NAVY’S FASTEST SHIP

Hokitika Guardian, 19 November 1927, Page 1

NAVY’S FASTEST SHIP

“LIKE A FLYING- SWORD.” NIGHT “BATTLE” THRILLS. (From .T. AT. N. Jeffries, HALS. Renown, Atlantic Fleet). October 1. Last night and this morning ihe presence of the Atlantic Fleet has made itself felt in tho sense thateverywhere as you looked ships possessed the sea. j We ourselves have been doing fullpower trials at a speed of 28 knots. We have seen the even more powerful and speedy Hood going past, plumed with spray fore and aft, and passing even her with ease has been the Amazon, the latest and fastest of Britain’s ships. This destroyer, which has hut one sister ship, the Ambuscade, went through the water like a flying sword, with her after part up In the air like its hilt, by reason of her great speed, and her forecastle almost. bid in the water. She must have been making 3G knots, perhaps even 37. and on. hoard her was Lord Jellicoe, borne by her thus in a flash point to point of the manoeuvring area. Of all this period of evolutions Hie most striking time was last night, when there was an engagement between the Revenge (the admiral’s flagship), our Renown, and (ho flood of the one part, and of tho other the four battleships of the Fleet. We three steamed in the dark without lights on a given course, then turned so that we were nearly parallel to our original course, hut in the opposite direction, upon which star shells were fired, and suddenly searchlights played, and the battleships seined in a moment to emerge as if out of trap-doors from the sea. GHOSTLY SHAPES.

It was a moving sight, the grey shape of the Hood showing so strangely on the black water ahead of us for a ship upon which a searchlight plays does not so much look illuminated from beyond, hut as if some queer wizardry of light in the night emanated from her. The lower air resounded with the discharge of our guns firing star shells, while on the topmost control platform, where 1 stood, the wind tore with high, fiendish whining through shrouds and wires.

Now ihe revealed battleships of the “enemy” showed distinctly beneath the comet glitter of our star shells about two miles away.

At once upon us, too. I hey cast their searchlights. We thundered and they shone, and over the iiitevening water came a torpedo flaming with its night Hare as it rose to the surface. But already wo were turning to port, so that where the enemy’s torpedo had looked for three aligned sides of steel to strike, they found but three averted prongs, and tliis one went bubbling and glowing past, and most likely its underwater companions did so, too. 'ITIE SECRET. Our own torpedoes had leapt from their tubes towards the opposing line, silent and unseen, hut what' became of them we have yet to learn. The lights blazed a little longer and sirens shrieked signals, and then all at once came the sound of a bugle calling from below, and as abruptly as it had leapt into it. the battle evaporated into the night. It had been as swift in its way and as startling as a single revolver shot fired by liti unseen man in a pit. 1 But- behind all flic rapidity lies a system which will reveal to the technical minds of staffs and ships’ officers .a. picture of combat and of the I •lessons to-be drawn from it, as clear as any snapshot, carefully developed days after by an able photographer.