The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-09 00:00:00

The Royal Sovereign Turret Ship.

The Royal Sovereign, turret ship, was yesterday
floated out of No. 3 dock, Portsmouth, in the pre-
sence of a considerable number of spectators, chiefly
naval officers. The Royal Sovereign was formerly
a line-of-battle ship, and we may attribute her trans-
formation to her present form to the famous action
between the Monitor and the Merrimac, which
seemed to supply a strong argument in favour of
Captain Cowper P. Coies's plan of arming ships with
heavy guns, protected by cupolas, on the upper deck,
and Captain Coles at once became a famous man.
The Admiralty, urged by the House of Commons, at
last consented to the construction of a Monitor for
the British service, and the Royal Sovereign was
assigned as the vessel upon which the experiment
was to be tried. She was, therefore cut down, so as,
when cased with iron, to bring her upper deck
within a few feet of the water line, and so to limit
the surface exposed to an enemy's fire. But the
ship, as she is built, exhibits a very material alte-
ration from the original design. The cupola, or
dome, has been dispensed with, and the turret is
substituted. These turrets (of which there are four
in number, each armed with a heavy gun), are
sunk into the:upper deck of the ship, and are made
to revolve on the same principle as a railway
turntable, the motive power being within the
turret, so that the gun may be moved in a lateral
direction to any. point of a circle. In each turret
there is a narrow oval port hole for the muzzle of
the gun to be run out, and this is but a short
distance (perhaps a foot or two) above the surface
of the deck, which falls from the centre to the side.
The top of the turret is protected by parallel bars
of iron, in which there are three circular holes,
through any one of which the officer of the gun may
insert his head to take sight of the object to be fired
at, and at the same time to direct the movements of
the men inside. The balwarks of the ship will be
attached at the lower part by hinges, and will fall
back so as to hang over the broadside when the guns
are fired. The eurrets being thus sunk, so that the
basement rests on the main deck, do not form a
conspicuous mark for the enemy. They are heavily
cased with iron, and are of such strength that each
weighs no less than 138 tons. The deck, however,
is not bomb proof, consisting only of plates of iron
one inch thick and covered with the usual planks
of wood, so that if a heavy shot were to fall
vertically it is not improbable that it would find
its way out of the bottom of the ship. In the
interior the cabins are lofty, but, as a matter of
course, not well-lighted. A very important
invention has, however, been introduced to
improve the ventilation. It is a plan designed
by Dr. Edmonstone, staff-surgeon of her Majesty's
ship Victory, and consists of air channels running
the whole length of the ship, and communicating
with the hold where foul air accumulates, and its
carried off through these tubes into the funnel, in•
that it it will of the
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answer -perfectly, inasmuch as even when the fires
are not lighted to increase the draft up the chimney
stack, there is a considerable current of air upwards
through the tubes which communicate with the
funnel. The ship under water is coated with
Muntz's metal, end to prevent galvanic action a band
of vitreous sheathing has been attached for some
distance below and above the water line. This
sheathing consists of small plates of iron covered
with a preparation of glass, and is intended to be an
anti-fouling as well as protective agent. Contrary
to the expectation of many persons, the displace-
ment caused by the Royal Sovereign when she
floated was found to be rather less than was an-
ticipated, and lihe now draws, without her stores
rigging, or guns, 18 feet forward and 24 feet aft.
Although
au unsightly ship on the water, and