BREAKING UP A BATTLESHIP.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1180, 1 December 1924, Page 10

BREAKING UP A BATTLESHIP.

AN EXPERT BUSINESS. A vivid description of how a battleship is broken up is given by Mr J. Penno in tho Christian World. “When M. Herriot, the French Premier, watched tho naval review at Spithead from the same ship as Admiral Beatty, anil remarked upon the might of the British Navy, the admiral reminded him that seven of our battleships lias been scrapped under the Washington agreement,” says the writer. "It was three of those ships i saw in the breakers’ hands. Those ships cost £2,00(1,000 each about- the beginning of the war. It was easy to believe it when one saw the armour plates of finest steel, lOin. to 12in, thick and the teak that serves as a buffer between the plates and the inside ‘skin’ of the ship. The teak is a foot thick, and it cost new £l7 a ton. If a £2,000,000 building were put up, and it depreciated at the rate of £200,000 a year, everybody would bo aghast, but- here were a good £0,000,000 worth of material and skilled workmanship melted away at that rate. Even apart from scrapping, wartime experience lias made ten-year-old battle-ships almost. as obsolete ’as Nelson’s Victory.

“This breaking up ol battleships is a highly expert business. The ships look as if no power short of a torpedo, a mine, or a well-directed shot from a 14in gun could make any impression on them. But science has found ways of stripping tho mighty monsters of their protective armour. 1 was shown heaps of neatly shaped two to live ton blocks of steei ready for conveyance by ship or rail to the purchasers. How are the blocks shaped and sized P I was shown the yard-long cylinders of acetylene gas. Three cylinders, each with its tube, are united to supply the incredibly fierce heat before which a section of steel armour is melted as butter, and carved into sizes and shapes at will. A live-toil block looks very small. “Most beautiful work is taken out of the ships and sold, if possible, intact. There were boilers weighing 35 tons. Tho difficulty is to find railway cars that will carry them. Teak is the hardest and most intractable of timber, but orders for furniture made of the teak from particular ships are received and executed. A ship is bought with everything on hoard at the time of sale. Among the contents are crockery, glass, cutlery, beautiful fittings, carpots,’baths, and a hundred other desirable tilings. The breakers gradually carve tho ship away downwards from tho turrets and end wards from bow to stern. The Vengeance is now shorn of half her bulk. Her 171-ton anchor lies near her. Her plates will possibly reappear in ploughs or railway engines. Out of her teak pulpits or church doors may be fashioned. It costs £7,01)0.000 now to build a firstclass battleship.”