But what is even more important is the fact that the Government is encouraging sea-plane constructors to go ahead as fast as they can in the production of efficient machines.Messrs.Short Brothers, the Sopwith Aviation Company, and Messrs.Roe are building high-class machines for sea work which can beat anything turned out abroad.Our newest naval water-planes are fitted with British-built wireless apparatus of great range of action, and Messrs.Short Brothers are at the present time constructing for the Admiralty, at their works in the Isle of Sheppey, a fleet of fighting water-planes capable of engaging and destroying the biggest dirigible air- ships.
In 1913 aeroplanes took a very prominent part in our naval manoeuvres, and the cry of the battleship captains was: "Give us water- planes.Give us them of great size and power, large enough to carry a gunand gun crew, and capable of taking twelve-hour cruises at a speed much greater than that of the fastest dirigible air-ship, and we shall be on the highroad to aerial supremacy at sea."The Admiralty, acting on this advice, at once began to co-operate with the leading firms of aeroplane constructors, and at a great rate machines of all sizes and designs have been turned out.There were light single-seater water-planes able to maintain a speed of over a mile a minute; there were also larger machines for long-distance flying which could carry two passengers.The machines were so designed that their wings could be folded back along their bodies, and their wires, struts, and so on packed into the main parts of the craft, so that they were almost as compact as the body of a bird at rest on its perch, and they took up comparatively little space on board ship.
A brilliantly executed raid was carried out on Cuxhaven, an important German naval base, by seven British water-planes, on Christmas Day, 1914.The water-planes were escorted across the North Sea by a light cruiser and destroyer force, together with submarines.They left the war- ships in the vicinity of Heligoland and flew over Cuxhaven, discharging bombs on points of military significance, and apparently doing considerable damage to the docks and shipping.The British ships remained off the coast for three hours in order to pick up the returning airmen, and during this time they were attacked by dirigibles and submarines, without, however, suffering damage.Six of the sea-planes returned safely to the ships, but one was wrecked in Heligoland Bight.
But the present efficient sea-plane is a development of the war.In the early days many of the raids of the "naval wing" were carried out in land- going aeroplanes.Now the R.N.A.S., which came into being as a separate service in July, 1914, possess two main types of flying machine, the flying boat and the twin float, both types being able to rise from and alight upon the sea, just as an aeroplane can leave and return to the land.Many brilliant raids stand to the credit of the R.N.A.S.The docks at Antwerp, submarine bases at Ostend, and all Germany's fortified posts on the Belgian coast, have seldom been free from their attentions.And when, under the stress of public outcry, the Government at last gave its consentto a measure of "reprisals" it was the R.N.A.S.which opened the campaign with a raid upon the German town of Mannheim.
As the war continued the duties of the naval pilot increased.He played a great part in the ceaseless hunt for submarines.You must often have noticed how easily fish can be seen from a bridge which are quite invisible from the banks of the river.On this principle the submarine can be "spotted" by air-craft, and not until the long silence upon naval affairs is broken, at the end of the war, shall we know to what extent we are indebted to naval airmen for that long list of submarines which, in the words of the German reports, "failed to return" to their bases.
In addition to the "Blimps" of which mention has been made, the Royal Naval Air Service are in charge of air-ships known as the Coast Patrol type, which work farther out to sea, locating minefields and acting as scouts for the great fleet of patrol vessels.The Service has gathered laurels in all parts of the globe, its achievements ranging from an aerial food service into beleaguered Kut to the discovery of the German cruiser Konigsberg, cunningly camouflaged up an African creek.
