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Whole Nos. 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 145, 146, 147, Notice 149, 155, 166 and 179 of the PROCEEDINGS are exhausted; there are so many calls for single copies of these numbers that the Institute offers to pay for copies thereof returned in good condition at the rate of 50 cents per copy. AMERICAN-BUILT LAFAYETTE WIRELESS STATION IN FRANCE.-The sale of the great Lafayette wireless station at Bordeaux to the French Government at a price of approximately $4,000,000, and many hitherto unpublished facts of American naval activities in the war, were announced recently by Assistant Secretary Roosevelt. "The great Lafayette radio station near Bordeaux was intended to insure communication between Washington and the army and navy, in case the cable system was put out of commission or interfered with by German submarines," Mr. Roosevelt said. "It has eight towers and could communicate with the United States day or night. It was built by the navy. I arranged with the French Government that we shall complete the station, which is two-thirds finished, and they will then take it over at what it costs us, about 22,000,000 francs."-Scientific American, 5/24. Loss OF SUBMARINES.-Severe weather caused havoc to the eight exGerman submarines which were being towed from Harwich to France, seven of them being lost in various ways. Two parted their tow near Beachy Head, one driving ashore and the other having to be sunk by the destroyer Francis Garnier. These boats were part of a group of 32 which have been allotted to France.—London Army and Navy Gazette, 5/3. FRENCH NAME DESTROYER FOR QUENTIN ROOSEVELT.-The only French war craft named after a citizen other than France, is the torpedo-boat destroyer Quentin Roosevelt, named recently as a mark of respect to the late expresident and his son. The destroyer is the former Russian Buiki, which has been taken over by French naval authorities and renamed. She was rechristened last September. The Quentin Roosevelt was turned over by the Russians to the French because their navy was at that time short of men and they were unable to man her.-Naval Monthly, June. SCHNEIDER MARINE TYPE DIESEL ENGINE.-The most recent design of naval Diesel engine produced by Schneider et Cie, France, has an output of over 2000 i. h. p. from eight cylinders, and is giving good service in the French Navy. Details of the design are quoted from Motorship. The official rating of this new engine is 1450 b. h. p., at 330 r. p. m. from eight single-acting cylinders, each 410 mm. bore (16.1417 in.) by 450 mm. (17.7165 in.). The length of the engine over-all is about 30 ft., its height from bottom of bed-plate to top of valves between 9 and 10 ft., and its width equally moderate, being about 4 ft. The engine is of the valve-in-head scavenging two-cycle type, with trunk pistons. These pistons are made in two parts, the upper part being of steel, and is oil-cooled through telescopic tubes, these having knuckled joints. At the forward end of the engine are three combined scavenging-pumps and air-compressors, and these are driven directly by the crankshaft. Between the forward cylinder and the air-pumps is arranged the vertical shaft that drives the cam-shaft and the governor. There are four scavengingvalves per cylinder. The engine has been made direct-reversible with the idea that a submarine when carrying out necessary maneuvers can go alongside the dock, etc., without utilizing the electric motors. But, of course, with a Diesel-electric driven cargo ship the engines could be reduced in first cost by dispensing with the direct-reversing astern motion.-Gas and Oil Power, 4/3. GREAT BRITAIN THE RENOVATION OF THE NAVY.-That the close of hostilities would witness a drastic weeding-out of inferior material was foreseen by all who are conversant with naval affairs, but it is doubtful whether many were prepared for such a comprehensive clearance as the Admiralty has announced.` Upwards of 170 vessels, condemned as no longer effective, will be put up for sale as soon as they have been stripped of their guns and movable equipment. As a study of the list reveals, the effect will be to place the British Navy on a purely dreadnought footing so far as its capital units are concerned. Since the original dreadnought was laid down in 1905, it has taken only 14 years to complete a revolution quite as epoch-making as was the transition from wooden three-deckers to ironclads in the middle of last century. Very early in the war it was realized that against ships of the all-big-gun type the best pre-dreadnoughts were worse than useless, being mere death-traps for brave men. For a time our margin over the enemy was not large enough to allow us to depend on dreadnoughts alone, but as new ships passed into service the pre-dreadnoughts were detached from the Grand Fleet and employed on subsidiary operations. Their weakness lay in the low power of their armament and in their vulnerability to gun-fire and underwater attack. They added little or nothing to the real strength of the navy, and no useful purpose would have been served by keeping them on the active list. Hence the admiralty's decision to repeat the "scrapping" operation which Lord Fisher initiated when he became First Sea Lord in 1904. Practically every battleship class anterior to the dreadnought is represented in the list, the only exceptions being the "semi-dreadnoughts" Lord Nelson and Agamemnon, which are to be retained in service as part of the reserve fleet. Of the eight ships of the King Edward class, two were lost in the war; the Africa, Dominion, and Hindustan are to be disposed of, and the remaining three are now employed as depôt ships. When completed in 1905-06 these vessels were considered almost the last word in battleship design, and together they formed the finest homogeneous squadron in the world. They were the last ships to be designed by the late Sir William White. Another noteworthy class disappears completely with the sale of the Albemarle, Duncan, and Exmouth. Originally there were six of these ships, comprising the Admiral class, but the Montagu was wrecked in 1906, and the Cornwallis and Russell were sunk in the war. Having an extra knot of speed and thinner armor than contemporary battleships, they have some claim to be regarded as forerunners of the battle cruiser. Further down the list are ships of the Queen, Formidable, Canopus, and Majestic classes, all famous types in their day. Of the Majestic it may be said that she set the fashion in international battleship design for 10 years. The Redoubtable-ex-Revenge-sole survivor of the old Royal Sovereign class, is now marked down for sale after a varied and useful career which began in 1892. She was the only representative of her class to take an active part in the war, being attached to the "scratch" squadron which bombarded the Belgian coast in 1914. Our armored cruisers suffered heavily during the war, and the fighting value of those that survive is small, but as they are useful ships for training and other peace duties, the majority of them are to be retained. The most modern cruiser on the sale list is the Duke of Edinburgh, completed in 1906. She was never a successful ship, her freeboard being so low that the 6-inch guns on the main deck could not be fought in heavy weather, and her speed of 22.8 knots was quite inadequate. Her Thames-built sister ship, Black Prince, was sunk at Jutland, together with the Defence and the Warrior. It is now generally admitted that the construction of these large cruisers, which were deficient in speed, protection, and gun power, was a costly mistake; yet the design of the Effingham class, now building, indicates a reversion to this dubious type. The Effingham and her sisters are of 9800 tons, and are expected to attain 30 knots. The armament consists of seven 7.5-inch guns, and, as they are coal-burning ships, the complement will be very large. It is certain, therefore, that they will be expensive to maintain in commission. The armor protectionas noted in Sir E. Tennyson d'Eyncourt's recent paper-is so meagre as to be practically non-existent, and the ships will thus be unable to withstand heavy punishment. On the whole the Effingham does not appeal to us as a type which it is desirable to multiply, even if it is deemed expedient to finish the first four, only one of which, we understand, is nearing completion. The older armored cruisers, viz., the Drake and Cressy classes, are to go, together with most of the protected cruisers launched more than 15 years ago. In the ordinary course of events the majority of these vessels would have been scrapped before now, but during the war they proved extremely useful for patrol and convoy work. Now that the emergency is over we can afford to dispense with them, more especially as we are well provided with modern light cruisers, of which we possess about 70, with speeds of 25 knots and over, besides several others under construction. In no category is the process of renovation to be more drastic than in that of destroyers. Over 100 of these vessels are to be withdrawn from the active list, and, generally speaking, all boats above 10 years of age are to be disposed of. They range from the earliest "30-knotters to the comparatively modern Tribal class, built in 1906-1910. It goes without saying that after the tremendous strain of four and one-half years of war service most of our older destroyers would require a thorough refit-including new boilers, and in some cases new machinery-if they were to be of any further use, but it is equally clear that they are not worth the heavy outlay their renovation would involve. Thanks to our huge war programmes, we have an abundance of modern destroyers, so that the bulk of our older material can be sacrificed without a qualm. It is further proposed to get rid of all the torpedo boats, with the exception of the 30 odd oil-fired turbine boats built as coastal destroyers" in 1906-1909, and 21 are to be sold immediately. Among the submarines ear-marked for the ship-breaker are most of those composing the B and C classes, which have ceased to be effective. It is interesting to note that several of the B class were converted into surface patrol craft during the war, their electric motors being removed. From the foregoing account it will be seen that every class in the navy, excepting dreadnoughts and battle cruisers, is affected by the "combing-out policy which the Admiralty has decided to apply with such vigor. The result will be to disburden the establishment of a great mass of material the retention of which, while it would contribute nothing to the real fighting strength of the navy, would represent a heavy charge on the national revenue. To the average layman a warship is a warship whatever its age or condition, and it is possible that the public may suspect the naval authorities of going too far in their zeal for economy. For that reason it is desirable to emphasize the fact that few, if any, of the vessels now on the sale list could be usefully employed even if hostilities broke out afresh in the near future. There is no question of weakening the navy. On the contrary, the navy will be all the stronger when it has been disencumbered of so many third-rate ships that absorb men, money, and labor out of all proportion to their fighting value.-The Engineer, 5/16. MORE LIGHT ON JUTLAND.-A review of Lord Jellicoe's book, The Grand Fleet, by Vice-Admiral Paul Behncke, is chiefly interesting for the remarks that officer makes upon the Jutland Battle. He was present at the battle as Commander of the Third Squadron of the German Fleet, with his flag in the König, the most modern battleship on the enemy's side, and the leader of the German battle line. It is, therefore, an opinion based on personal experience when he states that the performance of the British ships on the day of the battle was admirable. He goes on to speak of the handling of the fleet at night as faulty, "being far below the high mark made by the Grand Fleet in the day-time." He has this much of justification for his view, that the German ships were able to escape during the night and seek safety in their ports. When, however, he asserts that owing to faulty disposition the British Admiral was only able to reassemble his force on the evening of the following day, he is quite at variance with the facts, for at 4.10 a. m. that morning the Battle Fleet was formed into divisions in line ahead, at 5.15 a. m. the Battle Cruiser Fleet rejoined in accordance with orders and it was not until 7.15 a. m. that the course, was altered to north, and at noon that the decision was arrived at for the whole force to return to its home ports. The further remark of Admiral Behncke that at daybreak the German High Seas Fleet was collected ready to resume the fight is equally devoid of truth. This Paul Behncke is presumably the officer who, as a captain at the beginning of the war, described himself in the German naval communications as Departmental Chief of the Naval Headquarters Staff. He may have been, and apparently was, acting as the mouthpiece of von Tirpitz, and his immediate superior seems to have been Vice-Admiral H. von Pohl, who also signed some of the official communiqués, particularly that which notified the first submarine blockade. But it was Behncke's business to put out the fabrications intended to mislead neutrals, and to impugn the honesty and trustworthiness of the British official communications. He it was who endeavored to excuse and extenuate the bomb-dropping of the German airships in January, 1915, on Yarmouth, Cromer, Sheringham, King's Lynn, and other places-although this was among the less flagrant of his efforts at misrepresentation. The most notorious was his version of the sinking of the Lusitania, in which he suggested that the speedy destruction of the ship must be attributed to the large quantities of ammunition on board her. If, as was probably the case, he had a hand in the semiofficial statements which were put about in Germany, he was also responsible for the allegation that the Lusitania was practically an auxiliary cruiser, and that it was necessary to torpedo her without warning, otherwise she would have sunk the submarine. If the assumption is correct, that the Captain Paul Behncke of the Admiralty Staff is the Vice-Admiral Paul Behncke who now reviews Lord Jellicoe's book, he probably went to the High Seas Fleet when von Pohl succeeded von Ingenohl, and the Grand Admiral fell into disgrace. This would explain why he seeks to find excuses |