PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. ' 



As regards the Eoyal Navy, the engine power of battleships, prior 

 to the war, had increased from 12,000 i.h.p. to 30,000 s.h.p., while 

 the speed advanced from 17 knots to 23 knots, and during the war, 

 in ships of the Queen Elizabeth class the power amounted to 

 75,000 s.h.p., with a speed of 25 knots. In cruisers similar 

 advances were made. The i.h.p. of the Powerful was 25,000, while 

 the s.h.p. of the Queen Mary was 78,000, with a speed of 28 knots. 

 During the war the power obtained with geared turbines in the 

 Courageous class was 100,000 s.h.p. with a speed of 32 knots, the 

 maximum power transmitted through one gear w^heel being 25,000 

 h.p., and through one pinion 15,500 h.p., while in destroyers, speeds 

 up to 39 knots have been obtained. The aggi-egate horse-power of 

 war and mercantile turbined vessels throughout the world is now about 

 35 millions. 



These advances in power and speed have been made possible mainly 

 by the successive increase in economy and diminution of weight derived 

 from the replacement of reciprocating engines by turbines direct coupled 

 to the propellers, and, later, by the introduction of reduction gearing 

 between the turbines and the propellers ; also by the adoption of water- 

 tube boilers and of oil fuel. ^Yith these advances the names of Lord 

 Fisher, Sir William White, and Sir Hemy Oram will always be 

 associated. 



The British Navy has led the world for a century and more. Lord 

 Fisher has recently said that many of the ships are already obsolete 

 and must soon be replaced if supremacy is to be maintained ; and there 

 can be no question that, to guide the advance and development on tlie 

 best lines, continuous scientific experiment, though costly at the time, 

 will prove the cheapest in the long run. 



The Work of Sir Wm. White.— \\ith. the great work of the Eoyal 

 Navy fresh in our minds, we cannot but recall the prominent part 

 taken by the late Sir William White in its construction. His sudden 

 death, when President-elect for 1913, lost to the nation and to the Asso- 

 ciation the services of a great naval architect who possessed remarkable 

 powers of prevision and dialectic. He was Chief Consti'uctor to the 

 Admiralty from 1885 to 1901, and largely to him was due the efficiency 

 of our vessels in the Great War. 



White often referred to the work of Brunei as the designer of the 

 Great Eastern, and spoke of him as the originator of the cellular con- 

 struction of the bottoms of ships, since universally adopted, as a means 

 of strengthening the hull and for obtaining additional safety in case 

 of damage. Scott Russell was the builder of this great pioneer vessel, 

 the forerunner of the Atlantic hners, and the British Association may 

 rightly feel satisfaction in having aided him wlien a young man by 

 pecuniary grants to develop his researches into the design and cori- 



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