The Express.
London, England, 1863-03-26 00:00:00

SKA-GIOING SHIZLD-SHIPS.

The lecture theatre of the United Service
Institution was crowded yesterday afternoon with
naval officers and naval architects, both of the
wooden and the iron regime, and many scientific gen-
tlemen and ladies too, to hear Captain Cowper Coles
describe the new shield ship which he has designed
for ocean service. Sir John Pakington, Bart.,
M. P., took the chair.
Captain Coles commenced by alluding to his
first explanation before the members of the Institu-
tion of his plan for coustructing cupola ships in
June, 1860, though it will be remembered, perhaps,
that it was so far back as 1856 that Captain Coles
first mentioned his plans to the Government.
Nothing, however, was done until the feats of the
Merrimac, and more especially of the Monitor,
which Captain Coles called the first copy of his
cupola ship, forced the consideration of vessels of
war of such a description upon the attention of our
government. Now, however there are cupola
ships being built in all the dockyards of the
world, from 700 tons to 7.000. The weak points urged
by the opponents of Captain Coles' system were
that such vessels could not be built for ocean ser-
vice, and that they could not fight an equal number
of guns and weight of metal with the broadaide-
port ships. Captain Coles then showed by a model
of his sea-going ship with the newly invented
tripod iron mutts, which do away with the necessity
for employing shrouds and much of the supporting
rigging, that the advantages are decidedly with the
shield ship. This model represented a large three-
muted ship, the armament of which was eight
300-pounders, placed in four cupolas. The masts
are of iron tubes, the centre tube being carried
from the keel right up to form the topmast,
the two side tubes being carried to the
height of the lower yard, thus forming a tripod.
The lower and topsail yards are of iron, fitted with
Cunningham's topsails, and they can be lowered or
braced and managed perfectly by machinery, with-
out showing a hand above deck. The very im-
portant point in these masts is that they are rigid
and of immense strength ; they bear a breaking
strain of 722 tons, while wooden masts are ouly
equal to 7.34 ; and the beauty of the arrangements
is that compression is resisted as well as stretching,
the resistance to compression being 637 tons. Be-
sides they have the supreme advantage of sinking
if shot away, and therefore not fouling the screw
and rudder. Stages or platforms are built between
the legs of the masts, which are to be protected
by saud-bags, and thus form a cover for riflemen
to act in case of boarding. The top of the cupola
it is also proposed to make use of in a similar wayby
placing sand-bags round it as a kind of parapet. The
masts are equidistant, and the yards swing equally
upon them easily, so that they may be braced, and
the ship steam head to wind with much greater
power. Captain Coles stated in illustration of
the difficulty in managing vessels like the
Warrior with enormously lung yards, mea-
suring some 105 feet, and the liability
there must be to have these carried away, that the
Warrior has had her main-yard carried away in
gale, and that when the iron-clad squadron in their late
cruise were mauceuvring to come in I iue upon another
tack, the ships came round at a distance of seven
miles apart. In clearing for action the cupola
ship requires much less time, as her guns are
always ready and the fighting part of the vessel is
distinct, while in the ordinary ship the men live
between the guns, and to clear foraction is a matter
impossible to accomplish without considerable
delay. Then it is evident that the sweep of these
cupola guns, in consequence of all shrouds being
removed, is very wide, in addition to the facility
there is of moving them on the turn-table,
iu an arc of from 310 to 316 degrees, whereas the
broadside guns can only be trained 20 or 25 degrees,
and cannot be fired within 9 degrees of the line of
keel. The Hatteras was compelled to strike her
colours to the Alabama, chiefly because she could
not train her guns to hit her antagonist. Captain
Coles compared the Favourite, which is the vessel
now being built on Mr. Reed's plan with the rec-
tangular broadside battery, or large box, contain-
ing eight guns in the middle of the ship, with his
Cupola vessel, which he humorously named the
Naughty Child. He showed by a diagram that
while the Favourite, when rolling 20 degrees, could
not tire her guns, from their being under water,
the Naughty Child would carry all her guns high
above the waves, and much more steadily, from
their being fixed in the centre line of the ship.
The Favourite is to have eight 68 pounders, but
these guns can only be fired within au arc of 40
degrees • if objects more in front of the ship are
to be fired at, the corner gun must be shifted,
which all naval men know is a difficult thing to do,
and necessarily attended with logs of time that
might be fatal in an engagement. In rapidity and
precision of fire, Captain Coles considers the cupola
ship to have great advantages, and, iu proof of this,
he instanced the experiments on the Trusty,
in September, 1861, under Captain Powell, of the
Excellent, when seven men in the cupola coin-
pletely beat the twelve gunners at the broadside
guns iu the proportion of three rounds to two. The
precision was stated to be as 7 to 1 in favour of the
cupola as tried upon a moving ship. Out of 69
shots fired at the Trusty cupola, only 44 hit,
although the captain of the gun wag the crack shot
of the "Excellent. Much of this was due, Captain
Cobs thinks, to the better veutilatiou of the
cupola, which allowed the smoke to clear away
much sooner and more perfectly. With regard to
the effects of the new penetrating shell upon
the cupolas, Captain Coles stated that while the
shell would, if it entered the cupola, disable it
alone, leaving the others intact, the whole battery
of the Favourite, if entered by a shell, would be
entirely disabled. Captain Coles had proposed, in
February, 1801, the plan of forming a belt of plates
at the water line four feet above and below ; and
again in September, after the Trusty experiments,
hail given in drawings showing this method.
He now proposes to plate cupola ships in this
way, with extra protection over the cupolas
and engines. He showed a diagram of a vessel
plated in this way, and explained that the armour
might be carried to soy thickness, according
to the size of the ship, so as to meet the require-
merita of a vessel to resist such a shell as be said was
soon about to be produced, having a burati no' charge
of 401 b., and penetration at a range of 80e3 yards.
Shield ships, he maintained, are the only vessels
that can carry these large gnus, destined to be the
weapons of future naval actions. The advantages
of offence. defence, speed, lightness of draught,
and steering, are, be holds, with the cupola sea-
going ship of his design. The Prince Albert, for
example, will be 1,600 tons smaller than the De-
fence, will draw 5 feet 8 inches lea; water, and
throw 5601 b. each broadside, which is about double
the weight of metal the Defence can employ at each
broai le.

In point of economy, also, Captain Colts calcu-
lates that the shield ship, having 1-ss ring to be
kept up At all times, and so much that could bo
stowed away ready to be used at a moment's notice,
besides great saving in original cost of construc-
tion, has much the preference of all others.
A vote of thanks to Captain Coles was 1110VOI by
the chairman and passed by acclamation, and it
was announced that the discussion upon the lecture
would take place this evening at half-past eight.

Mr. Henry Seymour will mak the Chancellor of
the Exchequer to-morrow if he has entered into negotia.
tioos with Messrs. Kelk and Lucas for the purchase of the
building of the Great Exhibition of 1862, with a view to
remove into it a portion of the collectioos of the British
Museum.

CIVIL Seßvice ERTIMATIOL PART 7. —This 1110111-
log were issued the estim►tes for "miscellaneous, special,
and temporary objects.' The sum required noder this
head for 1863-4 is 202,2511., which is a decrease as com-
pared with similar votes last year, of 29,3881. The mar-
riage of the Prince of Wales necesaitates a vote for 23,45151.
The 23,455/. is made up of the following items :—Fatraordi-
nary charges devolving or the departmeete of her
Majesty's howiehold and travelling expenses, 10,30014
for work, at Windsor under the direction of the
Office of Works and Public Buildings, 3,2001. ; for
retinue of public buildings, 7,0004 ; sod for opening the
theatres to the public on the 10th, 2,985/.

The funeral of Burke and Wills, the Australian
explorers is Itelbovree, was Minded by 40,000 panes.