The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-25
BRITAIN BUILDING
 MILES OF NEW SHIPS
War Fleet Now Under Hammer OutrankS Establishments of
 Several Small Powers.

|
 nation could undertake at one time.
 They include every type of craft, from submarines to battleships and from
 steam trawlers to Atlantic liners. Most | Governments lay down their battle ships and cruisers singly, and the les ser craft perhaps in pairs, but here | battleships loom up as twins, light l cruisers by the half dozen, destroyerS | in rows of ten, with many braces or long submarines, and an occasional
 monitor.
 The war fleet under the hammer and the paint brush here would rank
 in the naval list above the establish | ments of several modest maritime | powers. It could demolish with one
 volley the two squadrons which fought
 the battle of Manila Bay, and then steam against the combined Amer1- can and Spanish fleets off Santiago
 with confidence. The merchant ships | on the stocks are as many as the United States mercantile marine has | added to it's register in several years. | "We have trained crews ready to 1 step on board all these ships as soon
 as they are itted," a naval officer re- l marked.
 Under the guidance of Hugh Law, Nationalist Member of Parliament for | West Donegal. a party of correspon- dents spent a crowded day on land,
 on water, and on ships in dock at this base. They saw some things which I they are not permitted to describe in detail, and many things which they cannot describe for lack of technical knoWledge; for the ordinary man the visit furnished mostly illumination
 upon the vast scale on which sea pow CT is arranged, and upon the kind Of men who manage it, and their hard but cheerful lives.
 Miles of Ships on the Ways. The general stage setting for this swift review of the fighting and trad ing vessels under construction con-
 sisted of several miles of waterfront crowded with skeletons and hulls. The stocks carried everything of the final type-unti1 next year, or next week. for every naval campaign means new ideas, new devices, new lines of con- struction. Two years of active service under war conditions have brought a great advance to the British Navy, al ready acknowledged to be the lead CT in most naval matters. Every ship and every detail of a ship is the last word in it's class, according to the judgment of engineers and fighting officers. In one noticeable detail at least British naval architects appear to have been converted to the prin- ciple of one feature of American war ships.
 The monitors make an appeal to an American because there is a suspicion that other navies were disposed to of for vaf are, with all their superficial changes and embellishments tribute to what the brain of John Ericsson conceived in the sixties. The monitors have been very useful to the Mritish Navy in this war. They have been employ ed in the shallow waters off the coast of Belgium, and even more effectively at GallipoH. The correspondents there described them fully. Two or three strata of the outlying hull may be penetrated by torpedoes, and the monitor can still keep at work with her guns.
 l Two batt1eships, almost prepared for the water, are expected to demon strate themselves the most efficient machines of their family ever com missioned, and they look it. The battleship standing in the timbers on land with all it's lines revealed, show ing its adaptability for speed, pre- sents a different picture from the fighting ship seen above water; and has suggestion of a racing yacht These had been constructed in some thing like half the time consumed in making big warship in pre-w,ar
 days. There were several so-called destroyers certainly as long as many uh {cny 0P
 them extended side by side in one row, and others elsewhere.
 Just where the superdestrover leaves off and the light cruiser begins is not matter of length to-day.
 Building Many Submarines.
 Beyond the destroyers was a line of long thing skeletons of submarines whose size could not be judged at all accurately in a passing view, even if it could be reported Compared with the now old fashioned submarine. they are as the Aquitania to the Philadel- phia.
 Floating alongside dock was brand new submarine, painted and polished like touring car fresh from the shop. The young commander stood alongside and proudly pointed out some of the crafts attractions From his transpafent enthusiasm the vessel might have been a pleasure yacht instead of the vehicle for the most dangerous form of adventure that fighting men undertake
 "Of course we are not in the same class with Horton and HolbrooR," he explained, ''but I hope you will hear something from X-17," pointing to the number painted on the turret. He observed also that this craft could submerge in twenty seconds.
 From this largest shipbuilding sta ton in the world, with its miles of smoking factories, and with it's reyer- berating clangor of thousands of hammers ringing upon steel, the party travelled over night to the most ex- tensive naval base in the world. This was a place where ships run in for repairs, for oil, which is almost the only fuel of these days, for ammuni ton and stores. Here they are replen- fshed. ref1tted, repainted freouentlv and then disappear into the mists of the North Sea, of which a typical one was encountered on the morning of this visit.
 The force of skilled and common workmen at this naval base is lar ger than can be kept at constant em- ployment, for the force must be able to grapple with emergencies and with quick operations on a big scale. Wire less is a great aid. Every squadron coming into port telegraphs its needs The materials and tho roar ox.