“Take it all in all, a ship of the line is the most honourable thing that man, as a gregarious animal, has ever produced. By himself, unhelped, he can do better things than ships of the line; he can make poems, and pictures, and other such concentrations of what is best in him. But as a being living in flocks, and hammering out with alternate strokes and mutual agreement, what is necessary for him in those flocks to get or produce, the ship of the line is his first work. Into that he has put as much of his human patience, common sense, forethought, experimental philosophy, self-control, habits of order and obedience, thoroughly wrought hand-work, defiance of brute elements, careless courage, careful patriotism, and calm expectation of the judgment of God, as can well be put into a space of 300 ft. long by 80 ft. broad. And I am thankful to have lived in an age when I could see this thing so done.” So wrote Mr. Ruskin about forty years ago, referring, of course, to the old wooden line-of-battle ships. It may be doubted whether he would have written thus enthusiastically about so unpicturesque an object as the Glatton, just as it may be doubted whether the armour-plated steamers will attain the same celebrity in romance and in verse as the old frigates with their “wooden walls.” Certain it is that the patience, forethought, experimental philosophy, thoroughly wrought hand-work, careful patriotism, and other good qualities which Mr. Ruskin saw in the wooden frigates, are not the less displayed in the new ironclads.

Floating batteries, plated with iron, were employed in the Crimean War at the instigation of the French Emperor. About the same time the question of protecting ships of war by some kind of defensive armour was forced upon the attention of maritime powers, by the great strides with which the improvements in artillery were advancing; for the new guns could hurl projectiles capable of penetrating, with the greatest ease, any wooden ship afloat. The French Government took the initiative by constructing La Gloire, a timber-framed ship, covered with an armour of rolled iron plates, 4½ in. thick. The British Admiralty quickly followed with the Warrior, a frigate similar in shape to the wooden frigates, but built on an iron frame, with armour composed of plates 4½ in. thick, backed by 18 in. of solid teak-wood, and provided with an inner skin of iron. The Warrior was 380 ft. long, but only 213 ft. of this length was armoured. The defensive armour carried by the Warrior, and the ironclads constructed immediately afterwards, was quite capable of resisting the impact of the 68 lb. shot, which was at that time the heaviest projectile that could be thrown by naval guns. But to the increasing power of the new artillery it soon became necessary to oppose increased thickness of iron plates. The earlier ironclads carried a considerable number of guns, which could, however, deliver only a broadside fire, that is, the shots could, for the most part, be sent only in a direction at right angles to the ship’s length, or nearly so. But in the more recently built ironclads there are very few guns, which are, however, six times the weight of the old sixty-eight pounders, and are capable of hurling projectiles of enormous weight. The ships built after the Warrior were completely protected by iron plates, and the thickness of the plates has been increased from time to time, with a view of resisting the increased power which has been progressively given to naval guns. A contest, not yet terminated, has been going on between the artillerist and the ship-builder; the one endeavouring to make his guns capable of penetrating with their shot the strongest defensive armour of the ships, the other adding inch after inch to the thickness of his plates, in order, if possible, to render his ship invulnerable.

One of the finest of the large ironclads is the Hercules, of which a section amidships is presented on the next page. This ship is 325 ft. in length, and 59 ft. in breadth, and is fitted with very powerful engines which will work up to 8,529 indicated horse-power. The tonnage is 5,226; weight of hull, 4,022 tons; weight of the armour and its backing, 1,690 tons; weight of engines, boilers, and coals, 1,826 tons; total with equipment and armament, 8,676 tons. Although the Hercules carries this enormous weight of armour and armament, her speed is very great, excelling, in fact, that of any merchant steamer afloat, for she can steam at the rate of nearly 17 miles an hour. She also possesses, in a remarkable degree, the property which naval men call handiness; that is, she can be quickly turned round in a comparatively small space. The handiness of a steamer is tested by causing her to steam at full speed with the helm hard over, when the vessel will describe a circle. The smaller the diameter of that circle, and the shorter the time required to complete it, the better will the vessel execute the movements required in naval tactics. Comparing the performances of the Warrior and the Hercules, we find that the smallest circle the former can describe is 1,050 yards in diameter, and requires nine minutes for its completion, whereas the latter can steam round a circle of only 560 yards diameter in four minutes. The section (Fig. 70) shows that, like the Great Eastern, the Hercules is constructed with a double hull, so that she would be safe, even in the event of such an accident as actually occurred to the Great Eastern, when a hole was made by the stripping off of her bottom plates, 80 ft. long and 5 ft. wide. The defensive armour of the Hercules is, it will be observed, greatly strengthened near the water-line, where damage to the ship’s side would be most fatal. The outer iron plates are here 9 in. thick, while in other parts the thickness is 8 in., and in the less important positions 6 in. The whole of the hull is, however, completely protected above the water-line, and the iron plates are backed up by solid teak-wood for a thickness of from 10 in. to 12 in. The teak is placed between girders, which are attached to another iron plating 1½ in. thick, supported by girders 2 ft. apart. The spaces between these girders are also filled with teak, and the whole is lined with an inner skin of iron plating, ¾ in. thick. The belt along the water-line has thus altogether 11¼ in. of iron, of which 9 in. are in one thickness, and this part is, moreover, backed by additional layers of teak, as shown in the section; so that, besides the 11¼ in. of iron, the ship’s side has here 3 ft. 8 in. total thickness of solid teak-wood. The deck is also covered with iron plates, to protect the vessel from vertical fire. The Hercules carries eight 18–ton guns as her central battery, and two 12–ton guns in her bow and stern: these guns are rifled, and each of the larger ones is capable of throwing a shot weighing 400 lbs. The guns can be trained so as to fire within 15° of the direction of the keel; for near the ends of the central battery the ports are indented, and the guns are mounted on Scott’s carriages, in such a manner that any gun-slide can be run on to a small turn-table, and shunted to another port, just as a railway-carriage is shunted from one line to another. Targets for artillery practice were built so as to represent the construction of the side of the Hercules, and it was found, as the result of many experiments, that the vessel could not be penetrated by the 600 lb. shot from an Armstrong gun, fired at a distance of 700 yds. The production of such iron plates, and those of even greater thickness which have since been used, forms a striking example of the skill with which iron is worked. These plates are made by rolling, and it will be understood that the machinery used in their formation must be of the most powerful kind, when it is stated that plates from 9 in. to 15 in. thick are formed with a length of 16 ft. and a breadth of 4 ft. The plates are bent, while red hot, by enormous hydraulic pressure, applied to certain blocks, upon which the plates are laid, the block having a height adjusted according to the curve required. The operation requires great care, as it must be accomplished without straining the parts in a manner injurious to the strength of the plate.

Fig. 71 on the next page is the section of another ship of war, the Inconstant, which has not, like the Hercules, been designed to withstand the impact of heavy projectiles, but has been built mainly with a view to speed. The Inconstant has only a thin covering of iron plating, except in that portion of the side which is above water, where there is a certain thickness of iron diminishing from the water-line upwards, but not enough to entitle the Inconstant to be classed as an armoured vessel. This ship, however, may be a truly formidable antagonist, for she carries a considerable number of heavy guns, which her speed would enable her to use with great effect against an adversary incapable of manoeuvring so rapidly. She could give chase, or could run in and deliver her fire, escaping by her speed from hostile pursuit in cases where the slower movements of a ponderous ironclad would be much less effective. The Inconstant carries ten 12–ton guns of 9 in. calibre, and six 6–ton 7 in. guns, all rifled muzzle-loaders, mounted on improved iron carriages, which give great facilities for handling them The ship is a frigate 338 ft. long and 50 ft. broad, with a depth in the hold of 17 ft. 6 in. She is divided by bulkheads into eleven water-tight compartments. The engines are of 6,500 indicated horse-power, and the vessel attains an average speed of more than 18½ miles per hour.

A new system of mounting very heavy naval guns was proposed by Captain Coles about 1861. This plan consists in carrying one or two very heavy guns in a low circular tower or turret, which can be made to revolve horizontally by proper machinery. The turret itself is heavily armoured, so as to be proof against all shot, and is carried on the deck of the ship, which is so arranged that the guns in the turret can be fired at small angles with the keel. The British Admiralty having approved of Captain Coles’ plans, two first-class vessels were ordered to be built on the turret system. These were the Monarch and the Captain—the latter of which we select for description on account of the melancholy interest which attaches to her. On page 155 a diagram is given representing the profile of the Captain, in which some of the peculiarities of the ship are indicated—the turrets with the muzzles of two guns projecting from each being easily recognized. The Captain was 320 ft. long and 53 ft. wide. She was covered with armour plates down to 5 ft. below the water-line, as represented by the dark shading in the diagram. The outer plating was 8 in. thick opposite the turrets, and 7 in. thick in other parts. It was backed up by 12 in. of teak; there were two inner skins of iron each ¾ in. thick, then a framework with longitudinal girders 10 in. deep. The deck was plated in the spaces opposite the turrets with iron 1½ in. thick. The Captain was fitted with twin screws—that is, instead of having a single screw, one was placed on each side, their shafts being, of course, parallel with the vessel’s length. The object of having two screws was not greater power, for it is probable that a single screw would be more effectual in propelling the ship; but this arrangement was adopted because it was considered that, had only one screw been fixed, the ship might easily be disabled by the breaking of a blade or shaft; whereas in the case of such an accident to one of the twin screws, the other would still be available. The twin screws could also be used for steering, and the vessel could be controlled without the rudder, as the engines were quite independent of each other, each screw having a separate pair. The diameter of the screws was 17 ft. The erections which are shown on the deck between the turrets afforded spacious quarters for the officers and men. These structures were about half the width of the deck, and tapered off to a point towards the turrets, so as leave an unimpeded space for training the guns, which could be fired at so small an angle as 6° with the length of the vessel. Above these erections, and quite over the turrets, was another deck, 26 ft. wide, called the “hurricane deck.” The ship was fully rigged and carried a large spread of canvas. But the special features are the revolving turrets, and one of these is represented in detail in Fig. 72, which gives a section, part elevation, and plan. Of the construction of the turret, and of the mode in which it was made to revolve, these drawings convey an idea sufficiently clear to obviate the necessity of a minute description. Each turret had an outside diameter of 27 ft., but inside the diameter was only 22 ft. 6 in., the walls being, therefore, 2 ft. 3 in. thick—nearly half this thickness consisting of iron plating. Separate engines were provided for turning the turrets, and they could also be turned by men working at the handles shown in the figures. Each turret carried two 25–ton Armstrong guns, capable of receiving a charge of 70 lbs. of gunpowder, and of throwing a 600 lb. shot.

After some preliminary trials the Captain was sent to sea, and behaved so well, that Captain Coles and Messrs. Laird, her designer and contractors, were perfectly satisfied with her qualities as a sea-going ship. She was then sent in the autumn of 1870 on a cruise with the fleet, and all went well until a little after midnight between the 6th and 7th September, 1870, when she suddenly foundered at sea off Cape Finisterre. The news of this disaster created a profound sensation throughout Great Britain, for, with the exception of nineteen persons, the whole crew of five hundred persons went down with the ship. Captain Coles, the inventor of the turrets, was in the ill-fated vessel and perished with the rest, as did also Captain Burgoyne, the gallant commander, and the many other distinguished naval officers who had been appointed to the ship; among the rest was a son of Mr. Childers, then First Lord of the Admiralty. Although the night on which this unfortunate ship went down was squally, with rain, and a heavy sea running, the case was not that of an ordinary shipwreck in which a vessel is overwhelmed by a raging storm. It might be said, indeed, of the loss of the Captain as of that of the Royal George:

One of the survivors, Mr. James May, a gunner, related that, shortly after midnight he was roused from his sleep by a noise, and feeling the ship uneasy, he dressed, took a light, and went into the after turret, to see if the guns were all right. He found everything secure in the turret, but that moment he felt the ship heel steadily over, and a heavy sea having struck her on the weather side, the water flowed into the turret, and he got out through the hole in the top of the turret by which the guns were pointed, only to find himself in the water. He swam to the steam-pinnace, which he saw floating bottom upwards, and there he was joined by Captain Burgoyne and a few others. He saw the ship turn bottom up, and sink stern first, the whole time from her turning over to sinking not being more than a few minutes. Seeing the launch drifting within a few yards, he called out, “Jump, men! it is your last chance.” He jumped, and with three others reached a launch, in which were fifteen persons, all belonging to the watch on deck, who had found means of getting into this boat. One of these had got a footing on the hull of the ship as she was turning over, and he actually walked over the bottom of the vessel, but was washed off by a wave and rescued by those who in the meantime had got into the launch. It appears that Captain Burgoyne either remained on the pinnace or failed to reach the launch. Those who were in that boat, finding the captain had not reached them, made an effort to turn their boat back to pick him up, but the boat was nearly swamped by the heavy seas, and they were obliged to let her drift. One man was at this time washed out of the boat and lost, after having but the moment before exclaimed, “Now, lads, I think we are all right.” After twelve hours’ hard rowing, without food or water, the survivors, numbering sixteen men and petty officers and three boys, reached Cape Finisterre, where they received help and attention. On their arrival in England, a court-martial was, according to the rules of the service, formally held on the survivors, but in reality it was occupied in investigating the cause of the catastrophe. The reader may probably be able to understand what the cause was by giving his attention to some general considerations, which apply to all ships whatever, and by a careful examination of the diagrams, Figs. 74 and 75, which are copied from diagrams that were placed in the hands of the members of the court-martial. The letters b and g and the arrows are, however, added, to serve in illustration of a part of the explanation. The vessel is represented as heeled over in smooth water, and the gradations on the semicircle in Fig. 74 will enable the reader to understand how the heel is measured by angles. If the ship were upright, the centre line would coincide with the upright line, marked o on the semicircle, and drawn from its centre. Suppose a level line drawn through the centre of the semicircle, and let the circumference between the point where the last line cuts it and the point o be divided into ninety equal parts, and let these parts be numbered, and straight lines drawn from the centre to each point of division. In the figure the lines are drawn at every fifth division, and the centre line of the ship coincides with that drawn through the forty-fifth division. In this case the vessel is said to be inclined, or heeled, at an angle of forty-five degrees, which is usually written 45°. In a position half-way between this and the upright the angle of heel would be 22½°, and so on. The reader no doubt perceives that a ship, like any other body, must be supported, and he is probably aware that the support is afforded by the upward pressure of the water. He may also be familiar with the fact that the weight of every body acts upon it as if the whole weight were concentrated at one certain point, and that this point is called the centre of gravity of the body. Whatever may be the position of the body itself, its centre of gravity remains always at the same point with reference to the body. When the centre of gravity happens to be within the solid substance of a body, there is no difficulty in thinking of the force of gravitation acting as a downward pull applied at the centre of gravity. But this point is by no means always within the substance of bodies: as often as not it is in the air outside of the body. Thus the centre of gravity of a uniform ring or hoop is in the centre, where, of course, it has no material connection with the hoop; but in whatever position the hoop may be placed, the earth’s attraction pulls it as if this central point were rigidly connected with the hoop, and a string were attached to the point and constantly pulled downwards. This explanation of the meaning of centre of gravity may not be altogether superfluous, for, when the causes of the loss of the Captain were discussed in the newspapers, it became evident that such terms as “centre of gravity” convey to the minds of many but very vague notions. One writer in a newspaper enjoying a large circulation seriously attributed the disaster to the circumstance of the ship having lost her centre of gravity! The upward pressure of water which supports a ship is the same upward pressure which supported the water before the ship was there—that is, supported the mass of water which the ship displaces, and which was in size and shape the exact counterpart of the immersed part of the ship. Now, this mass of water, considered as a whole, had itself a centre of gravity through which its weight acted downwards, and through which it is obvious that an equal upward pressure also acted. This centre of gravity of the displaced water is usually termed the “centre of buoyancy,” and, unlike the centre of gravity, it changes its position with regard to the ship when the latter is inclined, because then the immersed part becomes of a shape different for each inclination of the ship. Now, recalling for an instant the fundamental law of floating bodies—namely, that the weight of the water displaced is equal to the weight of the floating body—we perceive that in the case of a ship there are two equal forces acting vertically, viz., the weight of the ship or downward pull of gravitation acting at G, Fig. 74, the centre of gravity of the ship, and an equal upward push acting through B, the centre of buoyancy. It is obvious that the action of these forces concur to turn a ship placed as in Fig. 74 into the upright position. It is by no means necessary for this effect that the centre of gravity should be below the centre of buoyancy. All that is requisite for the stability of a ship is, that when the ship is placed out of the upright position, these forces should act to bring her back, which condition is secured so long as the centre of buoyancy is nearer to the side towards which the vessel is inclined than the centre of gravity is. When there is no other force acting on a ship or other floating body, these two points are always in the same vertical line. The two equal forces thus applied in parallel directions constitute what is called in mechanics a “couple,” and the effect of this in turning the ship back into the upright position is the same as if a force equal to its weight were applied at the end of a lever equal in length to the horizontal distance between the lines through B and G. The righting force, then, increases in proportion to the horizontal distance between the two points, and it is measured by multiplying the weight of the ship in tons by the number of feet between the verticals through G and B, the product being expressed in statical foot-tons, and representing the weight in tons which would have to be applied to the end of a lever 1 ft. long, in order to produce the same turning effect. When a ship is kept steadily heeled over by a side wind, the pressure of the wind and the resistance of the water through which the vessel moves constitute another couple exactly balancing the righting couple. The moment of the righting couple, or the righting force, or statical stability as it is also called, is determined by calculation and experiment from the design of the ship, and from her behaviour when a known weight is placed in her at a known distance from the centre. Such calculations and experiments were made in the case of the Captain, but do not appear to have been conducted with sufficient care and completeness to exhibit her deficiency in stability. After the loss of the ship, however, elaborate computations on these points were made from the plans and other data. The following table gives some of the results, with the corresponding particulars concerning the Monarch for the sake of comparison:

From No. V. in the above table we learn that if the Captain had been heeled to 54°, the centre of gravity would have overtaken the centre of buoyancy—that is, the two would have been in one vertical line. Any further heeling would have brought the points into the position shown in Fig. 75, where it is obvious that the action of the forces is now to turn the vessel still more on its side, and the result is an upsetting couple instead of a righting couple.

These figures and considerations refer to the case of the vessel floating in smooth water, but the case of a vessel floating on a wave is not different in principle. The reader may picture to himself the diagrams inclined so that the water-line may represent a portion of the wave’s surface; then he must remember that the very action which heaves up the water in a sloping surface is so compounded with gravity, that the forces acting through G and B retain nearly the same position relatively to the surface as before.

No. VI. in the foregoing table requires some explanation. To heel a ship over to a certain angle a certain amount of work must be done, and in the scientific sense work is done only when something is moved through a space against a resistance. When the weight of a ton is raised 1 ft. high, one foot ton of work is said to be done; if 2 tons were raised 1 ft., or 1 ton were raised 2 ft., then two foot-tons of work would be done, and so on. The same would be the case if a pressure equal to those weights were applied so as to move a thing in any direction through the same distances. It should be carefully noticed that the foot-ton is quite a different unit in this case from what it is as the moment of a couple. If we heel a ship over by applying a pressure on the masts, it is plain that the pressure must act through a certain space, and the same heel could be caused either by means of a smaller pressure or a greater, according as we apply it higher up or lower down; but the space through which it must act would vary, so that the product of the pressure and space would, however, be always the same. No. VI. shows the amount of work that would have to be done in order completely to upset each of the vessels when already steadily heeled over to 14°. The amounts in the two cases are so different that we can easily understand how a squall which would not endanger the Monarch might throw the Captain over. A squall suddenly springing up would do more than heel a vessel over to the angle at which it is able to maintain it: it would swing it beyond that position by reason of the work done on the sails as they are moving over with the vessel, and the latter would come to a steady angle of heel only after a series of oscillations. Squalls, again, which, although suddenly springing up in this manner, could not heel the ship over beyond the angle where the stability vanishes, might yet do so if they were intermittent and should happen to coincide in time with the oscillations of the ship—just as a series of very small impulses, coinciding with the time of the vibrations of a heavy pendulum, may accumulate so as to increase the range of vibration to any extent. It is believed that in the case of the Captain the pressure of the wind on the underside of the hurricane assisted in upsetting the vessel. This, however, could only have exerted a very small effect compared to that produced by the sails. The instability of the Captain does not appear to have been discovered by such calculations as were made before the vessel went to sea. It was observed, however, that the ship when afloat was 1 ft. 6 in. deeper in the water than she should have been—in other words, the freeboard, or side of the ship out of the water, instead of being 8 ft. high as intended, was only 6 ft. 6 in., and such a difference would have a great effect on the stability.

The turret system has been applied to other ships on quite a different plan. Of these the Glatton is one of the most remarkable. Her appearance is very singular, and totally unlike that which we look for in a ship, as may be seen by an inspection of Fig. 76, page 162. The Glatton, which was launched in 1871, is of the Monitor class, and was designed by Mr. E. J. Reed, who has sought to give the ship the most complete protection. With this view the hull is covered with iron plates below the water-line, and the deck also is cased with 3 in. iron plates, to resist shot or shell falling vertically. The base of the turret is shielded by a massive breastwork, which is a peculiarity of this ship. The large quantity of iron required for all these extra defences has, of course, the effect of increasing the immersion of the vessel, and therefore of diminishing her speed. The freeboard when the ship is in ordinary trim is only 3 ft. high, and means are provided for admitting water to the lowest compartment, so as to increase the immersion by 1 ft., thus reducing the freeboard to only 2 ft. when the vessel is in fighting trim, leaving only that small portion of the hull above water as a mark for the enemy. The water ballast can be pumped out when no longer needed. The Glatton is 245 ft. long and 54 ft. broad, and she draws 19 ft. of water with the freeboard of 3 ft., displacing 4,865 tons of water, while, with the 2 ft. freeboard, the displacement is 5,179 tons. This ship cost £210,000. Mr. Reed wished to construct a vessel of much larger size on the same plan—a proposal to which, however, the Admiralty did not then consent. The Glatton is, nevertheless, one of the most powerful ships of war ever built, and may be considered as an impregnable floating fortress. Above the water-line the hull is covered with armour plates 12 in. thick, supported by 20 in. of teak backing, and an inner layer of iron 1 in. thick. Below the water-line the iron is 8 in. thick, and the teak 10 in. The revolving turret carries two 25–ton guns, firing each a 600 lb. shot, and is covered by a massive plating of iron 14 in. in thickness. Besides this the base of the turret is protected by a breastwork rising 6 ft. above the hull. This breastwork is formed of plates 12 in. thick, fastened on 18 in. of teak. The turret rises 7 ft. above the breastwork, and therefore the latter in no way impedes the working of the guns. The Glatton has a great advantage over all the other turret ships in having a perfectly unimpeded fore range for her guns, for there is no mast or other object to prevent the guns being fired directly over the bow. There are no sails, the mast being intended only for flying signals and hoisting up boats, &c. The hull is divided by vertical partitions into nine water-tight compartments, and also into three horizontal flats—the lowest being air-tight, and having arrangements for the admission and removal of water, as already mentioned. The stem of the ship is protruded forwards below the water for about 8 ft., thus forming a huge ram which would itself render the Glatton a truly formidable antagonist at close quarters even if her guns were not used. The engines are capable of being worked up to 3,000 horse-power, giving the ship a speed of 9½ knots per hour, and means are provided for turning the turret by steam power. The turret can be rotated by manual labour, requiring about three minutes for its complete revolution, but by steam power the operation can be effected in half a minute. The commander communicates his orders from the pilot-house on the hurricane deck to the engine-room, steering-house, and turret, by means of speaking-tubes and electric telegraphs. The Glatton was not designed to be ocean-going, but is intended for coast defence.

The British navy contains two powerful turret-ships constructed on the same general plan as the Glatton, but larger, and capable of steaming at a greater speed, and of carrying coal for a long voyage. These sister ships are named the Devastation, Fig. 69, and the Thunderer, Fig. 77. The Thunderer has two turrets and a freeboard of 4 ft. 6 in. Space is provided for a store of 1,800 tons of coal, of which the Glatton can carry only 500 tons. The vessel is fitted with twin screws, turned by two pairs of independent engines, capable of working up to 5,600 horse-power, and she can steam at the rate of 12 knots, or nearly 14 miles, an hour. With the large supply of coal she can carry, the Thunderer could make a voyage of 3,000 miles without re-coaling. Though the freeboard of the heavily-plated hull is only 4 ft. 6 in., a lighter iron superstructure, indicated in the figure by the light shading, rises from the deck to the height of 7 ft., making the real freeboard nearly 12 ft. This gives the ship much greater stability, and prevents her from rolling heavily when at sea. The length is 285 ft. and the width 58 ft., and the draught 26 ft. The hull is double, the distance between the outer and inner skins of the bottom being 4 ft. 6 in. The framing is very strong and on the longitudinal principle, and the keel is formed of Bessemer steel. Each turret is 24 ft. 3 in. in internal diameter, and is built with five layers of teak and iron. Beginning at the inside, there is a lining of 2? in. iron plates; then 6 in. of teak in iron frames, arranged horizontally; 6 in. of armour plates; 9 in. of teak, placed vertically; outside of all, 8 in. armour plates. Each turret carries two Fraser 35–ton guns, rifled muzzle-loaders. The turrets revolve by hand or by steam-power. There are no sails, and thus a clear range for the guns is afforded fore and aft. The bases of the turrets are protected by the armoured breastwork, of which a portion is seen in the figure in advance of the fore turret.

Another very powerful ship of war, which possesses some special features, is represented in the diagram on page 165, Fig. 78. This vessel, named the KÖnig Wilhelm, was built at Blackwall for the Prussian Government by the Thames Ironworks and Steam Shipbuilding Company, from designs by Mr. Reed. Her length is 365 ft., width 60 ft.; burthen, 6,000 tons; displacement, 8,500 tons. She is framed longitudinally, that is, girders pass from end to end, about 7 ft. apart, and the stem projects into a pointed ram. In this case also the hull is double; there is, in fact, one hull within another, with a space of 4½ ft. between them. The armour plates are 8 in. in thickness, with 10 in. of teak backing; but on the less important parts the thickness of the iron is reduced to 6 in., and in some places to 4 in. This ship has a broadside battery, and there are no turrets, but on the deck there are, fore and aft, two semicircular shields, formed of iron plates and teak, pierced with port-holes for cannon, and also with loop-holes for muskets. From these a fore-and-aft fire may be kept up. The ship is fully rigged, and has also steam engines of 7,000 horse-power, by Maudslay and Co. Her armament consists of four three-hundred-pounders, capable of delivering fore-and-aft as well as broadside fire, and twenty-three other guns of the same size between decks. These guns are all Krupp’s steel breech-loaders.

The great contest of armour plates versus guns has already been alluded to, and to the remarks then made it may be added that, while on the one hand, guns weighing 110 tons are mounted in turrets, ships are already designed with 18 in. and even 20 in. of steel armour plates. It would be very difficult to predict which side will sooner reach the limit beyond which increase of size and power cannot go. The gradual increase of thickness of plating, attended by increased weight of guns, projectiles, and charges of powder, may be illustrated by stating in a condensed form a few details of some ships, as regards the thickness of armour, and its resisting power, which is nearly in proportion to the square of its thickness; and also some particulars respecting the guns originally carried by those ships.

One of the latest additions out of the thirty or forty armoured ships that have been added to the British Navy since the preceding pages were written is included in the above table for the sake of comparison. Our ironclad fleet now includes vessels protected and armed in many different ways. Some have the protective armour extended continuously along the water-line, others have it for only a greater or less part of their length. The armaments are also very diverse as to the size of the guns and the way in which they are mounted. A few carry one or two of the huge 110–ton gun mounted in massive revolving turrets; others have their guns in central batteries, or in barbettes, and others again are arranged as broadside ships; while these plans are also variously combined so as to form a great number of different types. In the ships built within the last 15 years, steel has been almost invariably used instead of iron for the armour-plating. A great increase of speed has been obtained in late years. The largest British armoured ships yet launched have displacements between 10,000 and 12,000 tons, but another class of first-rate line-of-battle ships of still greater size is in process of construction, and of these it is estimated that four will be completed in 1893. They are all of the same design and armament, and will have a displacement of 14,150 tons, a length of 380 feet, and a breadth of 75 feet. The armour plates at the sides will be 18 inches thick. Each ship will carry four 67–ton breech loading rifled guns, ten 6–inch quick firing guns, and 18 other smaller guns, also quick firing. These vessels are expected to realize a speed of about 20 miles per hour; but this is somewhat less than a few of the heavy ironclads now afloat have given by actual trial, a rate equal to 21? miles an hour having been attained by some. Several of our rapid unarmoured cruisers are able to steam at 25 miles an hour.

Before the close of 1894, the British navy possessed no fewer than eight of the largest armoured line of battle-ships mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, each being of 14,150 tons displacement, and having engines of 13,000 horse-power. At the same period there were in course of construction four ships surpassing even these in tonnage, though of somewhat less engine-power. Two were building at Portsmouth, to be called the Majestic and the Royal George, whilst the Jupiter was in progress at Glasgow and the Mars at Birkenhead. All these are very heavily armoured vessels, each displacing 14,900 tons, provided with engines of 12,000 horse-power, and a very effective armament of guns. Among the powerful ships of the navy may now also be noted the Blake, the Blenheim, which, although the displacement is only 500 tons greater than that of KÖnig Wilhelm, have engines of nearly three times the power, namely, of 20,000 horse-power. Of large armoured ships, namely, those of 9,000 tons and upwards, Great Britain now has afloat at least fifty; and the advance that has taken place in the size and power of war-ships during the last twenty years may be inferred by reference to the foregoing paragraphs giving the dimensions, &c., of the Glatton and the Thunderer, which paragraphs are, for the sake of comparison, allowed to appear as they did in the first edition (1876) of this book. Besides these very large armoured vessels, of which the smallest is nearly twice as big as the largest of twenty-five years ago, the British navy comprises ships of every size and for every purpose, and so many of them that their names and classifications would occupy many pages.

Two recent additions representing new type of ships claim notice before this article is concluded. These are first the Terrible, with a sister ship the Powerful. The former, of which a representation^[3] is given in Plate V., is pronounced, for its size, armour, armament, and speed taken together, to be the most powerful cruiser in the world. The length is 538 ft., breadth 71 ft., depth 43 ft., and the displacement is 14,250 tons. A special object in the design of this vessel was high speed, and she is provided with twin-screws and two engines, the combined effort of which is equal to 25,000 horse-power. There are forty-eight boilers and four funnels, the ship being capable of carrying 3,000 tons of coal. The vessel is built on the lines of the great Atlantic steamers, and the engines, guns, and magazines are protected by a thick curved armour deck. The vessel has a speed of 22 knots, or 25? miles per hour. Her armament consists of two 22–ton guns, twelve 6–in. quick-firing, and many other smaller machine guns, and she carries besides four submerged torpedo tubes. A second ship to be noted is amongst those designed mainly to exceed all other craft in speed, and ranging in tonnage from 3,800 to 4,500. The Janus, a torpedo-boat destroyer of this class, was found, at a recent trial over a measured mile, to attain the then unexampled speed of 28 knots, or 32¼ miles per hour. But even this has been beaten by a new torpedo-boat destroyer, built by Messrs. Yarrow at Poplar for the Russian Government, and launched in August, 1895. This vessel, within a few hours after leaving the stocks, cut through the water at the rate of 30·285 knots, or nearly 35 miles, per hour.

3.From Graphic, 1st June, 1895.