The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1916-08-22
ENGLAND IS BUILDING
BATTLEsHIPs IN PAIRS
Light Cruisers By the Half Dozen and
Destroyers in Rows of Ten.

T . : & = 4
Light Cruisers By the Half Dozen and
Destroyers in Rows Of Ten.
.-- - 800 ----~- -
London, Aug: 10. There IS a.certain
small section=of British water -front
where more ships. are under construc
ton today than the entire .shipbuilding
facilities of any other nation could un-
dertake at any one time. They include
every type of craft from submarines to
battleships and from steam trawlers to
Atlantic liners. Most governments lay
down their battleships and cruisers sing
ly, and the lesser crafts perhaps in
pairs, but here battleships loom up as
twins, light cruisers by the half dozen
destroyers in rows of ten, with many
braces Of long submarines, and an oc
casional monitor. ." -~'>.ses~ - r-r-
The war fleet under the hammer and
the paint brush here could rank in the
naval list above the establishments of
several modest maritime powers. It
could demolish the two squadrons
which fought the battle of Manila bay
with one volley, and then steam against
the combined American and Spanish
fleets of Santiago with confidence. And
the merchant ships in the stocks are as
many as the United States mercantile
marine has added to- its register in sew
eraf years 8. - .,---s-
1--WE have trained crews ready to
step on board all these ships as soon
as they are fitted,'' naval officer re-
marked.
Under tutelage of Parliament for
West Donegal, party Of correspond
.ents spent a crowded day on land, on
water, and on ships in dock, at this
base. They saw some things which
they were 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
or is arranged, land upon the kind of
men who manage, it, and their. hard
but cheerful lives.
The general stage setting for this
: swift review of the fighting and trad
; ing vessels under construction consist
ed of several miles of water-f front lines
AS thickly. as could be crowded with
skeletons and hulls. The stocks carried
of ho fx,no-,1nfi1 owl
year, or next. week, for every naval
campaign means new ideas, new de-
vices, new lines of construction. Two
years of active service unde: war con-
-ditions have brought great advance
to the British navy already acknowl-
edged to be leader in most naval mat
ters. Every ship and every detail of
ship, is the last word in it's class, ,ac
~cording to the war bought Judgment OF
engineers and fighting officers. In one
noticeable detail at least British naval
architects appear to have been convert
ed to the principle of lone feature of
American warships. - -.
The monitors make an appeal to an
American because there is a suspicion
that other navies were disposed to scott
at them for years. Yet here they 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 British navy in this war;
They have been employed in the shall
low waters off the coast of Belgium,
and ever more effectively at Gallipoli
: The correspondents there described
: them fully. Two or three strata Of the
outlying hull may be penetrated by
tOrpedoes, and the monitor can still
still keep at work with her guns.
Two battleships, almost prepared for
: the water, according to information
rendered, are expected to, demonstrate
themselves the most efficient machines
of their family ever commissioned, and
they look it. The battleship- standing
in the timbers on land with all its
: lines revealed, showing its. Adaptable
~ Aoi opoou, picScHGS d. uileFeIlI pic
ture from the fighting ship seen above
water and has suggestion of a racing
. yacht. These. had been constructed in
, something like half the time consumed
In making big warship in pre-war
. days. There were several so-called de-
stroyers certainly as long as many light
cruisers of earlier times, 10 of them
extended side by side in one row, and
Others elsewhere - r -,
Just where the super destroyer leaves
. off and the light cruiser begins is not
matter Of length today. Beyond the
destroyers was line of long thin skel-
etons Of submarines, whose size could
+, not be judged at all accurately in a
passing view, even if it could be re-
ported. Compared with the now old
fashioned submarine they are as the
{ Aquitania to the Philadelphia: = . -
: Floating alongside a dock was a
;. brand new submarine, painted and pol
ished like touring car fresh from ths