CHAPTER VI
NAVAL AIRSHIPS.--THE NON-RIGIDS--
S.S. TYPE

The development of the British airships of to-day may be said to
date from February 28th, 1915. On that day approval was given
for the construction of the original S.S. airship.

At this time the Germans had embarked upon their submarine
campaign, realizing, with the failure of their great assaults on
the British troops in Flanders, that their main hope of victory
lay in starving Great Britain into surrender. There is no doubt
that the wholesale sinking of our merchant shipping was
sufficient to cause grave alarm, and the authorities were much
concerned to devise means of minimizing, even if they could not
completely eliminate the danger. One proposal which was adopted,
and which chiefly concerns the interests of this book, was the
establishment of airship stations round the coasts of Great
Britain. These stations were to be equipped with airships
capable of patrolling the main shipping routes, whose functions
were to search for submarines and mines and to escort shipping
through the danger zones in conjunction with surface craft.

Airship construction in this country at the time was, practically
speaking, non-existent. There was no time to be wasted in
carrying out long and expensive experiments, for the demand for
airships which could fulfil these requirements was terribly