THE STRATFORD EVENING POST WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1924. H.M.S. HOOD'S PATROL BOAT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXXII, Issue 58, 6 May 1924, Page 4

THE STRATFORD EVENING POST WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, MAY 6, 1924. H.M.S. HOOD'S PATROL BOAT.

One of th© many objects of interest on H.M.S. Hood, tho mammoth warship now berthed at Wellington, is its coastal patrol motor boat of the typ© which came into prom'ijienco in the Great War. While the fleet is in port the speedv little vessel is used by Admiral Field as a dispatch boat. It is equipped with a 250 horse-power 12-cylinder V. type engine driving a single screw. Some idea of its speed is gained from the fact that the engine rung at 1400 revolutions por minute, while the pitch of the propeller is three feet. Mr W. A. Waters, chief engineer of the Manawatu-Oroua Power Board, while in Wellington had the pleasure of a trip round the harbour in the motor boat, which dovelopeA a speed of 40 miles an hour. "When travelling at this speed practically twothircTs of the hull lifts out of tha water," bo told a reporter, "and showers of spray fly by the sides of the boat, but the hull appears to have been so designed that the water i s thrown well clear. Steamers and wharves are left behind at an astonishing rate and the spectacle of the launch speeding; attracts a great deal of attention. Tt is the fastest motor-boat yet seen in Now Zealand. On the stcr n are fittings to attach and discharge a torpedo, which is sent over the stern and passes under the, little vessel en route to its objectnf'. Several units of the Bolshovik fled, were sunk during the war in this manner." Mr Waters mentioned that several Cabinet Ministers, including tho j-] on J, G. Coatcs, Hon. (;. J. Anderson and Sir R, Heaton Rhodes, wpv p taken for a trip in the dispatch beat.