THE FASTEST WARSHIPS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19805, 6 December 1938, Page 5

THE FASTEST WARSHIPS

BRITAIN'S NEW CRAFT

TORPEDO-BOAT TRICKS

LONDON, Oct. 10

Travelling at 45 miles an hour, a motor-torpedo-boat did a 20-yard broadside sideslip without jar or jolt, says the Naval reporter of the Daily Express. It was a demonstration of one of the simpler anti-aircraft manoeuvres which the new race of naval officers, the motor-torpedo-boat commanders, nave evolved.

By a twist of the wheel they can make the craft sideslip right out of the way of diving machine-gunners with the ease of an Obolensky sidestepping a tackle on the Rugby field. They can bring a boat running at 38 knots to a halt in three seconds—without reversing the engines—so that the attacker overshoots his mark. A flick of the wrist makes the boat jump from five knots to more than 38 knots in eight seconds while a glass full of water on the wardroom table fails to spill a drop. Limit Not Yet The first of the Scott Paine m.t.b's. have now done two years' hard service in the Mediterranean; another batch are coming along for delivery from the works at Hythe. When Mr. Scott Paine was asked if he had readied the .limit in the type he grinned, and said:—"Do you remember the first steam-driven torpedo boats? They were little 60-ton things of 19 knots. To-day they are craft of 1800 tons and can do 35 knots.''

The m.t.b. is only at the beginning of its development. Even so, it is the fastest warship in the world. It can do 45 miles an hour fully loaded; it has encountered rough weather with a wind of 40 to 50 miles an hour, with waves 12ft. to 14ft. high, and has ploughed ahead at a steady 30 miles an hour without shipping a sea.

The motor torpedo boat can be. built rapidly; twelve weeks in peacetime is reasonable for completion. And the fighting equipment is of an entirely new design, and is constantly being improved.