GIANT SHIP

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 March 1946, Page 7

GIANT SHIP

NEW CARRIER LAUNCHED CEREMONY PERFORMED BY . PRINCESS SIZE AND EQUIPMENT SECRET (Rec. 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 19. Princess Elizabeth launched Britain’s latest and most powerful air-craft-carrier, H.M.S. Eagle, at Belfast. » Crowds cheered when she crashed a bottle of Australian wine against the bow. The ship was waterborne. The Eagle’s size and equipment are secret, but it is known that she is Britain’s biggest carrier. Construction was begun two years ago, but was frequently checked as the designers embodied improvements based on the latest war experience.

Addressed as “Our Princess 'Charming” by one speaker, Princess Elizabeth at a luncheon after the launching, said that for an island race there was something in a launching deeply significant in both peace and war. “We have come to rely on ships for our greatness,” she said. “No one who remembered the dark war days when Britain stood alone with her shipping strained to the limit could have failed to marvel how the ships of the Royal and Merchant Navies were able to remain almost continuously at sea. If they had not been able to do so Britain should have lost.

“That it was done is sufficient proof of the supremacy of British shipbuilding,” Her Royal Highness added. “I am sure the enthusiasm of those who built the Eagle will be kept alive by the men who will sail her.” Admiral Lord Cunningham said the war had been won at a cost sadly depleting the merchant fleet. The rebuilding of merchantmen as well as the production of warships was a task which lay urgently upon the Empire’s shipyards.