The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-24 00:00:00

Launch of the Prince Albert,

Yesterday another rather important addition was
made to our iron clad fleet by the successful launch
of this fine vessel from Messrs. Samude's yard at
Poplar. The Prince Albert has a double claim to
defensive strength, inasmuch as she is not only iron-
cased, but has her battery in cupolas, or circular
turrets also. It would be, of course, useless to
deny that these turret ships have numerous oppo-
nents to their claims to be considered as efficient
sea going war frigates, and that these oppo-
nents include not only some of the most distin-
guished officers of the Royal navy, but some of
our most experienned iron-shipbuilders as well.
Certainly, the practical experience of rough every
day warfare which has been illustrated by the
Federal gunboats constructed on this principle would
not lead us to be over sanguine as to the success of
ships built after the same pattern, if it were not
also known that almost everything connected with
the guns and plating and speed of the American
turret-ships was so far behind our own as really to
leave no safe data on which to found a comparison
between the two. The attempts which in America
have been made to work out the theory of turret-
ships have been by no means so comprehensive and
perfect as to warrant our Government in consider..
ing them as final, and, whatever may be the differ-
ences of opinion which prevail here as to the value
of the principle, it is satisfactory to see that the
Admiralty are bent or. trying it with all the auxi-
liary aids to success, which form, horse-power, and
perfect workmanship can contribute. The length
of the Prince Albert turrei-ship over all is 240 ft.,
while her breadth is as muei as 48, proportions
which !give her a rather heavy and unwieldy ap-
pearance, and which are certainly like to tell
against a very high rate of speed in heavy water.
Her depth is no less than 28ft., and her burden, in
tons, 2,529. All the details relating to her general
principle of construction are almost precisely similar
to thoee adopted in the Warrior, the Black Prince,
and other of our armour ships. The same care is
shown to give extra strength by longitudinal brac-
ings ; there are the same wing passages along the
broadside, which virtually make a double ship of
her; she has no external keel, but two bilge plates
at each side, which are supposed to answer the
same purpose in giving her stability. The plating,
too, is the same as on the Warrior, 43-in. iron and
18in. of teak, but the Prince Albert is plated from
end to end, instead of only over the broadside. At 1
the extreme end of the bows and stern, however,
the thickness of the armour is diminished gradu-
ally to three inches, and, instead of going 5
feet below the water-line, as in other armour clads,
it is only taken down 4 feet—a slightness of immer-
sion which seems to bring the vulnerable parts dan-
gerously near the surface. Her upper deck is of
pine, with a three-quarter inch iron deck beneath it
to keep out shells—a thickness which the recent ex-
perience of the Danish ironclad the Roife Krake has
shown to be insufficient. She is to be furnished with
furnaces for heating shot and melting iron, and is
to be driven by engines of 500 horsepower nominal
—an amount of horsepower which certainly seems
small when compared with the tonnage or the area
of her midship section. The screw is to be four-
bladed, and not to lift. On deck are to be four tur-
rets or shields, as they are indifferently called, with
an ironplated pilot house in the bows. Three of the
turrets are 22ft diameter and one of 20ft. The pilot
house is a mere oval about 6ft wide by 12ft long, but
plated, like the turrets, with 54 inches of armour
over 7 inches of diagonal planning. All these tur-
rats, of course, are movable, and are revolved on
Two
of worked from the main deck below.
e ae
of the turrets, it is understood, are to carry two guns
each, and two are to carry one
Alleactt of
calibre that can be got.the turrets being
t
placed amidships the bulwarks round the uppoefr
lightdeck
have to be movable, and are accordingly made
iron fastened by hinges to the deck, so as to be cap-
able of being lowered at a moment's notice, leaving
the guns free to fire anywhere. The launch yester-
day was most successfully accomplished, Miss Ada
Samuda naming the vessel as it glided rapidly into
the river. She was sent afloat with the lower streak
of armour on from end to end, and with the midship
portion of her broadside entirely plated. The rest
of her fitting and equipment will be proceeded with
at Woolwich, but nearly, if not quite, a year is
likely to elapse before she is commissioned and afloat
an effective member of the Channel squadron.