Tests on the Old Agamemnon with Significant Results Portsmouth, Aug. 30.
The aerial menace to the Navy was given a full dress rehearsal recently when the old battleship Agamemnon was attacked by four different types of aeroplanes. A total of 280 dummy bombs were thrown from the air. Out of 48 dropped from close quarters, or point blank range, there were only three misses. At the 8,000 feet range there were nine direct hits and 223 misses. Nine pound smoke bombs were used. If war bombs containing high explosives had been used the Agamemnon, experts say, would certainly have been badly damaged if not actual sunk. The aeroplanes operate: from a base 30 miles away.
One of the wonders of the demonstration was the behaviour of the Agamemnon herself. She was under wireless control, directed from a destroyer. Without a human being on board she twisted and turned at a speed varying from six to 15 knots. Her fires were stoked with oil fuel and she manoeuvered throughout a long day as if she had, a full crew aboard.
The attacks at point blank range were very spectacular and exciting. Four "snipers," flying at 120 miles an hour, dived at the Agamemnon one after another until they were about 150 feet above the sea, and dropped bombs in pairs. Each "sniper" swung round almost on its heel and was back again to drop two more. Each bomb on exploding emitted a cloud of white smoke so that in two minutes the Agamemnon was wrapped in smoke from end to-end and looked as if she were on fire.
The attack gave a vivid impression of the danger that would beset a battleship that had no means of defence against attacks from the air The "snipers" were followed by six "camels'—machines of similar diminutive size—that coped down on the Agamemnon. riter. to supply manufactured articles in return, up to the amount of cash in hand. This, in my opinion, will be the only way to do big business with bankrupt Russia for many months to come, no matter how many Hague Conferences are held. The almost complete breakdown of transport is, no doubt, the greatest difficulty, but not, think, an insuperable one.
All the tales of important German and American contracts which are reported to have been concluded, are without founda-tien.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.