On the occasion of the British naval review at Spithead, an illustration was given of the short time it takes to turn a merchant vessel into an armed cruiser.
England, despite her large navy, often has use for more ships than she possesses.
To meet this demand she has placed a certain number of merchant vessels on her Naval Reserve list. By this arrangement the Government has the right to call out any of these ships when she has need for them.
At the time of the great naval review it was thought that it would be a good thing to put this system to a test, and so several of the Naval Reserve merchantmen were ordered to fit out as gunboats.
One of the vessels thus put into use was the Teutonic of the White Star line, one of the regular ocean steamers that ply between England and America.
She arrived in Liverpool on June 21st, and immediately received orders to transform herself into a war-vessel, and take her place in the naval review at Spithead.
As soon as her passengers and freight had been landed her crew set to work to take her war supplies on board.
A British naval officer had been sent from Portsmouth to superintend the work, and under his direction magazines and armories were arranged, gun platforms were built, and sixteen guns were taken on board and mounted.
In the crew of the Teutonic were some fifty sailors who were members of the British Naval Reserve. To them rifles and cutlasses were supplied, and they in their turn were transformed into regular man-of-war's men.
The rest of the crew was made up from sailors drafted from other warships, and then the Teutonic was ready to take her place in the great Jubilee naval parade.