The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-03 00:00:00

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THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1862.

The more explicit the information becomes re-
specting the naval battle at Hampton Roads, the
stronger must be the general conviction that the
day of wooden vessels is over, and perhaps that
of harbour forts also. Should land artillery be
increased in power till a gun may be almost an
artificial volcano, capable of smashing, by one
discharge, the side of the strongest iron vessel,
and should the entrance of the harbour be such
as to make that one discharge certain to take
effect, then, lideed, it may still be worth while
to rely, partially, on fixed fortifications. • Under
any other conditions it is evident that
forts will be useless. No iron vessel

steaming past them would allow of more
than one discharge from a monster gun ; and no
other would be of the slightest use. The Merrimac,
or Virginia, as the Confederates call her, and the
Monitor, have conclusively settled that question.
The Spithead forts would be useless till artillery is
invented which can smash the plates of an iron ship
at a discharge, and that is not the case yet. It is
certain, on the other hand, that one iron ship can
succeessfully meet another; hence the question
which will be discussed to-morrow ought to have
but one answer. The money which no one now
thinks can be spent with any certainty, to say the
least, with advantage on forts, may be spent with all
reasonable certainty of efficient application on cut-
ting down and plating our big ships ; and, we
should add, arming a number of them with Captain
COWPER COLES' cupolas.

Through the courtesy of the London American
we are enabled to give our readers to-day a clearer
idea than they would otherwise have of the general
character of the new invention. Captain COLES'
cupola differs in some details from the turrets of
the Monitor, but the principle is the same. A cir-
cular, moving, shot and bomb-proof tower, turned
about horizontally from below, and carrying two of
the most powerful guns known to modern warfare.
The two guns in the Monitor are DAHLGREN'S,
carrying shot of 1841 b. each ; and as the two balls
are to strike simultaneously and close together,
their force of impact is equal to that of six sixty-
pounders, hitting at once a single spot. Perhaps
forts on land may be able, by carrying this prin-
ciple out to the uttermost, to throw the proposed
1,000 lbs., if not in a single ball, yet on a single
spot simultaneously, and with nearly equal results.
An inspection of the drawings and descriptions
furnished us by our contemporary will, however,
leave no reasonable doubt in any mind that the
Americans have practically solved the great pro-
blem of iron ships. Theiposition of the whole sub-
ject is as different now from what it was before this
battle, as one of chemical success in the scientific
man's laboratory, from the profitable carrying out
of his experiments in a large commercial manufac-
tory.

It must not be overlooked that ships built even
on the model of the Monitor, for river work, can
yet, if need be, keep the sea. The account of her
corning round from New York to the Chesapeake,
speaks well in favour of the capacity of heavy iron
vessels to face heavy seas. She is but a 1.200 ten
ship. She is built with a fiat bottom—her deck,
Which has no kind of bulwark or protection, is but
two feet out of the water—her turret rises but
nine feet above the deck, her smoke stacks not so
much—and yet such a vessel "did not mind the
gale at all."
True the waves which poured
over her as she steamed unconcernedly along,
sent water clown her blower pipes, by
Which the
ship is ventilated, and threat-
ened to choke the men
with gas ; but a very
little mechanical ingenuity will remedy this; and

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