ENGLAND'S SWIFTEST CRUISER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9118, 28 July 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

ENGLAND'S SWIFTEST CRUISER.

London, June 9.—The swiftest cruiser •that has yet been built for the Royal Navy was launched to-day at Chatham, and will be named the Medea. She is one of the live fast cruisers that were laid down last year, but only one other of the five is expected to be as fast as she. The Magicienne, the Marathon, and Melpomene will steam about nineteen and three-quarter knots an hour, while the Medea and Medusa will steam twenty knots, or just over twenty-threo land miles an hour, and for some time to come will be among the fastest warships afloat. The Medea is officially described as a steel twin-screw, protected cruiser of -800 tons displacement. Her dimensions are : Length, 265 feet ; breadth, 41 feet ; depth, 23 feet, and with all her weight on board, she will have a freeboard of rather more than 12 feet. Her hull is of three-eighth-inch Siemens - Martin steel. The stem, which is formed as a ram, and the sternpost and rudder frame are cast of phosphor bronze. The ship throughout has a double bottom and double sides. There is a protective steel deck which covers the vessel's vitals. As a further protection the hull is divided into seventy-live watertight compartments. The engines, each of which has a compartment to itself, are of the vertical, triple-expansion type, with inverted cylinders. Steam will be generated in four double-edged boilers, each with six corrugated flues, and with a forced draught supplied by eight double-sided fans. The propellers are of phosphor bronze and three-bladed.

In action he ship will be worked from a conning tower on the poop or from another on the forecastle. Her extreme speed will be 20 knots ; her ordinary ocean speed will be from 17 to IS knots, and, with 400 tons of coal, which she is designed to carry, her radius of action at a speed of 10 knots will be about 9200 miles.

Her armament will consist of six G-inch breech loading guns in spousons and on central pivot mountings, nine Hotchkiss quick-tiring 6-pounders, numerous machine guns of the Nordenfeldt pattern, and six torpedo-ejectors, two being on each broadside, one forward and the sixth aft.

The whole of the lighting will bo provided by electricity, and there will be three search-lights of the most powerful character.

It may be doubted whether sail-power is of much use to such craft at the Medea. She will, however, carry two steel masts with fore and aft canvas, but will, of course,have no bowsprit. ' Ihe estimated cost of the shin is under £140,000. 1