THE PRINCE OF WALES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16033, 26 January 1920, Page 5

THE PRINCE OF WALES.

PREVIOUS VISITS. ‘

COMEDY OF KING'S TRIP,

Twenty years ago the arrival of the Prince of Wales, now King George, in Port Phillip, was marked by a quaint marine comedy (says the Sydney Sun). The ocean liner Ophir, in which the Royal party travelled, was a fast; ship in those days. The crniser escort Jnno and St. George were also very speedy warships. The Australian fleet, or rather the British squadron in Australian waters, went out with great pomp and much smudging of the sky with smoke, to dip their ensigns to Prince George in the Southern Ocean. They met tht voyageurs, and started to circle them in a majestic sweep, but before they had half completed the manoeuvre the Ophir, St. George and Juno were showing them a white wake. The squadron ceased its much meditated minuet, and got down to business. Engine-room signals read in. red letters. ‘Tull Speed Ahead,” and away they pounded after the visitors with every ounce of steam on, but the further they lagged behind. The Royal party was listening to the convent bells off Morningtou a couple of hours befort the squadron grumpily thrashed its way to anchorage. _ History may repeat itself, for the giant Renown can shift her enormous bulk through the water at 40 miles an hour—faster than the Sydney express travels. Our cables say that her steel deck is being replaced by a wooden deck in order to lessen the heat of the tropics. Since this steel deck is 3 inches thick, it cannot be that the Admiralty is ripping it up. What is more likely is that a thin wooden deck is being fitted over it. In any event, the speed of the Renown will remain the same. Our H.M.A.S. Australia can only do 26 knots at top, and thfe Sydney and Brisbane about 24 knots. So if the Renown cares to show what she can do in the Pacific our Australian warships may again be distanced.

THE RENOWN.

VESSEL WITH A HISTORY

Of all the ships in the Royal Navy, the battle cruiser Renown, in which the Prince of Wales will cross and recross the Seven Seas, is best fitted to give dignity to the forthcoming visit and to excite in Australia interest in naval progress. She is a ship with a history, because she reflects the lessons conveyed by the Battle of the Falk land Islands, as well as by the actions in the North Sea in the early days of the war with which Admiral of the Fie A Sir David Beatty’s name will, always be associated. The Renown, was to have been a battleship, one of the vessels of the Roval Sovereign which were included in the shipbuilding programme of 1914, when war seemed a long way off. But the Battle of the Falkland Islands exhibited the value of high speed in association with heavy gunpower, and so about Christmas, 1914, on the initiative of Lord Fisher, who had recently become First Sea Lord, the Renown, which had already been laid down, was re-designed. Thus the battleship became a battle-cruiser, because tho war at that stage had already demonstrated the value of.such ships.

It was arranged that she should carry tho largest number of guns of the greatest power possible in such a vessel ard have armor protection similar to the Invincible and other ships of that type, in association with a speed of no less than 3*3 knots. What that decision meant will be realised when it is recalled that the Powerful, which in the early years of this century was _ the swiftest cruiser in the Navy, attained a speed of only 23 knots, or ten knots less Ilian it was determined to obtain in the Rmown. Engineering science in the meantime had made great progress, and in the result the Renown attained a speed of 32.6 knots on the measured course off Arran. Sir Eustace d’Eyuconrt has since stated that the Renown, like her sister ship, the Repulse, has been well reported upon at sea, and maintained her speed well. The success of this ship constitutes no mean triumph of British engineering, for 32.6 knots :s equivalent to something in tho neibhbonrhood of 40 miles, probably, at a spurt.

SPEED OF 32 KNOTS,

Under the pressure of war, although the design was a new one, the Ecu own was completed for sea in about half the time usually occupied in the construction of such ships, and before she hoisted the pennant the plating over the magazine was considerably increased, thus embodying in this ship one of the lessons conveyed by the Pa title of Jutland. It may be interesting to add a few particulars of tide vessel, which will suggest to Australians something of the skill of British designers, shipbuilders and workmen.

Displacement 26,500 tons. Length over all 794 feet. Lead draught, mean, 251 feet. Engines 112,000 shaft horse-power, Breadth, extreme, 90 feet. Oil fuel, 4250 tons. Armament: 6-15 inch. 17-4 inch. 2-21 inch torpedo tubes. Armor:

Side, l)in. to 6in. Bulkheads 3 to 4 in. Barbettes 4 to 7 in. Gun houses 7 to llin. Conning tower lOin. The Renown’s decks are also protected by special steel of a thickness varying from lin. to Sin. as a precaution against high-angle shell-fire. She was built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company at Govan. I

These particulars indicate the main characteristics of this remarkable ship, the cost of which has not yet been revealed, but was certainly heavy. She carries the same type of gam as the battleships of the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Sovereign classes, and sacrifices a certain measure of their defensive qualities in order to attain a speed exceeding 32 knots. Owing to the size of the Renown she will require the deepest water for anchorage when she reaches Australia.