8 Flotilla leaders.           500 Trawlers.
65 T.B.D.’s.                    60 Submarines.
34 Sloops.                       4 Seaplane carriers.
48 Screw minesweepers.          60 Boom defence vessels.
16 Paddle            "

During the early part of 1917 it was decided to substitute 56 screw minesweepers and 8 paddle sweepers for the approved programme of this class of vessel and to add another 50 screw minesweepers to meet the growing mine menace, as well as to substitute 115 drifters for 50 of the trawlers, and to request the Canadian Government to build 36 trawlers and 100 drifters mainly for use in Canadian waters.  It was also decided to lay down 36 mercantile decoy ships and 12 tugs, and to build 56 motor skimmers on the lines of the coastal motor boats, which were then showing their value off the Belgian coast.  The programme therefore, in May, 1917, was as follows: 

Flotilla leaders 8
T.B.D.’s 65
Patrol boats 6
Sloops 34
Minesweepers (screw) 56
    " (paddle) 8
Additional twin-screw minesweepers 50
Submarines 60
Trawlers 450
Drifters 115
Canadian trawlers 36
    " drifters 100
Boom defence vessels 60
Mercantile decoy ships 36
Seaplane carriers 4
Tugs 12
Motor skimmers 56

Meanwhile intelligence had been received which indicated that Germany was building such a considerable number of light cruisers as to jeopardize our supremacy in this class of vessel, and it was decided by the Board that we ought to build eight more light cruisers even at the cost of appropriating the steel intended for the construction of six merchant ships.

Further, the German submarine programme was developing with great rapidity, and our own submarines of the “L” class were taking a very long time to build.  It was therefore proposed to substitute eighteen additional “H” class submarines for four of the “L” class, as the vessels of the “H” class were capable of more rapid construction, thus making the total number of submarines on order 74.  Approval was also sought for the addition of 24 destroyers and four “P” boats to the programme, bringing the number of destroyers on order up to a total of 89.

The programme was approved, a slight change being made in the matter of the seaplane carriers by fitting out one of the “Raleigh” class of cruisers as a seaplane vessel in order to obtain an increased number of vessels of this type more rapidly than by building.  Later in the year the cruiser Furious was also converted into a seaplane carrier, and she carried out much useful work in 1918.