SPEED OF WARSHIPS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 10 November 1919, Page 2

SPEED OF WARSHIPS

Britain did not luavo a single odbuviimg capital skip dm commission at outbreak of war To-d iv the Atlantic f\eetfe of 10 battleships ir composed eu tirely of battleships beaming oil instead! of coal Within the same period Bri-, tain built; more than 40 light cruisers andi hundreds of destroyers fired on the same principle. So far machinery ha,, held its own; the intemalcomhustion engine, which, it wa s predicted, would become the navy s standard method of propulsion, has been Installed; in only two big ships, _ both monitors ‘On the other hand, this engine has been very greatly developed for submarine purposes, and Britain possesses the fastest rine in the world! For the ‘K” class of submarines, which were designed for very high speed' to enable them to, work with the Grand Fleet, steam machinery was reverted! to, with the result that these huge submersiblos can travel ofii the surface at’ a speed of 24 knots. Towards the close of the prc-Dread-nought era a speed of 18:knot9..was.considered quite sufficient, for battleships. Then came the Dreadnought, pf 21 krdiote For several years no .attempt wafc made toexceed this figure, but, as turbines were improved and possibilities of liquid fuel realised, It was decided to buld a group of five hattleshps, to steam at 25 knots These were the. Queen Elizabeth ships, which are probably the finest and most generally successful in the world. Battle-cruiser speeds have risen from the 25 knots of the Invincible to the 3d knots of the Renown, and a still higher velocity is anticipated from the Hood. During the _ war the speed average of light cruisers increased from 25 to 30 knots, and that of destroyers from 30 knot s to 56, or more. The navy to-day contains many destroyers Capable of travelling at a. speed of nearlv 45 miles an hour. Xhe fastest vessels built for war operations were the Thornycroft coastal motor-boats, some of which attained the enormous speed of 60 miles an hour.