Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1922-08-28
Britain's Navy Slowly
Dwindling Under Terms
Of Washington Treaty
Rv DAVID BLUMENFELD

BY DAVID l.. Blu NJ EN- ELD
Omitted Press Staff Correspondent
London, Aug. 2S.-Great Britain is
scrapping her capital ships grad
ually.'
Many people have had visions of
backwards. swarming with workers,
dismanthng the great grey ships along
side the quays, battering Off guns and
searchlight platforms, as II nothing
else on earth mattered.
"a England, at any rate this is far
from fact.
In the first place most of the heavy
scrapplng TO be done by England Ad-
miralty officials showed is not sched-
uled before 1925, when four super
Dreadnaughts Of the King George Y
type come under the shipbreakers
hammer. or are sold, minus their ar
mament and implements Of warfare.
After that, the famous Queen Eliza
beth comes up for destruction IN 1888
the ROYAL Sovereign IN 1886, the Re-
nown (alreadv on the reserve list since
the return to the Prince of Wales
from his world tour IN 1910 and the
famous Hood in 1871.
In the meantime sixteen obsolete
vessels have gone to the scrap heap.
They axe the pre-dreadnaughts: Mars,
Caesar, Queen, Swirsture, Hindustan,
Lord nelson, and the Dreadnaughts
BelIerophon, Temepaire, st. Vincent
Dreaanaught (the original OF her
tyue) Hercules, lntleXlble, lndomlt-
able. Crescent and Commonwealth.
These ships 1t Is true, were partly
scheduled for the scrap neap before
the Washington Conference took
place The Treaty OF Washington
the conference as regards the capital
sealed their fate and they
have accordingly been "scrapped. 81
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 Devon
port and Portsmouth, rotting grad
uailv with but a couple of caretakers
on board-ships which were once the
pride Of the British Fleet.
OF the later types scheduled to go,
and already off the navy's active list
are the Superb-in a. Few weeks to be-
come a target for the bombs of Brit
lsn air sqSadrons-the Erin already
IN the hG1ds Of shipbreakers, the Agin-
court. New Zealand, Princess-Royal
and Lion.
But the process is gradual. A ship
which has cost four millions cannot
be broken up in week. To destroy 4
great battieship is an expensive mat
ter and at least half a million dollars
goes at the foot of the bill,
Consequently the big vessel for de-
struction is first Of all paid of, and
with a nucleus crew steamS round to
her last port where she waits further
orders. There are many such vessels IN
what is known as the Rotten Rows
of the dockyards. Some Of them will
be stripped 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 vessls repay their original
placing in the battlcshlps. Range
finders can be used in garrison forts
which overlook the sea, compasses,
winches, steam launches, hydraulic
derricks, telephone systems, search
lights can and are beng used in newly
built vessels or sold to the merchant
service.
The actual position resulting from
the conference as regards the cap
ital ships in service OF Great Britain
and America to date is as follows:
Capital Ships-America, 81.
Capital ShIps-Great Britain, p.
But America must scrap one battle
ship and seven battle cruisers with
Britain scrapping four battleships al
ready built, so that III capital ships,
the two navies will not be widely diff
ferent.
IN aestroyers, America leads Great
Britain. but in light cruisers England
remains far supreme.