PARSEVAL AIRSHIPS 5, 6 and 7
Parseval No. 5 was not delivered by Germany owing to the war, so three envelopes and two cars were built by Messrs. Vickers on the design of the original ship. These were delivered somewhat late in the war, and on account of the production of the North Sea airship with its greater speed were not persevered with. The dimensions of the envelopes were somewhat increased, giving a cubic capacity of 325,000 cubic feet. Twin Maybach engines driving swivelling propellers were installed in the car, which was completely covered in, but these ships were slow in comparison with later designs, and were only used for the instruction of officers and men destined for the crews of rigid airships then building.
An experimental ship was made in 1917 which was known as Parseval 5; a car of a modified coastal pattern with two 240 horse-power Renault engines was rigged to one of envelopes. During a speed trial, this ship was calculated to have a ground speed of 50 to 53 miles per hour. The envelope, however, consumed an enormous amount gas and for this reason the ship was deflated and struck off the list of active ships.
This digression on Parseval airships has anticipated events somewhat, and a return must now be made to earlier days.
Two more Astra-Torres were ordered from France, one known as No. 8, being a large ship of 4,00,000 cubic feet capacity. She was fitted with two Chenu engines of 240 horse-power, driving swivelling propellers. This ship was delivered towards the end of the year 1914. The second Astra was of smaller capacity and was delivered, but as will be seen later, was never rigged, the envelope being used for the original coastal ship and the car slung to the envelope of the ex-army airship Eta.
On January 1st, 1914, an important event took place: the Army disbanded their airship service, and the military ships together with certain officers and men were transferred to the Naval Air Service.
Before proceeding further, it may be helpful to explain the system by which the naval airships have been given numbers. These craft are always known by the numbers which they bear, and the public is completely mystified as to their significance whenever they fly over London or any large town. It must be admitted that the method is extremely confusing, but the table which follows should help to elucidate the matter. The original intention was to designate each airship owned by the Navy by a successive number. The original airship, the rigid Mayfly, was known as No. 1, the Willows airship No. 2, and so on. These numbers were allocated regardless of type and as each airship was ordered, consequently some of these ships, for example the Forlaninis, never existed. That did not matter, however, and these numbers were not utilized for ships which actually were commissioned. On the transfer of the army airships, four of these, the Beta, Gamma, Delta and Eta, were given their numbers as they were taken over, together with two ships of the Epsilon class which were ordered from Messrs. Rolls Royce, but never completed. In this way it will be seen that numbers 1 to 22 are accounted for.
In 1915 it was decided to build a large number of small ships for anti-submarine patrol, which were called S.S.'s or Submarine Scouts. It was felt that it would only make confusion worse confounded if these ships bore the original system of successive numbering and were mixed up with those of later classes which it was known would be produced as soon as the designs were completed. Each of these ships was accordingly numbered in its own class, S.S., S.S.P., S.S. Zero, Coastal, C Star and North Sea, from 1 onwards as they were completed.
In the case of the rigids, however, for some occult reason the old system of numbering was persisted in. The letter R is prefixed before the number to show that the ship is a rigid. Hence we have No. 1 a rigid, the second rigid constructed is No. 9, or R 9, and the third becomes R 23. From this number onwards all are rigids and are numbered in sequence as they are ordered, with the exception of the last on the list, which is a ship in a class of itself. This ship the authorities, in their wisdom, have called R 80--why, nobody knows.
With this somewhat lengthy and tedious explanation the following table may be understood:
No. Type. Remarks.
1. Rigid Wrecked, Sept. 24, 1911.
2. Willows Became S.S. 1.
3. Astra-Torres Deleted, May 1916.
4. Parseval Deleted, July, 1917.
5. Parseval Never delivered from Germany.
(Substitute ship built by Messrs. Vickers).
6. Parseval Built by Messrs. Vickers.
7. Parseval Built by Messrs. Vickers.
8. Astra-Torres Deleted, May, 1916.
9. Rigid Deleted, June, 1918.
10. Astra-Torres Envelope used for C 1.
11. Forlanini Never delivered owing to war.
12. Forlanini Never delivered owing to war.
13. Forlanini Never delivered owing to war.
14. Rigid Never built.
15. Rigid Never built.
16. Astra-Torres See No. 8.
17. Beta Transferred from Army.
Deleted, May, 1916.
18. Gamma Deleted, May, 1916.
19. Delta Deleted, May, 1916.
20. Eta Transferred from the Army.
Fitted with car from No. 10.
Deleted May, 1916.
21. Epsilon Construction cancelled May, 1916.
22. Epsilon Construction cancelled May, 1916.
23. Rigid 23 Class.
24. Rigid 23 Class.
25. Rigid 23 Class.
26. Rigid 23 Class.
27. Rigid 23x Class.
28. Rigid 23x Class. Never completed.
29. Rigid 23x Class.
30. Rigid 23x Class. Never completed.
31. Rigid 31 Class.
32. Rigid 31 Class, building.
33. Rigid 33 Class.
34. Rigid 33 Class.
35. Rigid Cancelled.
36. Rigid Building.
37. Rigid Building.
38. Rigid Building.
39. Rigid Building.
40. Rigid Building.
80. Rigid Building.
In August, 1914, Europe, which had been in a state of diplomatic tension for several years, was plunged into the world war. The naval airship service at the time was in possession of two stations, Farnborough and Kingsnorth, the latter in a half-finished condition. Seven airships were possessed, Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and the four ex-army ships--Beta, Gamma, Delta and Eta--and of these only three, Nos. 3, 4 and the Beta, were in any condition for flying. Notwithstanding this, the utmost use was made of the ships which were available.
On the very first night of the war, Nos. 3 and 4 carried out a reconnaissance flight over the southern portion of the North Sea, and No. 4 came under the fire of territorial detachments at the mouth of the Thames on her return to her station. These zealous soldiers imagined that she was a German ship bent on observation of the dockyard at Chatham.
No. 3 and No. 4 rendered most noteworthy service in escorting the original Expeditionary Force across the Channel, and in addition to this No. 4 carried out long patrols over the channel throughout the following winter.
No. 17 (Beta) also saw active service, as she was based for a short period early in 1915 at Dunkirk, and was employed in spotting duties with the Belgian artillery near Ostend.
The Gamma and the Delta were both lying deflated at Farnborough at the outbreak of the war, and in the case of the latter the car was found to be beyond repair, and she was accordingly deleted. The Gamma was inflated in January, 1915, and was used for mooring experiments.
The Eta, having been inflated and deflated several times owing to the poor quality of the envelope, attempted to fly to Dunkirk in November, 1914. She encountered a snowstorm near Redhill and was compelled to make a forced landing. In doing this she was so badly damaged as to be incapable of repair, and at a later date was deleted.
No. 8, which was delivered towards the end of 1914, was also moored out in the open for a short time near Dunkirk, and carried out patrol in the war zone of the Belgian coast.
So ends the story of the Naval Airship Service before the war.
With the submarine campaign ruthlessly waged by the Germans from the spring of 1915 and onwards, came the airship's opportunity, and the authorities grasped the fact that, with development, here was the weapon to defeat the most dangerous enemy of the Empire. The method of development and the success attending it the following chapters will show.
CHAPTER VI
NAVAL AIRSHIPS.--THE NON-RIGIDS--S.S. TYPE
The development of the British airships of to-day may be said to date from February 28th, 1915. On that day approval was given for the construction of the original S.S. airship.
At this time the Germans had embarked upon their submarine campaign, realizing, with the failure of their great assaults on the British troops in Flanders, that their main hope of victory lay in starving Great Britain into surrender. There is no doubt that the wholesale sinking of our merchant shipping was sufficient to cause grave alarm, and the authorities were much concerned to devise means of minimizing, even if they could not completely eliminate the danger. One proposal which was adopted, and which chiefly concerns the interests of this book, was the establishment of airship stations round the coasts of Great Britain. These stations were to be equipped with airships capable of patrolling the main shipping routes, whose functions were to search for submarines and mines and to escort shipping through the danger zones in conjunction with surface craft.
Airship construction in this country at the time was, practically speaking, non-existent. There was no time to be wasted in carrying out long and expensive experiments, for the demand for airships which could fulfil these requirements was terribly urgent, and speed of construction was of primary importance. The non-rigid design having been selected for simplicity in construction, the expedient was tried of slinging the fuselage of an ordinary B.E. 2C aeroplane, minus the wings, rudder and elevators and one or two other minor fittings, beneath an envelope with tangential suspensions, as considerable experience had been gained already in a design of this type.
For this purpose the envelope of airship No. 2, which was lying deflated in the shed at Farnborough, was rushed post haste to Kingsnorth, inflated and rigged to the fuselage prepared for it. The work was completed with such despatch that the airship carried out her trial flight in less than a fortnight from approval being granted to the scheme. The trials were in every way most satisfactory, and a large number of ships of this design was ordered immediately. At the same time two private firms were invited to submit designs of their own to fulfil the Admiralty requirements. One firm's design, S.S. 2, did not fulfil the conditions laid down and was put out of commission; the other, designed by Messrs. Armstrong, was sufficiently successful for them to receive further orders. In addition to these a car was designed by Messrs. Airships Ltd., which somewhat resembled a Maurice Farman aeroplane body, and as it appeared to be suitable for the purpose, a certain number of these was also ordered.
About this period the station at Farnborough was abandoned by the Naval Airship Service to make room for the expansion of the military aeroplane squadrons. The personnel and airships were transferred to Kingsnorth, which became the airship headquarters.
The greatest energy was displayed in preparing the new stations, which were selected as bases for the airships building for this anti-submarine patrol. Small sheds, composed of wood, were erected with almost incredible rapidity, additional personnel was recruited, stores were collected, huts built for their accommodation and that of the men, and by the end of the summer the organization was so complete that operations were enabled to commence.
The S.S., or submarine scout, airship proved itself a great success. Beginning originally with a small programme the type passed through various developments until, at the conclusion of the war, no fewer than 150 ships of various kinds had been constructed. The alterations which took place and the improvements effected thereby will be considered at some length in the following pages.