The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-24 00:00:00

THE ROYAL SOVEREIGN,

This vessel made her official trial of speed and power of
circling with full and reduced steam pressure yesterday, at
the trial ground in Stokes Bay, near Portsmouth, tender the
personal superintendence of Rear-Admiral R. S. Robinson,
Controller of the Neer, and by the success which attended
the day's proceedings the public may be fairly congratulated
on another and most formidable craft having been added to
our list of effective ironclads, really effective in the sense
that at 24 hours' notice she could join the Channel fleet, and
accompany it if necessary for active service in the Baltic.
We must preface our account of yesterday's trial with a
brief description of the ship and her present appearance, for
the Royal Sovereign as now completed is a different vessel
in many respects from what she was intended to be at the
first commencement of the work of her conversion. This is
but a natural result following upon the execution of so novel
a work, where every one engaged was very possibly feeling
his way, and improving upon the details as the ship grew
into her new form. The time occupied in the conversion has
undoubtedly been long, and the cost has also undoubtedly
been great, yet every one who may go over the ship will be
compelled to admit that the result is satisfactory, and •:nat
the Royal Sovereign has an appearance of efficie-
-ley
about
her that very few anticipated, and is far mgr
eye when seen clear from other Burrow-
sightlyes to the
on the
j
water than could have been expec -ding obct
clear of the harbour and retie.: Yeetenday, on getting
/rang the 'open water at Spit-
head, she looked with he .-x but wraith up and short masts just
n.ect ler
capping the funnel 'Like nen gigantic gunboat under jury
rig. With her 'bulwarks down she presents the now well
known I‘lanitor tree of form, her turrets showing out more
d
in their positions along the ridge of the curved
e. iesetki
Much of her raft like appearance which she possessed
a few months back has been taken away by a light iron bul-
wark 3ft 6in in depth, which has been fitted round her upper
deck, and which throws down outwards on hinged stan-
chions. The three short signal or drying poles with which she
has been fitted also tend to improve her appearance, but
they would have done so far more effectively had they been
of greater length. Stepping on to the Royal Sovereign's
upper deck we at once see its curved or " turtle-backed"
shape, and along the orest of this curve stand the four tur-
rets and pilothouse, funnel and casing, hatchways, masts
(if such puny sticks may be so termed), ventilating shafts,
tie. Round the stern are carved the Royal arms in bold re-
lief, and surmounting the stemhead is the figurehead of the
ship, a well-executed crowned lion, 5 ft 6in in length by 4ft
in height, with bristling mane and half-lifted paw. Ex-
cepting the figure of the lion, everything above the deck is
painted white. The fcremost turret, standing at abovr the
deck, has its top covered by a grating, and is surrounded by
a handrail, and thus affords a deck promenade for theofficer
of the watch or look-out man, and communicates with a
further space available for the same purpose on the top of
the pilot-house, which stands next to it, and on the top of
the funnel casing. The three single gun-turrets are 4ft Sin
above the deck, and have a double line of rails 20 inches in
depth round their tops to stow the men's hammocks in, and
which will thus form capital rifle pits. The tops of the tur-
rets are closed by heavy angle iron and inch-plating with
the necessary man and ventilating holes. All other aper-
tures which open down below from the upper deck are
closed by wrought iron bars 41in by llin,placed in massive
wrought iron framing edgewise 41in apart, and thus prevent
the entrance of shell or shot by those passages to the 'tween
decks. The carved upper deck of the vessel appears at first
sight to be dangerously " soft" when looked at in close
proximity to the massive armour of the sides and turrets,
nothing being visible but wooden planking. In truth, how-
ever, this deck is not quite so vulnerable as it appears to be.
The wooden planking, Gin in thickness, is laid upon iron
plates lin in thickness, the latter having all their butts
and sides riveted together with wide straps of iron of the
same thickness, and further strengthened by stringer-lines of
inch plating running fore and aft and round the hatchways
and funnel casing. This combined iron and wooden deck
is laid upon rolled iron beams and the original wooden beam.
of the ship, which are fixed so closely together that even if
a shot or shell penetrated through both iron and wooden
deck it would be difficult for it to force e. further passage
through to the deck below. The probable influx of water
had also to be provided against, for with her bulwarks down
and heavy guns at work in the Channel, with a breeze on,
there is no doubt a considerable quantity of water might
wash over the deck. To meet this contingency therefore
stout leather flaps, metal-weighted at their outer edges, are
fixed round the turrets, and effectually close the open space
in the deck against the admission of any great quantity of
water. Iron coamings nearly three feet in depth are fitted
to all the hatchways, &c., for the same purpose. The pilot-
house is an oval structure, plated with 5j inch armour, and
stands between the foremost turret and tunnel casing. In-
side it affords to the captain and master, or other officer, a
perfectly secure means of observation in every direcion)
and a means of communication with the engine room, tur-
rets, and all parts of the ship, either by ordinary sh p's
telegraph or voice tube, while right underneath and in sight
of those in the pilot-house is fixed the wheel for steering the
ship. The two chief boats are carried on crutches amid-
ships between the centre turrets. We heve so recently
given detailed descriptions of the Royal Sovereign's fitting
a a turret ship and her conversion from a three-decker that
it will be only necessary on the present occasion to further
refer generally to the subject, and enter again into any de
tails only sufficient to describe the actual differences existing
between our experimental turret ship and those which are
in the possession of other powers, from the greater number
of which she materially differs either in form of hull, nature
of armour disposition, and the fitting of her turrets, rke. As
a cut-down three-decker she differs from all others of her
class—in her form of hull below the water-line, where she
carries the original three-decker or V form of bottom, in•
creased in its displacement some nine feet downwards from
he water-line by the lower tier of armour plates and its
strengthening backing, outside the ship's hull proper and
supporting shelf, to the plates' lower edge, of a double thick-
ness of 41 inch teak planking, laid on diagonally, She differs
from most others in her turrets revolving by four different
appliances of power, by hand—by rack and pinion inside
the turret; do. outside and a fixture on lower deck ;
tackles, and handspikes shipped and manned like capstan
bars, in lieu of one method only—by steam. In her armour
she also differs from all the American vessels of the same
description, from the 15 Russian Monitors now aloat in
the Baltic, and from several built by other Powers,
in its being composed of solid forgings, or, more correctly
speaking, of solid rolled plating,iostead of a number of inch
or inch-and-half plates bolted together, as is the case with
the American and Russian Monitors in part cular. Both
Americans and Russians, however, admit that solid masses
of metsl are preferable for protective armour, whether for
ships or forts, to the same or even a much greater weight of
iron divided into inch thicknesses and bolted together by in-
numerable bolts; but they-point to theneceseity which existed
in their case for the speedy creation of their Monitors, in the
one ease for the capture of Charleston and other ports in the
possession of the American Confederate States, and in the
other for the protection of Cronstadt and Sweaborg. It is
in the disposition of her turrets, however, that the Royal
Sovereign differs most from the American Monitors, and,
as the commanders of the latter vessels have found it
necessary to "assign reasons for their failing to capture
Charelston" in their combined attack upon that place,
a comparison of the turrets on board the Royal So-
vereign and those of the American vessels cannot fail
to be otherwise than interesting at a time when our first
turret ship has made, under official supervision, her maiden
essay under steam. We propose to pursue this comparison
under four heads only :-1. Exposed height of turret above
the deck. 2. Turret's support at base when revolving or
repelling shcck when struck by shot. 3. Jamming of port
stoppers or mantelets. 4. Disabling of gun-carriages. The
American Monitors' turrets are 9 feet in height above the
upper deck, on which, indeed their base rests on a brass ring,
When thus resting on the upper deck it has no means of
revolving, so that when the turret is prepared for action
it has to be lifted from off the deck by a screw wedge
driven into the base of a spindle upon the deck below
(and which spindle bears the same relation to the turret
as does the spindle of an ordinary ship's capstan), and then
is revolved, resting upon this single central spindle by
geard wheels driven by steam, the whole weight of the
turret being above the plane of the deck exposed to the
enemy's fire, and the turret itself further capped by the
"pilot-
house"—another mass of laminated iron, making the
whole structure, which is dependent for its free movement,
and consequent efficiency, upon the continued perfect per-
pendicularity of the iron spindle in its centre, 13ft 6in in
height. Contrast this with the Royal Sovereign's turrets.
All four of her turrets have their base and working portion
resting upon the lower and not the upper deck, as with the
American and thus, instead of exposing a height of 13ft 6in
toan shot,turret,
, 5
t theyft Only show—in the foremost or
double en gunemyt's u
above the deck—in the three after or
single-gun turrets, Oft Sin above the deck.
In the support given to the turrets at their base when in
actin there is also a remarkable difference. The American
turret depends solely upon the perfect perpendicularity of
its central spindle,like the peg of a boy's top when spinning.
The Royal Sovereign's, on the contrary, distribute their
weight over a large space. The table upon which the turret
stands is pivoted in its centre upon a wrought-iron cylinder,
sufficiently large fora man to pass through, while the weight
is distributed on bevilled wheels over a metal roadway equal-
ling the turret's circumference in a manner very similar to