The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-30 00:00:00

711 E NAVY.

The Royal Sovereign, at Portsmouth, has only at
present some 30 hands, mechanics and labourers,
employed upon her in her conversion to a shield
ship, and the majority of these are engaged in com-
pleting her new stern. All other work, with one
exception, is in a state of suspension. This state of
things clearly indicates that the authorities have as
yet arrived at no decision as to the exact course to
be adopted to give the ship the efficiency she will
be supposed and ought to possess as a shield ship,
and which she would doubtlesshavehad, had it been
possible for the Admiralty and Capt. Coles from
the first to have worked harmoniously together. In
the conversion of one of the largest of our ships,
constructed to carry broadside guns, to a vessel on
an entirely novel principle and carrying guns only
amidships, it certainly seems but reasonable to sup-
pose that the position of the guns and their line of
fire from the shields of the converted ship should
have been fully taken into consideration before the
drawings for the ship's conversion were issued.
This, however, is just what has not been done. The
Admiralty, in their very pardonable eagerness to
give Capt. Coles a fitting ship for his first essay,
unfortunately kept the details of her conversion in
their own hands. They restricted Capt. Coles to
preparing the necessary drawings for her towers and
shields, and, selecting one of the latest constructed
and finest of our three-deckers, placed her in the
bands of the master shipwright's department at
Portsmouth, to razee as quickly as possible, accord-
ing to furnished drawings. The work was done in
a wonderfully short time, and the progress of con-
version was carried so far that the ship had received
her armour plates on her sides and the towers on
her deck, when the awkward discovery was made
that, in lieu of a vessel that should possess extraordi-
nary offensive and defensive powers, we have some-
thing in the shape of a huge mooring lighter, the
offensive and defensive powers of which, if com-
pleted es a shield ship in its present form, would be
very limited indeed. To remedy this error as far as
is possible, it is now proposed to raise the deck at
the crown of the tower over the engine-room to a
height of 2ft. 6in. above the present deck, sloping
the beams to the ship's side to 18in. above the ends
of the present beams, and thus giving the guns
about four degrees of depression amidships. For-
ward and aft the position of the guns for delivering
a fire ahead or astern would be greatly improved,
but the line of fire at its contact with the water
would still be, of course, at some considerable dis-
tance from the ship. This elevation of the deck in
the centre and slope outwards taper off to the level
of the present deck forward and aft from amidships.
They thus reduce the sheer of the deck to a straight
line. Where the wooden beams of the ship have
been taken out for the reception of the towers, the
iron beams which will extend from the towers to
the ship's sides will be fixed in the proposed raised
position, giving an increased height between decks,
extending the air space, and improving the ventile.
tion below. The wooden beams, which do not re-
quire removing to allow for the fixing of the towers,
will not be disturbed from their original position, but
will be filled up over all with timber, to bring them
on a level with the iron beams, and to complete the
formation of the raised and sloping deck. The whole
of the beams, iron and wood, will be covered
with 6in. planking and lin. iron plate. The pilot-
house will be erected in front of the funnel. The
muzzles of the guns in the shields will be about
201 t. from the ship's side, the latter being 7ft. above
the water-line. Drawing a line from the muzzle
of the guns, when at their greatest possible depres-
sion, to the point at which their shot would strike
the hull of a ship's launch or gunboat on the water,
it is evident that there must always be a consider-
able space round the Royal Sovereign where a
large number of such craft could lie out of all dan-
ger from the guns of the shield ship. At the same
time they could pound her sides with solid 68-
pound shot, throw men on her decks, wedge up her
towers, and drop shells or other explosive sub-
stances into them, and thus force her to a speedy
surrender. These serious objections to the Royal
Sovereign as a shieldship arise entirely from her
inability to depress her guns, owing to the manner
in which she had been razeed, together with her
width, one of the great requirements of the shield
principle being that the ship, to carry plates, must
be long, of narrow beam, and yet with sufficient
flatness of floor to enable her to carry the great
weight of the towers and their shields in addition
to her guns. The Royal Sovereign is unfortunately
of great beam, has a rising floor, and will draw so
much water that the only effectual means for ren-
dering her a really efficient ship—to give her angu-
lated armoured sides, cannot under present circum-
stances be adopted. It has been suggested that her
flotation might be much increased, and her draught
of water thereby lessened, by giving her a false bot-
tom on Mr. Reed's plan, its greatest extent being at
the midship section, and falling in at each end of the
ship, By this means the ship's upper deck might
be placed at a greater angle, and partially covered
with armour-plates, which it would certainly re-
quire under such circumstances. The crossed dia-
gonal planking, on which will be hung the armour-
plates of the ship's sides, extends only as far as the
plates are themselves below the water line; and
here appears to be another serious oversight, for had
this crossed planking been carried down to the ves-
sel's keel it would not only have immensely strength-
ened the ship, but would also have lessened her
draught of water, and given her the means to carry
any additional armour required for her upper deck.
To say that such ships as the Royal Sovereign, low
as they will be in the water, require no armour
covering for the upper deck (when, like the Royal
Sovereign, they are to carry only guns of the same
calibre as an ordinary frigate having five times her
number), is simply absurd. Such a frigate as the
Mersey ranging up alongside the Sovereign would
send a broadside down upon the latter's unprotected
deck which would go right through her and sink
her at once. Give the shield ship guns of such cali-
bre as no other description of ship could carry,
which was the intention of the inventor, and then
the Mersey would be careful how she attempted to
range alongside such an antagonist. With respect
to the number of shields to be carried by the con-
verted ship, it has been decided, we think very un-
wisely, to give the ship five, 'rescinding a previous
order to fit her forfour of larger diameter. Now, as
the five shields will only carry 68-pounder or 110-
pounder
Armstrongs, the shield ship will, in fact,
have but 10 guns of the same calibre as the 50 guns
of the ordinary frigate, and her offensive powers
will thus be reduced to a minimum. There can be
reason assigned again
no possible t fitting the ship
with four towers and shields, in lieu of the five diameter to
in-
efficient ones, of sufficientcurry eight
of the largest calibre guns that can be forged. She
would then possess a power of gun superior to all
other classes of ships, for one of the great features
of Captain Coles's shield tower is that it can, by the
peculiar manner in which its guns are mounted and
the ease with which they can be worked, carry guns
of extraordinary size and power, such that it would
be found impossible to mount and work in the ordi-
nary
manner on a ship's deck. It should also be
taken into consideration that the greater the
diameter of the towers the nearer the muzzles of the
guns must be to the ship's sides, and consequently
their powers of depression would be proportionately
increased, which would at the same time increase
the ship's powers of defence against small craft at
close quarters. Captain Coles has now been ap-
pointed to superintend the further conversion of the
ship, and it will therefore be the duty of that officer
to bring under the notice of the Admiralty such
suggestions as ho may think necessary to render the
Royal Sovereign thoroughly efficient as a shield ship,
prove the value of the principles he has so long and
earnestly advocated, and remove the impression,
which has already gained a certain hold in the
opinions of many conversant with naval matters,
that the cutting down of a ship such as the
Royal Sovereign for conversion, on a novel, and
to all but the inventor an unknown principle, has
involved an enormous anduseless expenditure of
public money. When in sea • trim the estimated
draught of water of the Royal Sovereign will be
she will carry her
26 feet.upper deck at the sides
water line, the
7 feet aboveanti the muzzles of her
guns 9 feet 6 inches.
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