XI. ARMOURED SHIPS.

Armoured ships date from the close of the Russian War of 1855-6, when it was discovered that the increased power of military ordnance had given, in the case of a contest between forts and ships, the advantage to the forts. Armour at first was applied only to ships intended for coast defence,-'floating batteries,' as they were called, and of these the Terror, Erebus, and Thunderbolt were, we believe, the earliest specimens. To these were soon added the Glatton, the Thunderer, the Trusty, and the Ætna, together with the so-called shieldships, Royal Sovereign and Prince Albert. The application of armour to sea-going ships was not long delayed; and within ten or twelve years of the fall of Sebastopol eighteen of them had been built, or were on the stocks, namely, *Warrior, * Black Prince, *Achilles, * Defence, * Resistance, *Hector, *Valiant, *Northumberland, *Minotaur, *Agincourt, Royal Oak, Royal Alfred, Ocean, Prince Consort, Caledonia, Zealous, Favourite, and Enterprise. We have marked with an asterisk such of these ships as are still borne upon the Navy List.

The Warrior, six thousand and thirty-nine tons, one thousand two hundred and fifty horse-power,' was one of the first British iron-clads capable of warlike operations on the open sea. The main object aimed at in her construction was 'to resist the action of shells, which had long been known to be readily capable of setting ships on fire, and to be frightfully destructive to limb and life when they exploded among the men massed on the fighting-decks.' The disasters at Sinope and Sebastopol pre-eminently proved the necessity for a special means of resisting these dangerous missiles. To secure this object, the French shipbuilders simply proposed to cover with iron the exposed parts of the ordinary wooden ships. But the English naval architects were of opinion that, though the bottom of iron ships fouled rapidly, a great advantage would be obtained by the use of iron instead of wood in the whole of the ship. Iron, therefore, was adopted as the material for constructing the hull, and thus all danger of destruction by fire from the action of shells was removed. The whole of the hull-plating might have been made sufficiently thick to break up common shells without any use of armour. But while iron plates of moderate thickness will successfully resist such shells, they are broken up into innumerable fragments by the blows of shot, and those fragments flying about the decks carry with them death and wounds. Therefore, in an iron ship-of-war, it is essential to protect with shot-proof plating those portions of it in which, during an action, the crew are engaged.

The portion of the Warrior thus protected was 'sufficiently long to enclose a battery of twenty-six guns, with intervals between the guns of fifteen feet six inches from centre to centre. It has walls or bulkheads across its extremities, formed of twelve inches of timber and six-inch iron plates, on a strong frame of iron. These walls extend from the spardeck to eight feet below the water. The sides are strongly framed with ribs and plating, and have outside these eighteen inches of sound hard teak, and plates of hammered iron four and a-half inches thick. Each plate is about fifteen feet long and three feet wide, and weighs four tons. Each plate is fastened by about thirty bolts, two feet long. 1 More powerful engines have since been put on board these ships.

These bolts are formed with a conical head, sunk into the plate, and a screwed point, on which there are two nuts set up inside the skin of the ship. This side has been proved capable of resisting both sixty-eight pounders fired from a ninety-five hundredweight gun, and one-hundredand-fifty pounders from an Armstrong hundred pounder gun, at two hundred yards range, the ordinary charges of powder (sixteen pounds) being employed. It was found further that, when a one-hundred-andfifty pound shot was fired from a three hundred pounder gun with a charge of fifty pounds of powder, the side was not perforated until two shots struck in the same place.

An advance in the direction of further armour-plating was made in the Achilles. She was protected by shot-proof armour, not only in the battery portion, but also in the region of the water-line, throughout her entire length,-a continuous belt of four and a half-inch armour, on eighteen inches of timber, extending eight feet above the water-line, and five feet below it.

Strong objections, however, were advanced by naval men against this method of partial protection. They contended that the unarmoured portions would become such a wreck under fire, as to render the ship unmanageable; and they considered that the loss of sea-worthiness which would result, it was supposed, from loading the ends of the ship with armour, was a less disadvantage than that which might be apprehended from the absence of such armour. To meet these objections the Minotaur, the Agincourt, and the Northumberland (six thousand six hundred and twenty-one tons, one thousand three hundred and fifty horse-power) were designed. They measured twenty feet longer than the Warrior, were eighteen inches broader, and carried six hundred tons more burthen. And they possessed a considerable advantage in the fact that while the Warrior had only twenty-six out of her sixty guns protected by armour, they had all their guns so protected. The armour in these ships is omitted only from a portion of the fore-end of the top-side of the ship, and an athwart-ship shot-proof bulkhead is erected on the forecastle.

Such were the armour-clad ships of the childhood of our iron-clad navy. The tremendous advance that has been made in the last twenty years may be understood from the single circumstance that they are now relegated to the fifth class. The rapid increase in the size and power of naval guns, called for more effective means of defence than these possessed. Greater speed was also required, and this necessitated larger boilers and ampler coaling-space. Year by year the type of ironclad ship for offensive operations at sea has undergone alteration and development. The armour has increased in thickness from five inches and a-half to fourteen, eighteen, and twenty-four inches. Instead of an indicated horse-power of one thousand two hundred and fifty, engines have been employed which represented a horse-power of six thousand, seven thousand, and eight thousand. Instead of a tonnage estimated at five thousand or six thousand, ships have been built with a tonnage of nine thousand, ten thousand, and eleven thousand; and instead of the antiquated sixty-eight pounders — pop-guns, as compared with our modern Woolwich Infants '-our ironclads have been armed with thirty-eight ton, forty-three ton, sixty-three ton, eighty ton, and even one hundred ton guns.

From the Abstract of the Navy in 1884-5,' given in a preceding page, the reader will see that our iron-clad fleet is now divided into five classes. The first class at present consists of six turret-ships and six barbette-ships, capable of meeting the largest iron-clads of any nation. These have been constructed to carry the heaviest possible guns and armour, to furnish accommodation for a large supply of coal, and yet to be exceedingly manageable. Of the turret-ships, we may take as the type, the Inflexible, which is three hundred and twenty feet long and seventy-five feet in breadth at the water-line, with a total weight of armour of three thousand two hundred and seventy-five tons. The central portion of this large vessel-beside which Nelson's flag-ship at Trafalgar would seem but a Liliputian toy-forms a strong citadel, twelve feet high, one half above and one half below the water, seventyfive feet broad and one hundred feet long: within which are concentrated the magazines, the engines and boilers, the hydraulic gear for loading the guns, and all the most vulnerable parts of the ship. Its walls are forty-one inches thick, and are built up with armour-plates varying in thickness from sixteen to twenty-four inches, with a backing of strong teak between and behind the plates. The ship extends eighteen feet below this rectangular armoured castle,' and one hundred and five feet before and behind it. In its centre are situated two turrets, twelve feet high, with an internal diameter of twenty-eight feet, placed side by side, instead of in a line, as in all other double-turret ships,— each holding two eighty-one ton guns, capable of firing one thousand seven hundred pound shot, with a charge of four hundred and fifty pounds powder.

The Inflexible has two iron masts, ninety-six feet and eighty-three feet high, with brig-rigged sails, about eighteen thousand square feet in area. Her speed, under steam, is thirteen to fourteen knots an hour.

The Dreadnought, the Devastation, and the Thunderer are mastless, and depend wholly on steam-power. They have two independent screws and two sets of engines, and carry one thousand two hundred to one thousand six hundred tons of coal, or sufficient for continuous steaming over a distance of six thousand miles. In heavy weather the deck is given up to the waves; but a narrow deck-house, placed between the two turrets, is so constructed at the top as to form a spacious hurricane or flying-deck, twenty-four feet above water.

The Colossus and the Edinburgh are sister-ships, built entirely of steel they measure three hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and sixty-eight feet in extreme breadth. Each has a central armoured citadel, and two submerged ends, on which are raised unarmoured structures for the accommodation of men, stores, and fuel.

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Of the six barbette ships-the 'Admiral' type-we shall select for description the Collingwood,' launched in 1882. With a 'displacement of nine thousand one hundred and fifty tons, and engines of seven thousand horse-power, built of steel and plated with armour ten inches thick, and carrying ten guns, she is the first of the regular barbetteships built for the British service. The armament which she carries is composed of a new gun, having a new system of breech mechanism, actuated by a new application of hydraulics; and the gun is mounted and protected on an entirely new plan. From the great height of the parapets above the water-line, the barbette arrangement makes a

powerful plunging fire to be directed against an enemy, and renders it possible for the guns to be worked under conditions of sea which would silence those of the Inflexible. 'The new system is advocated by its patrons also on the ground that it makes the gunner to see the enemy better, and to follow his movements more satisfactortly, so as to be able to strike him at the first favourable moment. But some critics of the new system have remarked that with it the object can be followed only by means of side-sights, and is completely hidden by the gun in the supreme moment of its being laid. An experimental trial of the Collingwood's armament and mode of working her guns took place on March 5, outside the Nore Light, in presence of the Naval Lords of the Admiralty, the principal dockyard officials, and the Ordnance Committee. A couple of forty-three-ton guns were fitted on the barbettes erected at each end of the superstructure battery, along the middle line of the ship, their parapets being at an elevation of nineteen feet three inches, and twenty feet three inches respectively, above the water. The barbettes are egg-shaped, and are formed of steel-faced armour fourteen inches and twelve inches thick, with a steep inward slope to secure the glancing of the shot when struck. Communication with the magazines is obtained by means of an armoured tube, up which the cartridges and shot are brought. The guns are mounted on a turn-table, similar to those on railways, rotating on conical rollers. The diameter of the table is twenty-four feet, so that the guns cannot be brought within the protection of the barbette; when the breech is depressed for loading, the muzzles are dangerously elevated, and when they are run out for firing, they are protruded beyond the side. The top of the barbette is protected as far as possible by three-inch plating flush with the parapet; outside is a circular gallery which serves the double purpose of forming a pathway round the barbette, and a breakwater against the shipping of seas. The experimental firing of the guns, twenty-four rounds in all, single and double firing, was so far satisfactory as it proved that the barbettes and adjacent parts of the ship could bear the strain very well.'1

These barbette-ships, beside the heavy guns mentioned in the Abstract, carry Nordenfeldt and Gardner guns; also Whitehead torpedoes.

The ships of the Second Class are also intended for ocean warfare. The Agamemnon and the Ajax are exactly modelled on the lines of the Inflexible, though they are inferior in power. The Belleisle and the Orion were built in the Thames for the Turkish Government, but were purchased by Great Britain in 1875. In the Glatton, the Rupert, the Hotspur, the Conqueror, and the Hero, the designer's principal object has been to adapt them for ramming purposes. The ram, in each, has its sharp point submerged about eight feet, and it projects twelve feet in advance of the upright portion of the stem. Polyphemus, on the other hand, is of entirely novel construction. It forms a kind of gigantic steel tube or cylinder, deep sunken in the water, its convex deck rising only four and a half feet above the waterline. She has neither masts nor heavy guns, and her offensive strength lies in her massive ram bow, twelve feet long, and, under it, the large 'torpedo port,' which will enable her crew to eject Whitehead torpedoes

Illustrated London News, April 18, 1885.

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right ahead of their ship. middle of each side.1

There are also two torpedo ports above the

In the Third Class we find several fine rigged ships for cruising; among which are the Superb, purchased from the Turks, and the Neptune, from the Brazilians. The latter and the Monarch are the only rigged turret-ships of the Ironclad Navy. The Impérieuse and Warspite (launched in January 1884, but not yet completed) are swift armoured barbette ships. Both the Hercules and the Sultan are turret-ships, with nine-inch armour at the water-line, and six-inch and eight-inch to defend the turrets.

The ships in the Fourth Class are fit only for coast or harbour defence. The Cyclops, Gorgon, Hecate, Hydra are turret-ships. Each has two turrets, with two eighteen-ton guns in each turret; and the hull, two hundred and twenty-five feet long and forty-five feet broad, is covered by a 'belt' of armour, seven feet wide, in two strakes. Above the hull is raised a breast-work, one hundred and seventeen feet by thirty-four feet, plated with six and a-half feet of armour, varying in thickness from eight to nine inches.

The Fifth Class includes ironclad rigged ships for cruising, which belong to antiquated types.

XII.-UNARMOURED SHIPS.

The Scout' class of vessels-' torpedo cruisers' as they are calledwill occupy an important place in the fleet of the future. The 'Scout' is building on the Clyde; the Fearless, a sister vessel, at Barrow-inFurness; another at Devonport; and six more are offered for contract (April 1885). The Scout is of nearly fifteen hundred tons displacement; has engines with an indicated horse - power of 3200, and will attain, it is expected, a speed of 16.5 knots. She will be armed with four five-inch guns, six Nordenfeldts, and ten torpedotubes.

'Though we have a very respectable number of so-called cruisers, we have not many of great speed. Most of them,' says a recent writer

1 Captain Gallwey, in his lecture at the United Service Institution, described this ship as one of the most formidable engines of naval warfare yet built, and a type of ship which, unless some better protection than we have at present can be found for the bottom of an ironclad, may necessitate the abandonment of monster ironclads in modern fleets. With what weapon is the ironclad going to vanquish the numerous torpedo rams that are being built in every country, and of which class the Polyphemus is the most formidable? All experience shows that the heavy guns of an ironclad cannot be depended on to hit, much less to stop, a vessel moving at high speed and showing only four feet of surface above water. She is proof against machine-guns, and being smaller, handier, and faster than most ironclads, should have the best chance with her ram, more especially as it is provided with a weapon that can be discharged with the greatest certainty to a distance of three hundred yards. If a submarine ship armed with locomotive torpedoes is ever built, then we shall have the most formidable antagonist for large ironclads which it is possible to imagine; and the nearer the special torpedo ship can resemble the submarine boat the more formidable does she become.' The Admiralty are building a companion ship to the Polyphemus, exactly resembling her in all essential respects, but having a slightly higher speed, and being six hundred tons larger.

VOL. II.

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