NAVAL MANOEUVRES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 11 October 1928, Page 5

NAVAL MANOEUVRES

BRITISH ATLANTIC FLEET (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, Bth October. Nearly fifty ships, including battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, of the Atlantic Fleet are assembled in Cromarty Firth for the autumn manoeuvres which begin on Tuesday. The operations will be comprehensive with full calibre firing by ships including the Rodney and Nelson, a torpedo attack, full power speed trials by the Hood, Renown, Benbow, and Marlborough, and aircraft practices, in which the aircraft carriers Furious and Argus will take part. Altogether eighty-four different practices have been arranged for this week.

CENTURION'S NEW ROLE

WIRELESS CONTROL

RUGBY, 9th October.

Inspection was permitted yesterday at Cromarty Firth of H.AI.S. Centurion, formerly one of the finest super-Dread-noughts in the Navy, but now serving as target ship for the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets. Although she appears to be but a useless hulk and is completely disarmed, she is capable under radio control, without a single man aboard her, of travelling at sixteen knots, starting, stopping, and turning, as desired, in every way simulating the manoeuvres of a fully-manned battleship. Wireless controls not only manoeuvre her steering, but also her steam valves, as required, and regulate her oil fuel. The Centurion has been severely battered in gunnery practice, but owing to the system of protection adopted, when the vessel was put to her present use, her vital parts remain intact, and an almost impregnable belt of steel protects her for several feet above the waterline. Her crew forsake her at the last moment before practice begins, and are then accommodated in the old destroyer Shikari. When her duties as target ship are temporarily over, the crew reboard the Centurion and the work of repairing their quarters begins. Every part of the vessel bears evidence of merciless bombardments, for when the fleet makes mimic war, the Centurion is victimised twice in a week.