NAVAL SHIPBUILDING IN AUSTRALIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 10, 13 January 1941, Page 8

NAVAL SHIPBUILDING IN AUSTRALIA

SEVEN YARDS EMPLOYED. The Minister for the Navy (Mr. Hughes) said recently that the naval shipbuilding programme was well up to schedule. The number of ships flying the White Ensign, both in the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy would soon show a material increase as the result of the efforts of this country. The largest item in the programme was 48 patrol ships for escort and anti-submarine work. Forty of these vessels had already been ordered. Some had been launched and some were nearing completion and the keels of many more had been laid. In ail, half of the vesels contracted for were in various stages of construction. At present, seven yards were employed in naval construction work, Mr. Hughes said. As the programme progressed more yards would be brought into production. Not only were shipbuilding yards involved in the Comonwealth Government's largescale shipbuilding scheme, the work of the steel works was most prominent in the frames and shell plating of the ships. But there was scarcely a trade that was not affected. “The patrol ships which are now coming from the slips in Increasing numbers at. increasing speed will be completed, so far as the existing building programme is concerned, towards the end of 1941." Mr. Hughes said. “Many of the ships will be in commission long before then. They will be of great value, both to the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. Of between 800 and 900 tons, they are of Australian design and are primarily intended for the defence of coastal routes and for anti-submarine work. They are well armed, with a good turn of speed, and are ideal for the job for which they are planned. Under the programme, H.M.A.S. Ballarat, a sloop of between 800 and 900 tons, was launched recently at Williamstown. She is the first naval vessel built in Melbourne since the last war.