UNITED STATES
Bids Opened
Tribune, Chicago, August 20.—With the opening of bids on 12 new destroyers and 6 submarines, the Navy Department today launched its 1937 building program and advanced the general plan to build sea forces up to full-treaty strength by 1942.
The bids were opened before the Navy High Command with Admiral William H. Standley, Acting Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations, presiding. Private shipyards submitted bids for 6 destroyers and 3 submarines. Navy yards, according to law, submitted estimates for the same number of each type of ship. These bids were not made public.
On the opening of bids it was found that the cost of construction has advanced approximately $1,000,000 per vessel in the last year. A year ago contracts for destroyers averaged $4,000,000, and $2,500,000 for submarines. Today’s bids were about $1,000,000 higher on each type of craft.
The Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Ltd., of Quincy, Mass., submitted the lowest bid for destroyer construction with a bid of $4,990,000 for one destroyer, or $4,510,000 each for two destroyers. The company has two destroyers under construction in its San Francisco yards which are to cost $3,675,000 each under contracts awarded last September.
The Bethlehem Company submitted alternate bids of $4,700,000 for one destroyer and $4,250,000 each for two under an agreement that the contract price might be altered to provide for changes in the cost of labor and materials during the construction period, set at 30 months for one ship and 32 months for two.
Although 6 destroyers are to be built, not more than 2 destroyers can be built in any one yard. The bids were all on 1,500- ton destroyers.
The Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., of Newport News, Va., submitted bids of $5,175,000 for one destroyer and $4,650,000 each for two destroyers under the flat bid, and $4,725,000 for one and $4,250,000 each for two under the adjustment alternative.
The United Shipyards, Inc., of New York, bid $5,843,000 for one and $5,249,000 each for two destroyers under the flat bid, and $5,410,000 for one and $4,860,000 for two under the alternative bid.
The Bath Iron Works Corp. of Bath, Me., bid $5,850,827 for one and $4,822,800 each for two under the flat bid, and $5,572,217 for one and $4,593,150 each for two under the alternative bid.
The Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp. of San Francisco bid $5,515,000 for one and $4,880,000 each for two under the flat bid, and $5,200,000 for one and $4,600,000 each for two under the alternative bid.
The Electric Boat Co. of Groton, Conn., submitted the only bid received for private construction of submarines. The company bid $3,817,000 for one, $3,183,700 each for two and $2,907,700 each for three on the flat bid, and $3,647,000 for one, $3,037,000 each for two and $2,777,000 each for three under the alternative bid.
The Navy has under construction 79 warships, including 51 destroyers and 12 submarines. Although the United States has in service more of these craft than any other nation, most of its destroyers and submarines are obsolete. Under the building program this government is seeking to replace the over-age craft. —Washington, D.C., Aug. 19.—Special.
East River Channel
Herald Tribune, New York, August 13. —The proposed dredging of the East River, to give the Navy a back door to its yard in Brooklyn, will be one of the biggest engineering operations of the sort ever undertaken, and the most costly of the successive improvements which have given New York the greatest harbor in the world.
At present the project is still in an early stage, requiring final approval by the board of rivers and harbors engineers of the Army, and authorization by Congress, before work can be started. If these hurdles are passed, a channel 40 ft. deep at mean low tide, and 1,000 ft. wide, will be scooped out from the navy yard, up past the East River bridges and Rikers Island, across Flushing Bay, and out into Long Island Sound between Throg’s Neck and Willets Point.
Thus, for the first time, the Navy’s heavy warships will have access to the Sound from the New York end, and will be able to follow the shortest route up to the New England coast. If the dredging is undertaken, it will cost more than $30,000,000. Some 4,000,000 cubic yards of rock will have to be blasted from the harbor bottom, and 5,500,000 cubic yards of other material will have to be dredged up.
Word of what was afoot leaked out a day or so ago when the Army engineers, who have prepared the preliminary survey and will have to do the work, requested the New York City Tunnel Authority to sink their Queens-Midtown Tunnel 3 ft. deeper under the bottom of the East River than they had originally planned. The extra half fathom was suggested to allow safe passage for the channel in the river above—an indication that, although the channel project is still officially in the idea stage, the engineers expect to get action on it.
Although much work has been done on the passage northward through Hell Gate and into Long Island Sound, it is still impassable for battleships and dangerous even for lighter craft. As it is now, light war craft can get through, but must wait for tide and current. When it is deepened, the Navy will have a “back door” out of the navy yard, and a much more direct access to the Sound and the whole New England coast.
For the main channel, work would have to begin just below Williamsburg Bridge, at the navy yard itself. Thence the channel would be dug up the East River passing Welfare Island on the Manhattan side, leaving Wards Island on the east, past Sunken Meadow and up between North and South Brother Islands. Thence it would round the northwest point of Rikers Island and turn eastward again, up the passage between the mouth of the Bronx River and Flushing Bay. A northward twist would take it past College Point, through the passage between Clason Point and Tallman Island, and out into Long Island Sound between Throg’s Neck and Willets Point.
The maximum depth to which the river bottom will have to be dredged anywhere along this channel will be 20 ft., and in most places only 5 or 10 ft. of river bottom will have to be removed. An East River project which was authorized in 1915 has prepared the way for this one at an expense of $28,000,000.
Rock will have to be taken out over the whole channel width if the new project goes through. Besides the 4,000,000 cubic yards of rock and 5,500,000 cubic yards of other material which will be removed from the main channel, another 100,000 cubic yards of rock and 500,000 cubic yards of mud and gravel will have to be blasted and dredged up to form the minor channels along Welfare Island, South Brother Island and over Bakehouse Reef. The engineers estimate that if it is done in such a way as not to interfere with the shipping in the harbor, the project will take 4 or 5 years to complete. —Washington, Aug. 12.
Increase in Enlisted Strength
Herald Tribune, New York, August 9.— An increase of 5,000 men for the Navy is planned in tentative departmental estimates for the Budget Bureau which are in process of being drafted to provide the Navy’s budget for the next fiscal year.
This increase in the enlisted strength is deemed necessary by naval officials to permit adequate manning of the new ships which will be put into commission during the fiscal year ahead. Six cruisers and one aircraft carrier will be joining the fleet. They represent a net addition to the size of the Navy and no ships will be retired to make room for them. Thus an enlargement of personnel is required.
The increase will bring the enlisted strength, if the Budget Bureau approves, to a total of 105,000. The Navy has authorization to bring its total to 100,000 during the present fiscal year.
The preliminary budgetary plans call also for funds to commence building in the next fiscal year at least 6 submarines and 12 destroyers. The building program might possibly be increased if found necessary to keep pace with construction in Great Britain which has already invoked the escalator clause in the present London naval treaty. That quantitative limitation pact expires December 31, leaving the field open to any amount of construction thereafter. The Navy Department plans to do no more than to keep up with building in Britain and Japan, maintaining the present naval ratios.
The Navy Department in January will start the construction of two battleships to parallel the announced intention of London to undertake two capital ships at that time.
The General Board of the Navy is still considering whether it will be necessary to ask for a third battleship to be laid down between July 1, 1937, and June 30, 1938. There are 7 battleships which will be more than 20 years of age on January 1. While the Navy does not wish to increase its total number of such ships, it would like to establish a regular program of replacements.
Although the hump in naval building to make up for a construction lapse in the Hoover administration may be passed in the next fiscal year, rising prices and the increase in naval personnel make it probable that the naval budget will go higher.
The War Department budget, also being drafted now, is likely to be higher as well. The Army will be maintained at 165,000 men, the new size authorized for the present year. Aircraft building funds and the mechanization program will be emphasized in the Army’s next budget. —Washington, Aug. 8.
Various Notes
Pearl Harbor has been an extremely busy place in recent years. Always busy, the activity at Uncle Sam’s great naval base in Hawaii has been markedly so recently.
And even busier days are ahead, with the great $10,000,000 floating dry dock in the offing, and the base assigned as a permanent overhaul base for major ships.
The arrival of Rear Admiral H. E. Yarnell, U. S. Navy, as commandant, closely coincided with the receipt of allotments of PWA and other funds for speeding up the development of Pearl Harbor. Those who can remember the channel as it was 20 or 25 years ago, and even those whose first acquaintance with it began as recently as 10 years ago, can recognize what immense difference has resulted from the work of straightening, widening, and deepening the channel.
Millions of dollars have been spent on the project, including $3,000,000 from the Public Works Administration, with the result that the channel today is sufficiently straight, wide, and deep to permit of its use by the largest battleships of the fleet.
The largest single improvement in the navy yard in recent years has been the construction of the so-called “repair basin” consisting of piers and quay walls, at which numerous naval vessels of all classes can be berthed and undergo major overhaul and repair. The piers and quay walls forming the repair basin are of heavy concrete construction of the latest design. They are fully equipped with necessary services so that ships berthing at the repair basin can secure electricity, fresh and salt water, fuel oil, and compressed air.
One of the unique features is the installation of automatic electric substations in which the electrical equipment through complicated devices adjusts itself for varying ship loads.—Honolulu Advertiser.
Two sailors were killed and 8 others were injured in a broadside gun accident aboard the U. S. S. Marblehead off Southern California, said a report received late today. The Marblehead was reported speeding to port.
The dead were Percy William Cofer, boatswain’s mate 2c, and Leo Steve Moranda, seaman 2c, the report said. The injured were listed as: James Edwin Benedict Jr., seaman 2c; Rolland Lowell Curnow, seaman 2c; William Athel Bradley, seaman 1c; Edson Lee Flower, seaman 2c; John William Overton, seaman 2c; Harold Vincent Smallwood, seaman 2c; William Roy Thrift, seaman 2c; Robert William Opie, seaman 1c.—Tribune, Chicago. San Diego, Cal., July 28 (AP).
The acting Secretary of the Navy has designated Miss Jane Mayo Bowden, 15-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Bowden, of 501 East 41st Street, Savannah, Georgia, as sponsor for the U. S. S. Savannah (C142), named for the City of Savannah, Georgia, and the third vessel of that name. —Bureau of Navigation Information Bulletin.
Recommendation that Palawan Island of the Philippine group be ceded to the United States for a military and naval reservation, was adopted unanimously August 20 by the Palawan provincial board. The resolution urged that the United States, in return, cede back the military reservations of Cavite, Olongapo, and Corregidor on Luzon Island. The famous Malampaya Sound, regarded as the world’s finest natural harbor, large enough to house the entire United States Fleet, is located on Palawan. —Herald, Washington, Aug. 21.
Admiral William H. Standley, U. S. Navy, Acting Secretary of the Navy, announced today that the Navy will co-operate with the Navy League of the United States in the observance of Navy Day, Tuesday, October 27, the anniversary of the birth of Theodore Roosevelt. —Press Release, July 29.
Five U. S. Navy destroyers will soon be reduced to junk after being sold to the highest bidder through the Navy’s Bureau of Supplies and Accounts. They are the Cushing, Nicholson, Winslow, Wadsworth, and Caldwell. The London naval treaty of 1930 stipulates that vessels due for disposal must be scrapped literally—they may not be sold to another nation or kept in private service in a condition that would make it possible to convert them again into fighting craft. Purchasers of such vessels must post $10,000 bonds to insure the fulfillment of this condition. — Army Ordnance.
Following is an abstract of the bids that were received on July 9 by the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, Navy Department, Washington, D.C. for the sale of the U. S. S. Jason:
Boland & Cornelius, Buffalo, N.Y................ $75,000
Learner & Rosenthal, Oakland, Calif.... 28,362
H. A. Christie, San Francisco, Calif.. 18,210
Boston Iron & Metal Co., Baltimore, Md. 18,000
Dulion Steel Products, Inc., New York.. 12,535
Pacific Metal & Salvage Co., Seattle, Wash 10,624
W. E. Harned, Seattle, Wash..................... 7,000
—Marine Progress.
The U. S. Navy may well be proud of the three men from its ranks who have made the grade and have entered the Military Academy at West Point this year. They are: Raymond J. Downey, Osmund A. Leahy, and Franklin G. West. All three of these men received congressional appointments and after attendance at the Naval Academy Preparatory Class and subsequent success in the entrance examinations for West Point, were given special order discharges by order of the Bureau of Navigation in order to accept cadetships. —Our Navy.
Two new destroyers will be delivered to the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, to be placed in commission, it was announced yesterday at the navy yard. They are the Flusser, which will be in charge of Commander F. L. Lowe, and the Mahan in charge of Commander J. H. Buchanan. On October 1 two more destroyers will arrive—the Cummings, under Lieutenant Commander C. P. Cecil, and the Reid, under Lieutenant Commander R. B. Carney.
The four ships, which are of 1,500 tons each, carrying crews of 150 men and 8 officers, are equipped with 5-in. guns and were built at a cost of more than $2,000,000 apiece. They are the first 4 of 36 destroyers now under construction. The Flusser and the Reid were built at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Corp. yards in Staten Island and the Mahan and the Cummings were built in the United Drydock Corp. yards, also in Staten Island. —Herald Tribune, New York.
Three naval plane squadrons departed from the Sand Point naval station today on a reconnaissance flight to Alaska, accompanied by the naval ships Wright, Thrush, Gannet, and Swallow. The group will touch Sitka, Kodiak, and the western Alaska peninsula, and 6 long-range planes will proceed beyond Sitka, where the others will make their flight base. —Honolulu Advertiser, Seattle, July 18.
Nine navy planes from Coco Solo today found the steamship Deborah, carrying 100 officers and soldiers of the 14th Infantry and their wives, beached 40 miles east of Porto Bello.
There were no casualties and it was believed the ship, charted for an excursion to the San Bias Islands, would be refloated at high tide. The Navy airplane tender Lapwing was en route to the scene to take off the excursionists. —Herald Tribune, New York. Colon, Panama, Aug. 17 (AP).
The U. S. destroyer Kane, on a mission of mercy in Spanish waters to relieve Americans in the war zone, was pursued and bombed by an unidentified plane, late yesterday. On personal orders of the President, strong protests were promptly made by the State Department to both sides in the Spanish civil war. —Herald, Washington, Sept. 1.
GREAT BRITAIN
New Cruisers
Naval and Military Record, August 13. —With the launch of the cruiser Birmingham at Devonport on September 1 next, the three ships of the Southampton type of the 1934 program will be in the water. The completion of these vessels is to be speeded up, and it is anticipated that they will be ready for service in a little over 3 years from the date when they were voted. The Sheffield and Glasgow were ordered, respectively, f rom Vickers-Armstrongs and Scotts on December 17, 1934; the Birmingham was laid down on July 18, 1935, so that progress on the dockyard-built ship appears to have been more rapid than in the case of the other two, although this cannot be stated definitely without knowledge of the actual 'state of advancement at the launching stage.
The original 9,000-ton cruisers of the 1933 program were not put in hand until late in 1934; the Minotaur, renamed Newcastle, was commenced by Vickers- Armstrongs on October 4 in that year; and the Polyphemus, renamed Southampton, on November 21, at Clydebank. The latest official reference to these two cruisers was that “they are expected to be completed in March, 1937,” just 4 years after the program to which they belong was sanctioned.
Owing to the maturing of postponed obligations the fleet should receive a very substantial accession of cruiser strength during the course of next year. Five vessels of 9,000 tons apiece will come into commission. The Aurora, of 5,220 tons, is being launched at Portsmouth next month and should be finished within a year, thereby completing the Arethusa quartet, the name-ship of which was included in the 1931 program.
Three more 9,000-ton cruisers are on the stocks—the Liverpool and Manchester, ordered on November 11 last, respectively, at Govan and Hebburn-on-Tyne, and the Gloucester, laid down in Devonport Dockyard on March 2 last. The rate of progress with these vessels is to be very much accelerated. But short of “emergency building,” which there seems no reason to anticipate, these three cruisers cannot be ready to begin their trials until late in 1937.
Apart from officers and others on the “contract-built” staffs, few naval men as yet have had an opportunity of seeing the two 9,000-ton cruisers which are so far advanced as to enable judgment to be formed upon the finished product. But the general details of the type are unquestionably regarded as satisfactory. The displacement is big enough to admit of a combination of all essential qualities in adequate degree —armament, speed, cruising endurance, and protection other than heavy broadside belting.
The Leander class, the first of the postwar 6-in .-gun cruiser type, are regarded as yielding indifferent value upon their displacement of 7,000 tons, although we think this criticism wants considerable qualification. But, in comparison with contemporary foreign types, they are undergunned. It was from recognition of this fact that the design of the Southampton class sprang.
Motor Torpedo Boats
Times, London, July 16. —The fact that certain foreign navies have provided themselves with motor torpedo boats in large numbers, together with their recent reintroduction into the Royal Navy after an eclipse of 15 years, has made them the object of much public interest of late.
It is, of course, no new departure for them to be built in this country. Motor torpedo boats are in fact a purely British product, first evolved in England during the war and continuously developed here since; though, since none was built for the Royal Navy during the years of strict economy, the market for them has been severely restricted. Progress in their development has thus been necessarily limited, and it reflects great credit on those firms who have devoted themselves continuously to their design and construction through years of difficulty that it should have been as great as it has.
Besides the boats now coming into service in the Navy, several of a 'different design have been built of late years for foreign powers by Messrs. Thornycroft, the originators of the type as well as of many earlier types of smaller warship. The trials of one of these were described in the Times of June 5, and Messrs. Thornycroft have now a further order for similar craft in hand at their works at Hampton.
The war-time boats did fine work on the Belgian coast during the war, as well as in Russian waters later, and they proved themselves so efficient that several of the allied and associated powers ordered a number of them from Messrs. Thornycroft —with the approval of the British government—after the war. The boats built since by the same firm, chiefly for smaller powers, both in Europe and the East, have been developed largely on the same lines.
Since the powers that have acquired them of late years need them chiefly for short-range or river work, the question of sea-keeping qualities or habitability has not risen. But though presumably for that reason Messrs. Thornycroft have continued to develop the “skimming” type and have thereby achieved very high speeds with moderate horsepower, actually their latest boats are exceedingly seaworthy in heavy weather. This was shown by a recent trip from the Thames to Portsmouth and back in a rough sea at an average speed of over 30 knots. This indeed is the characteristic which constitutes the motor torpedo boat of today such a great advance over her prototypes.
Battleship Names
Naval and Military Record, July 31. — Now that it has been definitely decided to lay down the two projected battleships for the Royal Navy very early in the New Year, there is considerable curiosity regarding the names that will be chosen for them. These may be officially announced at any time. Of late years names for new warships have been chosen and made public considerably in advance of the placing of orders to begin work on such ships. In naval circles it is regarded as a foregone conclusion that one of the new capital ships will be named after the King, and speculation is active in trying to devise a name for the other that shall be particularly appropriate to Coronation year.
No ships, save two of which more directly, have been built since the end of the war of a size and type deemed adequate to bearing Royal names which had previously been bestowed upon great armored vessels only.
When the Nelson and Rodney (the two exceptions) were named there was still a King George V in the Fleet. The war saw the disappearance of several stately vessels which bore Royal names—the Queen Mary and King Edward VII by “enemy action”; the Prince of Wales, Prince George, Queen, and Princess Royal successively passed away before the Navy had been finally reduced to a peace footing. There is a degree of tragic interest in the fact that many of the ships bearing Royal names have come to a violent end. The Royal George and Victoria leap to mind at once in this connection. The burning of the Queen Charlotte, with the loss of 700 lives, is one of the worst tragedies of naval history.
Loyalty has proved too strong for the old nautical superstition which taboos perpetuating the name of a vessel lost by disaster. In the history of great British shipwrecks we find: King George, 1806; Prince of Wales, 1807; Queen Charlotte, 1818 (18 years after the burning of the ship of the line); Queen Victoria, 1843; Victoria, 1852; and Queen Victoria, 1853. This superstition has never been admitted to extend to ships lost in battle.
Various Notes
It is learned from the Foreign Office that a note was handed yesterday to the United States and Japanese Ambassadors formally invoking Art. 21 of the London naval treaty of 1930—the “escalator” clause. The American and Japanese governments are informed that the British government propose, under the terms of that article, to retain over-age destroyers to a total of 40,000 tons, which would otherwise be due for scrapping before December 31 next. —Times, London, July 16.
The Navy Week, which concluded yesterday at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Chatham, attracted no fewer than 434,709 people—101,702, or nearly 25 per cent more than the Week last year. Yesterday’s attendances were: Portsmouth, 18,961, an increase over last year of 4,771; Plymouth, 11,827, an increase of 3,139; Chatham, 12,062, an increase of 2,829.
During the week 206,759 people saw the program at Portsmouth (an increase of 44,927); at Plymouth, 111,262 (increase 29,015); and at Chatham 116,688 (increase 27,760).
An official of the Navy Week Committee attributed the larger attendances to increased public interest in the Navy as the result of the rescue work being carried out by ships of the British Fleet in Spanish waters and to the recent activities of the Fleet in the Mediterranean. — Times, London, Aug. 13.
The new submarine Sunfish will be launched at Chatham Dockyard about the end of September. This will be the last of the submarines of the 1934 program to be put afloat. The keel plate of the Sterlet, of the 1935 program, was laid at Chatham Dockyard on July 14. The Sterlet is the twelfth vessel of the Swordfish type of about 670 tons, 131 knots speed, and armed with one 3-in. gun, one smaller gun, and 6 torpedo tubes. — Times, London.
A rebel airplane dropped two bombs near a British cargo steamer loaded with petrol drums as she was entering the bay. H. M. destroyer Whitehall fired two rounds at the airplane, which made off to the east.
The Commission of Control decided yesterday to maintain the strict neutrality of Tangier. Earlier, the President of the Commission had had a meeting with General Franco, the commander of the rebel forces in Spanish Morocco, who undertook that there should be no violation of the neutrality of Tangier, provided that the Spanish Fleet was not allowed to use Tangier as a base and that local Spanish Communists were prevented from attacking the Spanish zone. —Times, London. Tangier, July 23.
Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, C-in-C., transferred his flag from the Ajax to the Queen Elizabeth on the latter’s arrival at Gibraltar, and has since visited Barcelona, Cartagena, Alicante, and Valencia. The cruiser Shropshire was ordered from Malta to Valencia on August 4 to supplement the vessels engaged in the work of evacuating refugees from Spain. On the same day, the Devonshire arrived at Marseilles from Barcelona with nearly 500, including 204 women and 67 children; only 292 were British, the others including 64 Swiss, 24 Dutch, and 15 Germans.
It seems likely that the Spanish situation will cause a postponement of the fleet’s autumn cruise, which was to have begun about Sept. 1. — Army, Navy and Air Force Gazette.
The admiralty have decided to entrust the construction of the patrol submarine of the 1936 program to Cammell Laird and Co., Ltd., Birkenhead. This is the first of the eight submarines in the program to be ordered. The firm already have in hand the Spearfish, of the 1934 program. No names have yet been chosen for the 1936 program. —Army, Navy and Air Force Gazette.
Anglo-egyptian treaty talks are almost completed and the announcement of an agreement is expected shortly, according .to the Cairo correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, who says that by the agreement British forces will be evacuated from Cairo as soon as suitable barracks can be built at Ismailia alongside the Suez Canal. Apparently the main feature of the agreement is that the chief defense of Egypt will rest on the R.A.F. instead of on the British Army.
A good scheme. It will remove the irritation caused by having British troops in Cairo and so will remove any excuse for hostility by the Cairene mob. And concentration of British forces on the Canal will give us a still firmer hold on Egypt. —The Aeroplane.
The federal government have appealed to the British Air Ministry to expedite the delivery of aircraft ordered last year under the expansion program, says a message to the Times from Canberra. The government realize that British factories are working to full capacity, but are anxious that some machines manufactured for the R.A.F. should be diverted to Australia if possible; the R.A.F. are using types the same as those ordered. About 90 machines are to be delivered—18 Seagull V amphibians, 36 Hawker Demon fighters, and 36 Avro Anson bombers. The government have no information when they may expect them. —Army, Navy and Air Force Gazette.
An act enabling Australia to assume control over antarctic territory lying south of the Sixtieth Parallel between 160 degrees East Longitude and 45 East Longitude excepting Adelieland will shortly be proclaimed. The area is nearly as big as Australia. It contains great whaling grounds and it is believed coal and fur-bearing animals can be exploited commercially. —New York Times, Aug. 23.
H.M.S. Conway is reported to be in urgent need of repairs which will cost about £20,000, to fit her for another 25 years’ service. In addition to this, it is proposed to improve her internal accommodation to suit modern educational requirements, at a cost of about £6,000. The Mercantile Marine Service Association has made application to the government for a grant towards these expenses. The Conway is one of the last seven “wooden walls” in this country. She was built in 1839, as H.M.S. Nile, a wooden 2-decked battleship. She took part in the Baltic campaign during the Russian war of 1854-56, and was lent by the Admiralty for her present duties in 1876. The six other wooden warships remaining are the Worcester; H.M.S. Victory, the flagship of the commander in chief at Portsmouth; the Implacable and Foudroyant, which are maintained by voluntary subscription as a holiday training center for boys in Portsmouth Harbor; the industrial training ship Cornwall at Gravesend; and the Unicorn, the drill-ship of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve at Dundee. —Nautical Magazine.
FRANCE
New Minister of Marine
Naval and Military Record, August 13. —France is a country of resourcefulness and of recuperation, as her eventful career shows. Her present political, financial, and economic situation is infinitely better than those post-war plights from which both Germany and Italy have emerged victorious. The steady naval effort, both ashore and afloat, will go on. Whatever their political bias, no French government could think, in the present adverse international circumstances, of weakening the Navy, since it would mean the sacrifice of North Africa and of all colonies and unavoidable disaster. There is no thought of slackening the rate of our naval expansion, or of cutting down the naval estimates.
In this respect, the choice of those responsible for the Navy is full of significance. A Breton, Senator Gasnier-Duparc, Mayor of the “corsary” city of St. Malo, has replaced the great Minister Francois Pietri, with, as Under Minister, another Breton, M. Blancho, the Mayor of St.- Nazaire, the most important shipbuilding center in France.
The new Chef du Cabinet Militaire is the admiral with the highest reputation in the service—and out of it—for character, competence, and managing ability—one, who, through untiring work at sea during the last 20 months, has brought the Brest fleet to an unprecedented degree of preparedness for war.
Minister Gasnier-Duparc has clearly explained his program—to pursue the splendid work of Minister Pietri, to change nothing in methods of management and training that have proved successful, to speed up the battleship construction in hand, and, from next year, to resume the building of contretorpilleurs, torpilleurs d’escadre and sous-marins (at the rate, all told of some 20 per year) with a view to replacing worn-out and over-age units, and maintaining the supremacy which France has acquired for the speed and all-round quality of her torpedo flotillas. Further strengthening has been decided on for the Brest Deuxième Escadre, which is to be called “Escadre de l’Atlantique.”
Various Notes
The erratic marksmanship of the crew of the French submarine Atalante caused a panic in the small towns of St.-Tropez and St.-Maxime, near Cannes, and sent holiday-makers and residents flying for shelter. The crew were trying to sink the yacht Hippocampe, which had caught fire in the harbor, and they fired some 20 shots before they finally disposed of their target.
As soon as the yacht, with her cargo of nearly 4 tons of petrol, caught fire her owner asked for assistance, as she was a serious danger to the ships in the harbor. It soon became clear that she could not be saved, and the Atalante made an attempt to tow her out to sea. The yacht, however, broke loose and drifted back into the harbor. The Atalante then opened fire in an effort to sink her.
The submarine’s 75-mm. gun was trained on the target, but the first three shots went wide and hit St.-Maxime instead. The first landed near the gendarmerie and caused a panic among the thousands who had gathered on the beach to watch the fire. The second cut through an electric cable and fell through the roof of a sawmill, which was seriously damaged. A third fell on the beach. Another 12 shots were fired before the yacht was sunk.
M. Gasnier-Duparc, the Minister of Marine, has ordered an inquiry into the incident to take place as soon as the Atalante returns to port. — Times, London. Paris, July 19.
M. Pietri, the former Minister of the Navy, has caused much satisfaction by signing the order, before resigning, for the new 35,000-ton battleship, authorized by the Act of March 30, 1936. This ship will be named Jean Bart and will be built at St.-Nazaire. The big question was which of the two large shipyards would receive the contract. The solution adopted by the Navy avoids competition by intrusting the construction of the Jean Bart to both St.-Nazaire yards. They will work on the ship in strict collaboration, just as they are now doing, in part, for the battleship Strasbourg.
It is not known as yet if the Jean Bart will be built on the ways of the Loire yards or on those of Penhoët Company, where the Normandy was built and where the Strasbourg is now being built. Since the latter will be launched in October, the Penhoët yards will be available on the planned date for beginning construction. —Le Yacht.
It is announced that the Montcalm, upon completion at La Seyne, will arrive at Lorient in October to receive her armament and to proceed on her trials. She will be followed, in December, by the Gloire, now being completed at the Gironde yards. —Le Yacht.
Before his departure from the Ministry of the Air, M. Marcel Dèat, gave a favorable opinion on the construction of 40 patrol sea planes of the Loire-130 type. These planes will be built at the Loire-Nieuport factory of St.-Nazaire. —Journal de la Marine Merchande.
In order to open up the hinterland of Marseilles for the traffic of the port, a project is on foot to construct a canal between Port de Vouc and Port St. Louis du Rhone. The cost would be about 120 million francs. The competition of northern ports is forcing some such measures upon Marseilles.
The question of the Djibuti-Addis Ababa railway is a most important one for France, and it is now proposed to create a free zone in the port and if possible to come to a close co-operation with Italy to open up Abyssinia to both French and Italian trade. —Nautical Magazine.
The French cruiser Duquesne was relieved tonight from refugee evacuation service in Spanish waters after the crew protested against spoiled food.
Following rumors the warship returned hastily to French waters because of agitation among the sailors, officials reported delegation from the crew made “completely courteous” complaints to the captain.
Authorities said the original provisions of the Duquesne, which had been sent to Barcelona, were insufficient for a long stay because some of the potatoes and biscuits had swelled, but the cruiser now was ready to return to the Spanish coast if necessary. —Sun, Baltimore. Toulon, France, Aug. 11 (2P).
GERMANY
Various Notes
The number of admissions at the Flensbürg- Mürwick school has been recently raised from 50 to 150 as a result of the Anglo-German treaty of June, 1935. The candidates must be of pure Aryan race, graduates of secondary school, and be less than 21 years of age on the date of their admission (April 1).
The duration of the course is 30 months, divided into two parts. During the first 18 months, there is provided 3 months of indoctrination in naval life; 3 months of training in sailing; 8 months of theoretical studies at Mürwick; and 4 months at the torpedo and gunnery school.
The second period of 12 months is taken up with instruction on board vessels of the fleet. On October 1 of the third year of instruction the cadets are promoted ensigns of the line. —La Revue Maritime.
New construction: The Marine-Rundschau gives the following as the list of ships under construction in the German yards early in 1936: 2 battleships of 26,000 tons; 2 cruisers of 10,000 tons; 16 destroyers of 1,625 tons; 8 submarines of 250 tons; 6 submarines of 500 tons; 2 submarines of 750 tons; 10 escort vessels of 600 tons. —La Revue Maritime.
It is claimed by some that the new German cruiser, designated by the letter “J,” will displace 10,000 tons. Other sources claim it will displace 6,000 tons. The cruiser was laid down last February. —Le Yacht.
On June 13 at the Blohm and Voss yards of Hamburg, a new sailing school ship was launched. It will be called the Horst Wessel. It is a three master somewhat larger than the Gorch-Fock, but exactly how much is not known. While waiting for its completion the Minister of the Navy has rushed the schooner Dunen to serve as a cadet school ship. —Le Yacht.
Some large fortifications have been begun at Helgoland where 11.8-inch navy guns and 10.7- inch howitzers are being installed. A new base for submarines and destroyers is also being built. — Le Yacht.
Two German battleships, the Admiral Scheer and the Deutschland, have been sent to the Spanish coast for the protection of German citizens. —Times, London. Berlin, July 26.
H.M.S. Neptune arrived today at Kiel, where a number of foreign men-of-war are paying visits for the sailing competitions of the Olympic Games and the German Navy’s “Kiel Week” which follows. The British cruiser has on board the ship’s bell of the German battle cruiser Hindenburg, which was scuttled with the rest of the surrendered German fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919. The bell is to be returned to the German Navy, the Admiralty having decided that this would be in a sense a reciprocation of the handing over the drums of the Gordon Highlanders to General Sir Ian Hamilton in 1934. The ceremony is to take place during Kiel Week. Admiral Raeder, the Commander in Chief of the Germany Navy, has expressed his willingness to receive the bell, or, if he should be unable to attend, to commission Admiral Foerster, Commander in Chief of the German Fleet afloat, to do so.
To link the Kiel sailing competitions properly with the rest of the games in Berlin, the Olympic Torch is being carried on there by runners. — Times, London. Berlin, Aug. 3.
The German Navy soon will be increased by a second squadron of submarines, it was indicated today with the announcement that, by order of Chancellor Adolf Hitler, such a body would be named the “U-Boat Flotilla Saltzwedel.” Lieutenant Saltzwedel was a U-Boat commander who was credited with sinking many merchant vessels during the World War. He died in 1917.
While the number of vessels in the new squadron was not announced, it was assumed that there would be ten. This was the number of submarines forming a flotilla in pre-war days, and Germany’s first post-war squadron, named the “Weddigen,” includes 8 submarines and 2 tenders. —Sun, Baltimore. Berlin, Aug. 28. —Special.
Air maneuvers were carried out yesterday over Hamburg by the 2nd Berlin Regional Air Command, in which Hamburg is included.
Some 130 airplanes took part, consisting of scouting, fighting, and pursuit squadrons. The maneuvers took the form of a daylight attack by “an enemy force” of light and heavy fighting machines. The defending force consisted of fighting airplanes and some scout machines re-enforced by anti-aircraft detachments. Three attacks were made in all, the first two of which were regarded as unsuccessful. —Times, London. Berlin, July 20.
The laying down of the first ship specially built for the “Strength through Joy” National Socialist organization was attended by Dr. Ley and many other important functionaries. This organization provides tourist sea trips for workmen and is expanding rapidly. This vessel will carry 1,500 workmen on holiday and Dr. Ley declared that a fleet of 30 ships would come into being. An order for a second ship has already been given to Messrs. Blohm & Voss.
The new motor ship Reichenfels of 10,000 tons capacity and built for the Hansa Steamship Co. is a most modern vessel and is now on her first voyage to the East Indies. The crew’s quarters are in her case located amidships and aft and are particularly roomy and comfortable. The two motors of 7,000 hp. yield a speed of 16 knots. There is accommodation for a number of passengers. —Nautical Magazine.
By a pen stroke Chancellor Adolf Hitler reestablished Germany’s pre-war position as the biggest military power in Europe when he issued a decree raising the term of compulsory military service from one year to two years. —New York Times, Aug. 25.
ITALY
Brief Notes
General Valle, the Italian Under-Secretary for Air, has announced that 8 main airports which can be used even during the rainy season have been built in Italian East Africa. A network of aviation camps, each adequately garrisoned and equipped with radio, is planned, each to be not more than 125 miles from the next, so that the whole of Abyssinia can be controlled by aircraft. Addis Ababa will be the headquarters, and, to allow troop movements at short notice, reserve machines will be kept there.
Italy will maintain 300 machines in Abyssinia. There are 200 already. One hundred fast transport machines are now being built, to carry 2,500 men and stores 950 miles in a day, at 250 miles per hour, perhaps.
General Vallé also stated that the future of flying is in the stratosphere and that Italy will give this problem the closest attention. Experiments to perfect stratospheric flying equipment are being made and he hoped that during the autumn flights at 15,000 meters would be made, according to newspaper reports. —The Aeroplane.
On July 4 the Italian Cabinet approved a decree increasing the personnel and material of Italian Regia Aeronaulica. The decree states “that provision is made for an increase in the Regia Aeronaulica as regards men, officers, and non-commissioned officers serving their periods in the Air Force in view of the increase of units which will take place under the 1936-37 Budget.” —The Aeroplane.
Premier Benito Mussolini paid a surprise visit today to the historic island of Elba, off the west coast of the Italian province of Leghorn, and examined its possibilities for use as an Italian naval and air base. Elba, 19 miles long and 6 miles wide, is 45 miles south of Piombino, the nearest point on the mainland. —Herald. Tribune, New York. Rome, Aug. 22.
The ships bought by the Italian government to transport troops to East Africa are, it appears, to be re-sold to private firms. The whole of the shipping of Italy excepting the smaller craft is, by decree, to be united in four shipping companies from January 1, 1937. This is only another step to complete state monopoly of shipping which, owing to the enormous subsidies of the past, will not effect so very great a change.
The huge mole now being constructed in the port of Genoa will cost 55 million lire (over £700,000). It will be '350 meters long and 40 meters wide. There are two entrances—the first, which affords entrance to the interior of the port, is for heavy ships whilst the other is for vessels of smaller tonnage. —Nautical Magazine.
JAPAN
Air Defense Maneuvers
Japan Advertiser, July 24. —Four days of air defense maneuvers in the Kwanto cities were scheduled to end at 6:00 o’clock this morning after a final night of intensive activity under light control believed to be the closest to perfection achieved in any of the maneuvers so far.
The enemy has not only been repulsed but its air bases on the Asiatic continent practically put out of commission by Japanese planes and artillery, virtually eliminating the threat of future raids, said an announcement scheduled for release with the end of the maneuvers this morning.
Yesterday’s program started with a battle between the Japanese fleet and the combined fleet of a certain country, says Domei, but no results of this encounter were given. The first planes put in their appearance at 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon, flying over Tokyo from the direction of Choshi, Chiba Prefecture. At 4:40 o’clock in the afternoon some light bombers dropped incendiary shells and gas bombs in Marunouchi, Nihonbashi, and Kyobashi, Tokyo station, the Peers’ School, the Tokyo Stock Exchange Building and Tokyo Imperial University were scenes of special maneuvers in poison gas defense, fire prevention, and sheltering.
With nightfall at 7:30 o’clock sirens announced emergency light control and the city was plunged into darkness the closest to totality yet achieved. The attack as chronicled by Domei started with a flight of three heavy bombers of the enemy over Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture at 7:10 o’clock, headed for the capital at an altitude of 2,400 ft. Air detectors picked them up 35 minutes later over Nippori. Searchlights were turned on and anti-aircraft guns brought into play. Asakusa, Joto, Mukojima, Shiba, Azabu, and Harajuky were targets of gas and incendiary bombs, but the city’s defenders brought them all down in flames, it was announced.
This accomplished, the emergency control was lifted at 8:10 o’clock, only to be re-imposed at 8:40 o’clock as 4 heavy bombers appeared over the city from the direction of Matsumoto. Chofu, the Haneda airport, Omori and Oimachi were the first targets, then the Home and Foreign Offices and the Diet building. Three were shot down and one escaped. It was 9:08 o’clock and all quiet. A third emergency session was decreed at 10:00 o’clock with reports of air raids on Niigata and Toyama Prefectures, but no planes appeared over Tokyo and the control order was lifted at 10:20o’clock.
Naval Maneuvers
The Japanese grand fleet concentrated today for the beginning of 3 months’ maneuvers, 48 hours after Japan had announced 4 new capital ships would be laid down in 1937.
The first naval operations in what officials plan as a simulation of real battle conditions brought the fleet into a narrow stretch of sea between the Japanese colony of Formosa and the south China coast.
The start of the war games was announced in a brief navy office communique which did not disclose either the locale or the nature of the fleet’s problems.
The combined first and third fleets, however, an announcement yesterday said, were to assemble off Keelung, Formosa port opposite the coast of the Chinese province of Fukien. They include the capital ships, backbone of Japan’s sea forces.
The second fleet, consisting of cruisers and other auxiliary war vessels, converged on Mako, a fishing port, separate from the main body.
Admiral Sankichi Takahashi, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy, was in charge of the war games, but Emperor Hirohito was expected to assume personal command when the operations enter a final month of combat activities.
The maneuvers have been devised, it was understood, particularly as a test of the navy’s efficiency in guarding the sea lanes between Japan proper and Formosa, between Formosa and the Chinese coast, and along the South Chinese coast. —Star, Washington, August 2. Tokyo, Aug. 1.
Various Notes
The training squadron made up of the overage cruisers Yakumo and Iwate, under the command of Vice Admiral Yoshida, left Yokosuka on June 9 for a cruise during which the squadron will visit the Pacific Islands under Japanese mandate, and American ports in the Pacific and in the Atlantic. —Le Yacht.
Replacement of 4 aged capital ships probably will be a principal feature of the Japanese Navy’s “third replenishment program” informed quarters predicted July 30. Navy officials, formulating a 5-year program with expenditures estimated at 2,000,000,000 yen ($580,000,000) were said to believe at least 2 of the ships would be started next year under the program. The 4 Japanese battleships whose doom is forecast are each of 29,330 tons. All are more than 20 years old. — New York Times, Aug. 1.
Six army officers were sentenced July 31 to imprisonment of from four years to life for complicity in the military rebellion of February 26, the War Office announced. —New York Times, Aug. 1.
The annual naval maneuvers started in an undesignated area with the vanguards of the two opposing forces engaging in battle, the Navy Office announced. The Combined Fleet, composed of the 1st and 2nd Fleets, is facing the temporary 4th Fleet, which formally came into existence yesterday to serve as the naval force of the imaginary enemy.
The enemy fleet is being commanded by Vice Admiral Koichi Shiozawa, commandant of the Maizuru naval station who yesterday boarded his flagship, the battleship Yamashiro, at Yokosuka, according to the Jiji, and immediately ordered the start of operations. His chief of staff is Rear Admiral Heruna Ezawa. The combined fleet is commanded by Admiral Sankichi Taka- hashi.
During the absence of Vice Admiral Shiozawa from Maizuru, the naval station has been entrusted to Rear Admiral Toshihide Nanri, director of the Maizuru naval arsenal, the Navy Office announced. —Japan Advertiser, Aug. 2.
That it would be “wanton folly” for Japan to stand in the way of a general naval limitation agreement now in sight as a result of the initialing of the Anglo-Soviet pact was the view expressed by the Daily Telegraph today.
Soviet acceptance of the limitations set by Great Britain, France, and the United States, the Daily Telegraph says, virtually assures the conclusion of a similar Anglo-German accord, and Italy, after clearing up the Abyssinian crisis, will probably be willing to reconsider its refusal to sign the three-power treaty.
Negotiations have already been inaugurated to extend the system of limitation to Poland, and Great Britain will make a similar approach to Denmark in August, the paper says. If all these powers come into line, a considerable number of countries will have laid their cards on the table in favor of abolishing secrecy in ship design and building programs and restricting the fighting power of naval craft.
Japan’s naval program, however, remains a factor outside present calculations, and Tokyo could without doubt render any general agreement by other powers ineffective. But, for it to do so, the paper asserts, would be wanton folly. — Japan Advertiser. London, July 31.
The Navy cannot estimate the cost of its replenishment program in its entirety or the amount to be asked for the next fiscal year before next month, but the Navy Minister, Admiral Osami Nagano, hopes to present to Premier Hirota by Wednesday an outline of the program and the reasons that make its adoption essential, Domei reports. High officials of the Navy Office were ordered yesterday to speed preparation of the outline, which will be based on the program worked out by the Naval General Staff.
The army’s replenishment program was shown yesterday by the War Minister, General Count Hisaichi Terauchi, to Finance Minister Eiichi Baba for reference, the Jiji says and it is likely to be made public, at least in outline, today. — Japan Advertiser, July 11.
The newspapers Asahi and Nichi Nichi asserted today Japan soon will disclose it intends to retain 28,000 tons of fighting vessels, mostly submarines, which otherwise should have been scrapped in accordance with the London naval treaty of 1930.
The newspapers said Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita would instruct the Japanese Ambassadors to the United States and Great Britain to inform those countries of this decision, an outgrowth of Great Britain’s invocation of the escalator clause.
(The escalator clause permits a signatory of the 1930 treaty to retain ships it considers necessary because of changed conditions or construction of new ships by other nations.
(Britain invoked the clause in July to save 40,000 tons of over-age destroyers. Under the 5-5- 3 ratio the United States would be permitted to retain the same tonnage while Japan could keep 28,133 tons.)
Asahi declared the United States government recently formally notified Japan it was retaining 40,000 tons of surplus destroyers to balance Great Britain’s action.
The newspapers said Japan will argue that since it possesses no such surplus destroyer tonnage, and because it considers the Russian submarine flotilla at Vladivostok, Siberia, a growing menace, Japan must be permitted to keep her surplus submarines, which will total about 17,500 tons at the end of the year. —Star, Washington, Sept. 1. Tokyo, Aug. 31.
The new type of ship built to carry both oil and other cargo is being developed, and now the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha are building or have just built three such vessels. These have the high speed of 20 knots for war purposes if required. Of these the Otowasan Maru is in service. She is of 12,061 tons capacity and has a tonnage of 923 g.r.t. She carries 10,450 tons of oil, 1,240 tons piece goods, and 2,000 bales of raw silk. The Swedish ships Svealand and Amerikaland of 22,000 tons each are of this type. —Nautical Magazine.
OTHER COUNTRIES
Albania
Few people realize that Albania possesses a navy, though quite a tiny one. News has just been received that 2 of its 6 small units, the German-built gunboats Skenderbeg and Sqipnia, are being discarded, leaving the total force available at 4 motor patrol vessels of 46 tons, the Dunes, Saranda, Tirane, and Vlone. —The Navy, London.
Argentina
The government has ordered, from the Vickers-Armstrongs yards, 3 destroyers to replace the 4 ships of the Cordoba type which date back to 1911. —Le Yacht.
For the second month in succession Argentina is prominent in the naval news. Contracts were placed in June for the construction in British shipyards of 7 destroyers, 3 of which will be built by Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd., 2 by Cammell, Laird & Co., Ltd., and 2 by John Brown & Co., Ltd. The armaments of all 7 will be supplied by Vickers-Armstrongs. The cost of these ships will be in the neighborhood of £400,000 apiece. — The Navy, London.
Chile
It was announced today that the Chilean Army and Navy soon will be placed on a more up-to-date footing in accordance with complete plans already drawn up by the government. A fourth army in the southern provinces will be created and a military garrison in Arica, close to the Peruvian-Bolivian frontier, established. There will be a substantial increase in the number of citizens called annually for military service. Important purchases of war material abroad also are planned. —New York Times, July 23.
The linea Aerea Nacional of Chile are buying modern equipment for their proposed line to Magallanes at the extremity of the South American Continent. The Shell Co. report two Sikorsky S.43, 15-passenger amphibians with automatic pilots and complete western radio sets have been bought. They will also use two Dornier Wal flying-boats, another Sikorsky amphibian and a Loening amphibian which belong to the Chilean Air Force. The Air Force and Navy have helped to organize the route.
The worst weather, according to Shell, is south of Rio Baker. Meteorological stations are being set up at Puerto Montt, Puerto Lagunas, Rio Cisnes, Baquedano, Rio Baker, Puerto Eden, Seno, Union, Puerto Natales, and Magallanes. Captain Abel, surveying in a Wal, on March 31, flew from Puerto Montt to Rio Frio, 1,000 km., in less than 7 hours. (For map see The Aeroplane, May 6.)
Between Santiago and Puerto Montt 6 Potezes will be used. Aerodromes are to be made at Talca (Fundo Buenavista), Linares, Concepcion, Valvidia, Osorno, and Los Angeles (not the one near Hollywood). —The Aeroplane.
Denmark
The Royal Danish Navy is reported to have ordered a new motor torpedo boat, as an experiment from the British Power Boat Co., Ltd., of Southampton. As Denmark is one of the countries which believes in building its ships in home yards, this is a novel departure. —The Navy, London.
Dominican Republic
The Coamo of the New York and Puerto Rico Line arrived in port yesterday with the distinction of having been the first commercial ship to reach the shore of Santo Domingo in her maiden commercial history. The landing was made possible last Tuesday by a canal 27 ft. deep which has been dredged from the natural harbor to the mainland at Trujillo City. It is planned eventually to dredge the canal to accommodate ships drawing 37 ft. of water. —New York Times, Aug. 23.
Estonia
Two submarines were launched by Vickers- Armstrongs, Ltd., at Barrow for the Estonian Navy on July 7. Kalev and Lembit were the names conferred on these two vessels, whose displacement is 600 tons on the surface and 820 tons submerged. Vickers Diesels of 1,200 b.hp. will give them a surface speed of 13.5 knots, the underwater speed being 8.5 knots. The designed radius of action at 10 knots is 2,000 miles. The armament comprises four 21-in. torpedo tubes, all in the bows, one 40-mm. anti-aircraft gun and 20 mines.
The Estonian mine layers Kalev and Olev have been renamed Keri and Vaindlo, respectively. The construction of a number of motor torpedo boats is projected. —The Navy, London.
Greece
It is reported from Athens that 4 destroyers of 1,450 tons are to be ordered in this country for the Greek Navy. It has been stated that the contract will go to the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd., but that the armaments will be supplied by Krupp. —The Navy, London.
Holland
A new gunnery training ship is to be built for the Royal Netherlands Navy, to replace the ancient Gelderland of 1898. Though no details have been published of the new ship beyond the fact that she will be armed with 4.7-in. guns and steam 26 knots, it may be conjectured that her design will bear some resemblance to that of the German gunnery training ships Bremse and Brimmer. —The Navy, London.
Norway
Aeger is the name that has been selected for the second of the two new destroyers building for the Royal Norwegian Navy, which is to be launched shortly. —The Navy, London.
Peru
The Peruvian naval transport Rimac, which ran ashore at the beginning of July, has been refloated and towed into port for repair. —The Navy, London.
Poland
The mine sweeper Rylbitwa, of the Jaskolka type (183 tons), has been commissioned. This ship was constructed in Polish yards. As previously announced the Polish government has ordered two submarines from Dutch firms. According to the Berliner-Tageblatt, the payment for these ships will be made in raw material. The Netherlands government has decided to open its frontiers to the importation of barley, which constitutes, of course, one of the sources of wealth of the latter country.
The construction of the mine layer Gryf (2,500 tons) at the A. Normand yards of Havre is about completed. The Gryf will be used as a school ship for midshipmen.
It is known that Gdynia is not only the large commercial port of Poland but also a military port. Admiral Swirsky, head of the Polish Navy, recently brought about the adoption of a 5-year plan which will make this port a base for construction and repairs, entirely sufficient for the needs of the country. In this project are plans for four construction ways capable of building ships from 2,500 to 12,000 tons. The area of the port will be enlarged by approximately 120 acres. The work is to be finished by January, 1941, at the latest. —La Revue Maritime.
The first of two flotilla leaders that are being built for the Polish Navy was launched from the slip of J. Samuel White and Co., Ltd., at East Cowes today. The sister-ship will be launched at a later date, and when they are delivered Poland will possess two of the most up-to-date flotilla leaders in the world.
The launching ceremony was performed by Madam Poznanski, wife of the Polish Consul- General in London, who was presented with a diamond brooch representing the Polish flag. Among those present were members of the Polish Embassy, Polish Consulate, and officials of the British Admiralty.
The vessel, which is named the Grom (the thunderbolt), is 374 ft. long and 37 ft. beam.
At the luncheon after the launching ceremony Admiral Swirski, Chief of the Polish Navy, said that 75 per cent of Poland’s foreign trade came by water and the keeping open of sea routes was therefore the country’s very life. The Grom would be used for that purpose and not for aggression.
Dr. Poznanski said that the naval traditions of Poland were broken nearly a century and a half ago, but they had been recently renewed. The ceremony that day was therefore of great significance. —Times, London. Cowes, July 20.
Siam
With the completion by the Uraga Dockyard on July 24 of two training ships for the Siamese Navy, the Taun and the Maeklong, details of the other naval building contracts placed in Japan last year by Siam have been announced, according to the Jiji. The entire program, calling for the construction of 12 ships at a total cost of about 23,000,000 yen is to be completed by next April.
Four submarines are said to be under construction at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ dockyards; 2 gunboats are taking form at the Kawasaki Dockyard, in Kobe, 1 transport is rising at the Hakodate Dockyard, 3 coast-defense ships are under construction at the Ishikawajima plant in Tokyo, and the 2 training vessels have been launched from the Uraga Dockyard.
Previously, the Siamese fleet included only 2 gunboats, 4 destroyers, a few torpedo boats and the flagship of the King, totaling 10 ships. Following the revolt in 1932, however, the reform party decided to reconstruct the navy. Last spring an international call for bids was sent out.
Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Holland, and Japan took part in the competitive bidding. “On account of ridiculously low figures,” the Jiji says, Italy secured the contracts to build 7 destroyers. Japan was successful with the other 12.
Japan is said to intend to accord specially friendly treatment in the construction of Siamese ships in the hope of obtaining further orders when the second set of bids is called in 1938. Friendly relations between Japan and Siam have been increasingly evident since the Siamese delegate to the League of Nations abstained from voting against Japan’s actions in Manchuria in February, 1933.
In the cultural field, a movie of the adventures of Nagamasa Yamada, who went to Siam as a political adventurer about 150 years ago and was promoted to a high position in the government, is soon to be made in Siam.
Great Britain and France are said to be displeased with the success of Italy and Japan in the bidding as they have a number of advisers attached to the Siamese government. They have recently been attempting to recover their Far Eastern markets. The vigor with which Italy and Germany are expected to enter the competition in 1938 is believed likely to result in heated bidding. —Japan Advertiser.
Spain
On June 19 the mine layer Marte was launched at Ferrol. The principal characteristics of this new ship are as follows: Length, 315 ft.; width, 42 ft.; draft, 25 ft.; displacement, 2,100 tons; speed, 17.5 knots. Her armament will consist of the following: four 4.7-in guns; four 1.6-in. anti-aircraft guns, doubly mounted; four .28-in. anti-aircraft machine guns. —Revista General de Marina.
Insurgent aircraft from Ceuta, in Spanish Morocco, were active today bombing Spanish government submarines patrolling the sea route east of the Straits.
Submarine C 3 was bombed this morning 3 miles from Europa Point, and was at first believed to have been sunk, but it reappeared on the surface this afternoon 2 miles off Sandy Bay, where it was again attacked. A thrilling struggle between airplane and submarine took place in full view of the crowded beach.
The airplane flew low and dropped several bombs close to the submarine, which appeared to have difficulty in submerging and replied with machine gunfire. It disappeared, but the airplane continued to bomb where the submarine had submerged and then flew across the Straits to Ceuta. An hour afterwards the submarine reappeared some distance away, and was seen being towed by a motor boat towards Malaga evidently damaged. —Times, London. Gibraltar, July 29.
Thirty persons were reported to have been killed and many wounded today during a bombardment by a government warship, the Jaime I of the city of Algeciras, across the bay from here. Algeciras is in the hands of rebels.
Thousands of residents and refugees in this British colony witnessed the battle between the warship and the rebel shore batteries, during which the rebel gunboat Dato, hit by a shell from the Jaime I caught fire and burned fiercely in the harbor. Other ships in the harbor were periled by the flames, which spread along the wharves. — Tribune, Chicago. Gibraltar, Aug. 7.
The Spanish battleship Jaime I, a cruiser of the Libertad class, and a destroyer bombarded the coast between Marbella and Estepona early this morning. The ships then rounded Europa Point, and the Jaime I shelled Punta Carnero with her 12-in. guns. The battery at Punta Carnero replied, and an insurgent airplane from Ceuta flew over and bombed the ships, although without effect. The ship’s gunfire also appeared not to have done any damage. After a few rounds had been fired at a battery near Tarifa the ships returned to Malaga.
H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth entered Gibraltar harbor after the bombardment, and a large airplane showing no national colors flew over Europa Point toward Morocco. —Times, London. Gibraltar, Aug. 3.
U.S.S.R.
According to information from English newspapers, the government of the Soviets has decided to place 8 surface ships and 15 submarines under construction. It has been announced that the strengthening of the fortifications of Kronstadt has been completed. Ten thousand men worked there for 4 years. Kronstadt will now be considered the Malta of the Baltic. —Le Yacht.
A soviet air force mission, under the command of General Alksnis, Commander in Chief of the Soviet Air Arm, left Prague on July 22 for Moscow, after a week’s visit to Czechoslovakia. During their stay the mission inspected the principal airplane factories, the Skoda works at Tilson and the military aerodrome at Prague.
On July 20 a Soviet machine carrying 40 passengers and crew flew over Prague, and on July 21 a display was given by a Czechoslovak light bomber squadron.
A photographic laboratory has been developed by engineers of the Soviet Red Army to take air pictures, develop, and land them by parachute within 15 minutes from the exposure of the plates. During a test of the apparatus at Leningrad a military airplane flew to 8,500 ft. took 17 pictures of the ground below and dropped the finished photographs by parachute within less than 14 minutes. —The Aeroplane.
The task which has been placed before the Soviet Rare Metal Industry is to increase domestic production so that the country will not be dependent on imports. In the case of antimony, one of the deficit commodities which the U.S.S.R. imports largely from China (see Far Eastern Survey, Jan. 29,1936, p. 21), the domestic reserves are believed capable of meeting domestic demand. The fact that recent imports of the metal have increased rather than decreased is attributable to growing domestic consumption.
Used in alloys to strengthen machinery and tools, the importance of antimony for metallurgy (especially in the manufacture of munitions) is obvious. It is also used in textile dyes and in printing inks. It has likewise been found that small amounts fed to cows increase the production of milk. Estimates of the amount of antimony that the Soviet Union will need in 1937 reach the figure of about 12 to 15 thousand tons of 40 per cent concentrate.
In 1934 deposits were uncovered in Georgia and in the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Republic. Large deposits have been discovered in the Turgai region in north Kazakstan and on the Angara River in Siberia. It is believed that if the Northern Kazakstan deposits are fully exploited the domestic demand estimated for 1937 could be satisfied and antimony even exported. Present production figures are not available but it can be computed that 1934 production was less than 600 tons. It was reported that 1935 output was more than double that of 1934, and 1936 production is planned to be six times that of 1935.
According to reports an experimental plant for the production of metal antimony is being constructed in Southern Kazakstan to operate on local and near-by deposits. It is to consist of a concentrating plant and of a smelter with an annual capacity of 70 tons of antimony.
The Soviets criticize the Rare Metal Industry for its poor organization of labor, for weak administrative and technical leadership in various divisions, for insufficient attention to the most advanced workers, the engineers and technicians, and for poor technical equipment. At the beginning of this year it was urged that the utmost attention be paid to improving this industry.
Imports of antimony in 1934 amounted to 1,280 tons, while those for 1935 equalled 2,378 tons. The first three months of this year also show an increase of imports over the corresponding period of last year. Of interest is a recent report that in exchange for Soviet purchases of machines and boilers, Hungary is to purchase copper and antimony from the Soviet Union. —Far Eastern Survey, Aug. 12.
Satisfaction was voiced in political circles here today with the Anglo-Soviet bilateral naval accord reached at London last Thursday between representatives of both governments. It was pointed out with satisfaction that the British delegation to the naval talks well understood certain special conditions of the Soviet naval forces and recognized a number of Soviet demands.
It was simultaneously pointed out that the Soviet government also made a number of concessions on major points to facilitate conclusion of the agreement. In the course of the negotiations, it was stated, special attention was called to the geographic positions of the Soviet Union and the Soviet made certain reservations in this respect.
Of these reservations, that regarding Far Eastern waters is considered the most important. The Soviet Union considers it impossible to bind itself by undertaking to observe the terms of the London naval treaty in connection with its fleet in Far Eastern waters until after a naval accord has been reached between Japan and the Soviet Union.
It was stressed that the Soviet government has no intention of taking any initiative in starting a naval building race in these waters, and that it is prepared to stick to the limits of the naval treaty if other powers in the Far East refrain from constructing their fleets above the treaty limits.
Authoritative sources declared, however, that the Soviet government’s signature to the naval accord will be strictly conditional on Germany’s acceptance of naval limitations similar to those provided in the treaty. They further declared that, in view of the Anglo-German naval talks being simultaneously conducted, there is reason to believe that Germany is prepared to undertake to stick to similar limitation provisions. —Japan Advertiser. Moscow, Aug. 1.
Having completed its first and second 5-year plans for development of the Army and the Air Force, the Soviet Union is now turning to a third 5-year plan for building up its Navy, according to Domei.
Quoting an unnamed source, the news agency says the Soviets are drafting the program with these vessels, now in its fleet, as a nucleus:
Four battleships of the dreadnought class, each with 36,000-ton displacement armed with twelve 12-in. guns and developing a speed of 23 knots. The vessels are over-age except for modern equipment, including long funnels tilted toward the back to keep smoke away from the bridge and fire-control station.
Four new-type cruisers of 6,700 to 7,900 tons, equipped with fifteen 5-in. guns,8 anti-aircraft guns, and 12 torpedo tubes. Armored decks and armor girdles protect them against middle-class cruisers. Their speed is 30 knots. Three old-type cruisers have been fitted with four 7-in. guns instead of fifteen five-in. guns, andhavefour4-in. anti-aircraft guns and twelve 21-in. torpedo tubes. Each carries an airplane and a catapault and has a large crane attached to the mast.
Twenty-seven destroyers of 1,300 tons displacement, armed with four 4-in. guns, 9 torpedo tubes, and developing 28 to 30 knots.
Ten torpedo boats of 480 tons, armed with two 4-in. guns, three torpedo tubes and developing a speed of 29 knots. They are all of 1932-35 construction. There are 60 old-type torpedo boats.
Sixty to 75 submarines, constructed in 1930. The new-type submarines are of 900 to 1,000 tons and are equipped with one 4-in. gun and 8 torpedo tubes. Forty of the modern submarines are stationed at Vladivostok. —Japan Advertiser.
A Soviet parachute jumper has discovered that his half hemisphere of silk will go up as well as down. From Tiflis today came the story about N. Bydlinsky, who, as an experiment, jumped from an airplane into storm clouds at a height of 4,000 feet. It took him eighteen minutes to reach the ground.
Upward currents of wind buffeted him and shot him both up and down for more than ten minutes. Not until the currents slackened was he able to alight. —Herald Tribune, New York. Moscow, Aug. 8 (AP).
MERCHANT MARINE
“Queen Mary”—West and East
The Cunard White Star liner Queen Mary last night set a new transatlantic speed record, both on the basis of average speed maintained and for the time of crossing, when it passed Ambrose Lightship at 11:12 o’clock, Eastern Daylight Time. It thus captures the mythical blue ribbon of the Atlantic from the French liner Normandie, which set the previous record on her first voyage in June, 1935.
[TABLE- Age of Ocean-Going Motor and Steam Driven Vessels 2,000 Gross Tons and over December 31, 1935 (In Gross Tons)]
The official time for the passage from Cherbourg breakwater in France to Ambrose Lightship, was 4 days, 7 hours and 12 minutes, or 4 hours and 30 minutes better than the record time attained by the Normandie. The Queen Mary’s average speed on the present trip was 30.01 knots, as compared to the previous record of 29.64 knots held by the French liner. —Herald Tribune, New York, Aug. 24.
The Cunard-White Star liner Queen Mary passed Bishop’s Rock at 8.12 p.m., British summer time (2.12 p.m., E.S.T.), tonight, beating the west-east record of the French liner Normandie by more than 3 hours.
The Queen averaged 30.63 knots an hour, compared to the Normandie’s best average of 30.31 knots, made on her return from her maiden voyage to New York.
The British sea queen took 3 days, 23 hours and 57 minutes for the trip from Ambrose Light, off New York, to Bishop’s Rock, on England’s southwest coast. This was 3 hours and 31 minutes less than the Normandie’s best time. — Sun, Baltimore, Aug. 30, London, Aug. 30.
Highest Recorded Transatlantic Average Speed in Knots
Year | Vessel | Speed |
1819 | Savannah | 6.00 |
1833 | Royal William | 6.50 |
1838 | Sirius | 8.50 |
1840 | Brittania | 10.56 |
1841 | Acadia | 10.76 |
1842 | Acadia | 10.97 |
1847 | Hibernia | 11.67 |
1850 | Asia | 12.12 |
1851 | Baltic | 13.17 |
1862 | Scotia | 14.06 |
1864 | Scotia | 14.54 |
1869 | City of Brussels | 14.66 |
1873 | Baltic | 15.12 |
1875 | City of Berlin | 15.21 |
1875 | City of Berlin | 15.41 |
1876 | Germanic | 15.81 |
1876 | Brittanic | 15.97 |
1882 | Alaska | 16.10 |
1882 | Alaska | 16.80 |
1882 | Alaska | 17.17 |
1884 | Oregon | 17.48 |
1884 | America | 17.71 |
1884 | Oregon | 18.14 |
1884 | Oregon | 18.52 |
1885 | Etruria | 18.93 |
1887 | Etruria | 19.90 |
1889 | City of Paris | 20.02 |
1891 | Teutonic | 20.43 |
1892 | City of Paris | 20.70 |
1893 | Campania | 21.07 |
1893 | Campania | 21.21 |
1894 | Lucania | 21.59 |
1894 | Lucania | 21.75 |
1894 | Lucania | 21.84 |
1894 | Lucania | 22.00 |
1900 | Deutschland | 24.37 |
1909 | Mauretania | 25.88 |
1909 | Mauretania | 26.06 |
1924 | Mauretania | 26.25 |
1928 | Mauretania | 26.26 |
1928 | Mauretania | 27.22 |
1929 | Bremen | 27.83 |
1930 | Europa | 27.92 |
1933 | Rex | 28.93 |
1935 | Normandie | 29.64 |
1935 | Normandie | 30.34 |
Nautical Gazette, August 15
Various Notes
Continued advancing operating costs to meet labor and governmental demands have forced the Los Angeles Steamship Co. to withdraw from service their express coastal liner Yale.
Together with her sister-ship Harvard which was lost on the California coast a few years ago, the Yale was built at Chester, Pa., in 1906, for the New York-Boston passenger service. In 1910 both ships were brought to the Pacific coast for the San Francisco-Los Angeles-San Diego service. This service was maintained regularly by both ships (with the exception of the war period when both ships were requisitioned for carrying troops) until the Harvard was lost in May, 1931, after which the Yale carried on alone with the exception of a few months during which the Iriquois was chartered from the Clyde Line.
There appears to be some doubt if the Yale will ever resume service, and, if this should be confirmed, it will mark the passing of another of the very few vessels left with the Parsons direct turbine drive. —The Log, San Francisco.
The contrast in construction under way during the last two quarters is shown by Lloyd's Register in the following table, the figures representing gross tons:
| Jun. 30, ’36 | Mar. 31, '36 |
Great Britain & Ireland | 848,732 | 842,361 |
Germany | 365,179 | 317,053 |
Japan | 156,811 | 150,662 |
Holland | 148,005 | 146,280 |
Sweden | 124,250 | 112,750 |
United States | 90,275 | 49,760 |
Denmark | 71,620 | 55,405 |
France | 45,304 | 49,558 |
Italy | 10,285 | 25,590 |
Six large ships, each of 20,000 gross tons or above, were reported as being built during the June quarter, in comparison with four in the March period. Four are now being built in Great Britain and Ireland, and one each in Holland and Germany; as against three in Great Britain and Ireland and one in Holland in the March quarter. —Marine Progress.
A particularly striking case from the pilot’s point of view is now occupying the Canadian courts and it will be interesting to see the result. A pilot in the St. Lawrence service was instructed to take a ship and refused: in consequence of which he was suspended for disobeying orders by the Canadian Department of Marine which is in charge of pilotage matters and' which has reached some peculiar decisions before now. His grounds for refusing to obey the order were that he had been at work for 40 hours and that he was not in a physical condition to conduct a ship in safety; he maintained that the safety of the ship was the greatest consideration for a pilot and that he could not be forced to carry on. The Department disagreed with him and suspended him, but on appeal his view was sustained. In the meantime he had been under the stigma of suspension and had naturally suffered losses from being debarred from his living. So he is now claiming $35,000 from the Canadian Department of Marine as compensation and it will be interesting to see, supposing that the Court takes the same view as the Quebec Court of Appeals that he was in the right to refuse duty, what is considered to be the appropriate compensation. —Nautical Magazine, Aug.
American cargo vessels of the future should be capable of maintaining a speed of 18 knots, otherwise the program to develop a merchant marine that can compete with those of foreign nations will fall far short of its purpose, in the opinion of Victor J. Sudman, president of the Black Diamond Steamship Corp., who revealed last night that the company contemplates a big building program that will include three 18-knot cargo liners for its New York-Rotterdam service.
“This is the age of speed,” Mr. Sudman said, “and American operators and those who will be intrusted with carrying out the shipping policies of the United States should realize that freight ships of from 10J to 14 knots are becoming a thing of the past and must be replaced with vessels capable of developing 18 knots.”—Herald Tribune, New York.
The shipbuilding industry of Great Britain and Ireland is booming, and construction costs are now 30 per cent higher than they were some months ago, according to E. P. Rees, general manager of Furness, Withy & Co., Ltd., who returned to his New York headquarters from a business trip and holiday in Great Britain.
“General business conditions in Great Britain are excellent,” Mr. Rees said, “and I was particularly impressed with the activity of the various shipbuilding yards, which are busy with naval and merchant marine orders. The British Isles also are enjoying an excellent tourist year, as a result of the large number of American visitors.” —Herald Tribune, New York.
As an indication of general improvement in world trade, the total tonnage of cargo passing through the Panama Canal during the past fiscal year amounted to 26,505,943 tons, an increase of 4.7 per cent over 1935, when the tonnage was 25,309,527.
There were substantial decreases in the volume of mineral oils shipped from California to the Atlantic coast and of scrap metals from the Eastern States to the Far East, but these were more than offset by sharp gains in the quantity of lumber, ore, manufactured products of iron and steel, and other commodities prominent in world trade.—Nautical Gazette.
AVIATION
Martins for Holland
Sun, Baltimore, August 2. —With the arrival here of two army officers of the Dutch government, tests will be started with the first of 13 bombing planes being built by the Glen L. Martin Co. for service in the Dutch East Indies.
The planes, similar to those being built by the company for the United States Army, will cost $1,540,000, including armament. The Martin Co. also is to furnish machine guns, bombs, and other equipment to make each plane a complete unit when it leaves the factory.
Mr. Martin said the Dutch officers were scheduled to leave the Dutch East Indies yesterday. They will come directly to Baltimore and will remain here until the last bomber has been created and put aboard a ship for Java.
“We expect to make the first shipment about the middle of September,” Mr. Martin said. “After that we expect to ship two a week until all 13 are on their way. The bombers for the Dutch East Indies are substantially the same as American bombers built by our firm.”
Mr. Martin explained the testing would be done by persons connected with the local factory, the Dutch officers acting as observers.
After the bombers have passed their tests, they will be taken apart and fitted snugly in large shipping cases. They will be accompanied to their destination by attaches of the Martin plant, who will supervise reassembling the planes at their destination.
Aviation Interests in China
Far Eastern Survey, August 13. —Central Aircraft and Manufacturing Company. —Shares in this China Trade Act company are owned 64 per cent by Curtiss-Wright Corp. and 16 per cent by Douglas Aircraft Co. The remainder is believed to be in the hands of Intercontinent Aviation, a Delaware corporation. The concern owns an airplane factory at Shienchao, Chekiang, and is turning out planes for the National Government of China under a 5-year contract with the Military Council, dated December 8, 1933. The present American investment at Shienchao is be-ie ved to exceed $300,000 and may run to $1,000,000 or $2,000,000 if account is taken of the value of materials in process of manufacture.
China National Aviation Corporation. —This airline is owned 55 per cent by the National Government and 45 per cent by Pan-American Airways. The Pan-American investment is reported in the neighborhood of only $600,000. But since China National is the leading airline of the country, with a spreading network of routes, Pan- American is in a favored position to participate in future air developments in China. Taken in conjunction with the transpacific air route now being established under subsidy from the United States government, this strategic position in China represents a significant advance for the American line in the international contest for supremacy on the new air trade routes of the world.
Apart from their commercial significance both the transpacific venture and the activity of American aviation concerns in China also have very real political implications. For not only does the waterroute represent a potential arm of the American Navy, but the upbuilding of aviation in China may provide that country with her most potent military weapon to resist the encroachments of the Japanese Army.
Faster Coast Service
Herald. Tribune, New York, August 11. —Here to negotiate with Douglas Aircraft Co. for the purchase of $2,000,000 worth of supertransport sky liners, Jack Frye and John B. Walker, president and vice-president of T. W. A., today promised that faster coast-to-coast service will be inaugurated next January 1.
The new service will begin with introduction of 220-mile an hour luxury planes which will be 50 per cent larger than present T. W. A. equipment, Messrs. Frye and Walker announced.
“We will discuss purchase arrangements today with Donald Douglas on 20 supertransports which will be the nucleus of the new sky liner fleet of T. W. A.,” Mr. Frye said. “Discussions will follow 8 months’ engineering work by T. W. A. executives and Douglas engineers. Every safety device known to aviation including automatic gyroscope pilots, variable pitch propellers, de-icers and propeller de-icers will be installed on the new planes.”
Mr. Walker stated that the interior of the ships will be the most luxurious ever built into an airplane. They will have electric kitchens, lounge rooms, sections similar to Pullman cars, complete sound proofing and expensive interior decorations.
In addition to the large purchase of new equipment, Mr. Frye stated that $200,000 will be used to conduct substratosphere experiments under direction of Captain D. W. Tomlinson. Another $350,000 will be used here and at points along the air lines to increase the horsepower of present motors in T. W. A. Douglas sky liners. Speed will be increased approximately 10 miles an hours as a result of extra power, he said.
“Long-range flights in a specially equipped laboratory plane from Los Angeles to New York will be inaugurated next month in carrying out our substratosphere experiments,” declared Frye. “We will fly the ships in every conceivable condition, with engineers on board to record results looking toward day operation in the stratosphere within the near future.”—Los Angeles, Aug. 10.
Service Plans
Aviation, August. —The Navy seems to be going in for bombers. In June 191 dive bombers and scout bombers were ordered from Curtiss, Northrop, and Chance Vought. Than last month came an order for 50 flying boat patrol bombers (VPB) at a total cost of $4,898,000. It went to Consolidated Aircraft, already building 60 of the XP3Y type flying boat for the Navy. Engine installations for the new flying boats have not yet been specified by the Navy.
The month’s Army orders were more diversified. July 23 Assistant Secretary of War Woodring announced the award of a $1,259,235 contract to Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor. It calls for an unannounced number— “sufficient ... to provide for a thorough service test”—of Curtiss YA18s, 2-engined, all-metal, midwing monoplane attack ships. They are said to be the world’s only twin-engined attacks. Wright 1,000 hp. G-Cyclones will provide power. Landing gear is retractable. The War Department’s release says it is “generally credited with being the fastest 2-engined military airplane built to date.”
The second Army order went to Lockheed, and was for three Electras, at a cost of about $150,000. They are scheduled for delivery in August and September. Order No. 3 in the series, to Stearman, was for 50 primary trainers, at a cost of $329,659.
Another Army item of interest concerns the Wilcox bill, passed more than a year ago, to establish an indeterminate number of air bases about the country. They would be to permit rapid mobilization of a hypothetical 1,000-plane air force. The Army has set up a board of three officers to select a site for the first of these bases near Fairbanks, Alaska. The board consists of Lieutenant Colonel Wilmot A. Danielson, Quartermaster Corps.; Major Otto G. Trunk, Air Corps, and Major Albro L. Parsons, Medical Corps.
They will be supplied with plans of the layout desired, and other detailed instructions. Principal item to be considered will be the problem of an adequate foundation to withstand the heavy ponding of landing bombers. The Fairbanks base is considered to be a branch of the general base for the northwest, as yet unlocated. It will form an Alaskan central supply depot for fuel, ammunition, and servicing, though planes will actually be based at smaller surrounding fields for the different divisions of the GHQ Air Force, so as to avoid the danger of concentrating the whole force in one spot. The Alaskan base will probably not be finished before 1939. Although definite plans are not yet drawn, it is indicated that 8 such bases, in all, will be constructed, each designed to accommodate a swift concentration of the entire air force.
Various Notes
The Navy Department announced that during the latter part of August, 35 aviation cadets of the Naval Reserve will join the United States Fleet and take their places with naval aviators of the regular service in the aircraft squadrons. This Will be the first group of cadets in this new corps of the Navy to complete their training at Pensacola and be ordered to duty afloat. Nine aviation cadets of the Naval Reserve and 7 aviation cadets of the Marine Corps Reserve who were trained with that group have been commissioned as second lieutenants in the Marine Corps and are being assigned to the Marine Aviation Squadrons. —Press Release.
An Imperial ordinance issued yesterday reorganizes Japan’s military air forces into a separate arm of the service, with a status described as almost equal to that of the other great military departments—namely, the War Office, the General Staff, and the Inspectorate-General of Military Education.
The chief of the new air headquarters will be a general or lieutenant general appointed by the Emperor. All existing military air forces in Japan, Korea, and Formosa will be united under his command. One of the air brigades will be established at Gifu, another at Kainei, in Korea, while the remainder will be controlled from Tokyo. A War Office statement explains that the air forces are not being severed from the Army, but are given a more important r61e than that of the eyes and ears of the ground forces. —Times, London. Tokyo, July 26.
The British Air Ministry has just released figures showing that in the years between 1924 and 1935 the nation’s aircraft export business has amounted to about $100,000,000. A business well worth having. —U. S. Air Services.
General Der Fleiger Erhard Milch, State- Secretary of the German Air Ministry, opened the new Frankfurt Airport for airplane and airship services on July 8. The area is about 284 hectares (702 acres) and the dimensions are 2,430 yd. North-South by 1,720 yd. East-West. The main building, on the north side, is 273 yd. long and 81 ft. high at the control tower; its restaurant seats 2,000 people.
The airship hall, 2 km. to the south of the main building, is 300 yd. long, 57 yd. wide, 167 ft. high, and the doors can be shut in 6 minutes by a 13 hp. electric motor. A rail track, with turntable at each end, runs through the hall. Because of the trees round the ground there are 48 obstruction lights as well as 35 boundary lights. The beacon gives 1,800,000 candlepower. There are 7 petrol filling stations supplied from four 6,500-gallon under-ground tanks. The Zeppelin services and South Atlantic mail service now start from the new airport. —The Aeroplane.
S.C.A.D.T.A. (the Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transportes Aereo Ltda.) has operated continuously and without subsidy since 1920. It was formed by German ex-war pilots in 1919 because they had nothing else to do, and there were no more worth-while wars. It has done splendid work in developing the United States of Colombia.
Today, by connecting at Barranquilla twice each week with Pan-American Airways, which holds a big, or perhaps controlling, interest in Scadta, it puts Bogota and other Colombia centers in touch with North, Central and South America and the Antilles. Single-motor Junkerses, Sikorsky twin amphibians, Ford Trimotors, and single-motor Dornier Wals have done most of the work. Ten passengers and less than a ton of freight were carried in the first year (1920). The 1934 figures were 11,043 passengers and 1,058 tons of freight. The 1935 traffic was double that of 1934: 22,505 passengers, 2,049 kg. of freight, 1,669.664 km. flown.
Recent statistics issued by the Department of Commerce of the U.S.A. show that 15,264 commercial and private pilots hold licenses in that country, and that 7,403 airplanes are certified as airworthy, compared with 14,806 pilots and 7,205 aircraft on July 1 last year. In Great Britain as of May 31, 1936, the number of private and commercial pilots was 4,559 and the number of machines 1,535. —The Aeroplane.
One more step in the international race for scheduled North Atlantic service was taken July 15 when the British Air Minister, Viscount Swinton, announced that a 5-year agreement with Imperial Airways had been made for weekly New York-Bermuda service. It will start sometime in the fall, and will be operated in conjunction with Pan-American.
To finance the venture, the British government has provided an annual subsidy of £18,000, and a capital grant (to the government of Bermuda) of £34,500 for purchase of a ship. British contribution for equipment will be one of the Short Empire Flying Boats, now building.
Pan-American’s share of the service will probably be flown with a slightly larger version of the famous Sikorsky S-42 which blazed the Pacific trail. These boats, known as S-42-Bs, are building at Bridgeport now. They will weight 20 tons gross, instead of 19 tons of the Pan-American Clipper.
Though the Bermuda service will not necessarily be part of the proposed transoceanic line, it will provide a good workshop to test Atlantic flying conditions. —Aviation.
Charged with the mission of flying new patrol planes for Pearl Harbor from San Diego to Hawaii 33 officers and enlisted men from the fleet air base will sail for the coast with the fleet, it was announced yesterday by naval authorities.
At San Diego the men, comprising 6 complete crews of Squadron VP-6 at Pearl Harbor, will wait completion of the new PBY planes at the Consolidated Aircraft Co. works and after taking delivery of the ships engage in several weeks of training routine, preparatory to the flights for Hawaii.
The ships will come in groups of from 3 to 6, it was announced yesterday. Lieutenant Commander Henry M. Mullinnix, executive officer at the fleet air base, said that the number of the groups to be ferried over the sea will be dependent upon the rate of delivery. —Honolulu Advertiser.
A new type of Seversky all-metal training plane, designed for the United States Army Air Corps, was put through a test flight here today. After the trial the plane took off for Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, where tomorrow it will enter a series of competitive tests staged by the Army as the basis for a contract about to be awarded. Two other planes will compete.
The plane is equipped with a Pratt and Whitney 425-horsepower motor and is said to be able to achieve a top speed of between 225 and 250 miles an hour. Among its features is a retractable landing gear and “air brake” flaps which extend the length of the trailing edge of the single wing and can be swung down into a vertical position, thus helping to brake the plane when it taxis to the ground. The plane was flown to Dayton by Frank Sinclair, test pilot, accompanied by Major Alexander de Seversky, designer and builder of the plane. —Herald Tribune, New York. Farming- dale, L. I., Aug. 16.
Airplane passenger traffic between the United States and foreign countries increased slightly during the 1936 fiscal year, with 27,584 passengers arriving from abroad, an increase of 231 over the 1935 fiscal year, the Bureau of Customs announced today. Prior to 1935 the largest number of passengers arriving from foreign lands by plane was in 1931, when 20,907 passengers arrived. —Herald Tribune, New York. Washington, Aug. 22.