SCRAPPED BATTLESHIPS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 16 September 1926, Page 6

SCRAPPED BATTLESHIPS.

WAR MEMORIES! RECALLED

AGAMEMNON OF GALLIPOLI FAME.

Twenty vessels 1 are to be struck off the navy list during the current financial vear—four battleships, 15 destroyers, and! a submarine. The battleships have to be sacrificed under the terms o,f the Washington Treaty; and the other craft are to (be dispensed with for reasons of economy. Such, new construction as may be addedi to the fleet in the course of the year will' replace only a part of the outgoing tonnage. Bach year since the Armistice has brought a heavy net reduction; thanks to the impending completion of the battleships Nelson and Rodney and the first group of “County” cruisers, the wastage will be checked. . The condemned battleship are the King George V, Ajax, Thunderer, and Agamemnon. Excepting the Instil aimed, they are s uper-D read noughts of a type considerably more powerful than many of the capital iships retained in other navies. The King George V and the Ajax are sister vessels, built under the 1910 programme. Displacing 23,000 tons, with a) speed of 21 knots and an armament of ten 13.5 in guns, they formed the spearhead! of the Grand Fleet on the outbreak of war. Both were heavily engagedl at Jutland, where the King George V carried the flag of Vice-Ad-miral Sir Martyn Jerram, commanding tlie Second Battle Squadron—the’ strongest section of the fleet. The Thunderer, another ijnit of this squadron, was the last big warship to be built on the Thames, where she was .launched in 1911. She also the first’ battle shin to mount the modern 13.5 in gun, thus becoming the progenitor of a long line of isuper-Dread-noughts culminating in the two Nelsons, with their tremendous armament of nine 16in guns. Few battleships in the Navy saw harder war service than the Agamemnon. Ordered 1 to the Dardanelles early in 1915,- she was on almost continuous duty until the evacuation of Gallipoli nearly a year biter. Her baptism, of fire occurred on February' 25, when the Turkish gunners plastered her with heavy shell. In thei bombardment, ot March' 7 she was hit by a 14iru projectile which blew a cavernous 'hole in her quarter-deck, wrecked the wardToom, and drove splinters through the maintop 100 ft above the deck. During the great naval attack of March .I®, she was hit 12 times. When the invasion of Gallipoli began a month later her guns covered the landing at Morto Bay. It was most fitting that the Turkish capitulation of October, 1918, should he signed in the cabin of a .ship which had borne the brunt of the campaign' in Near Eastern waters. It battle scars count for aught, the Agamemnon is one of the most historic ships afloat, and ’the passing of this gallant old veteran will be regretted by all who care for the traditions ot our great sea service. ■ ■ • In the normal course of events these three • ships would have been kept on the active list for years to come. They are larger, more heavily gunned, and better protected than many of tlie battleships which remain in the navies of the United States, France, and Italy, and it deserves to he recorded that they are being scrapped solely as a pledge of Britain’s good faith and not .because they are deficient in fighting value. ”