MIGHT OF THE NAVY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19020, 16 November 1923, Page 5

MIGHT OF THE NAVY

review at spithead. AN IMPOSING SPECTACLE. LOND.ON, November 3. Miles upon miles of ships of every shape and size represented Great Britain s migut at the Spithead review. . . Representatives of the dominions declared that the evidence of sea-power as given by this mighty fleet was something tnat they could never forget. Mr Bruce pointed out that the display had a moral tor Australia. It was no fair-weather fleet that was seen at Spithead by the representatives of the dominions, or so many of them as were not otherwise occupied. The minelayer Princess Margarot was luxuriously equipped for the occasion, and the waves behaved themselves fairly well in the forenoon, while the vessel passed out of the harbour ajid down the lines m which the fleet lay in review order. . Standing on the deck of the Princess Margaret the Prime Ministers saw pass before them in stately order the warships bearing these great names: —Barham, Queen Elizabeth, Warspite, Revenge, Ramilles, Resolution, Hood, and Repulse. These marched like an army with banners, marshalling the thoughts of the beholders to a progress through some of the greatest pages of our history. The queer huge form of the aircraft carrier Argus lay on our right as we passed down the lilies. Further in toward the shallows we saw the lean, clean lines of the wolfish destroyers, while ahead, through the softening: mists, showed crowds of submarines and other craft and the formidable fighting rows of light cruisers. FOR DEFENCE, NOT DESTRUCTION. We only passed up one and down another of the half-dozen linos in which these 80 ships of war were disposed; yet we covered eight sea miles’ and surveyed who knows how many million pounds’ worth of naval power, designed not for destruction, but for. our defence. The Barham had faded away into the grey mist which hung from the racing clouds to the wind-whijrped sea long before we rounded the Walpole at the end of the line, and commenced to return along the parallel line. Yet gazing back along the sea lane the visitors gained some impression of the might and majesty of this one section of the British Navy lying along the waters in its silent, unmoving strength. In the afternoon the panorama was' reversed. Tho mine-layer lay. or rather tossed, at anchor, while the whole Atalntic fleet steamed past in a clock-work coordination of movement. Destroyers in numbers seemingly innumerable came out of the grey mist and passed into it again. Snub-nosed K class submarines pushed their reversed crinolines through the waves, and M class vessels wallowed along in their cumbrous styles, with 12-inch guns cocked at an angle which looked ludicrous, but spells death to a distant foe when the real thing comes. These dipped, disappeared, rose up to the surface, and passed on. The “wasps” of the fleet passed by, and then came the cruisers in more menacing lines, followed at the last by the giants of the battle-squadron, which passed so close that they almost seemed to loom above the watchers. As each ship passed by its guns were swung slowly and threateningly round till they were trailed relentlessly on the mine-layer. VANISHED IN THE MIST. Four-score engines of war passed and, swung widely away to the southward, and vanished in the mist; while the vessel carrying the spectators picked up her anchor and steamed out into the Channel, to encounter suddenly rushing out of the veil ahead two flotillas of destroyers executing a torpedo attack. Finally they raced past the minelayer, and finished with astonishing swoops and swerves round her stern, while they now rode high on the waves and next mimite buried themselves under fountains of foam. Tho growing boisterousness of the weather at this stage enforced a curtailment of the further manoeuvres that had been contemplated ( - Tho Australian Prime Minister, Mr Bruce, commenting upon the day’s display, said that ho was struck by the .variety of craft, which provided evidence of the growth of specialisation, as witness the types of submarines, aircraft-carriers, and the various classes of cruisers, all designed for divergent purposes. Australians would receive from the British fleet’s world cruise some education in the remarkably wide range of the needs of the naval defence of our Empire. Although they would not witness tho wonderfully impressive manifestation of ‘Tie strength and versatility of naval weapon? of wa- which he had seen that day. they would gain a notion of the breadth of the problem which even the commonwealth had to faca.