Daily Event for September 14, 2009


At the shipyard of Cammell Laird in Birkenhead on Sept. 14, 1912 the battleship Audacious was launched. She was christened by Lady Lytton, the service presided over by the Rev. G. D. Oakley. At a luncheon the chairman of Cammell Laird, W. L. Hitchens toasted the ship and said "Probably the warship of today would in the future be driven out by the development of areoplanes, controlled by wireless telegraphy from Whitehall". Almost 100 years later, as he somewhat predicted, the battleship is no more the queen of the sea and the aircraft he thought would be developed have been, albeit not flown from Whitehall.
© 2009 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com