The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-29 00:00:00

From the yard of the Thames Iron Shipbuilding Com
pany evpl this day be launched, by Lady Pakington, the
first'armour-plated'eteam frigate in the- possession of Great
Britain. •• The 'French have already got ttheir* niysterious
Gloire afloat,. about the succes4which such utterly inn.
concileeble statements are circulated. , In addition to this
they.have four others so *well advanced that their'launch
May at any time take place, ntiCno less than 10 are being
hurried. forward towards completion, . -Before next Christ-
mas, then; France will have at least 15 sail of these tre-
mendous engines of warfareNafloat, andEnglandwill have
four-one, the Warrior, to be launched this day. ; the Black
Prince, a sister vessel to • the Warrior, building at Glas-
gow ; the Resietance, building at Messrs. Palmer's yard,
near Newcastle ; and the Defence, at Millwell.. The two
first-tiamed,are 50sgun.frigates of upwards of 6,000 teas ;
the two latter are only 16-gun corvettes of 3,600 tone—
This is a small set-offagainst the sudden stride taken by
our greta ally in this matter—a stride' so sudden that, '
allowing for the exercise of every available means on our
part in. the way of both priblie and private building yards,
it places the French navy. in this matter at least two years.
tthead'ototirs. TIM Russian. 'Government are preparing'
their plans and schemes, of prices . for the construction by
contract of sir frigates, sister vessels to the Warribr in
every pa•rtieelar, save in sudhi, improved details as giving
the aides a much greater • angle, which the experience
gained during the last few months by the 'trial of Mr;
Jones's plan shows ,irt future' be adopted with all
iron ships intended to he yealleeinvalnerable.. According,
therefore, to present appearances, England is likely tribe
left behind •in the race by Rllmsiek end to be distanced by
- ••
It is not our purpose now to discuss the comparative
merits of the plans on • which the English
,and French
vessels are respectively built. Were it 'so, wo think
it might not be Ciffienit to show that the superiority in .
this matter is as yet so great on our side as to Make one ves-
sel like the Warder slimmest nmatch for two like La Gloire.
It will bo time enongh to turn to such matters when:we see
the Warrior fairly off the stocks and at her moorings in the
river: It will be sufficient in this notice to give an outline
of her enormous strength and huge'dimensions, and explain
the methods by which the Admiralty have overcome the-
difficultiee 'that. existed -in constructing a really shot-proof
frigate.; At the first .outseti the 'idea of any iron-cased
vessels, whether for steam 'rams or frigates, found no favour
with the Adnairalty,eind it was not till the.result of French'
experiments as to the resistance which they offered to shot
became known in :England, with the additional fact that
our ally had already begun to construct several such ships,
that the. Admiralty at last began to bestir themselves, though
up to the present hour iron-cased ships are looked upon
with a lenient rather than a favourable eye, Since that
time, however, efficial opinions would appear 'to have under-'
'gone considerable modification, and the Admiralty have
been compelled to accept much they formerlycondemned,
and, on the* other hand; to condemn a good deal of work
on which they formerly insisted. In the first design sent
in to the Admiralty by the Thames Shipbuilding Company
the shape proposed' for the bows of the Warrior was exactly
after the outline Of a swan's neck arid breast when swim-
' ming, and thus •the point or beak intended to- strike .an
enemy's vessel was the," breast," which was Placed under
the water-line in 'the ship'S bows. In the Admiralty model,
and of course that on which the Warrior has been
built, the outline of the Vows seen from the broadside
forms a kind of obtuse angle, the point or " nose," as it
lis called, just level with theewater. This peculiar shape,
however,
,has been concealed under, a long false cut-
water and a magnificent figure-head -of
_a colossal warrior,
. so that, looking at her as she is now on the stocks, there
is no difference, except in her extremely fine lines forward
and goat size, between her appearance and that of any
ordinary fine frigate. .
Soelong an interval has elapsed since we last noticed the
plan on which this gigantic vessel was to be built that a
brief recapitulation of her chief dimensions, together with
the general principles of her construction, will net bawith-
. out interest for our readers on thisoccesion. Her
dimen-
slons, then, aro :—Extreme length over all, 420 ft. ; ditto,
breadth; 58ft. ; depth from spar' deck to keel, Mt. 6in.
Her tonnage_ is no lesi than 6,177 tons, builders' measure-
ment. The engines have just been completed by Messrs,
Penn and Sons. They are of 1,250 nominal horse-power,
and are probably the most magnificent specimens of machi-
nery that ever' left 'even. Mr. Penn's celebrated works.
These extraordinary machines, however, deserve a separate
and detailed notice of themeel acs, and on a future occasion
we shall be able to give a full' description of them to our
readers. Their total weight, 'with boilers, will be 950
tons, and for these the 'Warrior is only able to stow 950 tons
of coal, or. little more than enough for six days' steaming.
The armament, reckoning ber es a 50-gun frigate, with
masts and stores complete, will, weigh from 1,200 to 1,500
tons, which will give her, with hull and armour, a total
weight, when ready for sea,' of about 9,000 tons, or about
the weight of the hull of the Great Easierriwhen launched.
With the fine lines,' great length, and immense horse-.
power of the Warrior, a speed of IN less than 14 knots is
counted upon as certain. OnnroW of the armour-plates
with which the greater part of the broadside will hereafter
be covered is already in its place, covering a space of 51t.
deep by 21$ft. long en each side. Only the lowest row
has been thus bolted, and more than this it would be
unwise, to place, as the. immense weight might
strain the ship during the launch: The others
will be bolted in her piece by piece while in. the Victoria
Dock. That all the crew under' cover of these armour-
plates Will enjoy the most perfect immunity from the
heaviest shot and' shell in the 'world will be easily under-
steed when we point out the tremendous strength with
which the ship is constructed 'and fastened together in
every part.
There is 110 external keel to the ihip, but an inner kind
of girder, which eats as a- keelson. This is formed of im-
mense slabs of wrought scrap iron Lein. thick, and 3ft. bin.
deep. To it are bolted the ribs—Massive wrought iron T.
shaped beams an inch thick and made in joints five feet
long by two deep up to five feet below the water line, where
their depth is diminished so as el) form a deep ledge or
angle, on which the armour-plates and their teak lining
rest: These immense ribs, except „where the portholes in-
tervene, are actually only 22 inches apart. Above the keel-
son, and inside the ribs, are five immensely strong box-
girders, which go the whole length of the ship from stem
to stern, and from which spring‘diagonal bands, tying
every rib together. The orlop deck is of wood, and 24ft.
above the keel; the main deck is of iron, and cased with
wood, and 9ft. above the orlop ; the upper deck is also of
. wrought iron, cased with wood, and 7ft, 9in. above the
main. All these decks are carried en wrought iron beams
of the moat powerful description, to which both decks and
ribs and all are bolted as in ono pie Ce. The " skin" of the
skip, as it is termed, which severe all these ribs, on the
outside, is also of wrought iron, lein. thick under the , bot-
tom, to nearly lin. thick up to the spar deck. From sft.
below the water line up to the upper deck comes, in addi-
tion to this, the great armour of teak and iron over all. This
is formed of e. double casing of the hardest. teak, 20ins. thick,
with theheams laid at right angles to one and other. Over
these again come the plates of iron, so as in all to ease the
broadsido of the vessel with 20 inches of solid teak
and five inches of the very finest wrought iron. Each
armour-plate is formed of scrap iron carefully welded into
a slab about 16ft. long by 4 broad, and 41 inches thick, and
weighing about 12 tons. All the 'plates are dovetailed at
the edges into ono another, and bolted through the teak and
iron into the inner ribs of the ship. These bolts are coun-
ter-sunk outside, so es eo have their heads level with the
surface of the plate. The total weight of the plates on both
sides is 1,000 tons. The plate arntour pf La Gloire is re-
ported to be formed of a peculiar kind of soft homogeneous
iron, admirably adapted for resisting shot. From the speci-
mens of it which have been obtained in this country and
examined by our best mechanics, it is, on the whole, not
considered to be a baler kind of -metal than a thick soft
wrought-iron slab, such as covers the sides of the Warrior.
The result of gunnery experiments with no less than forty
different kinds of plates shown that the best aro those formed
of scrap iron with a certain proportion of puddled bar iron,
which makes a mixture of almost unyielding toughness.
Some of them were tested at Portsinouth with 68-pounders
at point-blank range. In all cases the shot failed to pene-
trate the iron, though they dented it to a depth of one and
a half, and in some cases almost two inches. Not until
after the sixth, or even eighth and' tenth shots, all striking
about the same place, were the plates ever broken and their
fibre torn apart. With such a backing up of teak as is in
the sides of the 'Warrior, not all the Whitworth or Arm-
strong guns yet made could send a shot fairly through into
the main deck, This tremendous coat of armour, however,
does not case the whole vessel, as with such an entire cover-
ing the Warrior would scarcely float at all. Only the
middle of the 'broadside, for a length of 213 feet, and going
down five feet under the water-line, is thus protected.
This seems a serious fault in the plan on which the Mini•
ralty have built the void. To endeavour to compensate for
the absence of thiti armour, befit the stem and stern are
crossed and re-crossed in every direction with water.
tight compartments, and the outer iron plates are 1.1 inch
thick and backed up by 24 inches of teak. It is, of course,
needless to say that the whole veeeel is subdivided in at
lea.st 20 places by water-tight bulkheads of the most solid
description. Those which cut off.the stem and stern from
thess' armour-coa.ted portions in the centre are faced with
armour-plates to five feet below the water line, and lined
with iron ribs and 20 inches of teak, exactly like the broad-
side of the vessel. Titus it is contended that, supposing it
possible for the stem :and stern to be so riddled as to be
almost shot away, the'centre fighting portion of the vessel,
.containing 26 of the heaviest guns, would still remain as
complete and impenetrable as ever—still opposing 20 inches
of teak, with nearly Ave inches of nought iron, to every,