WORLD'S RECORD BATTLESHIP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8120, 20 September 1904, Page 2

WORLD'S RECORD BATTLESHIP.

♦ . NEW BRITISH VESSELS TO COST £8,000,000. The details given by Mr Pretyman. in the House of Commons on Thunsday, August 4, aa to the shipbuilding programme of the present year show that the new battleships and armoured cruisers to be laid down for the British Navy will, in the American phrase, "lick creation." The 'two new battleships of the Lord Nelson class will be fully worthy of their glorious name. Their battery is such, as haa never before been put into any fighting ship. On a displacement of 16,500 torus, or 160 ton 3 larger than our previous largest, the King Edwards, they will carry fourteen big armour-piercing -^uns. A comparison of the two types gives the following results:— King Edward: GunsFour I2in, four 9.2 in, ten 6inj, tonnage, 16.350 j speed, 18£ knots. Lord Net ■son : Guns-— Four i-lin, ten 9.2 i n; tonnag**, 16,500; speed, 18 khota. The advantage in the new ebips lie* in their great number of 9.2 in guns. This weapon is one of the most powerful in* existent.! firing. a 3801h\ shell twice or thrice a minute and driving it through 35in of iron. It is more powerful than any gun of similar type mounted in foreign battleships. Tlie four big 12in weapon© fire an 8501 b shell through some four feet of iron. In exchange for this overwhelming superiority in heavy gun-fire the 6in gun, which » carried in tne King Edward, disappear*.. The four new armoured cruisers are also to be ot t*m&ahle pattern and greftt ' size, befog **** largest cruisers yet bujlt for the Britisfr-or for any navy.* They are to be kjiown as the Minotaur class,' will steam twenty-three knots, displace 14,600 tons or 400 more than the Drake class, arid will carry four 9.2 in guns of the same type afi thos-6 iii the Lord Nelson, and ' teniy df the new sin <gims, which fire four 2001 b shells a minute through more than two feet of i rol1 ' Both cruiser^ and battleships have been designed by Mr Watts, and*. exhibit to the j full his power to* get the heaviest .pos-ible S armament on a giyen. tonnage. They will i be beyoA<i comparison th 6 best yesselß of their class ftflOW.y , ■'.-■■ ".''. The cost of the new -*batt_<*_up3 will be about £1,500,000: and of thei riew armoured cruisers £ll3#-*,,0OO)1 I 3#-* , ,0OO ) bo that these Hviwr chips tfiU wpW_ dllt a capital of £8,000,000. !