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SECRET.

29-M.

Printed for the Home Ports Defence Committee. May 1913...

III.

BARROW.

Admiralty M-01364/12.

FIXED DEFENCES AND EXAMINATION SERVICE,

Memorandum by the Home Ports Defence Committee.

THE Admiralty, in a letter M -01364/12, dated the 30th September, 1912, requested that the question of establishing an Examination Service at Cardiff, Barry, Penarth, Swansea, and Barrow, should be considered by the Home Ports Defence Committee as soon as possible. An extract from this letter is printed as Appendix I to this Memorandum.

2. The attention of the Admiralty was first, drawn to the liability of certain commercial ports to be blocked by the suspicious movements of a foreign vessel in one of the ports on the South Coast during the period of international tension in the summer of 1911.

3. The question was first considered by the Committee on the 23rd October, 1912, and Cardiff, Barry, Penarth, and Swansea were then dealt with, the Committee's views being expressed in H.P.D.C. Memorandum No. 21–M. The consideration of the Examination Service at Barrow was, however, postponed until 22nd January, 1913, pending certain enquiries from Messrs. Vickers, Sons, and Maxim.

&

4. There has never been an Examination Service at Barrow, and the Joint Naval and Military Conference on the Regulation of Traffic at Defended Ports in Time of War, in their Report dated the 30th July, 1906, advised that

under present circumstances no Examination Service is recommended." At that time, no fixed Defences existed at Barrow, and the Examination Service could have served no useful purpose.

5. The Admiralty now wish to establish an Examination Service at this port in order to guard, as far as possible, against the danger of one or more heavily laden ships being purposely sunk in the narrow fairway with the object of obstructing the channel In their letter M-01364/12 (Appendix I) they point out that the blocking of the exit from Barrow would cut off sea communication to one of the most important building yards in the country.

6. In order to render an Examination Service at Barrow effective, it would be necessary to provide a new supporting battery, since the existing 6-inch battery, which was erected primarily for the defence of the harbour and shipbuilding works against bombardment, is too far to the northward to support an Examination Service.

7. The question of providing fixed defences at Barrow has, however, been the subject of a Memorandum by the Home Ports Defence Committee as recently as December 1909 (H.P.D.C. Memorandum No. 7-M., Appendix II to this Memorandum), when the Admiralty asked the Committee to consider the establishment of an extra battery on Walney Island to guard against the danger of "blockers" by day. The Committee did not at that time feel justified in recommending additional fixed defences, as, though they realised the importance of the port, they were advised by their naval representatives that the immense resources of Messrs. Vickers, Son, and Maxim, supplemented, if

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