AUSTRALIAN NAVY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 27, 31 July 1924, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN NAVY

THE NEW CRUISER

COST OVER TWO MILLIONS,

(UNITED PRESS' ASSOCIATION.—COPiaiOHT.) (Received 31st July, 10 a.m.) . MELBOURNE, This Day. The House of Representatives passed the third reading of the Defence Equipment Bill. Mr. Bruce, Federal Prime Minister, stated that the cost of the cruiser which it was proposed to have built in England would be approximately £2,----200,000. '

The amount stated in the ■ message, £2,200,000, is as cabled. If it is correct, it sets a new high-water mark for the cost of warships. The costs given for British cruisers do not approach, in most cases, £100 a ton, which, however, may be taken as a rough guide to the cost of the later ships built.. . No particulars of the projected Australian cruiser have been published, but as the size of cruisers is limited, by the Washington Treaty to' 10,000 tons, the cost of a vessel of the largest size, at £100. a ton, would be £1,000,000. It is possible, therefore, that the figure given by Mr. Bruce refers to the two cruisers planned by the Federal Government. The following, cost figures are of interest:— Canopus, battleship, built 1897, 12,950 tons, £866,500; King Edward VII., battleship, built 1903, "£1,473,000; Dreadnought, battleship, built 1906, 17,900 tons, £1,813,000; New Zealand, battlecruiser, built 1911, 18,800 tons, roughly £2,000,000; Iron Duke, battleship, built 1912, 25,000 tons, £2,081,000; Tiger, battle-cruiser, built 1913, 28,500 tons, £2,500,000; Renown, battle-cruiser, built 1916, 26,500 tons, £3,111,000; Eepulse sister ship, £2,760,000; Hood, battleship, built 1918, 41,2000 tons, £5,843.000 These costs are nut, however, directly comparable, as in some cases they include the cost of guns and in others do not. The latest British cruisers (Emnghani, Frobisher, and Hawkins), of 9750 tons, built since the war, were'estimated at the time of design to cost £750.000 each.