THE BRITISH NAVY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2696, 29 December 1909, Page 5

THE BRITISH NAVY.

ENGLAND’S ANWER TO GERMANY

United Press Assoriation —Copyright,

LONDON, Dec. 27

Two battleships, the building of which is to be by contract, are included in this year’s programme. They will he named “Hercules” and “Colossus.” The name “Lion” has been given to the battleship being built at Portsmouth. The name was introduced in the Navy lists of 1787. The “Orion,” an armoured cruiser being built at Devonport, it the fifteenth ship of that name. The other new cruisers have been named “Falmouth,” “Dartmouth,” ‘Weymouth,” and “Yarmouth.” The names of the four contingent Dreadnoughts will be “Conqueror.” “Monarch,” “Princess,” and “Royal Thunderer.”

DEFICIENT IN DESTROYERS.

LONDON, Dec. 27

Mr Middlemore, M,P., said that while all the German 1909-1910 destroyers had been ordered and three completed, none of the British vessels had been laid down. The Government’s conduct was treasonable, since Mr. McKenna in April did not deny that Germany had 96 destroyers under 12 years of age to Britain’s 83. DETAILS OF LATEST DREADNOUGHTS. Some details—presumably non-official —of the latest British sea-monsters, the Dreadnought-battleship Orion and the Dreadnought-cruiser Lion, are published in the “Daily Mail” of November 13. The following (according to the “Mail”) are the leading particulars of the Orion compared with those of the original Dreadnought: Orion. Dreadnought. Length, feet ... 545 ... 490 Beam, feet ... 88!... 82 Displ’cem’t, tons 22,500 ... 17,900 Horse-power ... 27,000 ... 24,000 Boilers . ••• 18 ... 18 Speed, knots 21 ... 21 \ Guns ... X 12in... -X 12in XVI 4in... XXVII 3in.

The Orion’s armour will be one inch thicker at the thickest than the Dreadnought’s, being 12in against llin, and the belt will protect the whole centre of the ship for 400 ft. —A Ten Big-Gun Broadside. —

The disposition of the 12in guns in the Orion will differ materially from that in the Dreadnought. All the guns will be placed in the centre line of the ship, s o that ten 12in weapons instead of eight, as in the Dreadnought, will fire on either broadside. The Orion’s 12in guns will also be of 50 calibres (i.e., fifty times 12in in length), whereas the Dreadnought’s are only 45 calibres long. There will be only one mast. , , ~ Three of the “supplementary Dreadnoughts will be of the same type, size, and armament. The report that the new ships would be armed with 13.5 inch and 6 inch gung is thus apparently unfounded. . . The new armored cruiser Lion, winch, is about to be laid down at Devonport, will be the largest warship yet begun for anv navy. She will be 700 ft long and 86|ft in beam, and null displace 26 350 tons. The largest ships as yet ordered by any foreign nation are the two United States battleships of the "Wyoming • class, which displace each 26,000 tons. ■ —Tremendous Speed-power.’

The Lion’s engines will develop 70,000 horse-power, or 2000 more than the engines of the Lusitania and Maur-e----tania, and will drive her at a speed of twenty-eight knots. She will thus be the fastest large ship in existence and the most powerfully engined, with the exception of the two monster German cruisers'G and H, which are understood to have engines of 70,000 horse-power. The tfourth of the supplementary Dreadnoughts will probably be of the same size and tyno as the Lion.