TO AUSTRALIA ON ONE LOAD OF FUEL

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 18, 20 July 1935, Page 25

TO AUSTRALIA ON ONE LOAD OF FUEL

Britain's latest cruiser, the Arethusa—the smallest built since the war '—is likely to beat the world's record for long-distance steaming, writes Hector Bywater in the "Daily Telegraph." Although only 5200 tons, she will be able to steam from Chatham to Australia, a distance of 12,000 miles, On one load of fuel. Costing £1,229,000, she is the cheapest cruiser built since 1918. 3Tor high-speed steaming the Arethusa has turbines of 64,000 h.p., which will drive her at nearly 33 knots; The great novelty consists in a fluid fly-wheel, which enables the engineers to switch over from the main engines to a small cruising turbine almost instantaneously^ This cruising unit is so efficient and economical in steam that working alone, with the main engines "in neutral," it will drive the ship at over 21 knots, or, at lower speed, propel her half-way round the world. British engineers, using steam alone, have therefore gone one better than the Germans, who. to obtain a wide radius fou> their new cruisers, have r-had p3. sesorfe ;ta auxiliary fiiesel drive 4

which is very complicated. Other outstanding features of the Arethusa are:—

Hull and internal structure largely built up by electric welding. She is the first British cruiser so built. Largest boilers ever installed in a man-of-war. Giant ship's "tea kettle"—aii auxiliary boiler supplying constant hot water for domestic purposes and central heating throughout the ship. Reduction of weight by use of alu-minium-covered plywood for cabin partitions, light-alloy scuttles, and Other fittings. The Arethusa mounts six 6in guns in turrets, four 4in A.A., and six torpedo tubes, and carries a seaplane on a catapult. She has a complement of over 500 officers and men. The machinery spaces are protected by armour. After commissioning on June 12 she was to go to the Mediterranean to become flagship of the Third Cruiser Squadron. Three sister ships, Galatea, Penelope, and Aurora, are in hand, but no further units of this class are to be built,