THE "WOODEN WALLS"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22435, 3 June 1936, Page 15

THE "WOODEN WALLS"

WARSHIPS UNDER SAIL LECTURE BY COMMODORE The development of sailing ships of war through the ages was described by Commodore the Hon. E. R. Drummond, commanding the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy, in an illustrated lecture to the Sliiplovers' Society last night. The commodore expressed his indebtedness to Professor G. A. lender, librarian of the Royal Naval Collego, Greenwich, for most of the material and for the fine set of lantern slides which accompanied the lecture. The latter began with the Ark, which, although not a vessel of war, was entitled to a place in the narrative as being the earliest ship of which there is any record. Commodore Drummond mentioned that the Biblical account of the Ark had evidently been written without seafaring knowledge, but the Chaldean account went into a good deal of technical detail. Pictures of Egyptian, Phoenician, Greek and Roman ships led on to others, showing those of the Norsemen, some of which have been dug almost intact from burial mounds. The Viking tradition in shipbuilding persisted until the 14th century, said the lecturer. Oars wera the chief means of propulsion, and attack consisted of boarding and ramming. Sailing ships were regarded as slow and fit only to carry cargo and transport troops. It was not until the 15th century that sails came into their own. Many improvements in the design of British warships were made under Henry VIII., and there was further progress in the early part of the 17th century, when the Corporation of Shipwrights was registered. The last of the " wooden walls " was H.M.S. Duke of Wellington, built in 1852, and after 1856 only iron and steel vessels were laid down for the Navy. Captain H. H. Sergeant presided over the gathering and a vote of thanks was passed to Commodore Drumniond.