EMPIRE NATAL CRUISE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 13

EMPIRE NATAL CRUISE.

WARSHIPS' PENDING VISIT.

SQUADRON'S ITINERARY.

DESCRIPTION OF (VESSELS.

[TBOU ocr own CORRESPONDENT. LONDON, Oct. 19. • The Right Hon. L. C. Amery (First Lord of the Admiralty) has given some details of the Empire cruise of British warships, which is shortly to be made. The Hood and the Repulse, with a light cruiser squadron, are to set forth next month on a date not yet disclosed. The warships will leave Portsmouth or Plymouth for South Africa. They will travel down the West Coast of Africa, make a stay at Capetown, and afterwards call at ports on the East Coast. On leaving the African Coast the ships will steam across the Indian Ocean to Singapore, the site of the new British naval base, which is to be constructed in the course of the next ten years. Thence the voyage will be continued to Australia and New Zealand, with a stay in Australasian waters of some weeks.

Turning homewards' from New Zealand, the objective will be Canada, and there will be an opportunity en route of touching the Fiji Islands. It is probable that the next call will be at Vancouver, the chief port of British Columbia, and thereafter the ships will come down the West Coast of the United States. The heavy ships are to make 'use of the Panama Canal, and it is proposed that the light ships should go round by Cape Horn. A visit will no doubt be made to the West Indian Islands, and afterwards the voyage will be continued up the East Coast of Canada, with the object of visiting the ports on that side of the Dominion. When the Canadian part of the programme is completed the ships will steer for home, and on reaching England, after what will be, in fact, a world tour of the most interesting character, they will have covered at least 30,000 miles.

This will be the swiftest naval force which has ever gone forth from this or any other country. The Repulse and Hood,. mounting 15-inch guns, can work up to 32 knots. The latter ship, in particular, is a wonderful triumph of constructional and engineering ingenuity, for she combines in one hull the ' qualities of a battleship and a battli-cruiser—offen-sive and defensive power in combination with the highest speed that has been obtained by a vessel of such • great size— 41,200 tons. She is, indeed, .at present otir one capital ship embodying in every degree tho lessons of the Battle of Jutland. ' _ The five light cruisers of" the ' D type, which are to accompany the two battle cruiser?, are the last words in design of their class. They were-launched, like the Hood, in the last year of the great war, and have a displacement of 4650 tons, developing power for 29 knots. They mount 6in. guns each. They are small, of course, as the Washington Treaty permits cruisers of 10,000 tons to be built, and they are lightly armed, but they will worthily represent the light forces which are associated with the Atlantic Fleet. Three of the light cruisers Danae, • Dragon, and Dunedin— arrived 'at Chatham Dockyard to make ready! Dragon and Dana'e will be refitted, and the work on the Dunedin is yet to be decided. - The Dunedin (to be renamed the New Zealand) is to remain in the/ Dominion to take the place of the Chatham. There will be a good deal more to do on her than en the other cruisers, and it is possible that, she will remain at Chatham after the others have left, and pick them up at some point along the route from South Africa to ; Singapore and Australia. As. the Dunedin burns oil fuel the number of stokers required for her will not be as many as those on the Chatham, so that it is probable that a number' of stokers now serving* in New Zealand with the Chatham will have to return to England with her. Oh the other hand, .the Dunedin will probably need a greater number of and men in. other departments, so there is likely to be a general reshuffling. The intention, however, is as far a3 possible to transpose the two crews, and thus the crew which brought out the Dunedin will bring back the Chatham.