A NEW CRUISER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13941, 28 June 1907, Page 5

A NEW CRUISER

THE INFLEXIBLE LAUNCHED. Press Association—By ..Telegraph—Copyright, LONDON. June 27. (Received June 27, at 10.45 p.m.) Tho waranip Indexible has been launched at Clyde Bank, r .J"A OX,I, ' G , ' s " sirf( ' l ' cruiser to tho ndom,table and Invincible, which have both been launched durinjr ■ the present ■V';"':. Secrecy is maintained us to the dotal s of tho construction of these vessels. At the hinehoou in connection with the launching of the Invincible in April Sir Andrew Noble said that- she was the twenty-fourth vessel constructed a.nd launched from that, yard for the British navy sinco the yard was opened 22J, years ago. On too berth west of. .that, vacated by the Invincible there was in course of construction a vessel of the..Dr.«adnought type, to be _ named the Superb. They were al?o building a 33-knol torpedo-boat, desiroycr, Afridi, which would be launched in tho course of a month or =o. The Achilles, tho last vessel Jannclux] at Elswick for tho British navy, had just successfully completed an exhaustive scries of trials, and had been handed over to the Meet Reserve. ITi- firm's obligation to scerocy to the British Admiralty with respect- to war vessels did not permit him to disclose particulars of the Invincible, but-, he would not be eoninilting any breach of confidence in repeating what- had already been made public through the Navy Estimates, in which tho Invincible was described as an armoured cruiser 530 ft long, 78ft. 6in broad, and of 17,250 tons displacement. She had been designed by Sir Philip Watts. Her name was used to designate the class of vessel she represented, of which there were three being built, the other two vessels, the Indomitable and the Indexible, being under construction on the Clyde. Admiral M'Gill, responding to the toast of the naval officers present, raid that with tho exception of the Dreadnought tho Invincible was, perhaps, the most interesting ship ever launched. Whether the naval architects had anything up their sleeves he did know, but ho might fay that the Invincible was one of the, few ships that was not obsolete before she was launched.