NAVAL PROGRESS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13360, 14 September 1936, Page 3

NAVAL PROGRESS.

LATEST IN WARSHIPS. FIFTY MILES AX HO UK. Hidden away in an estuary of the River Blackwater, a few miles inland from Clacton, there was in 1918 a secret naval base. It was the home of the coastal motor-boats, frail, 40-knot torpedo-droppers, depth-charge throwers, and smokemakers. The coastal motor-boats came twice into prominence during th© war years, once in the Zeebrugge operations and later in the attack on the Bolshevist ships at Kronstad. Two years after the war ended the secret base at Osea Island was still in being and there were plenty of naval officers who foresaw a developwient of the coastal motor-boat. Then the Admiralty closed the place down, the boats being scrapped, and to all appearance the idea of the high-speed tor-pedo-dropper was jettisoned. Some foreign Powers continued to experiment with the type; a few were built for the navies by British firms who 'specialised in the design. But as far as the Royal Navy was concerned there appeared to be no further interest in the idea. The appearance was illusory. What had happened was that the Admiralty had decided that the type, as it existed, was too frail to be of any real importance. The word ‘ ‘coastal’ s in its title explains that it was only fitted to work in smooth water within short range of its base. The Admiralty wanted something more seaworthy, more like a real ship, which could go to sea with the sea with the fleet in almost any weather and cruise for a couple of days without refuelling. HABITABLE CRAFT. This provided a most difficult problem for both the naval architect and the marine . engineer. A great deal of secret experimental work was carried out for nearly ten years before a boat was evolved that met the requirements. Now it is in existence, and the navy has its first flotilla of the new motor torpedoboats. To most people the striking thing about the craft is their Jhe exact figure is secret, but it is officially admitted to be more than 40 knots, and it is iprooably not uniair to say that it is roughly equal to a land speed of fifty miles an hour. Jo the naval student, howe\ er, this is rather a seconclarv point. The fact that the craft are habitable, that in them two officers and eight men can live and cruise iar out to 'sea for forty-eight hours, gives them a tactical importance that sj>ecd alone could not give. Ihe ‘M. I .B. is a curious example ot th© way in which history repeats itself. In this type we have gone right back to the methods of the 1880 s, when the first steamdriven torpedo-boats of fifty tons or thereabouts came into ‘existence, and half the naval world declared that the battleship was dead. It was the torpedo-boat that died, put out °f existence by the torjiedo-boat destroyer. craft a little heavier and a little J aster. True, the sx>eed of those days was twentv knots, less than half of that of the * M.T.B..*’ but relatively the original torpedoboat was the equal of the new since battleshix> in those days 15 to 16 knots. And just as the fifty-ton torpedo-boat of lat-e Victorian times grew into the presentday 1850 ton destroyer, so we may exjiect these * first motor torpedoboats to evolve into large motordriven destroyers.

The handling of the motor tor-pedo-boat is something entirely new to naval officers. Apart from the speed, the method of discharging the torpedo involves a new technique. for it is not “fired ’ from a tube as the torpedo is with other ships. It is dropped while the vessel herself is heading at full speed towards the target. The torpedo falls into the wake of the boat, which must be promptly swung to port or to starboard to give the torpedo a clear run. And swinging a fiftv-ton boat that is moving at anything between forty and fifty miles an hour through a quarter of a circle is not the kind of thing one does successfully without considerable training. NEW SENSATION. Handling a vessel that moves at such speed, too. is a new sensation, and. indeed, men who have now had a few weeks' experience with the new craft admit that the sense of speed becomes dulled so that when approaching a berth or a harbour entrance It is as well to declutch and take the way off the boat for a minute or two before actually trying to run alongside or up harbour. Mechanically the “M.T.8.” is similar to a high-powered motorcar. Actually three engines are fitted. each of 590 horse-power. They ’are modelled on aeroplane engine design, and can be throttled down to a comfortable cruising speed ot twenty knots. At that speed their fuel consumption is such that thev have a range of 600 miles. Although the full complement is ten. the first boats are being run with one officer. and six men, and the accommodation for them, though nnturallv cramped, is quite as good as that in a small submarine, and, indeed, much better than it was in the early C class of underwater craft. What is the tacfeal importance of the new design? Ever since the torpedo was invented the aim of the enthusiasts lias been to approach the target at high speed in conditions of poor visiblitv. The range of the earl : est torpedoes was only about 600 yards, so that the tor-pedo-boat came under a murderous fire as she was spotted. BETTER CHANCES. The present-day torpedo has a range of more than 10,090 yards at a s{)eed of more than 4< k knots, so that the motor torpedo-boat, being the minute target it is. has a much better chance of getting its b’ow homo and escaping. Tnuu the modern qu ckfirer can pour out anything

from eighteen to twenty-five rounds a minute, and the sea round the motor torpedo-boat can bo barraged very effectively, but there can be little doubt that an attack by a flotilla of the new craft against a line of battlesliix>s could cause more anxiety than does a similar attack bv a flotilla of 1500-ton destroyers. • lie first exercises carried out by

the whole flotilla against a battle squadron w II be extremely interesting, and although, no doubt, thev w ill be regarded as confidential, it is to be hoped that tlie Admiralty will provide an early opportunity for naval students to see the motor torpedo-boats at work and describe tip* operations for the benefit of the public. After all, each of the new

craft cost -L 123.000 (nearly double as much as the early torpedo-boats, incidentally), and it is the public* which prov des the monev. No one expects the “.M T U.” to revolutionise naval warfare. We

have had too many scares of that sort in the last fifty years, li.it i: will certainly have an effect on t,» tics, and. like its forerunner, it will produce its own antidote Ltfcre uianj \ ears