FIGHTING BY "WIRELESS."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10241, 2 September 1909, Page 1

FIGHTING BY "WIRELESS."

SOME OF THE STRIKING FEATURES OF THE GREAT FLEET. (By Arnold White.) | If De Ruyter or Van Tromp revisited the scene of their triumphs the installation of wireless on board the Indomitables would astound the gallant old Dutch sea dogs of a day when dingdong fighting was the rule from start to finish. In these days when manoeuvring for position is more than half the game: when favorable >or contrary gales exercise no influence on results, the part played by wireless in the conduct and disposition of squadrons and fleets is of the highest possible importance, especially to the Admiral of the stronger side. To him that hath shall bo given. The wireless room of the Indomitable is closed not only to the public, but to the ship's company otlier than the staff told off for wireless duties.

When the ship is at sea despatching and receiving messages the conductor or stay leading from the wireless room to the mast glows with violet light, and crackles continuously like a string of thorns on fire. Wireless has made great progress in the~navy during the last two years. The fresh young brains of the torpedo lieutenant have grappled with the difficulties of interruption and of unfavorable atmospheric conditions. The result is that to-day the Admiralty can talk to Malta or to any ship within a radius of a couple of thousand miles. The Admiral at sea cannot talk back at the Admiralty as far as that; but lie has complete control of communications throughout a circle with the diameter of 1200 miles.

It is whispered that recent wireless discoveries have completely surmounted for naval purposes difficulties still encountered by the commercial companies. The effect of wireless is to turn naval war into chess with the ocean for a board, Dreadnoughts for queens, Invincibles for castles and bishops, and two old men in upper rooms at their respective Admiralties as players. One of the chief objects of the Invincible class is to give the Commander-in-Chief the power of finding out what the enemy is doing without losing a ship. Indomitables are to a -fleet what whiskers are to a cat. The eyes of a fleet are its large armored cruisers, not the small ones —that is-why the poliey of the Admiralty hitherto has been to build larger cruisers than other nations. If an enemy's cruiser of secondary value is scouting she is practically lost if sighted by an armored cruiser, if the latter is well commanded.

The great speed of the Indomitables confers the power of concentrating on the enemy's van. If he turns away it is a great strategical advantage to be able to turn the enemy off the course he is trying to take. The engine-room of the Indomitable is interesting from its small size, low temperature, cleanliness and absence of noise when the machinery is at work. By the system of electric fans the temperature is little above that of the external air. Were the fans to stop the thermometer would rise to loOdeg. Fall. Were this catastrophe to happen the engineer officers, artificers, and stokers could not endure longer periods of duty than half an hour at a time. Top speed in the Indomitable is a difficult operation, and strains the stamina and endurance of the whole of the engineering staff, although the oil fuel boilers are fed by turning a tap. The three ehief pni'i's to note in the Fjy'.ov.UaHi- are— -first.. the gunnery ;"."''rr - ■ ■' * es meat a? of ilie Dreadnougiif o;;tti(?Siiij>.s; swuu.liy. ihe hi-ih speed that was only o jinilh -.! Itorpedo destroyers befoiV iln* iitlvs-r.i cf ;he present- j)os«rd of Ad-j-.iJr:-ILv ; au-:l thirdly, the mysterious and efficient apparatus for the collection and despatch of information from theair. The Invincible; Inflexible, and Indomitable . may be distinguished from the Dreadnoughts by the two tripod masts far' apart, and the three funnels between them. The Lord Nelson and Agamemnon, now lying as'tern of the Temeraire, are very powerful vessels, carrying four 12in. guns and ten 9.2 in., with five torpedo tubes and smaller guns. The funnels of the Lord Nelson look short because the quickfiring guns are mounted on high platforms. The target thus presented to the enemy is larger than in ships of the Dreadnought type. The Lord Nelson and the Agamemnon are remarkable for their armor protection. The belt amidships is an inch thicker than the Dreadnought's thickest belt.

As wireless has its jealoiisly-guarded secrets, so has armor plating. It is said that the steel manufactured by Krupp for the German navy is of higher resisting strength than that worked into British ships. Only the vitals of men-of-war are protected by thick Armor. The belt forward is six inches thick, and that aft four inches. Six inches of the best Krupp steel is equal to 18 inches of wrought iron. The quick-firing guns are weapons which can be loaded and. discharged with great rapidity. The training of a 6-inch gun crew is a triumph of sportsmanship, and when the thirteen men have learned to act together the gun has been known to reach the target with a hundred-pound shell eleven times in a minute.

The trained gunners of the fleet do not consist ' of individual geniuses, though some men are infinitely better than others in laying the gun, but m acting together like a polo team or a cricket eleven. If sixty-three of the finest seamen gunners in the Navy were placed in a turret of the Lord Nelson, and picked against a turret's crew picked haphazard, but who had worked together for - six mouths, the latter would win with certainty. Here is one weak point in our navy. "Under a smart captain and gunnery lieutenant .a battleship 1 reaches a. high place in the competitive list of battle practice. At the end of two years' cornmission, the men are dispersed, join other ships, and begin gunnery all over again under new officers and with strange messmates. A war that' broke out at the beginning of the -gunnery training season would find Britain with perhaps less than lialf-a dozen ships proficient and highly trained in gunnery. Continuity of efficiency could be obtained bv : maintaining the gunnery unit, and subjecting itto only minute and constant change in - the personnel. The gunnery of the fleet could be considerably improved by the practice of breaking up efficient guns' crews at the end of the commission.. The Minotaurs, the Warriors, the Black Princes, and the Drakes are armored cruisers of great power and high speed, and call for no special remark. The Donegal and Berwick, however, belonging to the County class, known by their three very tall funnels, with their fourteen six-inch guns in casemates, should be specially notedj as they are two of the ships told off to protect the ocean thoroughfares; • which are as well defined as Fleet street. »

With half the world's tonnage flying the Red Ensign the safety of the trade routes of the world is a question ■ of bread and butter for London. > Dreadnoughts and Indomitables are wanted for other purposes than _ convoy. The day of convoy, indeed, is over, as it is unlikely that in the event of war with a northern Power the enemy would squander his cruisers on commerce destroying. Britain controls the five strategic centres of the world —Straits of Dover, Straits of Gibraltar, Cape of Good Hope, Straits of Malacca, and the Suez Canal. The danger of the sea-borne trade of the British Empire is not, therefore, from hostile cruisers, which cannot keep the sea for want of coal, but from improvised tramp steamers armed with Maxims and very light guns suddenly appearing on British trade routes. Besides the Berwick and the Donegal, anchored at the Nore, England _ possesses sixteen, similar cruisers, which help to maintain the two-Power standard, not merely in tonnage or in pennants, but in the solid and effective elements of sea power—the safety of our trade: routes. The Donegal and the Berwick, and their sisters, after the first fortnight of war, should have despatched every enemy's commerce destroyer to the bottom of the sea and have secured the transfer to the British flag of every enemy's merchant vessel on the blue water. The Arrogant and Talbot classes are smaller cruisers, with speed of about 19 knots.

I -The Scouts, with their three or four funnels and one mast painted grey, look like large destroyers. They exist to destroy the destroyers just as the destroyers exist to destroy torpedo-boats, and torpedo boats exist to complete the vicious circle by destroying each other. The torpedo-boat destroyers, like the torpedo boats, are painted black, because they are intended for night use. The command of a destroyer or torpedo-boat is the making of our young officers, for winter torpedo work in the North Sea is about the most difficult and most disagreeable job in the world. Fifty-seven men are pent up in quarters which on shore would contravene the Housing Act. But the men like the torpedo service because the discipline, though strict, is relaxed as regards smoking, uniform, and drill. Submarines, like wireless, are official secrets. They are the weapon of the strong Power, and are,the terriers of the fleet, intended to enter the enemy's port and either force him into the open or sink him at anchor.