Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

mmmmmh H.M.S. “ GLADIATOR.” Photo, S. Cribb, Southsea. The Story of an Extraordinary Feat of Marine Engineering. THE wintry weather that afflicted West- ern Europe and the British Isles in the latter part of April 1908 will long be remembered, at least by meteorologists. At a time of year which we are accustomed to associate with bursting buds and warm spring sunshine, a terrific snowstorm swooped down upon this part of the world. In a few hours on April 25 several inches of snow fell, blocking many English roads, and for a while interrupting communication. Such a fall at that season cannot be matched in the records of the Weather Office. This storm was responsible for a terrible disaster to a ship of the British Navy. While the blizzard was at its height, the liner St. Paul, groping its way down the Solent, col- lided with H.M.S. Gladiator, a 6,000-ton cruiser of the “ Scout ” class, which eighteen years before cost the nation considerably over a Sinking of H.M.S. “ Gladiator.” quarter of a million pounds sterling to build. The bows of the St. Paul caught her obliquely, and ripped off her side plating from top to bottom for a distance of 50 feet. Thanks to her water- tight bulkheads, the liner, though grievously injured in the bows, was able to make port, but the Gladiator began to sink at once. All that her unfortunate commander could do was to run her into shallow water before she should settle down finally. In a very few minutes the cruiser touched bottom, and heeled over on a shelving beach till her masts were horizontal, pointing towards the shore, in water of such a depth that at high-tide her port side was just uncovered. About two years before this disaster des- perate efforts had been made to save the first-class battleship Montague, which ran on