SEAPLANE CARRIER.

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 136, 6 December 1919, Page 13

SEAPLANE CARRIER.

The first ship of His Majesty's Navy to be specially designed as a seaplane carrier was successfully launched' from Messrs. Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co.'s now naval yard at Walker-on-Tyne recently. The launching ceremony was performed by Mrs. William Cooper, -and the unique vessel was christened H.M.S. Hermes as she moved down the ways. The keel of tho Hermes was laid on 15th January last year. Her principal dimensions are: Length over all, 55Sft s:n; length b.p, 548 ft; breadth below water, 70ft; moan drau.ht of water, 18ft; displacement, about 10,400 tons ; launching weight of the vessel, about 6400 tons. The propelling machinery, which is being manufactured by the Parsons Ma.rine Turbine Company, Ltd., at Wallsend, consists ot twin screw-geared turbines capable of developing 40,000 s.h.p.. sufficient to give the vessel a speed of about 25 knots. The principal armament will consist of ten 6-inch B.L. guns, four 4-inch H.A. "guns, four 3-pounder saluting guns. The complement will be about 670 officers and men. So far as can be ascertained, the vessel is the fifth Bince 1798 in His Majesty's Navy to bear the name Hcimea. The first Hermes dated back to 1796; tbe second, a vessel of twenty guns, 1814; tho third was a paddle vessel, 1852; the fourth a second-class cruiser, 5600 tons, 1897