The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-18 00:00:00

Court ...i,,, Caulk

HER MAJESTY, &c•

OSBORNE, Jan. 17.

The Queen, drove out yesterday afternoon, ac-
companied by Princess Louise and Prince Arthur,
and her Majesty walked in the grounds this morn-
ing, attended by the Dowager Duchess of Athole.

Princess Louise and Prince Arthur skated in the
grounds this morning, her Royal Highness being
attended by the lion. Emily Cathcart.

The Institution of Civil Engineers.
..---

At the ordinary general meeting on the 15th inst.,
Mr. C. H. Gregory, vice-president, in the chair,
the p.lper r.ad and discussed was ou " Ships of
War," by Mr. John Bourne. The author stated
that, in his opinion, the only vessels capable of

carrying sufficient thickness of armour to resist

modern ordnance were those built on the Moni-
tor or turret system, the invention of Captain

John Ericsson, of New York. He maintained
that although broadside vessels might be useful

and even necessary, and he could imagine cases
where they might almost be indispensable, yet

,hat no broadside fleet would be safe unless accom-

panied by a flotilla of Monitors. It was simply
a question of preponderance of forces ; and in any
future maritime war the strongest armour and the

heaviest guns must necessarily prevail. He proposed
that any Monitors now to be built should have side
armour 18 inches thick, backed by 4 feet of oak,
and a turret 24 inches thick, carrying two 20-inch
wrought-iron guns. Such a vessel, he contended,
could be constructed on a displacement but little
different from that of the Bellerophon, and it would
not only be impenetrable now, but would probably

remain so for some years. He considered it had been

shown by ample experience that such vessels were
seaworthy, afforded comfortable accommodation for
the crew, were healthful and popular with sailors.
In the common ironclad, as the armour had to be

spread over a high side, it was necessarily thin and
weak ; whereas, iu the Monitor system, the sides
being very low, the area to be protected was re-

duced to a minimum, so that with the same
displacement the armour might be made of great
thickness, such as would be impenetrable by the
heaviest existing ordnance. The Kalamazoo class
of Monitors had side armour 14in. thick, backed by
several feet of oak, and those vessels possessed great
facility of evolution, as they were fitted with balanced
rudders and twin screws. In both the armour and
the guns the broadside system was one of diffusion,
the turret or Monitor system one of concentration.
The former had been adopted in France and England,
the latter in America (where about 60 vessels of this
class had already been built), and recently by Russia,
and some other Continental Powers. In the broad-
side system the only material innovation on the
model of the old men-of-war was in the appli-
cation of iron armour to the sides. In some cases

the armour was not extended to the bow and

stern, but only the central parts of the sides,
and armour bulkheads were carried across the
ship, before and behind the protected portions of
the sides, so as to form the central part of the
vessel into a rectangular fort. This was the prin-
ciple on which the Bellerophon and other recent
vessels had been built, and its advantage was that it
enabled thicker armour to be applied. In the Moni-
tor system the guns, which were of large calibre,
were carried in one or two cylindrical towers of
iron, and the weight of the broadside was concen •
trated in one or two enormous shot, which had mo-
mentum enough to go through the armour of any of
the broadside vessels of the Royal Navy of England.
There were certain points of dissimilarity between the
turret-ship of Captain Coles and those of Captain
Ericsson, the most material being that the sides
were not nearly so low in the former as in the
Monitors, and the armour of the sides, and the
turrets could not, consequently, with anY
given displacement, be made so thick. As an illus-
tration of the main features of the structure of the
Monitor vessels, a description was given of the Arne"
rican war steamer Dictator, built by contract under
Ericsson. Comparing the destructive and resisting -
powers of such a vessel as the Dictator with an iron-
clad like the Bellerophon, the latter carrying 03
each broadside five guns of 1041 n. bore, besides two
guns at the bow and three at the stern of 7in. bore,
it was contended that none of these guns could
pierce the iron turret or low sides of the former, or the
deck, composed of oak planks, 9in. thick, covered
with 2in. cf iron ; and that all parts of the vessel
were equally strong to resist the forces that might be
brought to bear against them. The main point con-
nected with the structure of the 2tl onitors, which
had provoked controversy among naval men, was
whether it was possible to make heavy vessels, 60
low in the water as the Monitors were, safe at so•
Even if this should be doubted the necessity for the
employment of Monitors for the protection of ports'
harbours, and estuaries was not the less exigent'
But during the two years the Monitors were ex'
posed on a stormy coast to all kinds of weather,
they proved to be shotworthy and seaworthy, and
the healthiest vesselsin the American fleet. Various
other objections were noticed,—as, for instance,
the want of liveliness imputed to the Monitors ,
but this, it was argued, was a material adrantage
in any vessel requiring to take an aim with
heavy guns, since it must make the aim more sure.
In conclusion, the author said, what it concerned. O°
Government and the country to know was, that .
the Royal Navy there were vessels of at least equal
powers, in guns and in armour, to those possese7l
by any other nation, so that in the event of a na"..
war, the broadside fleet might not be disabled e'
captured from the want of a flotilla of protecting_
Monitors, whose function it would be to encount.e ro
any similar vessels belonging to the enemy. Da,
discussion was commenced, and it was announce;
that it would be resumed at the next meeting,ille
day, the 22d inst..