MYSTERY-SHIP.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20586, 8 December 1928, Page 11

MYSTERY-SHIP.

OF BRITISH NAVY. STEAMING WITHOUT A. CREW. I have been permitted to make a inspection of the Navy’s most secret ship (with the naval correspondent' of the Daily Telegraph). This is Centurion, formerly one of our finest sup’erDreadnoughts, which now serves as a target ship for the Atlantic and Mediterranean Fleets. Condemned to be scroppcd under the Washington Treaty, she wqs reprieved by being disarmed and converted tft h6&-combatant use. Lying moored in Cromarty Firth, she looks for all the world like a useless hulk. Yet she is, in fact, fulfilling a function of the highest importance. ■ .Under radio control, without a single man on board, this great ship of 24,000 tons, can be made to travel through water at .16 knots, starting, stopping, turning the desired number of points to starboard or to port, and, indeed, simulating every possible _ manoeuvre of a fully-manned battleship. How this seeming miracle is performed was explained to me as I stood in Centurion’s engine room. The system ■of controlling ships by radio is not new, but it is safe to say it has been developed to the highest perfection by the * British Navy. Without going into technicalities, it may be said briefly that wireless waves from a destroyer steaming about a mile' ahead or astern actuate electric motors which control the main steam valves in Centuriuui regulate the Supply, of oil fuel’to the furnaces, and move the helm.to the position in which it is desired the ship shall travel. ■ On firsj; hoarding this mysterious ship one is- confronted with a scene of utter devastation. Above and below deck there is scarcely a square yard of'deck or structure jwhich does not bear marks of shell fire. The funnels are riddled like sieves with shot holes. Shells, hitting direct or in ricochet, have ploughed gaps and furrows through the thick steel plating on the forecastle. All but one of the anchor capstans has ' been demolished. All the fore part of the ship has suffered heavily; bridges, charthouse, sea cabins, even the conning tower are ripped and pockmarked as though by a super machinegun firing heavy shell. Both the pole and i struts of the mighty tripod mast have been hacked almost through. Here and there deep indentations and splashes, show where projectiles have impinged on the thickest armour interior of ' the ship. Since Centurion began her career as a wireless controlled target every officer’s cabin above the main armour belt save one has been, demolished by sheila. Among the compartments which have suffered severely are the captain’s cabin, ship’s galley, petty officers’ mess and sick bay, the-latter looking as though a cyclone had 'struck it. The stout casement armour is punched clean through in half a dozen places. Everywhere are razoredged gaps in the steel plating. .. Yet, despite the. terrible punishment she has undergone. Centurion is not only still afloat, but her vitals are untouched. The secret lies in the system of protection adopted when the ship was converted to her present use. The whole of the upper deck and funnel bases are covered with massive armour, while rising several feet above the waterline is an almost impregnable belt of steel. Centurion has a crew of 250 officers and men. All of these have duplicate cabins or other living quarters. Before every shooting practice the upper cabins are dismantled, all movable furniture, instruments, and personal effects. being taken below, where they are in comparative safety. The crew leave at the last minute, being transferred to the destroyer Shikari, where they remain until the shoot is over. The only living creatures remaining' on board are several cats, which, after surviving, numerous _ bombardments, now treat the whole business as a bore, and refuse to leave the ship. When firing is over the crew return to the ship, generally to find most 'of their quarters wrecked. Then an army of workmen descend, and the ship is hurriedly patched up and made more or less habitable until it is next exposed to a merciless bombardment by the fleet’s guns of every calibre. When the ship is deserted, her movements are controlled from duplicated positions in the destroyer Shikari by Centurion’s own officers. I was permitted to sec the apparently complicated yet essentially simple mechanism by which .the deserted battleship can be made to carry out every conceivable manoeuvre while steaming at 18 miles an hour. Although many ingenious devices have been employed to render the ship unsinkable, it still seems incredible that she can endure such repeated hammerings and remain afloat.