NAMES OF BRITISH WARSHIPS

Southland Times, Issue 23648, 25 October 1938, Page 2

NAMES OF BRITISH WARSHIPS

RETURN TO EARLIER DAYS PLANNED LONDON, September 29. Names of famous fighting ships of earlier’ days are to return to the Royal Navy in the’ 1938 construction programme. . The Admiralty announced last night that names had been approved for 26 new ships. Among them are two battleships, the Lion and the Temeraire, which will belong to a class designated the “lion class”; and an aircraft carrier, the Implacable. The contracts for these ships have not yet been placed. The name Lion is inseparably linked with that of the name of Earl Beatty, who flew his flag in the battle-cruiser Lion at the actions of Heligoland Bight, the Dogger Bank and Jutland. The Temeraire recalls the 98-gun line-of-battle ship the “Fighting Temeraire,” captured from the French at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. She fought next in the line to the Victory at Trafalgar. Her successor in the name was an armoured ship launched in 1876. Implacable is the name borne at present by the only ship remaining afloat that fought at Trafalgar. She lies in Portsmouth Harbour,, and is now administered by the Society for Nautical Research.