The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-29 00:00:00

nowhere less than Bft. 6in. above the load line, and
almost the full thickness of armour will be main-
tained all round the bow. The armour-plating itself
is sfin. in thicknessfrom the lower edge to 2ft. above
the water's surface, and all round the battery, where
the usual 4fin. armour is placed, an extrairon skin-
plating, an inch and a half in thickness, has been
worked upon the frames of the ship behind the
outer planking. The total thickness of the sides of
Lord Warden, therefore, along her broadsides is
37in., or nearly half a foot greater than that of any
other armoured frigate yet constructed. This thick-
ness of wood and iron is obtained by sfin. of iron,
10in. of teak planting, 13fin. of solid oak frame,
and Bin. of wood planking. The thickness of the
sides in the wake of the gun-battery is 33in., which
is thus obtained-4fin. of armour plating, 9in. of
wood backing, lfin. of iron plate, 12in. of solid oak
frame, and, lastly, 6in. of planking. It will thus be
seen that the Lord Warden, from the experiments
made on the Lord Warden target at Shoeburyness,
is capable of resisting any ordinary gun brought
against her, for it will be remembered that, although
the target mentioned was ultimately knocked to
pieces by ponderous ordnance of a kind not likely
to be used in actual warfare, it was found capable of
withstanding even the 300-pounder Armstrong gun
firing round solid steel shot with 501 b. of powder.
As there is no gun at all approaching in efficacy this
weapon in:use in:the:French navy, nd as thelargest
Federal guns proved ineffective against iron-plat-
ing, it cannot be doubted that the Lord Warden will
be perfectly impregnable to the existing ordnance of
other nations ; while she herself is capable of carry-
ing the largest guns yet in use. The total quantity
of armour which the Lord Warden will . carry
will be about 1,400 tons. Notwithstanding this
enormous weight, the important element of speed
has not been sacrificed. On the contrary, her speed
is to exceed that of any wooden-built frigate yet
afloat, whether with or without armour, the stipu-
lations of her designer being that she shall average,
at a trial speed, 14 knots per hour. Her engines,
which are now in course of manufacture, are to be
of a nominal horse-power of 1,000, but to be cap-
able of being worked up to six times that power, or,
in other words, are expected to develope no less than
6,000 indicated horse-power, which is equal to en-
gines of 1,500 horse-power constructed on the old
model. This large increase of power will be pro-
cured by means of great expansion, surface conden-
sation, super-heating, and other modern steam-
engine improvements never before applied to an
armour-plated frigate in this country. There seems,
therefore, no reason whatever to doubt that the
Lord Warden with these advantages will be supe-
rior in point of speed to the entire ironclad fleet of
this country, with the exception of vessels of the
Warrior and the Achilles classes, which are very
much larger. It must be remembered, however,
that the Lord Warden is a wooden ship, and the
placing of such powerful engines in a wooden hull
would have been a very doubtful and even danger-
ous measure, if the ordinary modes of strengthen-
ing the stern had alone been resorted to. This con-
sideration has not been lost sight of by Mr. Reed ;
on the contrary, the after part of the ship has been
braced and strengthened by a system of iron decks,
knees, bulkheads, and flats, so arranged as to add
enormously to the security of this portion of the
hull, rendering it, in fact, nearly as stiff and rigid
as an iron vessel. The bow of the ship—which,
being built on the " tumble-home" principle, gives
the frigate an exceedingly unsightly appearance—
has likewise been greatly strengthened by the
introduction of enormous masses of timber,
braces, beams, and iron knees. We a short time
since pointed out the extraordinary rapidity with
which the iron frigate . Bellerophon had been con-
structed at Chatham Dockyards, and the same re-
marks would also apply to the Lord Warden, which
has been built and launched in little more than 16
months, a rate of production the more remarkable
when it is remembered that within the same period
an iron vessel of equally large dimensions has been
completed and sent afloat from the same establish-
ment. The launch of the Lord Warden was fixed to
take place at 2.30, but long before that time the gal-
leries erected at the head and sides of the vessel were
crowded with spectators, who occupied every inch of
ground from which a sight of the vessel could be ob-
tained, the concourse of spectators being computed
at about 20,000, the greatest number ever recollected
to have been present at alaunch at Chatham. Among
the distinguished visitors for whom special accom-
modation had been provided were the Dowager
Countess Mount-Edgecunabe, Viscount Sydney,
G.C.8., Lord Chamberlain; the Earl of Albemarle,
the Earl of Darnley-, Lady Plumridge, Vice-Admi-
ral Sir C. Talbot, K.C.8., Naval Commander-in-
Chief at the Nore ; Major-Gen. Sir Robt. Walpole,
K.C.8., Admiral S. R. Robinson, Controller of the
Navy; Capt. Stewart, C. 8., Superintendent of Chat-
ham Dockyard; Col.-Commandant J. 0. Travers,
C. 8., and others. As the tide rose to its full height
the operations of the master shipwrights' staff, under
Mr. Thornton and Mr. Dawson, for splitting away
the remaining blocks of the frigate, werehurried for-
ward. They were completed by 2.30, when Mr.
Thornton, the master shipwright, who has ably supe-
rintended the construction of the frigate, led Lady
Geraldine Edgecumbe, sister of Lord Mount-Edge-
cumbe, to the prow of the vessel, and explained to
her the ceremony of launching the ship. Her lady.:
ship then severed the cord which held the last remain-
ing shores, and these, falling, released the huge
mass, which instantly commenced moving down
the ways into the water, amid the cheers of the
spectators, repeated again and again. A large
bower anchor checked the further progress of
the vessel, and :she was subsequently brought
up alongside the Chatham hulk. .In proof of the
solidity of her construction it may be mentioned
that her " break" at launching was represented by
the smallest fraction. The following are the prin-
cipal dimensions, &c., of the vessel

Ft. In.
Length between perpendiculars 2BO 0
Length of keel for tonnage 233 111
Breadth, extreme
Breadth for tonnage 57 2
Breadth moulded 56 4
Depth in hold
Distance between ports
Height of midship poits
Btu den, 4,067 26-94 tons; displacement, 7,675 tons.

The Lord Warden will immediately receive her
iron masts, which have been manufactured by the
Woodside Graving Dock Company, and also her
boilers, condensers, and other heavy portions of her
engines and machinery, after which she will be
placed in one of the vacant docks at Chatham, to
have the remainder of her armour-plating bolted to
her sides, and to be equipped for sea, an operation
which will occupy from four to six months. One of
thenew class of Amazon steam frigates, unarmoured,
to be named the Blanche, is to be commenced on
the slip at Chatham Dockyard from which the Lord
Warden was launched.