The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-17 00:00:00

The Royal Alfred.

In the launch of this frigate, which took place at
Portsmouth on Saturday, the Admiralty have sent
afloat another vessel that, when she has been
clothed with her machinery, may be added to the
list of England's ironclad fleet, and become one of
the total number which now comprises some nine
or ten descriptions of vessels varying in all the ex-
tremes of tonnage, speed, and mode of construction
which now form our somewhat heterogenous collec-
tion of ironclads. The Royal Alfred is one of the
Prince Consort and Royal Oak class, their frames
designed and prepared as 92-gun screw line-of-
battle ships, but afterwards cut down to a frigate's
battery, altered in form at the bow and stern,
and strenthened considerably in every 'part
to carry the weight of 41in. armour plating.
The Royal Alfred was ordered to be built as a line.
of•battle ship in October, 1859, of the following
general dimensions :—Length between porpendia
aulars, 252 ft ; length of keel for tonnage, 213 ft 93in ;
breadth extreme, 58ft ; breadth for tonnage, 57ft
tin; breadth moulded, 56ft 4in; depth in hold,
19ft 10in ; burden in tons, 3,715 62-91, The ship
was accordingly laid down and nearly completed
in accorance with these orders, when, after the work
had been suspended on her for some time, just at
the period when wooden liners had become univer-
sally acknowledged as useless to compete with iron-
clad frigates, a second order relative to the ship
was issued from the Admiralty in June, 1661,
which on this occasion directed that the ship's
upper deck, so far as it had been constructed,
should be removed, and the necessary alterations
and strengthening of her frame carried oat, to com-
plete her as an ironscased frigate. Under these
new conditions the Royal Alfred ,has been suf-
ficiently completed to be launched from off the ship-
way on which she has been constructed on Satur-
day, her hull shorn externally of all aids to her
beauty, her bows without the " figure-head " which
has existed as part of a ship from the time of the
Phceaicians, or the curved lines of head-rail and
cutwater, and her stern without the ornamental
quarter-galleries, and reduced to a bare.conical ter-
mination, the apex projecting over and protecting
the fixed screw and rudder; her length is now
in-
creased beyond her original dimensions to 273 ft. be-
tween perpendiculars and 233 ft. on her keel, and her
tonnage increased to 4,045 26 91, while her
breadth remains the same. Oa Saturday, as,
previous to launching, she lay on her blocks, with
her vast hull painted black, and without other orna-
ment than the gaily-decorated bottle of wine sus-
pended from the stem for the "christening," she
looked like some antediluvian monster. Mr. Cra-
dock, the master shipwright of Portsmouth Dock-
yard, had the direction and care of launching the
ship, Rear-Admiral G. Elliot, Admiral superinten-
dent, superintending the operations. A few minutes
before 10 a.m. Miss Alice Cradock, the daughter of
the master shipwright, was led forward, and with
great grace broke the bottle against the ship's stem
—at the same time uttering the customary wish,
" Success to the Royal Alfred." The ship was
named, but not yet quite freed. Some ten blocks
under her keel remained to be split out, but the
most of these were soon dsalt with, and Mies
Cradock, having a small millet placed in her
hands, struck a blow on a sharp chisel held
against the c)rd on the ship's stem which kept sus-
pended the iron " dogs," when the latter descended
in their grooved channels and knocked clear the
dogshores which alone now held the ship on the
ways. A few moments only of suspense, accom-
panied by groaning and creaking sounds, and the
ship started and slid with a gsntle rush into the
water, amid ringing cheers from thousands of spec-
tators.

Like others of her class, the Royal Alfred does not
look much handsomer afloat than she did on the
stocks, but in the absence of beauty there is evident
fitness for fighting purposes as a broadside ship,
looking on her superficially as she lay broadside on
to the building shed, and brought up in that posi-
tion by her anchor immediately after being
launched. If the launching scene be now left
and the reader transported on board the Royal Al-
fred, the ship may be inspected from another point
of view. Upper deck is at present clear fore and aft,
after the fashion of cur best specimens of wooden
screw frigates, with the exception that a forecastle
is being constructed at the fore end of the deck, and
lines are laid out for the erection or a poop at the
after end ; the first being a covered-in space of the
deck, which may be appropriated to the accommo-
dation of the crew; and the second a similar space
for the accommodation of an admiral and his
suite--the Royal Alfred being destined as a flag-
ship—thus meeting the difficulty hitherto expe-
rienced in providing such accommodation far the
officer commanding a fighting fleet. The upper
deck of the Royal Alfred is composed of the
ordinary wooden planking; bat this is laid upon an
iron deck of half-inch boiler plate, which, strength-
ened and tied by edge and butt straps of iron of
equal thickness, and by fore and aft stringer rows
of plates, rests upon rolled iron beams which span
the ship at short intervals. Descending from this
upper to the main or gun deck below, the ship is
here found to give, from appearances, her greatest
promise of future efficiency as a man of war, and at
the same time, on close examination, she exhibits
her inefficiency as such in common with her sisters
of the same class. The deck, from beam to floor, is of
good height, there is ample room for working the
guns of the battery fore and aft, the means of venti-
lation for carrying off the smoke in rapid firing are
good, and, to crown all, the entire deck, round the
stem and stern, as well as on the broadside, is pro-
tected by 41-inch rolled armour plates, from the
Atlas Works, Sheffield. So far for efficiency. As
to her inefficiency, all this capital arrangement of
gun battery, roomy quarters, and ventilation, pro-
tected by the best of all armour plating, is sup-
ported only by some 18 inches of timber, without
any inner iron lining, and the consequences in action
would be that steel shot from guns of any power
would go completely through the side of the ship
fired at, and knock off the armour plates from
the opposite side, and if only cast iron shot were
fired from the ordinary 68 pounder smooth bore
gun, although the shot would not penetrate into the
ship, yet the splinters flung all from the unlined
ship's side internally by the impact of the shot upon
the armour plates would be sufficient to disable all
the men at the guns. Descending lower into the
ship, workmen are found busily employed fitting the
mess, berthing, &c., for the crew; and still lower
may be seen the preparations made for the reception
of her machinery. Neither machinery nor armour
plates yet form part of the Royal Alfred, and
both will have now to be fitted in dock or in
the floating basins of Portsmouth yard, as may
be required, according to the progress of
the ship's outfit, The engines will ba of the
united power of 800 horses, nominal, from the estab-
lishment of Messrs Maudelay, Field, and Co., the
latter fact being a sufficient guarantee for their ex-
cellence. The lower masts of the ship are splendid
specimens of iron manufacture, from the works of
Messrs Fisch, of Chepstow.
The Royal Alfred is pierced for 35 guns, but with
the rapid strides now being made in the calibres of
naval ordnance it would be useless to speculate upon
what her armament may eventually be.
Rear-Admiral George Elliot, after the launch had
been accomplished, entertained a large party to
luncheon at his official residence in the dockyard.
A large body of the Metropolitan Police, under
the command of Mr Superintendent Grey, rendered
efficient service during the launch of the ship.