UNITES STATES
Projected Navy Bases
Aero Digest, June.—Legislation for naval air bases as finally approved for appropriation, as well as authorized, by the Senate and the House include the following: Kaneohe, Hawaii, $5,800,000; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, $2,800,000; Midway Is., $5,300,000; Johnston Is., $1,150,000; Palmyra Is., $1,100,000; Kodiak, Alaska, $8,570,000; Sitka, Alaska, $2,900,000; San Juan, Puerto Rico, $9,300,000; Pensacola, Fla., $5,890,000; Norfolk, Va., $500,000; Tongue Point, Ore., $1,500,000; Jacksonville-Banana River, Fla., $17,000,000; and Quonsett Point, R.I., $1,000,000. This is a total of $62,810,000, and the legislation also includes $1,800,000 for a base and buildings at the Philadelphia Naval Airplane Factory.
Authorization for the creation of these bases became law on April 25, the authorization also carrying an item of $2,000,000 for a base at Wake Island. The legislation appropriating the funds to finance the work authorized in the earlier law was not agreed upon by both houses of Congress until late in May, and it is to be noted that Wake Island was omitted from the appropriation legislation. The omission of Wake Island, bringing the total appropriated for the creation of air bases down to $64,610,000, is the key to the explanation for the protracted conflict in Congress over the air bases. Wake Island in many ways, from a military standpoint, is similar to Guam, whose harbor is at Apra where 570 United States marines and sailors base to govern 21,000 natives. Earlier in the session the administration made a drive to secure $5,000,000 to begin the fortification of Guam as an air base as well as a general naval base. It developed the eventual completion of the whole job would cost approximately $700,000,000. This great expenditure, added to the sub rosa opposition of the State Department prompted by Japanese protests, killed the Guam plan. Similar objections arrested the Wake Island air base proposal. There is a considerable body of Congresssional opinion that holds no naval air bases should be built at any islands in the Pacific at this time. Led by Representative James G. Scrugham, former Governor of Nevada and State Commander of the American Legion, they urge the project should have more investigation and study. Scrugham, however, did not oppose the appropriation when it finally came up on the floor.
Midway Island is to have the largest air base with barracks for 300. Palmyra and Johnston Islands are merely to have an appropriate personnel of caretakers. The Navy declares there is not to be a single gun on any island.
The air bases at San Juan, Puerto Rico, will be built at Isle Grande. Incidentally, the system of airfields and anti-aircraft guns to be organized immediately by the Army in the Caribbean parallels the navy plan. The army system is to cost $27,000,000, and is part of the Panama Canal Zone defense, scattered through the Caribbean, commanded by the recently appointed head of the new Department of the Caribbean, Brigadier General Edmund L. Daley.
Under the law authorizing the naval air bases, the Navy is empowered to accept land at Corpus Christi, Texas, where it will build an aviation training station. The law also permits employment of outside architectural and engineering help to produce plans, drawings, etc., and for the construction of naval vessels or aircraft, service fee not to exceed 6 per cent of the cost of the project. Ten per cent cost-plus contracts, without bids and advertising, also are authorized.
Work on all air bases is to begin immediately after funds are available July 1, and must be finished in 3 years.
Army's New Field Gun
Baltimore Sun.—Washington, June 24. —The Army lifted secrecy today from its newest and longest-range gun, a weapon that hurls a 100-pound shell 15 miles.
A 155-mm.-caliber gun, bulky but mobile, it fired a projectile in tests at Fort Bragg, N. C., which traveled about 25,000 yd. and blew a hole 16 ft. in the ground.
The shot was the longest ever fired from a standard American army field gun, Colonel Ralph McT. Pennell, chairman of the field artillery board, reported.
The weapon, developed by the army’s own ordnance experts, has been adopted as standard for long-range artillery fire and an undisclosed number are being turned out now at arsenals.
Describing it in the military periodical, Army Ordnance, Pennell explained its function was the bombardment of enemy reserves, supply dumps, and communications far behind war-time lines of battle.
The gun weighs 30,765 lb., or about 15 tons, and is mounted on a 10-wheel, pneumatic-tired carriage capable of a top speed of 12 m.p.h.
Colonel Pennell said it has a horizontal arc of fire of 360° and a vertical arc from zero to plus 65°. The hundred-pound projectile is interchangeable with that provided for the shorter-range howitzer of the same caliber. A normal charge of powder gives a range of 18,000 yd. (about 10 m.) and a supercharge a maximum range of 25,000 yd.
The initial test shot was fired by Battery C of the Thirty-sixth Field Artillery at Fort Bragg, and was followed by other rounds which fell “with satisfactory precision.”
The army’s standard 155-mm. howitzer weighs only about 8½ tons and has half the range of the new field gun.
U. S. Military Preparedness
United Services Review, June 1 (by Air Commodore L. E. O. Charlton).—News from the United States, as represented in the British press, points persistently to increased activity with respect to military preparedness, and it is quite evident that the next occasion of a world war is not to catch our transatlantic cousins napping. An Inter-Departmental Committee has recently reported to the President on the deficiency of skilled labor in the aircraft industry, pointing out that the number of some 40,000, which at present represents the man power available, should immediately be more than doubled.
The report even goes a long step farther by peering into the future and suggesting that the figure of 100,000, at which the normal peace-time requirement is thus put, will need a four- or sixfold increase in time of war. Thereupon a scheme is indicated which proposes that the industry should co-operate with vocational schools and governmental agencies to train men to a necessary skill both for immediate and for future purposes.
Military preparedness in the United States more and more connotes air power, and, as is fully to be expected, the Panama Canal Zone remains the tender spot. The Caribbean approaches to this vital waterlink between two oceans, the destruction of which could halve American sea power at a single stroke, are more easily capable of an air defense than the corresponding area on the Pacific side. Puerto Rico, for instance, which has just been denominated as a military area, is ideally situated to act as guard, flanked as it is by Guantanamo at the eastern end of Cuba to the west, and by the Virgin Islands to the east, both of which are already constituted as air bases. Jacksonville, Pensacola, and Corpus Christi are also handily placed as air bases to play a part in Caribbean operations, and are easily re-enforceable from the eastern air stations farther to the north. Any hostile threat from that particular quarter of the compass could be effectively countered by the combined sea and air power which is regionally available. But on the other, the Pacific side, it is a different story.
It is not fully appreciated that Panama is locally to be considered as belonging to the east. It lies, in fact, almost in the same longitude as New York and is well to the east of Florida. It is a continuation of the coast line, running from Alaska to Colombia, the trend of which is sharply in a southeasterly direction, with an even more pronounced curve away from Mid-Pacific, where Mexico begins. There are few possibilities of air base sentinels in the waters near by, while the fact of its detachment from the mainland of the United States, with all of Central America intervening, necessarily means that convenient localities for siting both naval and air bases for the better defense of the canal are not available in its vicinity.
It is a weakness, for the Mid-Pacific islands belonging to the United States equipped for defense in a strategical relationship with Panama are thousands of miles away, and thus a stretch of water about the size of the North Atlantic Ocean is left free and open to the raider determined on destruction, and largely capable, by means of long-distance flying, of escaping observation as he prosecutes his mission. A large number of these distant islands are established as air bases, and additional credits have been furnished lately for their strengthening, and they do indeed form an outpost position in mid-ocean which an enemy coming from the west could not possibly discount. But they cannot directly protect the Canal from air attack for the reason already mentioned. Kaneohe, in Oahu, for instance, is 4,711 miles from Panama, with Pearl Harbor and Palmyra, farther to the south, about the same. Rose Island, in Samoa, Canton Island, and Johnston are farther off still, while Guam, Wake, and Midway are practically off the map in this respect.
There is a method by which the disadvantages of the situation can be overcome, and that is by the adaptation of leased territory for the purpose. The Cocos Isles, which belong to Costa Rica, are eminently suitable, and so are the Galapagos, in the ownership of Ecuador. The harbor of Acapulco, in Guerrero Province, Mexico, is another possibility, though not quite so handy for the purpose as the two aforementioned. But to acquire these and suchlike places, even though it were for a common purpose of defense againt aggression which would involve all Pan-America, bespeaks a solidarity of opinion and a mutual endeavor which are very far at present from being realized. The efforts, moreover, of the Anti-Comintern triangle, Germany, Japan, and Italy, who have already gained economical and political footholds in the Republics roundabout, would be forcibly directed to oppose the projects. The governments of the United States and Mexico are estranged over the matter of oil and land expropriation in the latter country, a nation extremely jealous of her soil. Careful and very tactful exploration over a long period would be necessary before an accommodation could be brought about.
The possibility remains, however, and there has been considerable discussion about it. It hardly appears to be in accordance with common sense that the acquisition of the islands should be grudged by their owners to a power so strong already, and thereby made so much stronger, that she could defend herself, and them as well, with a surety that would make of the Monroe Doctrine an alliance instrument instead of being a vague cloak of protection. It may even come to this, that the United States will waive aside objection on the plea of stern necessity and elect to follow the rough-and-ready road of occupation rather than continue under a weakness which might undo her. That, however, is sheer prophecy.
FRANCE
The Modern Fleet of Our Ally—France
United Services Review, June 1 (by Sir Herbert Russell).—The French Navy does not bulk very largely in British national interest these days. From time to time it comes into the news in an episodical manner, so to speak. But the interest exists in this country all right, and the reason why it is comparatively undemonstrative is because it is of the diametrically opposite character from the concern which attaches to announcements about the Axis Navies. People commonly show more active attention to what they distrust than to what they feel to be “all right.” When they read about German warships exercising in the vicinity of Gibraltar they were suspicious, and said so; when they read of French warships at Gibraltar itself they felt quietly satisfied about it, and because it seemed one of those things which might have been taken for granted in the circumstances there really was not much to say.
This “taken for granted” feeling has a curious tendency to minimize the impression of value. If the French Navy happened to be ranged on the other side national opinion in this country would find it a much more powerful force than it appears because it is ranged on our side. Difference in the angle of viewpoint materially affects the sense of proportion. Those of us who are old enough to recall the French Navyin pre-Entente days will remember that public interest was much more attracted by the warships of “the hereditary enemy” than it nowadays is by the corresponding warships of “our firm ally.”
Yet the world events which have changed hereditary enmity into a close mutual friendship confer an importance to ourselves upon the sea power of France such as it has never approached since the Entente began, more than three decades ago. Popular opinion fully realizes that if the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis were to act in concert in the Mediterranean and the Pacific they might well succeed in giving the British Navy more than it could hope to tackle effectively at one and the same time. But it is a curious fact that in measuring what would be against the British Navy in such an event popular opinion so seldom seeks the consolation it should find by realizing what would certainly be with the British Navy.
It is to be hoped that the recent visit of French battleships and destroyers to Gibraltar and their lengthy stay over a rather acute spasm of tension will have had the effect of producing a more general sense of true proportion. Naturally, we should not expect Japan to admit that the action of the United States in concentrating her battle fleet in the Pacific zone was a decisive influence in her reply to Herr Hitler that she did not contemplate fighting Axis battles in her part of the world, but at any rate there was her decision following upon the orders to the American Fleet.
Less still should we expect any admission from Germany that the action of the French Department of Marine in dispatching a strong squadron to Gibraltar and keeping it there had any influence whatever upon the program of the large mixed Nazi fleet which came nosing into Spanish waters. The fact remains that there was well-founded reason for anticipating a defiant demonstration of “fraternity” by Italian and German warships in the Western Mediterranean, and that nothing of the sort happened.
With the establishment and growth of Fascism the expansion of the Italian Navy has been on a relatively larger scale than in the case of the French Navy. Rivalry between the two great Mediterranean naval powers did not assume a concrete form, however, until the creation of the “Axis,” with the doctrine of “power politics.” France had for so long regarded herself as the dominant Mediterranean sea power that she was rather lulled into persisting in this belief when it was beginning to lose its substance.
Probably one explanation was that, despite their political differences, the Latin sisters had not regarded one another with real hostility until Herr Hitler roped in Signor Mussolini, and the joint dictatorship became an arrogant threat to world peace. By this time, however, the Italian Navy had very materially lessened the numerical superiority of the French Navy. Even during the Abyssinian War France was palpably anxious to maintain friendly relations with Italy, and M. Laval, while professedly supporting the policy of “sanctions,” was pretty successful in evasion.
Since the Great War France has been fortunate in her Ministers of Marine— more so, perhaps, than in her politicians, who have influenced the programs upon which these Ministers had to work. Seeing how our own government—or rather successive governments—allowed the British Navy to languish for years in the confiding belief that out of such good example international disarmament would follow, we can scarcely blame the French government for doing very much the same thing. But if the Ministry of Marine was “pared to the bone” so as to give Geneva the fullest chance, it has at least built well within the restrictions of the long, lean years.
The two battle cruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg are invaluable vessels. During the German naval exercises in Spanish waters the squadron to which these French ships belong paid a visit to Lisbon. They did not go to Gibraltar; that, perhaps, would have been a needless gesture, but they were at sea sufficiently “handy” to Gibraltar to quietly stress their immediate availability to co-operate with the British naval forces. Vessels of 26,500 tons, carrying eight 13-in. and sixteen 5.1-in. guns apiece, with a full-power speed of well over 30 knots, they are vastly superior to the German pocket battleships or to anything which the Italian Navy can yet put forth.
Since 1922 France has completed 12 cruisers, all of the 6 in.-gun type, ranging between the Emile Bertin, of 5,886 tons, capable of 34 knots, and the Marseillaise class, of 7,600 tons and 31 knots. Since 1925 she has completed 7 more cruisers of 10,000 tons, averaging 32 knots and carrying eight 8-in. guns apiece. But the most conspicuous example of French naval building activity during the past 15 years has been the production of 32 contre-torpilleurs (which our own Admiralty regard as light cruisers), many of which have accomplished phenomenal speeds. These range between the Chacal type of 1923, of 2,126 tons, engined to 50,000 s.h.p. and carrying five 5.1-in. guns, and the Mogador type of 1934, of 2,884 tons, 80,000 s.h.p. and five 5.4-in. guns. The tactical value of such vessels needs no laboring.
In submarine strength France has not sought to maintain the position which she was claiming down to a few years ago as “the world’s premier submarine power.” But in the Surcouf, completed in 1932, she still possesses the biggest ocean-going submersible, of 2,880 tons displacement, carrying two 8-in. guns.
France has six middle-aged battleships as against Italy’s four. The two belated 35,000-ton battleships of the latter power still seem a long way from being ready for service. The great bulk of the French Fleet is stationed in the Western Mediterranean, a plan which well suits the British outlook. The present-day training of the French Navy is definitely good, and it is true to say that the all-round standard of efficiency was never higher. The naval air service leaves a good deal to be desired, and here the advantage is on the side of the Italian Navy. While comparison is difficult owing to the innumerable qualifying factors on both sides, I believe it would come as near as possible to the truth to say that the two services are pretty evenly matched in material strength.
It is hardly necessary to say that this is not an attempt to present a complete picture of French sea power, but merely to indicate the lines of modern development in that Navy. These lines have led to the production of a fleet of first-class fighting efficiency. Of the French naval personnel it is difficult to speak in terms of comparative assessment, because the value of the human element remains imponderable until put to the test of war. That it would give a fine account of itself there can be no manner of doubt whatever.
France Claims Supremacy in Quality of Submarines
United Services Review, June 1.—The French submarine force, our Paris correspondent writes, comprises in service 30 ocean submarines of 1,500–2,000 tons. In addition she has the giant Surcouf, 9 rebuilt submarines of the Morse type of 1,000–1,420 tons that are efficient for long-range patrol work, 31 coast defense submarines of 600–800 tons, and 6 submarine mine layers of 670–910 tons—altogether 77 units, all in good fighting trim. There are in the building stage five ocean-going submersibles of improved type—Morillot, La Praya, Reunion, Martinique, and Guadeloupe, of 1,610–2,300 tons—and seven enlarged coastal submarines, 3 of which (Aurore, Ceres, Pallas) will be available this year, in addition to a mine layer, Emeraude.
Four other coastal submarines, marking a further technical advance on those now in service, have just been ordered under the 1938 program. Thus, in service or building, the French Navy List includes 93 underwater craft. It is no secret that the Paris Service Technique has prepared an economical, though efficient, type of coast defense submarine of about 300 tons, of robust and simple construction, designed for quick building. In that line, too, Gallic inventive genius can hold its own with the Teutonic, and it is a welcome fact that under the impulse of Minister Campinchi, who knows how to be at the same time firm and kind, the output of French arsenals and shipbuilding yards shows every month a gradual, uninterrupted increase.
It is well realized here that further efforts will be needed to regain the numerical advance of Italy, who has ordered over 60 submarines within the last 4 years. Mussolini declared in April, 1938, that the Italian submarine fleet was the first in the world. With French arsenals working up to 60 hours per week and with similar technical methods Minister Campinchi means for our submarine production to compete on equal terms with the Italian.
Moreover, French officers of the submarine service are confident of having retained the supremacy for quality. It is doubtful if there are in service in any Navy ocean craft at all comparing for efficiency with the 30 “sousmarins de première classe” of the Agosta type, built within the last 10 years, gradually, methodically improved, yet homogeneous in every respect and which are being used, as a matter of routine, as submarine cruisers. The fine cruise which the 2,000-ton British submarine Thames has accomplished around the African continent is a sort of performance that, under the leadership of our energetic First Sea Lord, Admiral Darlan, has been classical in the French naval service for the last 4 years. Since January, 1935, when the Pieros and Glorieux were sent on a 17,000- mile errand to the Far East, submarines of that class have been, every 3 months as a rule, ordered out in pairs to carry out training cruises of 5 or 6 months’ duration, sometimes more, in all parts of the world, Indo-China, Madagascar, West Indies, Camerun, or Congo being the most frequent ultimate destinations.
The 30 vessels of that class have all been submitted, once or several times, to those hard tests accomplished, under strictly war conditions, without the least accident, and without a hitch, their homecoming being invariably marked by realistic maneuvers with the fleet with a view to showing that material and crews are none the worse for the prolonged efforts they have sustained.
It is the experience of the real thing that governs present Gallic submarine construction and training and accounts for the long-range ocean cruises of the 1,500–2,000- ton vessels, and especially of the Surcouf. This giant submarine, inspired from the British XI, has proved a complete success, Her endurance of at least 13,000 miles, her speed of 19 knots, her habitability, her two 8-in. guns in a turret, her 13 tubes and 36 torpedoes, together with her armored deck, render her a formidable instrument of ocean surprise, especially in the Atlantic where she accomplishes every year extensive cruises.
GERMANY
"Neutrality of the Baltic”
United Services Review, May 25.—With such a vast amount of diplomatic speechmaking and writing as is nowadays in progress it is small wonder that confusion is the occasional result. The announcement that, as a counterblast to the alleged British policy of “encirclement” of Germany, Herr Hitler was attempting “to establish the neutrality of the Baltic” is a case in point. As is generally known, the Nazi government, bent upon trying to out-maneuver President Roosevelt, made approaches to various Baltic States on the subject of pacts of nonaggression.
To give an appearance of good will to these proposals the Reich notified a qualified consent, after 4 months of deliberation, to the joint demand of Sweden and Finland for recognition of their right to fortify the Aland Islands. A pact of nonaggression would obviously assure the neutrality of the country with which it was concluded towards a joint signatory power which might be at war. As this was already the predetermined policy of the various Baltic States approached by Germany, it is not easy to see exactly what is accomplished by a “pact” confirming the obvious, so far as the Baltic States are concerned.
The German and Russian Fleets are the dominating forces in the Baltic. The other countries come into the list of minor sea powers. Sweden continued trading with Germany during the Great War—there was no reason why she should not—and sent her much-needed iron ore. British submarines operated to check these imports, with a very considerable measure of success. On the other hand, Norway traded with this country, and her shipping suffered severely.
The extensive misuse of neutral flags by the Germans added to the difficulties of the British Navy, which was very much more punctilious in this matter. If all this juggling with “nonaggression pacts” will really do anything to relax the tension over Europe then let the good work continue up to the very hilt. Should war unhappily come the neutrality of weaker powers will be respected just as little as “military necessity” dictates, and scraps of paper count for as much as the leaves of Vallambrosa. The phrase “neutrality of the Baltic” is ridiculous.
German Naval Designs
United Services Review, May 25.—Apart from a certain feeling of contempt for the manner of doing it, the general feeling evoked in British naval circles by Herr Hitler’s renunciation of the Anglo-German Naval Treaty appears to be one of complete indifference. No doubt this was due to a sense that the intolerable state of tension could not go on much longer and must come to a climax, one way or the other, long before anything which the German shipyards could possibly accomplish would appreciably affect the relative positions of British and German sea power.
Since the signing of the treaty in 1936 German warship construction had proceeded along quite normal lines, mainly to be accounted for by the fact that the efforts of German rearmament were strenuously concentrated upon the equipment of the Army and Air Force. With a bare sufficiency of raw materials for the manufacture of guns, tanks, and aircraft the Nazi government had to be satisfied with comparatively leisurely progress in its naval yards.
On the whole, indeed, the feeling in the Navy appears to be that Herr Hitler’s denunciation of the treaty was rather a good thing than otherwise. It put an end to that exchange of information as to new building or to any possible obligation on the part of the Admiralty to scrap certain ships, such as had been suggested. There is little doubt that Berlin was passing on to Tokyo all the details it received from London, whereas Tokyo is consistently refusing to disclose to London what is going on, or proposed, in the Japanese shipyards.
The expectation is that Germany will now concentrate upon submarine construction as constituting the most effective form of threat against Great Britain. But it has yet to be revealed that Germany intends to start a race of sea armaments against Great Britain, at any rate until she is quite certain that there is no hope of negotiations for another naval agreement which apparently the Führer considers as quite the natural sequence to tearing up an existing treaty.
Various Notes
Depot ships continue to be added to the German Fleet. Following the launch of the Wilhelm Bauer last December, a sister-ship, the Valdemar Kophamle, took the water last month. Both are to be parent ships to submarine flotillas, as will the purchased vessel Erwin Wassner. The Tanga, completed recently, will be a depot ship for motor torpedo boats.
The Samoa, which was acquired and added to the fleet last year, has been renamed Mars on being assigned for duty as a tender to the Gunnery School. The Johann Wittenborg, originally a mine sweeper, has been modified for use as a surveying vessel and renamed Sundewall, while a sister-ship, the Hela, has been renamed Gazallé. Another mine sweeper of this type, M. 107, is now named Von der Gröben and is doing duty as a tender. A trawler recently purchased has been named Spree and attached to the Submarine Training Establishment.
The ex-Austrian motor launches of the Enns type, on the Danube, have been rerated as river mine sweepers and numbered F.H.R. 1 to 6. —The Navy, June.
GREAT BRITAIN
Seaworthiness of Big Armored Ships
United Services Review, June 8.—The experience of the battle cruiser Repulse during her return passage after escorting the King and Queen halfway across the Atlantic has raised the question as to the “seaworthiness” of very big armored ships. The Repulse encountered a strong blow and at times her quarter-deck was awash. During this “sousing” a grating was torn adrift. A party of seamen were detailed to secure it, but by the time this was done half a dozen of them had sustained injuries.
As an incident of Atlantic voyaging the thing is trivial enough. It is the picture of the quarter-deck awash which awakens interest in the nautical mind. And this interest will take the form of speculation as to the relationship between size and weight and seaworthiness. This latter term has a much wider meaning than its application to safety. A very buoyant vessel may be a most uncomfortable sea boat in comparison with a comparable ship of much slower motion in a seaway, and yet may be the “safer” of the two.
The three battle cruisers of the Royal Navy are very wet ships aft in dirty weather, the Hood being the worst of the three. This is entirely due to the fact that, relative to their dimensions, they are of low freeboard aft. The present writer has made a voyage in the Renown from England to Japan and home again. In crossing the Indian Ocean during the monsoon the cascading of water around the after turret kept the quarter-deck practically deserted. Yet the sea was not heavy in the sense in which a sailor would use the word.
But the “seaworthiness” of the 32,000-ton battle cruiser was demonstrated by comparing her behavior with that of her escorting cruiser, of 4,200 tons. The Renown rose and fell with slow, easy movements, while the Cairo was performing wild antics, flinging up her bows until the whole of her forefoot was visible, and then crushing her nose down into the white smother in great style to watch.
The question of stability in a warship primarily interests the naval officer from the point of view of steadiness of the gun platform. Under the conditions just referred to it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for the Cairo to fight her guns, whereas the Renown would have had but little trouble from the same cause. Naval architecture these days has been developed to such an exact science that the safety of warships built for deep-sea service is really never in question. Thus when a naval man refers to a warship as “a rotten sea boat” he does not mean that she is unsafe in heavy weather. It certainly was not always so during the era of steam and iron.
Those with sufficiently long memories will recall the sensation caused in the country by the performances of the old Royal Sovereign class of battleships, designed by Sir Wm. White in the early nineties under the Naval Defence Act of 1889. These ships behaved so wildly in bad weather that there arose a great outcry against sending men to sea in vessels so palpably unsafe. They were temporarily withdrawn from service and fitted with immense bilge keels, which served to steady them.
The fine lines and high speed of the modern warship are not qualities that make for weatherliness. Yet it is a somewhat contradictory fact that the destroyer and the light cruiser, as types, are excellent sea boats. British naval designers have consistently aimed at keeping top-weight down to a bare minimum. In comparison with various foreign warships of corresponding categories our light warships have incurred the criticism of being under gunned; but it has never been suggested that they compare unfavorably in stability.
The great armored ship is not easily stirred into heavy laboring owing to her big dimensions, but “once she starts” her enormous weight keeps her going for a long time after the cause of the disturbance has passed. It is roughly estimated that a battleship of the Queen Elizabeth type, which has been rolling 10°, will take about three-quarters of an hour in losing her pendulum-like momentum after coming to anchor in smooth water.
Unified Air Control
London Times, May 24.—Today, nearly two years after the Prime Minister’s announcement that the government had decided to make the change, the Admiralty assumes full administrative control of the Fleet Air Arm, and the dual control of that force, shared between the Admiralty and the Air Ministry, comes to an end. The outward and visible signs of this change are two. Certain officers of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines relinquish the commissions in the Royal Air Force which they have hitherto held in addition to their naval rank; and five Royal Air Force stations are transferred to the Navy as “Naval Air Stations,” to be commanded by naval officers, manned by naval ratings, co-ordinated and administered by a flag officer. The real effect of the change, however, is much more far-reaching than these signs would seem to indicate. No longer will units of the Fleet Air Arm, which have always been integral parts of the Fleet in the sense that the Fleet could not attain full fighting efficiency without them, pass under the full control, administrative and disciplinary, of a non-naval service whenever they land on an aerodrome. No longer will the technical administration of the Fleet Air Arm be hampered by the necessity of being conducted through the tortuous channels of two government departments instead of one. These fruitful sources of inter-service misunderstanding, jealousy, and friction, are now eliminated.
The steps announced today, however, are only a beginning; the transfer is not yet complete. It will take time for the Navy to train all the officers and men it needs to replace those of the Air Force now serving in the Fleet Air Arm; and for some time it must rely upon the loan of the latter. The Air Force, on the other hand, occupied with the colossal task of expanding to meet the needs of the day, and thus anxious to reclaim its personnel still serving afloat, has every motive for assisting the Navy in the creation of the force which will replace and release them. Even from the narrowest point of view it is to the interest of each service to co-operate to the full. Thus a change which, on the face of it, would appear to be in the nature of a severance between two of the Defense Services should in reality effect an improvement in the real co-operation which is so essential to the efficiency of national defense as a whole.
Various Notes
In connection with the recent launch of the battleship Prince of Wales by the Princess Royal from the yard of Cammell Laird and Co., Ltd., the Admiralty announced the “principal features” of the new vessel. As these are precisely similar to the details given of her sister-ship King George V when she was launched by the King two months earlier, this official communicativeness conveyed little that was fresh. The statement that the ten 14-in. guns will be in 3 turrets confirms the expectation that one of these at least will be a quadruple turret, or possibly two, with the third a double turret.
The only reference to armor is the general announcement that the ship will be well protected against damage above water or below. Probably the most novel feature of the new class will be the disposition of their armor.
The “popular” details—as distinct from any technical revelations—are of general interest. The Prince of Wales and her four sister-ships will be propelled by the standard type of geared turbines, on 4 shafts, but there is no indication of the full-power speed which is expected. A hangar will be fitted, with a catapult for launching aircraft, but we are not told how many planes will be carried. The new pattern 5¼-in. guns in twin turrets, on high-angle mountings, of which the ships are to carry 16 apiece, seem rather on the heavy side for anti-aircraft weapons, but it may be taken for granted that there will be an adequate number of lighter weapons for this purpose.
Accommodation is provided for about 1,500 officers and men, the largest complement yet assigned to any British warship, with the exception of the new aircraft carriers. It is calculated that on their normal loadline these battleships will displace the full 35,000 tons of the London treaty limitation, and consequently be about 1,200 tons bigger than the two Nelsons. Every endeavor is to be made to pass the King George V and Prince of Wales into service by the late summer of next year, by which time the remaining three ships of the class will be in a very advanced stage of construction.—United Services Review, May 18.
Many claims are advanced on behalf of the new sights and correctors for automatic cannon of the 20-mm. to 40-mm. types by British Army enthusiasts. It is interesting to note that British authorities have arrived at the conclusion that individual tracer control is not satisfactory for automatic cannon. They apparently have concluded that a follow-the-pointer system is the solution of this problem.—Coast Artillery Journal, May-June.
ITALY
Hands Off Suez
New York Herald Tribune, June 7.—Back of the refusal of the Suez Canal Company to give Italy representation on its board is a history of business and international cross-relations stretching back for nearly a century. Italy’s demand for representation was largely the result of the fact that, thanks to the conquest of Ethiopia, Italy is now one of the principal users of the canal and pays a large amount in tolls each year. What the Italians wanted was to gain the principal control of the canal, and to be able to reduce tolls so that this item in Italy’s budget could be cut.
But the Suez Canal Company is an Egyptian concern, with more than half of the directorate composed of representatives of French stockholders. About 40 per cent of the stock is held by the British government which exercises a large influence over canal affairs, due to the fact that Great Britain is primarily responsible for the defense of the canal. But the complications do not end here, for the regulation of the canal is the subject of an international treaty, to which Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey, as well as France and Great Britain, are signatories, which provides that the canal must always be kept open to the ships of all nations on an equal basis, in war as in peace.
To make matters still more confused, the fact that the majority of the stock is owned by French investors gives the French government a preponderant influence over the French directors. It follows, therefore, that the French and British governments control the operation of a property, ownership of which is vested largely in private investors, and yet that these two governments cannot deal with the canal in a high-handed and arbitrary fashion. They cannot, for example, close the canal to Italian ships. But they have flatly rejected the Italian demand that Italy should be made the principal director.
That such a proposal should even have been made is an indication of the curious morality of the Fascist powers. Italy wanted a hand in the control of Suez. She did not have this under the ordinary law of corporations. So she put forward a proposal that was based on a complete disregard of property rights, and that rested on nothing more than Italy’s desire to control the canal. The company could not possibly have accepted the Italians’ demands without recognizing the principle that force should control in the ownership of property as well as in the conduct of national policy.
There is irony in the fact that Italy, which now claims such a preponderant interest in the Suez Canal, had nothing to do with its construction, and that Great Britain, which has benefited from the canal more than any other nation, originally tried to prevent the French from building the canal. But in fairness to the British it must be said that they have never failed to carry out their share of responsibility for the maintenance of the canal, and that even when they took over the virtual protectorate of the canal during the war they administered their trust faithfully. It looks as if Italy would have to continue to accept this state of affairs—which, incidentally, has never been in any way prejudicial to Italy’s own interests.
JAPAN
Chinese Air Force Wiped Out
Hochi, June 1.—The navy section of the Imperial Headquarters has issued a statement on the operations of the Japan’s Fleet in China waters since the outbreak of the China incident, according to which more than 1,500 Chinese planes have been shot down by the Japanese naval air force. The number of Japanese planes lost is put at 166. The number of Chinese planes destroyed during the first 5 months of this year is placed at slightly less than 100. The comparative smallness of the losses suffered by the Chinese air force at the hands of the Japanese naval airmen during the 5- month period is attributable to the fact that the main body of the Chinese air force was destroyed at the time of the fall of Hankow. At the moment, the Chinese are endeavoring to rebuild the air force. The number of war planes possessed by them today is put at 300. They expect to increase the force to 500 by August, when they are scheduled to receive planes built by American firms. Presumably they intend to launch the much heralded “August attacks” when their air force is re-enforced. We only wonder at the boldness of the Chinese who should think of staging another offensive after the complete failure at the April offensive. It would be a misnomer to call it a Chinese air force. It is officered by foreigners, and the machines are from Britain, America, and the Soviet Union. The air defense of China is a joint undertaking of the powers. No wonder there is no unity in the Chinese air force. The Japanese Army and naval airmen might well refuse to make much of a strengthened Chinese air arm.
Naval Expansion
Le Yacht, May 20.—Since the expiration of the treaty of Washington, the Japanese have expanded their Navy greatly with an air of mystery. They have refused to divulge any information whatsoever and have at the same time taken all they could get.
Of the 2 battleships laid down in 1938, little is known except that they will supposedly displace more than 40,000 tons, speed about 30 knots and armament of eight or nine 16-in. guns. There are unfounded rumors that 18-in. guns will be used. The 10 other battleships have been modernized, as likewise has been the heavy cruiser Hiyai, employed as a training ship since the treaty of London in 1930.
Aviation has received much attention and 2 new carriers have been laid and 1 launched in 1938. These are smaller than those being built in Europe.
Recent information says that 15 new 16,000-ton heavy cruisers have been projected. They will have an armament of eight 12-in. guns and a speed of 32 knots or better. The keels of 2 of these have already been laid. Of her 23 light cruisers, she has added 2 new ones captured from the Chinese. These 2 new ones, originally built in Japan, have a speed of 24 knots, a displacement of 5,000 tons and an armament of six 5½-in. guns and four 21-in. torpedo tubes. The English press has announced that there are five 7,000-ton cruisers under construction in various Japanese shipyards.
The first of the Mogami class light cruisers were unsuccessful in their trial runs, being extremely top-heavy. It is said that 1 of the 5 turrets has been removed to remedy this situation, thus reducing the number of guns from 15 to 12. It is definite that this class has experienced many delays before being accepted for service. The 10 destroyers of the Asasio class have been commissioned, carrying six 4.72-in. guns, 8 torpedo tubes, and displacing 1,500 tons. Ten others of a slightly larger type are under construction and 2 have been launched. There are 4 classes of Japanese submarines: eight 1,950-ton ocean-going boats, twenty-five 1,650- to 1,400-ton open sea boats, four 1,140-ton mine layers and 23 small coast defense submarines. There are rumors of the existence of a large fleet of very small coast defense submarines and there are under construction 8 large ones to displace 2,000 tons each. The officer and enlisted personnel have been greatly increased in the last few years. The Merchant Marine is not only as strong as that of any nation except England, but has more new fast ships than any nation.
U.S.S.R.
Soviet Sea Power
United Services Review, June 1.—The somewhat checkered conversations between the British and Russian governments on the subject of “anti-aggression” have given an accentuated interest to the mysterious topic of Soviet sea power. We say “mysterious” because the policy of Moscow in refusing all particulars of current shipbuilding programs for the past 4 years tends to make it so. Of the Russian Army we know that it is now well organized, largely mechanized, and apparently fully equipped, and when some 2 years ago British officers attended grand-scale maneuvers on the invitation of the Soviet government they were frankly impressed with all they saw.
What we do not know is the real strength of the new Russian Army, not indeed in man power, which is potentially enormous, but in reserves of armaments and equipment to enable these vast bodies of troops to take the field. In like manner we know that the Russian Air Force possesses most effective aircraft, but beyond the sketchy claim to be “the strongest in the world” we have no knowledge of numbers. Russian airmen have attained high repute for their efficiency.
But the Russian Navy these days is following the old proverb of “hiding its light under a bushel.” From time to time a gleam breaks through as when nearly 3 years ago it was announced that the Soviet had ordered from American firms all the component parts for 2 battleships of 35,000 tons, to be put together in Russian yards, and that the appropriate department had decided that the supply of this material need not constitute any violation of the United States neutrality laws.
What has become of these two shadow ships? Are they now taking shape in Soviet shipyards? This is just one of the interesting and important matters upon which Moscow keeps an inscrutable silence. The annual return of the fleets of the chief naval powers, issued by the Admiralty early in the present year, contains the following note: “As it is no longer the practice of the Government of the U.S.S.R. to furnish particulars for this purpose, all reference to the Soviet Navy has now been omitted.”
One natural result of this official reticence is to send those who are interested in the subject dipping into the last return before “all reference” was omitted. This credits Russia with a naval strength made up as follows: Underage ships in service— capital ships, 4; cruisers, 3; destroyers and torpedo boats, 6; submarines, 11; escort vessels, 2; minor craft, 6. Overage vessels in service—cruisers, 2; mine layers, 1; destroyers and torpedo boats, 11; submarines, 12; minor craft, 7. Ships building in 1937: “No details available.” Ships projected in 1937: “No program has been issued.”
There is no question that these particulars are correct as far as they go. The real point is how far do they go as a categorical summary of Soviet sea power? From time to time reference is made in the Russian press to the large number of submarines now concentrated at Vladivostok. Is this mere “eyewash?”
Both in the Black Sea and on the Neva the Soviet shipyards have been busily at work for a long time past. When, not long since, Stalin announced that Russia was going to build up a Fleet equal to that of the strongest naval power in the world nobody paid the least serious heed to such talk. Apart from the two battleships which may or may not be taking shape on Russian slips, the building programs are believed to consist of light cruisers, submarines, and torpedo boats, the types of craft most suitable to defense tactics.
The possibility of war with Japan is the dominating influence in Soviet naval policy, and while any idea of entering into a race of sea armaments with the island Empire must seem a hopeless task, efforts to strengthen the defenses of Vladivostok have been going on, unobtrusively but energetically, for some years past. A very large air force is concentrated at the base, and any attack by sea would encounter a regular network of mines and submarines. Whatever else might happen, the Russians do not intend that Vladivostok shall be surprised in the manner that Port Arthur was.
Navy to Increase Efficiency
London Times. Moscow, May 18.—The Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union publishes a decree making changes in the regulations governing compulsory service in the Navy, designed to increase its efficiency, especially in the higher ranks, which were badly depleted by the recent purges. The time of service in the Navy is raised from 4 to 5 years, and those who wish to serve longer will not be accepted for a further period of less than 3 years. The most important provision, however, is that those who have had secondary and higher education must serve the full 5 years; hitherto they have been able to obtain release after 2 years.
This means that the Navy will be favored at the expense of the other professions with the services of the educated classes. These already enter it later than others to allow them to complete their studies, but the decree will delay for a further 3 years the beginning of a professional career. Obviously civilian enterprise will suffer; but the Navy’s need of expert personnel is presumably considered more urgent.
The reason for this decree is the great program of naval expansion now in progress. Significant of the attention being given to the fleet is the recent appointment of a Naval Commissar, Admiral Kuznets-off, with a Naval Assistant Commissar.
The Soviet Union, as Izvestia says, has 26,700 miles of coast to guard, and the Pacific Fleet, only 5 years old, is now a formidable force.
In 1938 five times more construction was undertaken than in any previous year of the second Five-Year Plan, and the third Five-Year Plan promises even better. The Soviet Union is designed by history to be a great naval power, Izvestia says, and will have battleships by no means inferior to those of the largest capitalist powers.
Izvestia reports that a new squadron of Soviet-built warships took part in the spring exercises of the Baltic Fleet, just ended, and that the trials were most satisfactory.
OTHER COUNTRIES
China
A Japanese army estimate of losses in the Chinese war, which still officially retains the lighter character of an incident, acknowledges nearly 60,000 Japanese deaths, without mention of wounded, and puts the Chinese casualties at 2,300,000, accounting for nearly a million dead found on battlefields. This even if ineffective is stout fighting. There is spirit in it. The price the Chinese have paid for resistance to the superior equipment of the Japanese is comparable with the toll which broke the morale of the Russian Army in 1917.
Losses alone did not make the Russian ranks insubordinate and unwilling to fight. There was supply deficiency, incompetence in command, and a terrible state of affairs at home. However, it is true that the Chinese in all these respects have suffered still more. Their territory is more deeply penetrated than Russia’s even after the treaty of Brest. Their cities and their civilians have known more terror and panic. Whatever may have been the material assistance they received from Russia, of quality and quantity unknown abroad, it has been nothing like the volume of supply sent into Russia by the allies and later by America.
Furthermore disparity in weapons can be much greater now than it was in the World War and Japan has all the advantages. Still the Chinese are fighting on deep in the interior and Japan, although counting its gains, has not won the kind of a peace it wants. China has not wilted nor has Japan cracked financially. A fighting nation seldom does. But it is feeling the pinch. The Emperor is using a charcoal burning automobile as an example. So the probable end of the incident is remote and the outcome in most respects still speculative. In one respect it may already be definitive.
A nation which can put up such a fight against odds in all but man power cannot be expected, if it should regain sovereignty over its territory, to be as submissive to occidental possessiveness as it has been. If Japan had not interfered the other powers which have exercised overlord rights in Chinese territory would have had their quo warranto questioned. The European was a foreign devil before the Japanese came in. Russia, Germany, Great Britain, and France were about to divide the empire just before our Spanish war. If Japan should achieve a peace of Chinese exhaustion the occidentals must expect to have their prerogatives diminished. If China should achieve a peace of Japanese exhaustion the consequences will not be different. If they should have a peace of agreement it will be Asiatic and the occidental will not escape.
Events have so formulated moralities for certain European powers that their position in China has become more than equivocal. It is untenable. Even if they could assert the right by force to maintain a position inconsistent with nonaggression how could the United States without an equally great and less profitable hypocrisy support them? And why should the United States support them? Why should we withdraw from the Philippines and help keep the British in Hongkong, support the international settlement in Shanghai or the French in Tongking?—Chicago Tribune, June 5.
Denmark
Discussions are under way in Denmark to establish preparedness for defense of Danish neutrality, as has been discussed in other northern European countries. According to the defense bill of 1937, the Navy has a budget of 14,700,000 kronen, with an emergency grant of about 10,000,000 kronen more for new construction within 6 years of the order. It is now said that the bill will be immediately amended and provision made for the quick construction of torpedo boats and submarines.
In February, 1939, two 700-ton, 35-knot torpedo boats were begun at the government dockyard in Copenhagen. Their armament will be two 10- or 12-cm. guns, two 4-cm. anti-aircraft guns, 3 machine guns, six 53.3-cm. torpedo tubes in triple mounts, and 60 mines. The submarine Havkalen was launched on March 3, 1939, and is now in service. A fourth boat of this class, the Havhesten, is under construction at the government dockyard in Copenhagen. With the completion of these boats, the Danish submarine fleet will consist of 12 submarines having an aggregate tonnage of 3,333. In the past year were also laid down 2 mine sweepers, Sölöven and Söulven, which will be followed in 1939 by the Söbjomen. As a successor for the survey ship Marstrand, which has served since 1921, the survey ship Freja was launched on December 22, 1938. The mine layer Lindomen of 500 tons is planned as a successor to the mine layer Lossen and a fishery protecting ship as successor to the ship Islands Falk.—Marine-Rundschau, April.
Finland
The Finnish Fleet is constituted principally of old hulks. In 1936 only 89 steamers were less than 20 years old and motorships constituted only 3 per cent of the whole. But for some time there has been agitation to renew the fleet. The value of naval material rose in 1936 to 9,055 million Finnish marks in contrast to 8,058 in 1935 and 7,559 in 1934. In 1938 the value increased 30 per cent. The earnings of the Merchant Marine rose in 1936 to 8,245 million Finnish marks, of which 680 million was from trade in merchandise and 473 million from passengers— in contrast to 7,382 million in 1935.—Rivista Marittima, May.
Netherlands
The 2 cruisers ordered recently by Holland have the following characteristics: Displacement, 8,350 tons; expected speed, 33 knots; 8 canister-shot guns; 2 triple torpedo tubes; 2 catapults; ten 5.9-in. guns. The first will be begun in September of 1941, the second before the end of the same year.—Rivista Marittima, May.
Holland’s fleet consists of 3 cruisers, 8 destroyers, 14 torpedo boats, 11 submarines of the first class, 12 submarines of the second class, 3 coast guard boats, 1 training ship, 6 gunboats, 4 river gunboats, 17 mine layers, 16 mine sweepers, 2 official boats, and 1 torpedo motorboat. There are under construction 2 cruisers, 4 destroyers, 8 submarines, and 3 gunboats.—Rivista Marittima, May.
Poland
Two submarines of 1,175 tons have been ordered from Chantiers et Ateliers Augustin Normand, Le Havre. The Polish Navy already includes 3 submarines of Normand design; the Wilk, Rys, and Zbik (names which mean wolf, lynx, and wildcat, respectively), as well as 2 built recently in the Netherlands, the Orzel and Sep (eagle and vulture).—The Navy, June.
Spain
The following is condensed from “Lessons of the War with Spain” by Colonel Rudolph von Xylander, German military expert:
- Aviation.—Fast planes were found to overreach their targets. Speed meant larger fields which were not available. Bombing from the air failed to demoralize civilian populations.
- Anti-aircraft artillery.—Anti-aircraft guns made an excellent showing. The moral effects on attacking planes were particularly notable.
- Tanks.—Too few tanks were used to shed much light on the question of whether or not they can be used to break up “wars of position” and restore mobility to modern warfare. Light tanks were less effective than heavier models and infantry won some success against tanks with hand grenades. Transport was inadequate and was used improperly. Little use was made of the principle of mobility.
- Infantry.—Infantry must be used as combat units and not be burdened too heavily with munitions for machine guns and field pieces. The pack was reduced to the haversack to meet the complaint that infantry was too burdened to fight.
And, in substance, what has been learned is that, in war, airplanes and tanks will help, but it is still necessary to have soldiers.—Command and General Staff School Military Review, June.
AVIATION
Magic Carpet
New York Herald Tribune, June 20.—The dramatic feature of the flight of the Atlantic Clipper to Lisbon seems to be that it was humdrum. Call this a paradox, but the fact remains that what thrilled us all in reading of this air voyage, pioneering passenger service by plane to Europe, was the smoothness of its operation and the ordinary luxuries it afforded. Thirty persons, including the crew, soared aloft from Port Washington, L. I., Saturday afternoon and landed in Portugal Sunday evening (still in the afternoon, according to our time), serenely enjoying every comfort en route and without a bump to remind them that they had left terra firma. Just a case of the magic carpet translated from The Arabian Nights to modern experience.
The sad part of it is that few of us are surprised. We take for granted these miracles of human ingenuity, as we do, on the obverse of the coin, the equally arresting aberrations of the same spirit manifest in the totalitarian will to destruction. Rigid organization, backed by science and invention, account for both, and for better or worse we are used to it.
But in the case of the Atlantic Clipper's performance the credit belongs, significantly enough, to the organization of private enterprise. It is by no means fair to draw a hard-and-fast line, but on looking over the fantastic world in which we live today isn’t it possible to say that characteristic of private enterprise is the benevolence of its objects and achievements, while the reverse is true of collective effort? At all events, the Atlantic Clipper's flight speaks volumes for the democratic system as developed in this country, whose encouragement of private initiative made possible that extraordinary servant of progress and good will, the Pan-American Airways.
For a parallel to its conquest of the air lanes linking the hemispheres one must go back a century to the days when our clipper ships dominated the seas in friendly rivalry with the best of other maritime nations. They succumbed to steam and to the simultaneous concentration of American interest in the settlement of the West. But now, with our attention turned outward once more and in another medium, we seem in a fair way to repeat the triumphs of that golden era. Pan-American long since linked us by air with the Caribbean and with Central and South America in a grip which no foreign competitor is likely to break. It has established a regular service to the Philippines and China, and promises soon to provide one to New Zealand. It has given us an enormous head start in the race for sky-born commerce.
And it has done so by coupling those infinite pains to promote efficiency and safety which commercial aviation demands with the vision of private enterprise. As the organization has pushed back its horizons it has felt its way step by step, constantly stimulating experiment for the improvement of its equipment while developing an operating personnel equal in every way to the ships. The combination was perfectly reflected in the precision with which the Atlantic Clipper hopped to the Azores and thence to Lisbon in 23 hours and 50 minutes.
We may expect this time between the two continents to be bettered when weather conditions, possibly later in the summer, permit the shorter northern route to be flown. There, apparently, the threat of ice coating the wings still lingers. Meanwhile sufficient to the moment is the wonder of a passage to Europe in full comfort and security consuming a day and a night.
An Unusual Fighter
London Times, May 27.—A fighter airplane which looks more like a racing aircraft, with the pilot nearer the tail than the nose, is apt to arouse prejudice in those who hold the orthodox ideas on forward view and outlook. Similarly an airplane which must needs put its tail down almost on the ground to get itself into the air is likely to be looked at askance by those concerned with the training of young pilots for the R.A.F. The Martin-Baker low-wing fighter, which was flown at Heston yesterday, has both these characteristics; yet its pilot did things with it near the ground which showed that the outlook from the cockpit must be adequate and his control at the take-off was so positive that one is forced to accept the steeplechasing style of take-off in this aircraft as safe.
It may be allowed that the new fighter was being flown by one of the finest pilots in the country. Captain V. H. Baker, as a teacher of novices, stood for years in a class of his own. Yesterday he showed himself a test pilot of similar coolness and judgment. He opened his display of the new fighter with a vertical dive from 10,000 ft. The speed was something more than 400 miles an hour—how much more he could not tell because the airspeed indicator showed no more than that. He began to flatten out at 1,000 ft. and drove across the airdrome confidently at about 200 ft. Questioned afterward, he explained that he eased back the throttle at 1,500 ft. until the speed was “only 380 miles an hour,” and then began to pull out of the dive.
It is rare to see a fast airplane recover so quickly from a dive, and it is equally rare to see a racing monoplane turned in such tight circles within the confines of the airdrome as this was afterwards turned. Furthermore, the pilot’s aim at the little band of onlookers was perfect, and therefore it is to be concluded that the forward view when the aircraft is in the flying attitude is good. On the tight turns the pilot’s outlook plainly is past the trailing edge of the wing, but control in such maneuvers is also good, or a pilot like Captain Baker would not have been doing vertical banks within 50 ft. of the ground. All of this is remarkable in an aircraft which has no dihedral angle to the wing as a cource of inherent stability and has no fin to speak of.
The aircraft is the more remarkable as the work of a designer who has produced only one previous airplane. Mr. J. Martin, the chairman of the company, is also its engineer and designer. He designed one other airplane about 4 years ago, and that was a small model intended to prove a new method of construction rather than to try new ideas in design. He has gone straight from that to the single-seater fighter which likewise establishes the new form of construction with the improvements of 4 years’ work and propounds several daring ideas in design. He has been fortunate in finding the Napier Dagger (1,000 hp.) engine to suit the slim shape of his fuselage and save him from the complication of a radiator. A short span and clean lines have led to speed comparable with that of certain aircraft which have retractable undercarriages.
This fighter has not even got a variable-pitch airscrew. It has many advantages which, in the present state of its development, may not be cited. Among the advantages which may be mentioned are those of easy construction, maintenance, and repair. In this it is well mated with the Dagger engine. The system of construction widens the possible field of manufacture greatly. Even the design, with plenty of room to spare at the nose, seems likely to lend itself to the use of a still more powerful engine. There may be no place in the Air Force for this particular fighter, but something similar, of still higher performance may well suit the future needs of the service. If that should happen it will represent a triumph for one of the youngest firms in the aircraft industry.
Pan-American Pioneers
New York Herald Tribune, May 20.— Coincidental with the expected sailing of the first transatlantic mail and passenger plane of the Pan American Airways comes word of the celebration in South America of the tenth anniversary of the first regular plane service south of Panama. This was inaugurated in 1929 by the Pan American-Race Airways, better known in that part of the world as the “Panagra.” At that time it took 9 days from New York to Buenos Aires via the west coast of South America. This has now been cut in half. Planes then were scheduled to run only once weekly. Now they run twice a week from Panama southward, with triweekly connections between Miami and Panama. In those days passengers were few and not much mail or express was carried. Today most planes are filled to capacity.
This story of steady growth under the most careful foresighted planning is exemplified in the transpacific schedules of the Pan American. It is characteristic of the way this organization works that the development was deliberately slow, making plenty of tests and providing all possible safeguards and conveniences before public service was undertaken. Today the China Clippers have become essential factors in transpacific communications. If all goes well, a service will soon be opened to New Zealand. Already a special plane connection with Alaska has been established.
The public’s primary interest is in the equipment—in such details as the size and accommodations of the new giant air liners with a seating capacity of 72 persons. But important as is the technical development, and invaluable as are the new inventions which are being successfully applied to aviation, everything depends in the final analysis upon the personnel. In this field the Pan American and the Panagra have distinguished themselves. They have chosen the best men—and women—that they could find, and have given them the most careful possible training, and maintained their morale at a high pitch.
Not only are the pilots and assistants young Americans of the best type, but even the managers and foremen of the aviation fields in foreign countries have been selected in the United States because of their character and fitness. Today, throughout nearly all of South America, for example, at the air fields used by the Pan American and by the Pan American- Grace Airways, the men in the leading postions were born and trained in the United States. They are men of whom every American citizen may well be proud. Filled with a deep sense of responsibility and with a high consciousness of service, they inspire confidence and respect.
The Pan American and its Panagra affiliate have done the work of pioneers. They have, literally speaking, opened up new countries and brought formerly separated parts of the world into close connection. Once South America was mastered, they stretched out across the Pacific. Now that this has been conquered, they are planning to establish the Atlantic route on a regular schedule. For such men no frontiers exist—either geographical or economic. In more ways than one, the sky is the limit.
Various Notes
There is a possibility that ere long we may see the advent of the steam-driven aircraft. Twenty years ago the Americans were experimenting in this direction, and, in fact, a steam-driven airplane has been flown in that country. But evidently it did not promise well, for no signs of development followed on the flight. Probably the experts were discouraged by the weight of the boiler tubes in relation to the production of horsepower and saw no future for the type.
Now a Mr. E. Clarkson, of London, has devised a boiler which is only three-quarters of the cylinder capacity required and at once the idea becomes a practical consideration. There are many obvious reasons why such a motive power would have a great advantage over petrol, not the least of which would be the absence of all fire risk. Not immediately, but some day soon, it is safe to prophesy, steam-driven aircraft will make their commercial bow to a wondering world.
German aviation, it seems, is tumbling over itself to surpass its own speed records. No sooner has one pilot put on record a speed of no less than 463.39 miles an hour than he is promptly eclipsed by another who shoves the figure up another six and creates a record of 469.11. This latter flight was achieved by Herr Fritz Wendel on a fighter of the type Messerschmitt Me. 109 R, powered by a Mercedes-Benz engine of 1,875 hp., driving an all-metal airscrew. It is a new type of fighter and replaces, it is presumed, the Bf. 109 produced by the same firm, which was powered by an engine of 950 hp. and was reputed to possess a maximum speed of 315 miles an hour. It is a great advance and the new production will decidedly have the legs of our own Hawker Hurricane, with its 1,030-hp. engine and its speed of 335 miles an hour about. The seesaw proceeding is quite normal in aeronautical development, and it is fair to assume that we ourselves have more speed up our sleeves.
The jumping autogiro is at last in process of delivery to the services, the Fleet Air Arm, out of a batch of six, having taken, three, the Royal Air Force two, while the sixth remains with the manufacturing company for the time being for training and development. This C.40, as the type is called, is a two-seater fitted with 200-hp. Salmson engine. The rotor blades are engine-driven up to a rate of about 300 r.p.m., and when, at this speed, they are released they at once assume the angle of lift and jump the machine off the ground a height of 12 feet.
Such a machine can take off or land without any airdrome facilities whatever, and its military and naval uses are obvious. For the Army it is ideal for quick communication behind the front line whenever a verbal report is essential. For the Navy it is ideal for work with cruisers as an antisubmarine patrol and for a special kind of reconnaissance.—United Services Review, May 20.
It is reported that an illuminated landing strip, 1,100 yards long and 63 yards wide, is to be laid down on Croyden airport to assist pilots landing during fog. It will consist of two parallel lines of lights in strips of green, white, and red. The parallel lines will be made into a grid by cross lines of lights to mark the end of each pair of colored strips. A pilot approaching in fog will first see short lines of sodium and mercury lamps. The lines of green lights set in prolongation of these will be introduced by a crossbar of green lights. Fifteen such lights on each side at 50-ft. intervals will end in a cross line of white lights. Beyond that bar will come 8 pairs of white lights, then another white crossbar, and finally 15 pairs of red lights ending in a bar of red lights.—The Engineer, June 9.
Since 1934 the number of Russia’s airplanes has been increased 130 per cent. The greatest increases have been in heavy bombers and small fighters while other types have been proportionally neglected. The 3 classes are divided as follows: 20.6 per cent heavy bombers, 30 per cent fighters, and 26 per cent all other types. A total bomb load of 6,160 tons may be carried at one time (by all bombers). “It is not uncommon,” writes the paper Izvestia, “to find on our aviation fields bombers and fighters capable of making speeds well over 310 miles an hour.”—La Revue Maritime, May.
MERCHANT MARINE
U. S. Building Safest Liners
Baltimore Evening Sun, May 4. Washington.—Somebody ought to get an Atlantic blue riband for a ship now being built down at Newport News. It would not be for speed or size because the vessel will not be the fastest or largest afloat. But it will be the safest, most comfortable, most scientific, and most intelligently designed ocean liner that ever slid down a way on christening day.
Its name will be the steamship America and it will be years ahead of its rivals when it starts ferrying passengers between the United States and Europe a year from now for the United States lines as the queen of Uncle Sam’s new 500-vessel merchant fleet.
It will not burn like the French line’s steamship Paris—the Morro Castle disaster and things learned on the steamship Nantasket floating fire laboratory as a result guarantee that. It is being flush-riveted below the water line, just like the latest high-speed airplanes—no projecting buttons to use up precious horsepower.
Passengers on previous liners who have been bothered by the noise of cargo handling as a result of proximity to cargo holds will be spared annoyance by a special acoustical ceiling on the deck below the holds—no noise will come through.
In these and in a hundred other ways the 723-foot America is going to put its European rivals to shame. It may even pay its own way in time, though its $15,750,000 cost is being borne partly by the government, because economy of operation has been engineered into it. It does not compare in size with Europe’s Atlantic greyhounds—about 26,000 gross register tons as against about 80,000 for the Normandie and Queen Mary—but it will not compare in operating expense either.
The America will be in the water by the end of August and will be delivered to the United States Lines about March 1 next. Passengers are already being booked for May crossings a year hence.
A ship grows from its keel up. Following the keel, the stem, the steel structure which will support the bow, is built. Then come girders and finally deck and side plating.
The America will be about 40 per cent complete when she is launched, though this can be varied within wide limits. One gaping hole is always left in the deck plating for the engines, put in place after the hull is nearly complete. Superstructure is built after the ship is afloat. In times like these, when every way is required for rush work, less work is done on the way and more after the vessel is floated.
Plating for six of the decks has already been laid—a fascinating process as half a dozen giant overhead bridge cranes swing along parallel rails as much as 125 feet apart, dropping huge steel plates neatly into place to be drilled, bolted up, aligned, and finally riveted into place amid the deafening roar of bolting and riveting machines driven by compressed air. Engines developing a total of 4,350 horsepower are at work continuously pumping 24,000 cubic feet of air at a pressure of 105 pounds to the square inch a minute.
You have to go up in the bucket of one of the cranes to get a view of the ship, there’s so much scaffolding providing temporary support for girders and plates going into place and for 500 men at work on the vessel. But from the swing platform the ship’s 92-foot wide decks curve gently back to the stern.
The air is charged with activity, for the America is not the only vessel under construction here. Nearly all the ways, connected by a maze of railroad tracks, are occupied, for Uncle Sam is in the midst of a great building program for his Fleet and his Merchant Marine. An aircraft carrier will soon be laid down in the way adjoining the America’s berth.
An experimental stateroom—one of about 400 which will carry the ship’s total of 2,219 passengers—has been set up in one of the machine shops that constitute the “works” of a shipyard. And it reveals just what engineering science is doing to make this vessel the safest afloat.
Backing the extremely thin wood veneer of the walls is a new material—marinite, asbestos bonded with a mineral, completely noncombustible and with high heat insulating value. It is the guarantee against a repetition of the Morro Castle holocaust.
Seven-eighths of an inch of marinite back every stateroom panel. Ceilings are made of it. Corridors are lined with the new substance, its surface specially treated to give it a pleasing linoleumlike finish in a spot where no such flammable material as wood is permitted.
The asbestos-based material, which is a little denser than a light wood and which can be sawed or be given a paint finish, is one of a number of new materials for isolating fire and preventing its spread proved in tests conducted aboard the Nantasket. The tests were conducted to find out why the Morro Castle’s fire spread so rapidly and how this could be prevented. Marinite’s heat-insulating qualities are so high that if a fire starts on one side of a cabin wall backed with it that fire will not start on the other side. Though marinite was developed primarily for use on ships, it is also being used ashore now—to protect the steelwork of oil refineries against melting flames, for example.
Marinite is being used to isolate every part of the ship from every other part—to confine fire to the point of its origin, if it starts, where it may easily be put out.
Two pairs of geared turbines will drive its twin screws; it will make the Atlantic crossing in 7 days at a speed of about 23 knots.
Comfort is being designed into the America by its designers, Gibbs & Cox, New York naval architects, every inch of the way. Staterooms are commodious and easily maintained in first-class shape, for example. Following the rules laid down by the Maritime Commission, the crew has real quarters aboard the America. Public rooms will be air-conditioned, of course. Stateroom ventilating ducts, to provide heat or cool air as needed, are to be lined with sound-absorbing material to eliminate an annoyance common to most ocean liners: noise and conversation coming from the neighbor’s stateroom along with fresh air.
The “Paris” Catastrophe
Journal de la Marine Marchande, May 18.—The burning of the Paris was the result of many errors and shortcomings on the part of the crew and officer personnel. It may be divided into 2 distinct faults; the inexcusable burning, and the even more inexcusable sinking of the ship at the dock.
The fire started in the bakery where the bakers never extinguished fires. The watch kept there is ridiculous to mention. It consisted only of a seaman who made the rounds of the various posts during the night, who did not know how to operate the machinery in the bakery, and who in addition was very lax in making his rounds. The captain of the ship never made inspections in this part of the ship as he knew that the fires were not being extinguished but did not wish to annoy his men or detract from their liberty ashore. The chief baker freed his conscience by putting the key in the office of the Officer of the Watch.
If the fire had been detected in the bakery immediately, it would have been only an incident but due to the laxness of the watch it was not discovered for a half-hour and was then beyond control. At this time the Officer of the Watch, upon being informed, executed his duties in a very commendable fashion but he was a replacement officer, not well acquainted with the ship, and during the 4 hours of the fire, the captain of the ship could not be found. This resulted in a lack of unity of command. The firemen from Le Havre were by far the best of those engaged in fighting the fire but were ignorant of how to proceed and no one could give them instructions properly. The ship was not adequately secured to the dock, and the lines should have been re-enforced immediately the alarm was given. To conclude, the seaman on watch was acquitted of the responsibility of the fire and the ensuing sinking, which was criminal.
Various Notes
Upon recommendation of the Hydrographic Office, Navy Department, transatlantic steamships between New York and the English Channel are following today sea tracks farther to the south than at any time since the foundation of the International Ice Patrol, formed after the Titanic disaster in April, 1912.
An unexpected shifting of the Cold Wall, which is the boundary between the cold Arctic current and the warm Gulf Stream has brought icebergs across the usual United States-European steamer lanes. The movement of these bergs became very rapid on May 28 and was reported by the Coast Guard cutter Champlain on International Ice Patrol.
After a conference between the Commandant of the U. S. Coast Guard, Rear Admiral Russell R. Waesche, U.S.C.G., and the Hydrographer of the Navy Department, Captain G. S. Bryant, U. S. Navy, the American representative of the North Atlantic Track Agreement in New York was notified. The representative of that agreement in Liverpool also concurred in the recommendation for shifting North Atlantic tracks and notified their steamships. Since May 5, shipping had been diverted to Emergency Track A, lowest of the regular steamer tracks between New York and the English Channel.—Navy Release, May 31.
A long time ago there appeared in these pages an article telling how coastwise ships on the Pacific coast navigated by steam whistle. It was all about getting distance and position by noting the direction from which an echo came, and calculating the time elapsed between the blast and the echo. Here is something on the same lines from the San Francisco Chronicle. Pilot Charles McChesney had to anchor a Japanese ship in the Mississippi in a dense fog, and after maneuvering around for a little he told the skipper it was all right to drop the hook. When asked by the master (somewhat worried) how he knew, the pilot replied, “The frogs told me.” This annoyed the Jap skipper who thought he was being made a fool of by a man who did not realize the seriousness of the business. When the fog lifted, however, there was the ship just where she ought to have been in relation to the river bank. The pilot then gave a demonstration. Giving a gentle toot on the whistle dozens of splashes were heard from the near-by shore. “When I can hear the bullfrogs jumping in after each toot,” said the river pilot, “I know we’re close enough to anchor.”—Nautical Magazine, Glasgow, April.
The U. S. Maritime Commission’s training-ship American Seaman (formerly Edgemoor) was one of the many standard cargo ships laid down during the war. Most of her time since has been spent laid up. Now, however, she has taken on a new lease of useful life as a school ship. Her complement at sea will consist of a captain and 7 commissioned officers; 14 C.P.O.’s and 20 P.O.’s; 78 trainees on deck, 78 in the engine-room, and 64 stewards. Classrooms complete with desks; workshop accommodation on the most up-to-date lines; a dining-room for 240 at one sitting; theater to seat 150; laundry; barber’s shop; tailor’s shop and cobbler’s shop. It is clear that on accommodation and workshops—especially on workshops—a large amount of money has been spent. The whole training scheme is under the control of the U. S. Coast Guard, and the splendid reputation of that service is a guarantee that the money spent will not be wasted.—Nautical Magazine, Glasgow, April.
The Sakito-Maru is the first of a series of 7 fast freighters built for round-the-world service being inaugurated by the NYK. Completed at the end of January by the Nagasaki Dockyard of the Mitsubishi Co., she has made her maiden voyage from Yokohama to London in 34 days, which evidences considerable progress over the Akagi-Maru class built in 1936. The new ship is capable of maintaining a speed of 20 knots but her designed economic speed is 17 knots. She has the following characteristics: length 530 ft., beam 62.3 ft., draft 28 ft., tonnage 7,100, gross tonnage 9,350. She is driven by two 2-cycle Diesels having 7 cylinders. All auxiliary machinery is electric and current is furnished by 3 generators of 250 KW each, driven by 6-cylinder Diesels. The 34-day trip to London was made via Panama and is 2 days less than the time of former ships. The refrigeration spaces have a capacity of 167 tons. The NYK has 20 ships building totaling 200,000 tons for 1940.—Journal de la Marine Marchande, May 4.
The new Panama railroad liners, Panama, Ancon, and Cristobal, first of which has just entered service, are being hailed by the maritime industry for any number of innovations in construction and design, from fireproofing to modernistic passenger accommodations. Surprisingly enough, one revolutionary piece of safety equipment on the ships has received little or no publicity, and that is the Stability Meter, developed by J. Lyell Wilson, Assistant Chief Surveyor of the American Bureau of Shipping. This instrument is the only one available today that automatically measures the metacentric height of a vessel at sea. It must be recorded that there are other instruments for determining the metacentric height, used chiefly in stowing cargo, but they are not meters in the strict sense of the word, nor are they automatic.
The Stability Meter will enable captains to keep an accurate check on their safety margins under all conditions of loading and do so with a minimum of water ballast. This will effect economy in two ways: (1) by permitting greater cargo capacity and (2) by loosening the ship up in bad weather. This second factor is of manifest importance on liners, where passenger comfort and breakage of furniture and crockery have to be considered. In the past, due to unreliable data, sea captains have tended to carry too much ballast in their efforts to increase stability—a human enough mistake. But now, with the Stability Meter indicating exactly the margin of safety, they need not maintain this excess and can afford to loosen the ship and let it ride more comfortably.
The readings, given directly in inches, derive from a small gyroscope and pendulum on center line of hull. The angles of precession of the gyro are proportional to the instantaneous angular velocity of roll; while the pendulum indicates the amplitude of roll. The ratio of angular velocity to angle of roll is a function of the metacentric height, which ratio is worked out by higher mathematics. The recording instrument is mountable on a transverse wall of the wheelhouse or chartroom. The American Museum of Safety has awarded Mr. Wilson a citation for the safety features inherent in his instrument. (By Daniel F. Coughlin.)
The Franco government is looking forward to actual and important steps tending to develop a merchant marine with particular emphasis on a fleet of tramp steamers. The government desires to effect the greatest possible portion of its trade with other countries under the national flag. Since the capacity for production of Spanish shipyards is quite limited, it is very probable that a large percentage of the orders will be placed abroad. The program of new ship construction will be restricted for some time because of the problems of rehabilitation.—Journal de la Marine Marchande, April 20.
Japanese experts have been ordered to draw up the plans for the construction of a port at Tangku which is to be the largest in North China. A credit of 100 million yen (about $25,000,000) is to be put up jointly by North China and a group of Japanese.—Journal de la Marine Marchande, May 4.
Dr. Walter Hoffman, president of the Hamburg-American Line, in the Hansa states that the annexation of Austria and Sudeten territory has, with the increase of 10,000,000 in population, created the need for a correspondingly larger merchant marine. Germany, now occupying third place in world commerce, is the only country in the world that has been able to increase her trade during a depression. The greater part of Germany’s imports and exports go by way of the sea. The most urgent work is to enlarge the fleet by new construction. At present the merchant marine tonnage of less than 5 years of age is only 17 per cent.
Dr. Hoffman recommends that the greatest stress be laid on the factor of speed. He also speaks of the necessity for skilled personnel. He concludes the article by telling of the projected new canal between Austria and Bohemia.— Rivista Marittima, May.
The North-German Lloyd Line is reported to be constructing a ship of 90,000 tons, notwith-standing the declaration of the Under-Secretary of State of the Minister of Communications, who has said “Germany will never renounce participation in the group at the head of North-Atlantic trade.” The idea seemed to be abandoned then but recently Dr. Dorpmueller, Minister of Communications of the Reich, in a discussion at the German Society for World Economy, declared that Germany will continue to compete for the blue ribbon. It remains to be seen whether there will follow the announcement of a colossal transatlantic liner.—Rivista Marittima, May.
Six new 10,000-ton motor ships with accommodations for several passengers are being constructed to form a new Italian shipping line with a world-wide radius of operation. These ships will make 16 knots and will begin service in 1940.—Journal de la Marine Merchande, May 25.
A new transatlantic line from Greece to the United States was initiated in May. The ex-Tuscania of the Anchor Line will be re-christened New Hellas. It was built in 1922, displaces 16,961 tons gross and 10,016 net, and has a speed of 15½ knots.—Rivista Marittima, May.
MISCELLANEOUS
Problems of the Pocket Battleship
United Services Review (by Sir Herbert Russell).—When the composition was announced of the little German fleet which was dispatched into Spanish water to carry out seagoing exercises the instinctive comment in this country was that here was a force particularly suited to waging war against commerce. Submarines formed the preponderating category. The two pocket battleships are eminently fitted for blue-water raiding, although their main armament is unnecessarily heavy for such work. They are credited with a cruising radius of 16,000 miles at economic speed and with a full-power capacity of 26 knots.
The only vessels in the British Navy which possess a combination of superior mobility and gun power are the three battle cruisers, of which never more than two are available at any one time. Our 8-in.-gun cruisers, with a speed superiority of 5 knots, would have a great tactical advantage, which would go far to compensate for their lighter armament. The 11-in. guns of the pocket battleships would considerably outrange the cruiser weapons, but unless the heavier artillery crippled the faster ships early in action the latter would close the range to within their own distance and as both types are but lightly protected the 8-in. salvos might prove quite as disabling to the German ships as the 11-in. salvos to the British ships. The Fıench possess two new battle cruisers, Dunkerque and Strasbourg, which are greatly superior in speed, armament, and armor to the German pocket battleships and these were cruising between Finisterre and Gibraltar while the Nazi ships were exercising in contiguous waters.
Whether in the event of a war with this country the Germans would employ their pocket battleships for raiding commerce on the high seas routes is a question upon which we can only speculate. In the normal order of things we should regard such vessels as too big and costly to be employed in functions which light cruisers with a good degree of fuel endurance could effectively undertake.
But against this it must be remembered that the operational policy of a weaker naval power must be largely opportunity, which means employing ships to best advantage however incongruous this may occasionally seem. The short-lived exploits of the Emden proved very much more worth while in the war balance of profit and loss than anything else she could have been set to do in the same space of time.
Of course, the pocket battleships were not built with a particular eye to commerce raiding. But then they were not built for anything particular except to squeeze as much fighting value as possible into a very limited displacement. Their armament is that of a ship of the line, but their protection is poor. This latter disability would matter but little in the role of a commerce raider. Suppose for a moment that instead of the Emden, mounting nothing heavier than 4.2-in. guns, we had had to deal with a pocket battleship mounting 11-in. guns.
The suggestion not only opens a vista of incalculable mischief both in the destruction of shipping and, probably, of naval craft escorting mercantile shipping, and in “tip-and-run” bombardments of short positions; it leads to another possibility which might well appeal very strongly to the General Staff of a weaker naval power, namely, the compelling of a considerable dispersal of the heavy ships of the stronger power to hunt down such a formidable raider.
It will be recalled that the Emden was destroyed by the Sydney, a light cruiser of 5,400 tons armed with eight 6-in. guns. The Japanese Navy was actively cooperating with our own available forces in the Indian Ocean, and there was no particular difficulty in detailing a sufficient number of ships quite adequate to engage the German cruiser to make it certain that, vast as was the area in which she was at large, her career would be very shortlived. But had the Emden been a vessel of the pocket battleship type the problem would have been a very different one. The Commonwealth battle cruiser Australia could have tackled a Deutschland with every prospect of success, but one ship is of little use for carrying out a hunt over such wide distances.
The Japanese, in those days very much our allies, might have taken a hand in the chase with their five battle cruisers of the Kongo class. But such a similar contingency cannot be counted upon in considering the possibility of trade raiding by a pocket battleship. The destruction of British shipping in war time is essentially a problem for the British Navy, and the most vital task of the British Naval Staff is to consider all the conceivable methods by which this destruction would be attempted and plan the most effective means of countering them.
To dispatch a pocket battleship “out into the blue” would be a simple enough matter if it were prearranged to take place under conditions in which the passage of the ship was unlikely to be seriously disputed. A lone vessel at large, too powerful to be tackled by anything short of a capital ship, might look forward to a pretty lengthy series of exploits if she were skilfully handled, as no doubt she would be. She might count on being able to live upon her prizes almost indefinitely.
Her real difficulties would begin when her ammunition got low and her bilges began to foul sufficiently to cause a serious drop in speed. To justify her employment in trade raiding she would be expected to leave a heavy trail of damage, and this would involve a steady drain upon her magazines. It is known that the chief concern of Admiral von Spee as he approached the Falklands was the depleted state of his magazines and that by the time the Gneisnau and Sharnhorst foundered they had shot away all their shells.
During the Great War the Germans made very limited efforts at blue-water trade raiding. Probably they were sufficiently satisfied with the results of their submarine campaign, and it was easier to wait in the focal waters into which all British supplies had to come than to run the gauntlet out into the open ocean and range about in quest of victims. The best-remembered of the German raiders is the Moewe, a converted merchantman of 4,500 tons which had the Swedish colors painted upon her sides. She began her adventures at the end of 1915 by laying a mine field across the western entrance to the Pentland Firth, in which the battleship King Edward VII came to grief. Proceeding into the Atlantic, she laid more mines off Rochelle, and then turned her attention to merchant shipping.
Within a few days she captured or sank 7 vessels between Madeira and the Canaries, among them the Appam, with a large sum of bullion. After some three months at she sea got back to Germany. Her success was an incentive to further efforts and the Grief was fitted out and ordered to proceed round the north of Ireland into the Atlantic to raid commerce in the Atlantic. Her career was a short one, for she came into contact with the British patrol, and after a hot action with the Andes and Alcantara, the latter ship being sunk, she went to the bottom.
Had the Grief been a pocket battleship and not a converted merchantman disguised as a Norwegian trader it is pretty safe to say that she would have got through the British patrol, formed by the 10th Cruiser Squadron, although she would probably have been sighted and reported. The growth of the Fleet Air Arm, which did not then exist, should greatly facilitate the work of locating a blue-water raider the whereabouts of which is approximately known. But there is little use in locating an enemy ship without the possession of means for attacking her.
Present-day long-range bombers could easily have reached the spot where the Grief was sunk and got home again. There is no gainsaying the fact that the employment of such vessels as the German pocket battleship in trade raiding on the high seas would set the Admiralty a very complicated problem. How far a relatively weak Navy would consent to the dispersal of its battle strength by the detaching of capital ships for desultory service is a consideration not to be ignored.
Islands Lost and Found
London Times, June 9.—The news that the Cocos Islands, lost on Tuesday, had been found on Wednesday and were being surveyed yesterday is reassuring. There is no knowing what islands will be up to. Continents at least stay, for practical purposes, where they are, no matter with what commotions man may distract their surfaces; but there is no counting on islands. It was probably Delos that began it—Delos, “floating once,” blown vaguely about until (as some say) Zeus fixed it firm in order that Leto might give birth there to Apollo and Artemis, or (as others say) Apollo gave his birthplace stability and protection from the winds. Some other islands, under less powerful patronage, have managed to escape. Not for more than five centuries has any one seen the Island of the Seven Cities, which early in the eighth century the Archbishop of Oporto and six Bishops, driven out of Portugal by the Moors, colonized with one city for each prelate. In the fifteenth century, when the exploring Portuguese could not find the island where it ought to have been—in the Azores, or the Canaries, or somewhere north of the Equator—they picked out an island off Parahyba on the coast of Brazil, which may have satisfied some, but made it easy for skeptics in later days to declare that the Island of the Seven Cities had never been anything but a Mrs. Harris of an island, or another version of Atlantis and the Hesperides.
A much more recent case of elusiveness in islands is that of the uninhabited Thompson Island in the South Atlantic. Thompson Island and its neighbor Bouvet Island were claimed by Great Britain until 1928, when the claim was waived in favor of Norway. In that year Captain Larsen, of the Norvegia Expedition, searched for Thompson Island. He could not find it; and apparently no one has found it since. Its existence is not yet definitely denied; but no island can expect to be recognized as existing unless it turns up every now and then; and Thompson Island had better realize that it has been warned. Even the “floating island” of Windermere treats common expectation with more deference. But islands, at their sedatest, are tricky things. No wonder they fascinated J. M. Barrie. Only on an island, and best of all on an island in the Outer Hebrides, could those strange things have happened to Mary Rose; and Mr. Charles Morgan knew very well that an island was the proper place for the loves of his male and female mathematicians in The Flashing Stream. As for hidden treasure, no self-respecting pirate ever concealed his hoard anywhere but on an island, and not only in Stevenson are the words “Treasure Island” of magical power.
In excuse for islands it may be pleaded that for some of them times are not what they were. A capital instance is St. Helena, once (after Elba had disgraced herself) of supreme importance to the whole world, now, in spite of swift ships and flying boats, remote and insignificant. There are good reasons for hoping that no such fate will overtake the Cocos Islands. It was not their fault that they were lost; they are not suspected of straying. Unlike Delos, Cocos remained in one place, and it was only bad weather that caused them to be overlooked. But far the best reason for being glad that the Cocos Islands have been found again, and found by the Commonwealth Government’s flying-boat Guba, lies in an earlier association of Australia with that little group of coral islands in the Indian Ocean. On November 9, 1914, a convoy bringing Australian and New Zealand troops to the scene of the war received news from Cocos of a foreign warship off the entrance. Captain Silver, of H.M.A.S. Melbourne, in charge of the convoy, detached the Sydney, under Captain Glossop, to deal with the enemy. It was no other than the Emden, under the famous Captain von Müller. He had landed a party to destroy the wireless station; and, the destruction very thoroughly accomplished, the Emden hauled down her dummy fourth funnel and was steaming away when the Sydney was upon her. Two hours later on that November day she lay beached and battered on North Keeling Island; but it was not till late in the afternoon that she surrendered.
Ancient Vessel offers Carolina Mystery
The Log, June.—Shipbuilding experts and historians have turned to science to help solve a mystery which a northeaster has uncovered at Manteo, Roanoke Island, North Carolina. Identity and age of an ancient vesselis what the historians want to know, where she was built puzzles mariners.
The aged hulk, bolted with wooden pegs and with bronze spikes, was disgorged from its grave on the banks recently when a hissing tide scoured the beach. A. W. Drinkwater, who has been discovering things along this coast since 35 years ago when he telegraphed news of the Wright’s first flight, spied a portion of the wreck after the storm. A number of other hulks, more or less remembered in this country where wrecks are no novelty, also were exposed again by the storm.
But this one was different. And after another storm tide had removed more sand from around the old timber, Dare County decided to have a look. When sand was removed from the shell, mariners old and young, and coast guardsmen familiar with many a foreign craft, scratched their heads in amazement.
The hull checks with specifications of a sixteenth-century-war vessel called the cromster, developed by Sir Walter Raleigh. Keel of the boat is 58 ft. long. Her foremast was set back 25½ ft. and the aftermast 28½ ft. back, leaving a distance of only 6 ft. from the aftermast to the stern end of the keelson. The timber is of oak and locust and apparently handtooled.
Captain Jeff Hayman, who has sailed in everything seen in these parts, says she belongs to other days and other lands. Roanoke Islanders have no record of any such vessel piling up on this “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” and Coast Guard records, meticulously kept for many generations, are silent about the hulk.
One circumstance intrigues bankers and islanders alike. Three hundred and fifty-odd years ago, the Lost Colony of Sir Walter Raleigh was swallowed by the wilderness, leaving an abandoned fort just a few miles from the scene of the wreck. Presence of the vessel, apparently of about the same time, immediately started speculation as to a possible connection with the Lost Colonists. At any rate, the old hulk—if old she is—has no business being on that beach, and until Dare County ferrets out her origin, and the story of her disaster 300 or more years ago, a crop of romantic stories are certain to blossom.
Excavation yielded no evidence as to all this. Apparently the vessel had been well-stripped of everything before being sanded up either by her crew, heading forlornly inland to an uncertain fate, or by savages who benefited by this windfall of wood, iron, and gadgets. A few pieces of crockery were found in the hull. These, together with samples of the timber, bronze spikes and wooden pegs have been taken to laboratories for analysis.
If her antiquity is established, the National Park Service plans to haul her up to Fort Raleigh where she will be another point of interest in the National Seashore Park now being created. Meantime, another high tide has come and sanded the old hulk over again, keeping her safely from the hands of souvenir hunters.