter of the guns of the fort, was again hit, towards tho close of the siege, by Japanese torpedoes, and all these shocks, which would have been fatal to metal plates, were successfully resisted by the cement. Italian naval engineers took groat interest in this circumstance, and methodical experiments have been made at the naval arsenal at Spezzia with slabs of iron -framework embedded in cement, >n the shape of metal armour plates. Eventually in 1909, the system was adopted for practical use in various ways iv the rtalian navy. Gabellini's mode of pro cedure is, first, to make a stout framework, or network, or skeleton, of metal, arranged in conformity with the effective distribution of pressure, and placed between two thin sheets of metal at some distance apart, the intervening spaces being filled in with cement. By this procedure costly castings are dispensed with and only a thin exterior metal sheet is required. The construction of an entire hull of an ironclad is certainly not yet an accomplished fact, but it is nevertheless the subject of serious discussion and study among Italian naval architects. It has also attracted considerable attention in France, and every French war vessel is now provided with a supply of cement for the stopping of leaks or holes in the hull. SAIL-TRAINED OFFICERS. A new departure is announced in connection, with tho provision of facilities for the sail-training of future officers of the mercantile marine. For some time past Messrs. Devitt and Moore havo employed the Port Jackson as an ocean training vessel, and numerous cadets who have voyaged in her from London to Australia and back have gained sailing-ship expenenco, providing a valuable foundation for a future executive career. It wa«- recently intimated that the firm in question havo bought the Ama Begonakoa, a fourmasted steel barque, specially built in 1902 for ocean-training purposes, and that a private company has been formed to take her over, and the Port JacKson as well. The newly-acquired vessel will be renamed thb Medway, and will also be employed in carrying cadets So and rrom Australia. An interesting feature is the association of the Union-Castle Line and the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company with the scheme. This means that both undertakings are impressed with the increasing difficulty of obtaining sailtrained officers, and that they see the need of making some effort to> ensure a future supply. It follows that these companies will givo a preference of executive employment to young men trained in the Port Jackson and the Medway, provided, of course, that they do well at sea, and secure the necessary qualification. TJie fact that an avenuo of employment is thus definitely opened out for the cadets affords an inducement to the adoption of a sea life, which should bear good fruit. These cadet ships are specially fitted for the purpose. They also carry cargo, ho that the embryo officers get a practical introduction to the many sides of the seaman's career.