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.