In non official naval circles was some worries caused by the insufficient cruiser strength according to Hector Bywater naval correspondent of the newspaper
The Daily Telegraph. The strength of the British Royal Navy was what concerns the cruisers since the eighties of the 19th century the smallest ever despite that this kind of ships in wartime was mainly responsible for protecting the merchant trade shipping. The five C-cruisers who first were to be broken up but now retained possessed the navy 49 completed cruisers excluded the four Australian. Of these 53 ships were just 26 built after the First World War with as result that in the begin of next year just 35 cruisers didn’t exceed the age of 16 years. In the White Book dealing with the national defence published last March wrote the cabinet that she intended to increase the number of cruisers to 70 of which 10 older as the official age limits. At this moment were 16 new cruisers being build or planned to be built. After their completion were 46 cruisers within the age limits available while in 1939 another five exceeded the limits. The naval budget for 1936 permitted the funds for 7 cruisers and of the cabinet wanted to have 60 cruisers within the age limits in 1941-1942 she needed to grant in 1937 and in 1938 both years 7 cruisers while a medium building of a cruisers takes around 2,5 years. It was clear that in the next coming years many aged cruisers were serving which were no match for post war cruisers.
One of the cruisers mentioned in the item above was the HMS Caroline a light cruiser of the C-class, laid down at the yard of Cammell Laird at Birkenhead, United Kingdom on 28 january 1914, launched on 29 September 1914 and commissioned on 4 December of the same year and not earlier decommissioned as on 31 March 2011.
The drawings are made by Novice, with our thanks.
