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THE fleet, the fleet puts out to sea
In a thunder of blinding foam to-night,
With a bursting wreck-strewn reef to lee,
But-a seaman fired yon beacon-light!
Seamen hailing a seaman, know—

Free-men crowning a free-man, sing-
The worth of that light where the great ships go,
The signal-fire of the king.

Cloud and wind may shift and veer:
This is steady and this is sure,

A signal over our hope and fear,

A pledge of the strength that shall endure-
Having no part in our storm-tossed strife-
A sign of union, which shall bring
Knowledge to men of their close-knit life,
The signal-fire of the king.

VOL. CLXXXVIII.-NO. MCXXXVII.

A

His friends are the old grey glorious waves

The wide world round, the wide world round,

That have roared with our guns and covered our graves

From Nombre Dios to Plymouth Sound;

And his crown shall shine, a central sun
Round which the planet-nations sing,
Going their ways, but linked in one,
As the ships of our sailor-king.

Many the ships, but a single fleet;
Many the roads, but a single goal;
And a light, a light where all roads meet,
The beacon-fire of an Empire's soul;
The worth of that light his seamen know,

Through all the deaths that the storm can bring, The crown of their comrade-ship a-glow,

The signal-fire of the king.

NEW WARS FOR OLD.

BY COLONEL À COURT REPINGTON, C.M.G.

II. THE AIRSHIP MENACE.

WHEN M. Blériot landed at Dover he opened a new chapter in the military history of the British Isles.

Our Navy declares - and I hope with reason that it is able to destroy any and every enemy who approaches these islands of ours by sea. But our Navy has never pretended, and obviously cannot pretend, to exercise any effective control by strictly naval means over a foe who arrives in this country by any alternative route, whether above the sea or below it.

The Government is sometimes blamed for not having taken the lead in the fascinating science of aerial navigation, and for allowing us to remain several years behind France and Germany in the design and utilisation of airships of all kinds. There are some grounds for these complaints, but it was certainly not in our true interests to take the lead in promoting a science which is bound, though to what extent is a matter of opinion, to affect the predominant position which we have hitherto held at sea.

Unfortunately, we have passed beyond this stage. Practical airships have been constructed. Dirigibles and aeroplanes are in existence, and have already covered long distances, at great speed, and

with safety. Every year, not to say every month, progress is marked. With us or without us, these new auxiliaries of fleets and armies will continue to improve; and all that remains for us to do is to take measures to meet this new menace, if it is a menace, and to see that we are as well provided as our neighbours with these extremely unwelcome and quite novel arms.

I shall endeavour in this article, without dwelling unduly on technical details, to state what airships can do, what they may be expected to achieve in the immediate future, what changes in methods of war the introduction of this new factor is likely to bring about, and what guidance for our own conduct this investigation seems to suggest. Considering that practical aerostation is not much older than the century, and that the progress made in a few short years has been so astonishing, I think that we should be imprudent to maintain too conservative an attitude, and to refuse to the new science the hope of great progress hereafter. Thus, while we must distinguish between what airships can do now and what they may be expected to do, we must allow a wide margin of safety for inventive talent, for the awakened interest of

governments, and for the relentless march of all-conquering human ingenuity.

There is a great variety in the type of airship in existence and projected. Military interest for the moment is confined to two-namely, the rigid, semirigid, or non-rigid dirigible, and the aeroplane, whether monoplane, biplane, or other. The best known of the rigid-frame dirigibles is the Zeppelin. The improved Zeppelin can theoretically cover 1140 miles, and has already covered 800 miles, without descending. She has a speed of a little over 30 miles an hour on a calm day, and has risen to a height of 5600 feet. She can carry 15 passengers and a large supply of fuel, stores, and explosives.

The safety of this typeupon which the dirigible now building at Barrow will, we hope, be an improvement-is secured by distributing lifting power between seventeen separate balloons enclosed between partitions. Height control is derived from stabilising and balancing surfaces. The soaring power of the Zeppelin, thanks to her elevators, is said to be great without discharge of ballast. In the first Zeppelin an aluminium alloy known as wolframinium was used for rings, stays, and braces the compartments contained 351,150 cubic feet of hydrogen, giving a lift of eleven tons. The reconstructed Zeppelin III., now known as Zeppelin VI., is said to have three motors which develop 350 H.P. In this airship, and in the Barrow ship, another aluminium alloy called dura

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miles

It is, however, too early to decide whether this type, the semi-rigid Parseval, or the nonrigid Gross and her French peers, will ultimately be preferred for military purposes. The German Parseval III. has motors of 200 H.P. and a speed of 32 miles an hour. The Gross II. has a capacity of 270,000 cubic feet. Her two motors, driving two propellers, give a speed of 33 an hour, which will probably be exceeded by the Gross III., which has double the power, though this does not double the speed. The French non-rigid or so-called "souple" types of dirigibles are smaller than the German, and of less power. The Ville de Nancy is 180 feet long, 33 broad, and has a capacity of 180,000 cubic feet. The Ville de Paris can carry six persons and about 1000 lb. of ballast or explosives, while she has a mean speed in a calm of about 25 miles an hour. The non-rigid airship has not at present the range nor the carrying capacity of the rigid type, but it can be deflated, packed up, sent anywhere by rail, and then used in the

feet

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