NEW BATTLESHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 133, 2 December 1936, Page 22

NEW BATTLESHIPS

The keels of the two battleships of the current naval programme, ordered from Cammell,. Laird, • and Co., and Vickers- Armstrongs, are to "be laid at Birkenhead and Walker-on-Tyhe during the first fortnight in January. It is expected that both vessels will be ready for, sea by the spring of 1940. Gun-mountings are understood to be already'in'hand. The ships are to rcdrhbirie' the speed of a battle-cruiser with a' Very powerful armament of 14in guns of a new type, especially developed for the purpose. The plans, which took over eighteen months to I prepare,- provide for armour, and under-water protection much superior to that of any previous British warship. The vitals will be bomb-proof, and in every other respect, including anti-aircraft armament and the number of aeroplanes to be carried on board, the ships will be prepared to meet the most formidable air- attack. Electric welding is to be extensively used in the interior construction, while the boilers and turbine machinery will embody many improvements suggested by experience with recent highspeed liners, notably the Queen Mary. The displacement is reported to be about 34,000 tons.