Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-08-31
|BATTLESH|PS FAST
BEING SCRAPPED

LONDON, England.-Great Brit
ain is scrapping her capital ships
gradually"
Many people have had visions of
dockyards, swarming with workers,
dismantling the great grey ships
alongside the quays, battering off
guns and searchlight platforms, as
if nothing else on earth mattered.
In England, at any rate this is far
from fact.
In the first place most of the
heavy scrapping to be done by Eng
land admiralty officials showed is
not scheduled before 1925 when four
super dreadnaughts of the King
George V type come under the ship
breakers hammer, or are sold, MI
nus their armament and implements
Of warfare.
After that the famous Queen Eliza
beth comes up for destruction in 1885
the Royal Sovereign in 1885, the Re-
nown (already on the reserve list
since the return of the Prince OF
Wales from his world tour in 1910
and the famous Hood in 1941.
In the meantime sixteen obsolete
vessels have gone to the scrap heap.
They are the pre-dreadnaughts:
Mars, Caesar, Queen, Swiftsure,
Hindustan, Lord Nelson, and the
Dreadnaughts Bellerophon, Tenlaire,
st. Vincent Dreadnanught fhe C'igi-
nal of her type), Hercules, Inf1eXible,
Indomitable, Crescent and Common
wealth. These ships it is true, were
partly scheduled for the scrap heap
before Washington conference took
place. The treaty of Washington
sealed their fate and they have &C
cordingly been "scrapped." That
is to say they are no longer on the
actual list Of the navy. Some of
them have been broken up, others
used as targets, others again, minus
their guns, rest in the dry docks Of
Davenport and Portsmou :, rotting
gradually with but a couple of care
takers on board-ships which were
once the pride of the British fleet.
OF the later types scheduled to go,
and already off the navies active
LIST are the Superb-in a few weeks
to become a target for the bombs of
British air squadrons-the Erin al
ready in the hands Of shipbreakerS.
the Agincourt, New Zealand, Prin-
cess-Royal and Lion.
Consequently the big vessel for de-
struction is first of all paid off, and
with a nucleus crew steams round
to her last port where she waits
further orders. There ar many
such vessels in what is known as
the "Rotten Rows" of the dock
yards. Some of them will be strip
ped of all their fittings and their
guns melted down; sold maybe for
reconditioning as freighters in the
case of light cruisers, others sold to
such foreign countries as the treaty
of Washington allows:
Many of the fittings Of these mon
ster war vessels 'epay their original
| placing in the battleships. Range
finders can be used in garrison
forts which overlook the sea. COM
passes, winches, lei ephone systems.
searchlights can and are being used
| again in newly built vessels or sold
| to the merchant service.
The actual position resulting from
the conference as regards the CAPT
tai ships in service of Great Britain
| and America to Clte is as follows:
Capital Ships-America 81.
Capital Ships-Great Britain, %.
But America must scrap one bat
tleship and seven battle cruisers
with Britain scrapping four battle
ships already built, so that in CAPT
| tai ships the two naVies will not be
| widely different.