The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-15 00:00:00

LAUNCH OF THE VALIANT.

Her Majesty's iron-clad frigate Valiant was launched
from the Admiralty yard, Millwall, yesterday. The ship
is 4,141 tons builder's measurement, and 4,063 tons by the
Navy List. The dimensions are : length over all, 280 feet;
breadth, extreme, 66 feet 3 inches ; and depth from spar
deck, 39, feet. The draught of water will be 25 feet 2 inches.
The engines by Messrs. Mandalay, Sons, and Field, with
which the ship will now be fitted, are 800-horse power.
The armament on each broadside will consist of twelve 68-
pounders and three 110-pounder Armstrongs, giving a
broadside weight of metal of 1,146 lbs., and 2,292 lbs. from
both broadsides. On the slip the Valiant looked short and
dumpy, and the appearance is not wholly lost in the water.
For deep sea water the ship forms a formidable addition to
the fleet, but for war with America, Russia, or even
France, ships of half the tonnage and draft of water would
render incalculably greater service. The Valiant will
always have to lie off the coast, and in heavy weather will
be unsafe unless in mid-ocean, while a handy, small craft
could be kept off a harbour's mouth, and seek shelter at any
time behind a breakwater. But the Minotaur, the Nor-
thumberland, the Agincourt, and the Achilles are each
2,000 tons larger than the Valiant.
The Valiant, so far, has been the most unfortunate of all
our iron dads, and unless changes are effected will in all

likelihood remain the most unfortunate to the end. Quoting
from Admiral Robinson, " The Valiant should have been
delivered, according to the original contract, in August,
1862. The contractors failed, and requested the Admiralty
to annul the contract. Another contract was made with a
fresh party to deliver the ship in March, 1863. There is no
prospect of the work being finished for six months after
that date." If Admiral Robinson had said there was no
prospect of the ship being finished before March, 1864, he
would have been nearer right. Much remains to be done in
the inside of the ship, the armour plating is far from being
complete, and last of all, there are the fitting of the engines
and the spars and rigging. Messrs. Maudslay and Field
have been long waiting to perform their part, and the blame
rests between the Admiralty and the Thames Shipbuilding
Company. All that we can say is that between the two the
public have been badly served, and that the public ought to
know who the offender is.
The future danger of the Valiant consists in this, to quote
an American authority on iron clad construction,—`• The
Valiant is armoured with the singular deficiency of a short
distance at the water line near the bow and stern." This is
a quotation from a book published recently in New York by
the Appletons, and the deficiency may be well characterised
as singular. It is a deficiency that positively renders the
ship unfit for action, because a shell penetrating the side of
the ship before or abaft the armour at the water line could
not fail to blow the deck above into the air. At the meeting
of the Institute of Naval Architects, over which Sir J. Pak-
ington last presided, this defect was insisted on in strong
terms by Mr. S. Russell, in the presence of Mr. E. J. Reed
and Admiral Robinson, but it remains, and most deservedly
provokes American ridicule. In the Achilles the forward and
aft plating has been reserved, and is therefore unobjectionable.
Perhaps the knowledeeof this eefect of the Valiant has some-
thing to do with the delay of the ship, because neither the
Admiralty nor the Thames Shipbuilding Company can ex-
pect any credit from the construction of what in action
would prove a mere slaughter-house for British seamen.
The weight of metal which it is proposed the Valiant
shall deliver will considerably exceed that of the Warrior.
The Warrior's broadside is no more than 8841 b from 1L"
68-pounders. The Valiant's broadside will, however, be
less than that of the Royal Oak, the converted iron-clad,
which is 1,2561 b. from twelve 68-pounders, and four 110-
pounders. But the disparity is less real than nominal, be-
cause the 110-pounders are, it is to be feared, not trust-
worthy. They are at least guns not used so freely nor con-
fidently as the old 68-pounders, because something or other
may blow out or give way. This is a reflection of a painful
character, particularly when it is considered that as long ago
as 1845 the Mersey Steel and Iron Works manufactured for
the Princeton, American frigate, a gun still in use. with a
bore of 12ft., by a diameter of 12in. This gun throws a
solid shot of 2191b5., and its weight is 7 tons 17 cwt. 1 qr.
Plain forging and boring would, however, not suit the Ad-
miralty and Ordnance authorities, and the consequence is
that we are behind France and America in guns, when we
might easily have outstripped them both.