§ MR. WEDGWOOD (Newcastle-under-Lyme)To ask the Secretary of State to the Admiralty whether he can state the numbers and approximate horsepower of auxiliary engines or machines driven by steam, compressed air, hydraulic power, and electricity in a sample battleship of 1876, and in a similarly classed battleship of 1908.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) The total number of auxiliary engines on board one of our modern battleships reaches 364. Of these approximately 75 per cent. are under the charge of the gunnery and torpedo lieutenants. The total horse-power the whole number could utilise at full power is 15,100. In the case of H.M.S. "Alexandra," completed in 1877, the number was thirty-seven, and the total horse-power they could utilise, 1,720.