The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-02 00:00:00

EBBW VALE IRON.

The second annual meeting of this company was
held on Friday at the London Tavern, Mr. J. A.
Turner in the chair. _ _

The report stated that the net profit of the year
ended 31st March amounted to £194,155, which,
with a previous balance of £15,369, made an avail-
able total of £212,524. From this sum, after pay-
ment of expenses and interest to vendors, the direc-
tors recommended a dividend of 15s. per share, free
of income-tax, which with the interim dividend
already paid of 10s. per share,was equal to about 8k
per cent. per annum. They also proposed to add
£26,000 to the reserve fund, making it £50,000,
nd £1,806 to the rail guarantee fund, bringing
t up to £5,000, and carrying over £19,170 to the
next:account. The produce of the works had been
986,575 tons of coal, 165,812 tons of pig iron, and
100,066 tons of rails and finished iron. A call o f
£3 per share had been made.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said he thought that the amount of profit
must be satisfactory, and yet, from some cause or
other, the shares of the company were not appre-
ciated by the public. He believed that false rumours
had been disseminated with regard to the property.
There were two items on the credit side of the ac-
count standing as assets. The first was the large
amount at which they placed the value of the pro-
perty-11,729,485. That was composed of two
sums—one the purchase of the property, £1,579,733,
which was considered a very low sum at the time,
and £149,752 expended upon it since in the shape
of new works. The other item was £549,376, cre-
dited to stocks on hand. No doubt many looked on
that as excessive, but they must recollect that where
there were 15,000 workpeople employed over their
extensive works the stocks of coal, ore, pig and pre-
pared iron, &c., must necessarily be very large. He
doubted whether they should ever be able to bring
it much under £300,000 or £350,000. £150,000 of
this stock consisted of rails all finished and ready
for delivery ; but since then that amount had been
diminished by over £70,000.
Mr. G. PHILLIPS seconded the motion.
Mr. J. HEDLEY, who had valued the property, cor-
roborated the whole of the chairman's statements.
The report, accounts, and dividend were unani-
mously adopted ; the retiring directors, Mr. Platt,
M.P., Mr. C. K. Anderson, and Mr. Turner were
re-elected, and also Mr. A. Darby, as managing
director, and the re-election of the auditors brought
he proceedings to a close.

merly alluded, are her defective accommodation as
a cruiser in tropical climes and her want of
stowage, both caused by the annual shallowness of
the vessel. The Miantonomah is too formidable a
vessel not to be imitated, but we should very pos-
sibly build our Miantonomah of iron, we should
build with a greater depth of hull, and thus
attain greater stowage in the hold, and better
accommodation for the officers and crew in hot cli-
mates. At the same time that we might make these
improvements, as we consider them, our ship could
be fought offering as small a target to the enemy as
the Miantonomah by giving her the means of sub-
merging her hull to any required depth on going
into action by the admission of water to the wing
passages, &c. As a proof of the want of stowage in
the Miantonomah we may mention that no water is
tarried in her hold. The only stowage she has for
water is on the after part of the men's berth deck,
where there are iron tanks with a collective capacity
of 6,000 gallons. At sea the supply of water is de-
pendent on the condensers. There are numerous
mechanical notions in various parts of the ship, on
deck and below, that are well worthy of attention.
The manner in which her turrets have been put to-
gether also deserves admiration. Ten 1 1-10th-inch
plates are fixed up together in a circular wall in a
manner quite equal to a rolled solid plate of mode-
rate quality, and very superior to any rolled plate
that has been but imperfectly welded. In fact, the
turrets of the Miantonomah have been welded
throughout their ten separate layers by mechanical
means alone, and without subjecting the iron to the
renewed action of the furnace and rolling mill, to,
as nearly as possible, a continuity of cohesion equal
to that of the best solid or rolled armour in this
country.

It may not be out of place here, and especially as
connected with the power of firing en richochet, as
so forcibly illustrated by the guns of the Miantono*
mah on Friday, to notice how far our French neigh-
bours have gone in the matter of guns for their iron-
clads. In the Corps Legislatif on June 20 M. Dupuy
de Lome, Director of Material of the Imperial Navy,
stated that three models had been selected for the
armament of the navy of France, as follows :
First class—Diameter, 24 centimetres ; weight,
14,000 kilogrammes. Throws steel elongated bolts
of 144 kilogrammes, as also shells -and round
shot. Second class—Diameter, 19 centimetres ;
weight, 8,000 kilogrammes. Throws steel elon-
gated bolts of 75 kilogrammes, ditto shell of 52
kilogrammes, ditto round shot of 25 kilogrammes.
Third class.—Diameter, _l6 centimetres ; weight,
5,000 kilogrammes. Throws steel elongated bolts
of 45 kilogrammes, ditto shells of 31i kilogrammes,
ditto round shot of 15 kilogrammes. M. Dupuy de
Lome also said there was another class of gun, on
the same principle, that was 27 centimetres in
diameter, but would be too large for service on board
ship, and would therefore be reserved for the arma-
ment of sea coast batteries. All the pieces averaged
a range of about six kilometres. There is this re-
markable fact connected with these pieces selected
for the armament of the French navy—all fire round
as well as elongated shot, and all therefore are cap-
able of delivering a fire en ricochet.
The American paddle steamer Augusta, Captain
A. Murray, remains at Spithead until about the 6th
inst.

The first guns fired by an American Monitor in
British waters have been in friendly salute. This

quaintly constructed vessel excites the liveliest
feelings of curiosity—but none of dread. If any of
our great iron-clads are lying near, the contrast
between the little monitor, mainly submerged in the

water as she is, though 1,500 tons burden, will be
very striking when compared with the great hull
and huge proportions of the English ships of some
7,000 tons. The Warrior or the Black Prince
lies in the water like a huge frigate, swift,
beautiful, and graceful ; but not differing
mainly in appearance, except in huge bulk, from
ordinary frigates of the British navy. The spars
tower aloft with the yards, rigging, and all the gear
of a full-rigged ship ; and it requires a well-trained
eye, or a vessel whose size is known, to be near,
before a conception can be formed of the vast di-

mensions of the iron-clad Warrior. On the con

trary, the hull of the Miantonomah a few miles off
is not seen at all, and instead of the towering masts
and graceful rigging, a curious paraphernalia of

turrets, and funnels, and hurricane deck, rise as it
were out of the ocean. But huge as the English
iron-clad is in dimensions, and small and submerged
as is the Monitor, the exact reverse is the case as
regards their armaments. The American vessel has
only four guns, but these guns are in proportion to
the Warrior's guns as the Warrior in bulk is to the
Miantonomah. Thus in a small and handy space
is concentrated the most destructive power, and
there are qualities about the American Monitor
which even landsmen, not professing to under-
stand the subject scientifically, cannot but appre-
ciate. The Miantonomah presents no target for her
enemy, she has no towering spars to be shot away
and foul the screw. Her guns bear from any posi-
tion in which the vessel may be placed, revolving
in their turrets by internal machinery. She steers
equally well stem or stern first, and goes " about "
like a Chinese junk, so rapidly indeed that the
pilot conveying her out of a British port, not being
prepared for the speed with which she answered her
helm, cut a brig down to the water's edge, sinking
her in a few minutes. The reason is that her floor
is flat, and therefore she draws little water, and is
particularly qualified for acting in shallow seas and
pushing close up to her enemy. These are all
qualities which we can understand, but an idea was
prevalent in England a short time ago which has
proved to be as erroneous as a great many of our
English ideas on American matters. It was thought
that these Monitors, although well adapted for
harbour and shore warfare, were not qualified for
ocean voyages. Commodore Rogers took his
Monitor from the North Atlantic round the Horn
into the Pacific Ocean, and now we have the testi-
mony of another Monitor which has crossed the
Atlantic to our own ports—that the vessel not only
behaved well, but made much better weather of it
than either of her paddle-wheel consorts. The
Americans certainly are, what they profess them-
selves to be, a people of brains, of striking inven-
tive power, who can accomplish any mortal thing
so long as the thing is within the power of mortals
to accomplish. They have revolutionised the con-

struction of our merchant ships. Clippers owe their

origin wholly to American invention. Not content
with building ships of astonishing speed, they
marked out tracts and defined accurately -what
course these ships should steer so as to secure the
most favourable winds. Our shipowners owe a
debt of gratitude to Captain Maury which they
have not yet adequately acknowledged; and it would
be highly improbable that such a people, with their
intellect quickened to the utmost by the dangers
which threatened the Union, and the gigantic war
on hand, would not invent the most destructive
vessel which human brains and human hands could
frame. That effort and the experience of bitter
war has resulted in such craft as the Miantonomah,
and we venture to assert that the most careful at-
tention of the scientific men of England, now that
the opportunity offers, will result in showing the
vast superiority of such men-of-war, and revolu-
tionise the construction of the English fleet.
The Miantonomah was constructed and planned
by Mr. F. Delano, Naval Constructor at the Brook-
lyn Naval Yard. She is the counterpart of the
Monadnock, which has lately doubled the Horn, and
made excellent weather the whole way. The
armour of the Miantonomah's hull consists of 5i
inches of rolled wrought iron, her deck being pro-
tected by 31 inches of plate iron. As her floor is
flat, the proportions between deck are large and
spacious, and the visitor is astonished, after seeing
so little above water, to find himself in such roomy
and well-aired apartments. Her turrets are 23 feet
in diameter outside, and 211 inside, consisting of
10 inches of wrought iron. Her engines were
finished at the Novelty Ironworks at New York.
Her fire-rooms are particularly well ventilated,
and altogether she is a ship well worth the earnest
and serious attention of our Admiralty. We need
scarcely add how heartily we re-echo the hope of
our contemporary the Times—that our visitors may
receive a cordial and hospitable welcome, and that
the excellent opportunity may not be allowed to