THE FLAGSHIP.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 2 January 1912, Page 7

THE FLAGSHIP.

Tlio Powerful, the present flagship, at tile beginning of next .year, will sail from Hobart for Colombo, and will meet the .Drake. The old flagship and the new will salute each other, and while the Drake steams out to Sydney the Powerful will work her, way back to England to a new duty, or a fate that lies with the Lords of the British Seas to determine. The Drake, which is to succeed her as flagship on the Australian station, is a ship of almost the ‘same size. The Powerful is, 520 feet long, 71 feet broad, and 31 feet in draught. The. Drake is 515 feet _ long, 71 foot in breadth, and draws' 28 feet. His displacement is 14,100, as against the Powerful’s 14,200 tons. She is one of a class of four ships, the others being the Good Hope, the Levithan, and the King Alfred, all built in 1901. The principal differences between the Drake and the Powerful are that the retiring flagship is a protected while the Drake is an armoured cruiser, and that the Drake has two or three knots more speed. Her armament is in number and calibre of guns almost the same as that of the Powerful, but the guns are of later types. She has two 9.2 guns, Mark IX., 45 calibre, which' have considerably greater power than the Mark VII., 40 calibre guns of the same bore on the Powerful. Each ship carries 16 Gin. guns, but the Drake’s are 45 calibre, or somewhat longer than the Powerful’s guns. The Powerful fairly bristles with guns, having, in addition to the 18 large weapons, 18 12-pounders, 12 3-pounders, and two Maxims. The Drake slackens off a little in her small armament, having a trifle of 14 12pounders, three 3-pounders, and two Maxims. She has two torpedo tubes, as against the four possessed by the. Powerful. i,

The armouring of the Powerful, entitling her to the term “protected,” consists of a; steel dock, Giip thick at most, designed to keep shells, from entering vital,parts, The ; Drake carries an armour belt of 6in.: Krapp , steel, 10ft. wide and 400 ft. long. In. appearance the Drake is somewhat lighter than the ponderous flagship, this being due to the fact that she has not a long flush deck. The Powerful and her' sister, the Terrible, are very unhandy ships for manoeuvring purposes, and cannot ture in a circle of less than 1100 yards diameter; and they are such .costly vessels to keep up that, they haye been for spine,, tiinolmarked as likely to be wiped off tjfie navy list before long. The Drake is a- hagdier ship, having a “tactical diameter” of' only. 750 yards. She, like the rest of her class, is a very good steamer, and when now easily beat her contract speed. In 1905 she was the first ship to reach Gibraltar in the cross-Atlan-tic of the second cruiser squadron, and in December 1906, she maintained at sea for 30 hours, on a four-fifth power test, an average speed of 221 knots. Her best speed recorded was 2!.6 knots. She carries 900 men.