The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-28 00:00:00

yet somewhat noisy. Alpine climbers, if I may judge
from most specimens here assembled last night, talk
about anything rather than the Alps. They look
upon their mountain work as mere sport ; so many
miles in snow and ice ; so many hours' clamberingon
rocks. One has " done" the Cima di Jazi yesterday ;
another is going to " do" the Lyskamm to-morrow.
They meet, question, and congratulate each other
on their exploits, much as men out of shootingwould
count 10 or 12 brace of birds they have bagged, or
foxhunters would tell of the capital run they had
after hounds. There is but little aesthetic and nothing
scientific in the object of nine Alpine climbers out of
ten. The pleasure is not in the run, not in the fox
that is thrown to the hounds, or even in the phea-
sant or blackcock that everybody is so keen to kill.
There were but few Syntax-like faces about me last
evening, but few who would not laugh at the notion
of coming to the Alps in quest of the picturesque.
One came to the Alps to " do" them, to breathe
fresh air, to give a keen edge to appetite, to seek a
vent for the exuberance of animal spirits. Some
in the company was evidently a lion, or fancied
himself so. His talk was of the loudest ; he bounced
up from his place every now and then, throwing
back his chair in the suddenness of his movements.
He showed great energy and alacrity in his step to
prove how little his powerful elastic frame had been
affected by his 14 hours' toil on the ice. His tone
was overbearing (there is no mincing the matter),
his manner obstreperous. He was young, wild-
looking, presumptuous. You would have said the
Champagne air of the Alps had got to his head. He
kept up an incessant rattle ; none within reach of
his shrill voice had a chance to put in a word ; and
as it ever happens where a man takes too much on
himself, there were those around him willing to
allow him even more than he assumed. There were
Boswells to this Alpine Johnson, who took every
impertinence as a joke, who burst out into up-
roarious laughter at the fine fun of seeing their
idol jump up in his place and kick down
the chair behind him. That upsetting of the chair
every five minutes was an incomparable joke ; so
was every remark about cat disguised as hare, and
tough goat palmed upon the guests as chamois.
The 40 or 50 guests assembled round the table were
not like these, thank Heaven ! There were, on the
contrary, men of intelligent countenance and gen-
tlemanly demeanour. But these were awed into
silence, worried and annoyed, but " shut up."
There was nothing for them but to hold their
tongues or fling the bottle into the face of the dis-
turber of the public quiet, and they took the more
prudent, more peaceful alternative.

The Iron•cased Fleets of France and
England.

The iron-cased fleet of France at present afloat
consists of 29 vessels, exclusive of four floating bat-
teries, built to meet the exigencies of the Russian
war, and five smaller batteries, built in sections, for
special lake service during the Italian war with
Austria. This force may be thus divided :-1. sea-
going vessels ; 2. vessels only serviceable for the at-
tack or defence of coasts, roadsteads, harbours, &c.
The seagoing fleet consists of 17 vessels, which have
been shortly described as of the two-decked and
frigate classes, but which for clearness of description
may here be divided into six classes, owing to diffe-
rences in displacement, engine-power, disposition of
armour, material of construction, &c. At the head
of the list stand the Magenta and Solferino, the two
flagships, which by their quaint form of bow
and high short hulls excited so much attention
during the recent Portsmouth festivities. The
Magenta has a displacement of 6,737 tons, the
weight of her hull, fitted and armour-plated being
4,164 tons, and the weight of her equipment 2,573
tons. Her length on the water-line is 280 ft. only,
with a breadth of hull inside the armour-plating of
56ft. Bin. Her mean draught of water in deep trim
26ft. Her engines, of 1,000 nominal horse-power,
drive a fixed four-bladed screw, and her speed over
the measured mile, in deep trim and under favourable
conditions of weather (under similar conditions to
those under which our own ships are tried), is 13.7
knots. The Magenta is built of wood—a short
wooden line-of-battle ship, carrying a water-line
belt of armour-plating, and armour-plating (very
roughly put on, and with the bolts excvedingly close
together) over the central portion of her hull, where
only she carries her guns, leaving her bows, stern,
and quarters without armour, and, consequently,
pervious to shell of any calibre. Behind the armour-
plating amidships she carries, on tL e main deck, 24
66-pounder rifled guns for shells only, burning 81b.
of powder, and fitted as breech-loaders, with a three-
faced raised screw breech-plug. On her lower deck
she carries 16 50-pounder smooth-bore solid shot
guns, and on the upper deck two of the latter de-
scription of guns and two rifled 8-65-in. howitzers.
She is rigged as a bark, with long lower masts,
narrow topsails, and topgallantsails over all, the
masts being well placed, and the amount of head
sail being unusually large as compared with our
ships. The Solferino is the counterpart in every
respect of the Magenta. She is said to be a fraction
of a knot faster under steam, but ii she ever was
the faster vessel of the two she has since lost her
pre-eminence in that respect. The rig of the Ma-
genta and Solferino is closely followed in all the
other ships, and, indeed, it would be difficult to de-
vise one more simple and yet efficient for an iron-
clad. The same system of mixed armament is also
followed in all the ships with the 66-pounder
rifled and 50-pounder smooth-bore guns, and thus
serious complication of projectiles on board ship is
wisely avoided, however harmless such guns may be
against 6-inch armour-plating. We have thus far
dealt only with the two-decked armoured ships, but,
taking the remainder in the order iu which they were
built, we find in their hulls the history of the con-
struction of the armoured fleet of France. The
famous Gloire, the Invincible, and the Normandie
were laid down in 1858, the Gloire being completed
for sea in 1860, the Normandie in 1861, and the
Invincible in 1862. All three are built of wood, and
are coated with armour of 4.7 in. in thickness, are
255 ft. 6in. in length on the water-line, have a
breadth inside their armour of 55ft. 9in., and draw
at deep draught of water—Gloire, 25ft. 6in. ; In-
vincible, 25ft. Bin. ; Normandie, 25ft. 11in. All
have the old-fashioned square gun-ports placed
closely together, and carry their guns low on the
water. Their displacement is as nearly as possible
5,630 tons. Their engines, of 900-horse power,
drive a fixed screw, and the speed of the ships on
trial was 13.4 knots. For armament they each carry
12 50-pounder smooth-bore guns and 16 66-pounder
rifled guns on their main deck, with four 8.65-inch
rifled howitzers on their upper deck. In contra-
distinction to the plough-coulter submerged bows of
the Magenta and Solferino, the Gloire, Normandie,
and Invincible have straight stems with rather full
wedge-line bow. Their armour-plating—the first
work of the kind done by our neighbours, it must
be remembered—is pierced all over with bolts, and
put on the hulls in the roughest possible manner.
The plating at the water-line of all three ships is now
in a woful condition.

In February, 1859, an important step in advance
1%.
made in the building of the iron navy of France
in the laying down the keel of the iron frigate
Couronne, at L'Orient. Iron was now brought intol
tehmeelusifirevtetnizeet ththe construction of a ship's hull, for
dimensionsw Imperiale dockyards, while pre-
vious dimensions departed from in
giving the Couronne
asncompared a slight increase of length and
decrease of breadthri,he thele Gcalrroiriees,
Normandie, and Invincible.
armour-plating of 4.5 in. on the broadside,
round the bows and stern, her total weight armouranofd 3in.
being 699 tons. She has a length of hull at the water_
line of 262 ft. Sin., and a breadth inside her armour-
plates of 54ft. 9in. ller sea-going draught of water
is—mean-25ft., at a displacement of 5,982 tons.
The nominal power of the engines is 900-horse, and
the ship's speed at the mile 13.3 knots. The Cou-
ronne was completed for service in February, 1862.

Between Jan. and June, 1861, the most compre-
hensive measure towards the creation of an ironclad
fleet was taken in laying down 10 unproved frigates
in the yards of Brest, Cherbourg, Rochefort, Lorient,
and Touton. Nine of these--the Flandre, Gauloise,
Guienne, Magnanime, Provence, Revanche, Savoir,
Surveillante, and Valeureuse—have wooden hulls,
cased with armour. The tenth vessel—the Heroine
—is of iron throughout. All have a length of hull at

the water-line of 262 ft. sin., with a breadth inside
their armour-plating of 55ft. 9in. They have a mean
draught of water, at deep draught, of 25ft. 3in., at
a displacement of 5,711 tons. Their engines have
a nominal power of 1,000 horse, and their speed
over the trial ground ranges between 14.2 and 15
knots. Their armour is 4-7 in. in thickness all
round, and their armament consists, for each, of,
on main deck, 10 50-pounder smooth-bore and
16 66-pounder rifled guns. On the upper deck
two 50-pounder smooth-bores and two 66-pounder
rifled guns. All are very fine handy craft, with
armour of a superior quality, and much better put
on than in the instances of the previous ships.
Their gunports, too, although too close together,
are embrasured or narrowed in their outer area on
the English plan. The nine wooden-built vessels
have, of course, all the weakness inseparable from
wooden hulls loaded with iron. The iron vessel,
the Heroine, on the contrary, has all the advantages
of the possession of an iron structure throughout ;
but, strange to say, she has no athwartship water-
tight compartments, such as are considered indis-
pensable to all our iron ships of war. The Heroine
has, however, a longitudinal water-tight bulkhead,
rising up from her floor, and extending from stem
to stern at a certain distance from each broadside.
The ventilation of the Heroine below is, therefore,
much better than in the majority of English iron
ships, but we cannot consider this as an equivalent
for the safety given to the ship by athwartship
bulkheads.

These ten frigates, with their high rate of speed,
their moderate length, and consequent handiness in
evolutions—say, a naval engagement at moderately
close quarters in the Channel or at sea—in fact,
their collective and harmonious powers of efficiency
and of steaming at any rate up to 14 knots, and
manoeuvring in concert, represent a force that is
unrepresented in the navies of Europe or America.
Seeing them together it is almost impossible to
imagine a more perfect war machine than these ten
vessels make in their combination, although it must
be admitted that the nine wooden vessels are only
half as strong as they would be for powers of re-
sistance if built of iron, and that their artillery on
board all is unfit to cope with the artillery now on
board the American, and being introduced into the
English navy. As regards wooden ships cased with
iron, however, both England and America have simi-
larly built ships in their navies, and as for the effi-
cient armament of France's ironclad navy, the Em-
peror can afford to await the issue of English and
American experiments.
The last of the sea-going ironclads of France now
necessary to notice as actually afloat is the Belli-
queuse, laid down at Toulon in December, 1863
and launched and completed for sea by January,
1865. The Belliqueuse is the first illustration, as a
frigate, of the strange theory of the "plough-coulter"
submerged bow of M. Du Puy-de-Lome, the direc-
tor of material, or chief constructor of the Imperial
Navy. Her hull is built of wood, and carries a
water-line belt, with a central square plated box, all
coated with iron of 5.9 in. thickness. She is pierced
with 17 ports on each broadside, but with only six
of these ports in the centre, or amidships, included
in the armour-plating. From this description it
will be seen that the Belliqueuse is- merely a Ma-
genta or Solferino reduced to frigate form. It will
be interesting to notice the speed attained by this
plough-bow'd ship, and compare it with the speed of
the handsome wedge-line bow'd ships the Ilgroine
and Flandre, 15 knot vessels. The Belliqueuse has
a length at the water-line of 229 ft. 7in., with a
breadth of 45ft. llin. inside her plating, and draws
at deep sea-draught, 19ft. 61 in., at 3,347 tons dis-
placement. Her speed and armament are not known
to a certainty in England at present, but the former
is probably as nearly as possible 13 knots, her en-
gines being of 200 horse-power, and her armament
will consist of 12 66-pounder rifled guns behind her
armour.

The remainder of the French ironclads afloat are
included in category No. 2. vessels destined for
the attack and defence of coasts, roadsteads, or
harbours. They comprise, besides the floating
batteries built for the Russian and Italian wars, the
Taurean, a peculiar vessel, having one gun and one
tower, with the plough coulter bow, drawing 16ft.
Sin, of water, at a load displacement of 2,500 tons.
Her engines, of 900 horse power, drive a pair of
twin screws, and her speed is said to be 13 knots.
She is 197 ft. long at the water line, with a beam of
47ft. Gin., and is coated with 5.9 in. armour plating.
The Paixhans, Pal€stro, Peiho, Saigon, Embuscade,
Impregnable, Protectrice, Refuge, Arrogante, Im-
placable, and Opiniatre arc vessels varying in their
displacement from 1,550 to 1,220 tons ; in their
draught of water, from Bft. Gin, to Oft. 10in. ; in
length, from 156 ft. to 129 ft.; in breadth, from 51ft.
to 47ft. , and in their deep water draught from 10ft.
Gin. to Bft. 9in. Seven (iron built) out of the 11
have armour plating of 5.5 in., the remaining four
(wooden built) have 4.5 in. All are fitted with 150
horse power engines, and their maximum rate of
speed, under the most favourable circumstances, is
seven knots. It is not, however, with the home
fleet of France that we are now dealing, but with
her seagoing ironclads, that, combined with those of
England, may be looked upon as the water police
of Europe, and the possible arbiters of future peace
or war. To render our sketch of the French ar-
moured navy, therefore, of any value, we must
refer to the tabular forms published by our own
Admiralty, which, supplemented by other and non-
official knowledge on the subject, may give a means
of arriving at a fair estimate of the combined and
relative qualities of the ships of the two countries.
Taking the Magenta and Solferino as the largest
ships in the French navy, we have no other choice
than the selection of our Achilles as their com-
petitive ship in the English navy ; the Minotaur,
Northumberland, and Agincourt not yet having
undergone their deep-draught trials. By the Eng-
lish Admiralty returns we find that our iron-built
frigate Achilles had a displacement of 9,487 tons,
her length being 380 ft., with a breadth of 58ft. 31
in. ; her mean draught of water was 26ft. sin., her
mean speed 14.322 knots, and her nominal engine
power 1,250-horse.

In comparifig this speed with that of the double-
decked ships of the French navy—the Magenta and
Solferino, we shall find that the Achilles beat both
ships by a good three quarters of a knot, with an
excess of engine power of 205-horse, of displacement
of 2,729 tons, of a length of 98ft., and a breadth of
3ft. In speed, therefore, the Achilles excels the
Magenta and Solferino, but her greater length ren-
ders her a far less handy ship when manoeuvring
with a fleet than either of those ships. In armour
and backing no comparison can be made between
the ships, all merit being on the side of the Achilles,
with her iron frame, inner iron skin, teak backing
between the iron ribs of the ship's frame and the
outer skin of sfin. armour plates, as contrasted
with the only partially protected hull and its soft
extremities, without inner iron skin, of the Magenta
and Solferino. In armament the Magenta and
Solferino will bear no comparison with the Achilles'
6f-ton 9fin. smooth-bore guns, although the latter
are only placed on board as a makeshift until the
12-ton smooth-bore guns in stock now at Woolwich
have been lined with steel tubes and issued to the
navy as its 7-inch rifled broadside gun. But, as
we have already observed, the Emperor of the
French can afford, with his usual astuteness, to wait
the results of our costlygun experiments before arm-
ing his fleet with efficient armour-piercing guns. In
rig, handiness under steam or sail, ventilation, hos-
pital and general sanitary arrangements, the two
French ships are far in advance of our Achilles. Pass-
ing over the Gloire, Normandie, Invincible, and
Couronne, as the pioneers of the French iron-clad
navy, it only remains for us to draw a comparison
rps
between the ten improved French frigates we have
for this purpose u
ando e the Ein tonnage named to our own sea-going ships below the Achilles
horse-power.nterpr
ise
,Sietleecsteianrgch,
,t hDefence,erefore
Prince Consort, nector, and Royal Sovereign as
the representatives of their respective classes, we
find the returns given to be as follows :

Name of Ship.
•

Mean Draught Speed.
srower.
Ft. in. Knot . E ngines' Horse-
-13 9 9.73 200
Enterprise
Research
Prince Consort
25 4 12-770 1,000
Defence
24 9 11.618 600
22 11 11.006 800
Royal Sovereign 6O
24 11 12.3 800
Hector

Putting aside, therefore, the performance of our first