THE GREAT ARMADA.

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15449, 11 September 1914, Page 2

THE GREAT ARMADA.

OUR MOBILISED FLEET. ITS COST TO BOLD AND RUN. Till-: £ s. d. OF SEA-POWER. To-day there ure more than 6fO ships in iu!l commission flying the wh.to en.s.gn or tlie-British Navy. Tile niunber includes -111 warships—battleships, cruisers of all classes, depot sli ps, and destroyers—and 211 torpedo-boats. The cost of this prodigious Armada, the greatest licet the world has ever seen, is almost fabulous. The main fighting line ot the fleet consists of twenty battleships of the Dreadnought type. Tliey wero all launched in a period of seven years—between 19!Kj and 1012 —and their aggregate first cost amounted to £3G.339.024. Contemporaneously with thes-j were Imilt seven battle cruisers, and an eighth—the Invincible —was at tlie outbreak of the war in dockyard hands. Those eight ships cost £13,-0Sl;-i0-j. making u grand total of nearly lioll.dKO.ijlKJ spent on Dreadnoughts actually in coinmiss'on. In addition to these there is another nob in commission and seventeen under construction. While ili'.se now ill service averaged £ 1,900.000 in cost, those now buikl.ng wii.l cost front two to two and a-half millions sterling apiece. CAPITAL COST. "The thirty-seven pro-Dreadnought battles-hips now in commission, launched between 18 ( J4 and 190G, cost £42.. 153.270. while the thirty armoured cruisers of the same era. built between 189!) and ]f)t)7. cost £29.155.554. The total cost therefore, of Dreadnoughts and pre-Dreadnoug'iits, battleships and cruisers, is over £120.000,000. This enormous sum represents only a- part of the whole cost of the fleet-. There are 00 protected and other cruisers in service which cost IS millions; 211 destroyers, accounting for 15.V millions; together wit'll (58 submarines, costing; 4 millions, and 103 torpedo boats costing just over 3 millions. At a moderate estimate the ships not included in tliry above list, but now in full commission may be set down at 10 millions, making an. aggregate of over £170,000,000. Between the oldest and the newest battleships the cost, has more than doubled, it costs -over half a million sterling to supply a modern battleship -with guns and gun mountings, and every ton of ••'her armour (and she carries from 4000 to SOGO tons) represents an income of two guineas a week for twelve months A battleship's machinery runs away with a quarter of a- million sterling, ami in the case of the 2S-knot battleenrsers <.f the I/on and Queen Mary classes the cost is doubled. RUNNING EXPENSES.

Every time a b ; g gun is fired is costs £3OO. and there are 372 such guns in Admiral Jellicoe's fleet. Torpedoes cost ten times as much. Many of the big .-hips burn o 1 fuel as an "auxiliary to t'heir coal, but there arc 127, torpedo craft, besides the submarines, which burn oil fuel alone. In the aggregate their tanks and double bottoms can accommodate 10.315 tons of fuel, which costs £5 a ton. Coal is not so expensive, but it dues not go so far. If the twenty-seven Dreadnoughts now in eonim..ssion were sent on an eight hours' full-power, coal-burning run. they would consume 4320 tons of fuel, running up a bill of some £3OOO. The Navy's fuel bill for 1913-14 was over 3A- millions. In short, if a sing>e Dreadnought battle squadron of eight slr'ps were ordered to steam at full speed for twenty-four hours, and to fire each gun and each torpedo tube once, the cost to the nation would be approximately £203.-000 allowing nothing for depreciation. THE PAY SHEET. / The pay-sheet of the Navy in commission represents a fortune a day. Probably the personnel of the Navy runs to 150.<100. Armoured ships a'.on'o would absorb 73.000, cruisers 21,030. while torpedo boats and destroyers would represent another 20,000. Over 2300 officers and men are engaged in the submarine s?rvice. where two wliolu crews are always provided for each boat. How much it has cost to train these officers and men it is impossible to estimate. It takes three years to make a youth into an ordinary seaman at Is 3d jw day, without any special qual'lications in gunnery or otlier work, and fire years to make'Ciim a really efficient member of a. ship's company. It tykes ten years to train an officer for the duties of a junior lieutenant. The actual wages vote for the Navy for the current financial ye.iv was £8,800.(.XX), or over £24.000 "a day. With the reserves now employed it' would ba a reasonable estimate to ai-lot nearly £30.000 a day to the pa.v sheet for the Navy. It may be added that since 1894 —in twenty yenrs—the Navy is estimated to have cost over £700.000.000. and to-day it appears well worth' the cost.