The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-12 00:00:00

THE NAVY--IRON v, WOOE,

_..0-_-_

The following stecerek,nt relating to the odvan.
tapes of iron and wood, and the relative cos;',of these
materials in the construction of ships for hOr

jesty's navy has been issued :
Admiralty, March 2.
Taking it for granted that it is essential for this
country to possess a number of ships armour-plated-
equal to that of any other power, the first conside•
ration must be with regard to such ships as we re'
quire
,'whether they shall be of wood or iron P These
are two important points involvad in this coneide'

ration
1. The nature of the material. Iron possesses these ad.-
vantages over wood. An iron ship can be built of larger
dimensions than a wooden ship, with no loss of strength.
An iron ship has more rigidity and strength of structure,
as a whole, than a wooden ship, though locally weak and
liable to be pee etrated by blows, which would fall harm'
lessly on a wooden ship. An iron ship has much greater
durability in certain parts of the structure, indeed in alt
parts where no wood is in contact with the iron, than
wooden ship, acid ter a lap-e of years the iron frame would
have suffered next to nothing as compared with a wooden
ship. But a_ aiust these advantages must be set—The seri-
ous local weakness of the comparatively thin plates of which
the bottom of an iron ship is necessarily composed the
danger, consequently, of getting on rocks in such ships, and
the necessity which this weakness , ntails of constructing
double bottoms, thw artship bulkheads, water-tight compa'
ments, sluice-doors, &c., and various other complicated
arrangements, which add both to the weight and cost of an
iron ship : the rapidity with which the bottom of an iron
ship gets foul, and the immense loss of all the ship's quail'
ties that follows from the adhesion of marine zoo-
phytes ; no practical remedy has been found for thin;
serious disadvantage ; repeated docking and cleaning
is
the only palliative ; the extreme uncertainty as to the
quality of the materials used ; in fact, the small quantity of
really good iron o: the best ship-building qualities that can
be found in the market ; the prodigious ravages cans= d bY
the splinters of iron when the plates ara broken and
smashed by shot; and the far greater facility with which
iron ships can be pierced below their armour-plating hi
submarine guns than wooden ships ; lastly, as the Pro-
gress that may be made by artillery, and all destructive
agents of warfare, is quite without a limit, the immenea
price paid in an iron ship for durability may not be
advantage, as new forms for ships of war may, befoaren
long, be absolutely requisite—the iron ship of tte
day, for which so large a price has been paid, rag
not be the weapon we require to-morrow. It may prove
therefore wiser an more economical to supply the wanted
the moment by a cheaper and less durable structure,
which at least is of the same quality as those with which
we may have to contend. The most able designer of vr.r
ships in Europe, whose success has been so remarkable,
Mr. Dupuy de L'Ome, is of this opinion, and construct.
the ships that are to form the French line-of-battle of wood
in preference to iron.
2. The second point to be considered in this question i.irt
Where and how the ships, whether of wood or iron, sh°l`
be constructed 7 If iron is the material preferred, we h°
the choice of either incurring a large outlay in our dock'
yards for the requisite plant or of building by contract. In
one dockyard only (Chatham) we can build in iron with.
out any fresh expense. If, therefore, we take the
other alternative, and build by contract, the followins
serious disadvantages attend upon our doing so. 11/5
first practical fact that cora• before us is, that in no one
instance have the contractors kept to their agreements COI
the Government, either as to time or cost. Though tb,e
cases are notorious, and will be found in a tabulated for''
annexed to this paper, I will quote one or two instances
The Warrior was ordered on May 11, 1859; the contractor.
agteed to deliver her complete in July, 1860. She wasdeli:
vered on Sept. 20, 1861, and not quite completed till l 7
24, 24, 1561. The contractors agreed to build her for £210,225t
including extras. They claimed, and ultimately receiveof
£254,728. The Black Prince was ordered on Oct. 6, 1859„;
The contractors agreed to deliver her complete on Oct. 1"
1860. She was delivered, incomplete, on November IS'
1861. She was not completed for some months atterviarl
by the artificers of the dockyard. The contractors agree,
6o build her for £230,254. They have claimed for 11'
£259,751, and part of this claim is still under consideration;
she has, however, cost the Admiralty, up to this 1115/,..e'
£249,751. In both of these ships, but more particularly
by
Warrior, some delay was occasioned in completing b.'
alterations made in the course of building. The Dole°
was delivered, incomplete, four months after the contrail'
tors' agreement. The Resistance was delivered, inerr,T:o
plate, 10 months after the contractors' agreement.
Elector, if delivered in the course of the month of Marel
will be seven months behina 4
the time agreed upon 113
Valiant should Lave been delivered, according to the origili'd
contract, in Aug., 1862; the contractors failed, and reonetts
the Admiralty to annul their agreement. Another contr7
was made, with a fresh party, to deliver the ship in Iklare;s
1863; there is no prospect whatever of the wt;
being finished for six months alter that d6.,„-'
The same or even greater delay has taken i.lace in the dot
livery of the Orontes and Tamar, although these are io
simple construction, and are not armour-plated. There
ips
no prospect that more than one out of the four iron ePho
last ordered will be delivered till many months atter t
periods agreed upon. It is not, therefore, one contractor 00',
urge shipbuilder, but all who have failed in their agre,4
ments, and this clearly indicates the great uncertain`i
attending this mode of construction.
Two other difficulties present themselves : d
1. The general slovenliness of the work perform.
iron shipbuilders rendering the presence of an Adinir
inspector necessary on the premises wherever the 0011°4
ships are building, and leading to many difficulties betW
the contractor and the Admiralty ; and
2. The great temptations that beset the contract°To
owing to the cost and difficulty of procuring good iron,
use inferior and cheaper metal.
Again, after a contract is signed, no alteration or
1131;
provernent, however great, can be made without
force'
witting to any terms the contractor chooses to en deg,
Strikes of workmen, strikes of disputes in tr'l to
all interfere with the progress of the work, and alwnYetbe
the prejudice of the Government. But if wood he or
material selected, the place of building will be our own
df
yard, with all the plant, appliances, and materials air' id.
at hand. No more money will be required than ach3tiisi
ready appears in the navy estimates; whereas, if the owiro
are built of iron by contract, the whole of the money role' os
to do so must be voted separately, and in addition to
.
ordinary navy estimates, and the increase of the total ch
ee,
to the country could only be diminished in a small degr
if at all, by the discharge of a limited number of worka
, e
entitleto
pensions or gratuities, for it would still be necessarld
retain that large portion of workmen who are emploYe
repairs, fitting and refitting ships, and in building the tie
ler classes which are essential for the protection of our trade
in the distant corners of the globe. In every way, iron
fore, the system of building by contract armour-plate
a.cited
ships would be more expensive than building arnaourPod
ships of wood in our dockyards. The wooden shit), thmoito
in some respect inferior in rigidity to the iron, andn°;iscl
so strong as a whole, is yet, if we may believe the cle Not
accounts we have received of such ships as the Gloire,r
the
mandie, Magenta, and Solferino, perfectly sufficient °effect
weight it has to bear. Very bad weather has had n°
ape
on the Gloire, a wooden ship plated from stem to stertl'iriocl
therefore far more heavily loaded and more severelYbeco;
than any of our iron armour-plated ships have Yet ai'
none of these ships having armour plates at their °t'
o
ties. Great addition to tae strength of the wooden .004
tures is given by iron beams, iron decks, filling in bell or
the timbers, diagonal bracing, &o.; and, taking all idodlf
cumstauces of the case into consideration, i seems decior
preferable, at the present time, to build these ships f irotttl
dockyards of wood, rather than in private yards and °to 00
As a comparison, the probable cost of the Ileeeveillt
Valiant, armour-plated ships, has been taken;
being only partially armour plated, and the accounts /It,
completed, an addition must be made, to conse're
with the wooden ships proposed to be built.
Cost of a ship of 4063 tons, iron and partially 40600:0
armour-plated, if built by contract ..........
Add estimate, if wholly plated ................
,4

Cost of a wooden ship of 4,200 tons,
and of greater strength than those
now building, wholly armour-
plated, for wages and materials
£170,000
(estimated) .. • • • •
Add, as in the case of private firms,
for general charges incident to the
17,000
above, 10 per cent... • • • /0°
Cost of a wooden ship built in the
41
dockyard ~ • • • • • •
_d ie
The cost of building the Royal Oak, as furnislo 0
accountant of Chatbam Dockyard, for labour 03,,,
ih
terials, with 2 per cent. added, is £151,970,
includt
value of materials already provided beton the 000 :or%
es 0, private builder would do, the CO :00 10
toOak `
commenced; adding to this 10 per cent. fora t,OlO
al for building amounts to about £lo,ooot
00,00
charges.
to any corrections arising from the auditing the °0(
when they are completed. The time required to 13 olio to
iron ship by contract has been 25 months (in tb° j
the Hector). To build the wooden ship leisureilt if
the beat advantage would take about as long' DlVect,°„;
much pressed as the contractors have been for till' 0 yer
and if the workmen were entirely uninterrupted,
tb
might be shortened to 21 months.
0,9
.be 53 of
of A tabular statement is appended, mentionins 014101,
the iron ships built and building by contract. do olf
from this that the cost actually incurred oP°llp24o/
nor has been £254,728 ; the Black Prince, ''o76. i 0
the Defence, X 173,478; and the Resistance, Xl7Bilecter;eft,i
" cost by contract, including extras," of the 0 preaeli
£172,677, and the time of delivery is during yeAO 0,11
month; the cost of the Valiant is £207,212, IV73,1,0;0011,
vered ; the Dromedary, £11,325; the Orontes, 3 will?
will probably be delivcred in April next foll°otcr
L 68,188, to be delivered at the same time. TPeAgto..cititl
vessels have also not yet been delivered
LL9,393 ; the Minotaur, L 321,117;
the Nortbm
£295,295; and the Prince Albert, £113,167.