NEW BRITISH NAVY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 27 April 1925, Page 10

NEW BRITISH NAVY.

UNLIKE ANYTHING SEEN

Great Britain’s new armada, the foundation of which is now lieing laid, will be made ux> of craft unlike anything that naval science has ever seen or heard, of before. The design of two new capital warships, the Nelson and the Rooney, writes a London naval correspondent, will put all existing warships back in the Victorian era. 'These fighting ships, which are already nearing completion, will have an appearance as strange as anything H. G. Wells ever imgained in his visionary novels on w art are of the future. Without a funnel showing and scarcely any superstructure, they are designed to serve a double innpo.se. A dear elect space gives a Tong, broad sweep for the launching of aeroplanes, thus increasing the vessel’s battle radius by hundreds of miles. The arrangement of the big guns also will lie new, (being constructed forward. They will consist of nine six-teen-inch guns, mounted in three turrets, and three guns to a turret. No batteries at all will be placed aft. Heavily-armoured decks will lie planted as a protection from attack from the air. Magazines are being grouped forward, under super-armoured decks. The absence of funnels provides unobstructed space for planes. The somke fumes from the engines will he carried ofF via tlilies stretching alongside, which will also aid in throwing up smoke screens. Bombing tests and aerial tactics for the new style of sea fighting have already begun. It is declared that the Nelson and the Rodney mark the beginning of a new British navy.