NEW BATTLESHIP NELSON

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16378, 28 June 1927, Page 2

NEW BATTLESHIP NELSON

IS KNOWN AS ADMIRALTY CAVEMAN. WILL COST £432.960 A YEAR TO MAINTAIN. LONDON, May 14. Some day this week the 55,000-ton British battleship Nelson, known as the ‘ Admiralty Caveman,” will leave tlie (irv dock at Portsmouth and stride down the harbor to try out her nine and six-teen-iueh maritime clubs. By means of these clubs, coupled with t lie steel bombproof skin which senes her as a deck, she hopes to give finality to anv argument with fighters of her own type—should any such discussion be necessary. , After practice with the guns, which discharge " pelleis ' weighing pounds the Nelson will skid up and down the Channel trying out the rna,nes. If they make the grade, the Government will then take her over from -Messrs. Armstrong. W lutwurtli aud Co., tlie builders. ’ The Nelson’s sister ship, Lodtiey. vow at. Plymouth, will go through the .ame initiation in August. .MAY BE LAST BATTLESHIPS.

The inauguration of these ships are important events here, because they are the last battleships Britain can lay down under the Washington Treaty before 1961. Economists claim that the trend of naval discussion indicates, as a matter of fact, that no others will be built. , The Nelson arrived at lortsmouth from Newcastle-on-Tyne two weeks ago, Crowds gave her a big send off as her 702 ft. length manipulated the difficult white Hill point, turned almost at right nngles, and then, without a hitch, swung gracefully down the sea. ine Nelson lay off the Tyne adjusting compasses and testing anchors, and then steamed to Portsmouth, where she was placed in dry dock, to be painted an invisible sea grey. * The Nelson’s exact specifications are a British naval secret. She carries a crew of 1300. She (for the Nelson is naiiticaj]y a “ cavewoman ”) is six feet wider than the Majestic, the biggest passenger liner afloat, this breadth being partly due to the elaborate system of underwater protection. Her main armament is nine 16in. guus in three turrets, aIL placed forward. As a secondary battery, she will have many 6in. guns twinmounted in light turrets. Anti-aircraft guns will he numerous. The great space forward will be used for the taking off of airplanes, Her upkeep in full commission will cost £432,960 a year. Britain pledged herself, under the Washington convention, lo scrap foui battleships of the King George V class on completion of the Nelson and Rodney, and the fleet will thus be reduced to ‘2O capita] ships.