NEW BATTLESHIP

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 137, 14 June 1927, Page 4

NEW BATTLESHIP

LXST OF PROGRAMME

NiiisON AT PORTSMOUTH

(Prop! "The Post's" Representative.) ■„,'"" LONDON, 4th May. lb.c*jG©v 35,000 ton battleship, Nelson, for the British Navy, arrived at Portsmouth from this Tyne last week, and has gone into the dockyard. With her sister ship, the Rodney, now nearly ready for sea. .tha'Nelson is the last battleship that ""?. <*?ntry- can lay down under the con-ditibns-.fiied by the Treaty of Washington until 1931. The Nelson (says the naval correspondent of the ''Daily Mail") cannot be described as a graceful looking ship as were the ships of the Queen Elizabeth class before their funnels were altered- The heavy battery of the new ship is huddled forwar4v.on the .enormously .long forecastlflpm;, three, turrets, each: of which contains ithree 16in guns, 1 . ■Th^e. jnew battleships r are the first vees^sgji}. the Navy.' to- carry triple gun turre&fi; which were some time ago introduce cTZTn^ltalian, 'American, and Russian pattleShiifs. . They have never been popular with- gunnery officers, because the preseooSJof three guns, in a single turret mean^gfeat complication. The ship has no s£m*'fire from heavy guns, and the leavy gun turrets are so arranged that o, n'v -tea. turrets, and , not all three, fire ahead. -- ARMAMENT AND DEFENCE. Astern six pairs of (Sin guns are carried in six closed. steel turrets, three pahs firing on either broadside.' There is only one funnel. This ia placed astern of a huge armoured tower, containing the firecontrol^jappliances and the stations for navigating and controlling the ship. There is a low "tripod-mast astern. She is.7o2£t long and 106 ft broad, and will carry a crew of 1300 officers and men. - • ■ ■ Details of the ship have not been published, and are - still official secrets, so that it is as yet impossible to say what her fighting qualities are. Her nine big guns are- of a new size in our modern Navy. They- £re a 23401b shell. (or rather more than' a ton weight), and' they themselves weigh'a little over-110 tons apiece. They are protected by extremely thick armour... ' Against attack by aircraft the ship is defended. by strong bomb-proof decks of iardened steel. Under water she is so designed that she could resist the explosion of four torpedoes or even more. She has a very elaborate system of sub-divis-ions, though she is not .fitted with, the "bulge* 'which has been installed in all ihe battleships of the Royal Sovereign Clasg. . ■.'. •■ -. ' :■••'■ •■ Her cost will be about £7,000,000 (as compared with £5,843,000 for the much larger Hood): the cost of annual -upkeep will be £432,000. / i How many aeroplanes and catapults for discharging them at sea she will carry has sot yet been disclosed. American battleships each carry - one scouting and two Jghtuw_3q3pnJaaes, with usuai^y two. cata-