MONEY SPENT ON WARSHIPS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10963, 4 May 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

MONEY SPENT ON WARSHIPS.

COST OF BRITISH NAVY. Tlie total first cost of ; tlie ships which compose the British Navy as-it stands today amounts to the substantial total of £133,556,679. . .'^ ,-; v, . -«* • This fact comes, to light m the .annual' Dookyard; Expenses AccOuhtsf. : A bird's. < eyelview of the Navy is included, the cost of each skip and the date of its completion being given in' detail. A summary of tlie tota} may be set out as follows : — Combatant sliips — Armored ' ... ... £65,464,676 Protected ... ... 19,295,768 Unprotected ' ... ... 14,343,334 Nearly obsolete — j. : Armored ... ... 6,889,918 'Protected > ... ... 3,673,527 ./Unprotected .... ... .116,470 Non-combatant ships ... 6,148,937 Obsolete vessels and for sal© 4,669,927 lYaihing and guard-hips ... 12,954,122 Of the total sum of^ just over £99,000,---000 iwliicli'.has been spent on those Sliips included ifi ; the combatant section, more than £78,000,000 has been spent witliin the past five years, so that it becomes evident tliat the large majority of our fillips are compaiatively modern. ] Each year has eeen an addition to. the power of the ships built arid also to their cost. This is. illustrated m. an interesting way by the figures given m the return. •'.' - For niany years the average cost -''price of an armored battleship was between £700,000 arid £800,000. Nowadays it __ seldom that a battleship costs less than a million. Take, for insttmce, the twelve armored' "Vessels completed m the year 1905-6.' The average price. for the twelve was ;oyer £1,200,000. On the. other hand the. severiteeri armored; vossels completed inT19034 cost an average of only £830,---000 ieach. 'Th'e three completed iri 1899---19QP cost ah. average of only £780,000 each. Tlie same meiy be said of other classes of ships. Inno'claiss lias! tliis been Teo marked as iri'Ttlia.Tbf torpedo' boat destroyers, a6the following taoit allows: —

Average cost. 14 built m 1895^6 ... £39,030 each. 16 built m 1898-9 ... 52,000 each 17 built m 1901-2 ... 59,000 each' 10 built m 1905-6 ..' ... 76,000 each.