GREAT WAR TEST.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9435, 6 September 1907, Page 7

GREAT WAR TEST.

HOME FLEET MOBILISES IX AS HOUR. .;/$0 SIJIPS ASSEMBLE. , Tfaje moU'litetw^^^^omie F-eet wa* earned'- out in Juljjh^ith.. -gvc**b smartnjess and compl©^& - suoowi At . Portsmouth, witlin arv Jiour ' of tha' signal to mobilise being made', .all-^ne men were on l<oard tlie^ ships and tlie .crevvia. had ;be©)i ; brought up, to war strength. ' '•' Tbe various, dctachn.-ent's musSberc-d ; in separate groups on ih& parada ground, whence they niarohed to the dockyard jettier, alongside* Which. t»he £fhip3 were lying.' Eaot man corned bis hammock on board and stowed it in the appointed place. Then., in a marvellously short time, th* p-ddtitional stowo weie shipped. , . The ifaval authorities hold tihiit the performance was nothing out of the common, but was merely a' demonstration of what they can do at* short notice whenever they •wish to bring the nucleus crews of th>} Home Fleet up to full strength. The Home Fleet has ifaree main divisions stationed at the Noro, Portsmouth., and Pevcnport. The Noa» division, con. sisting of six battleships, six armoured cruiaers, six protected cruisers and scouts, and forty-«Sighti destroyers, is at all times fully manned, and can proceed to sea on' leceipt of an order. The Devonport anJ Portsmouth. ' divisions! {carry neuoietis a»wsr— that is to say, the skilled ratings needed to work and fight the vessels nr© onboard the^hipu, and only a certain number of officers, seamen, and stokers have to be moved to them from the deporff when the order to moboTSs© is given. The fle^t x which is now mobolised consists of eleven battleships, olevcfa armoured cruisers, thirteen protedte'l oruisews, four scouts, and about one hundred torpedolguribfeaiß, dlestipyera, jand torpedo boa*3, with a large' flotilla of .submarines, under tho oTd«a of Vico- Admiral F. C. 8.. Bridfrenjan. The Dreadnought is the flag, ship.