The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-09 00:00:00

FLOATING BATTERIE.

It would be impossible to pronounce an opinion
on the merits of floating batteries until they have
had a fair and decisive trial. From the announce-
ment of their immense size, and the strength of
the material of which they are composed. the pub-
lic are apt to imagine that they are as indestruc-
tible as an asbestos ball would be in a " fiery fur-
nace." But, as far as their capabilities have yet
been tested, we are not justified in attributing
to them much. greater powers of resistance than
those of an ordinary wooden frigate. They are not
proof against fire, a,s one built by Mr. Scott Rus-
sell was so hopelessly damaged by an incendiary
fire as to render it necessary to break her up forth-
with. Those which were built during the Russian
war were found to be such lubberly sailers that
they were never taken into action, and have since
served as experimental targets for all kinds of ar-
tillery practice. At Kinburn, it is true, the float-
ing batter:es of the French were brought into
action, and it was said; in the usual inflated style
of French bulletins, with " immense success ;" but.
no inference of value can be deduced from this ex-

periment, inasmuch as the armament of this fourth-
class fort was all of the last century, and very few
of the guns exceeded the calibre.of a 32-pounder.
If the experiment in that case had been such as to
justify the extension of this principle the French
marine would at once have continued its use, and
by this time would have had a powerful flotilla of
steam batteries afloat ; but the batteries they are
now constructing are totally different from those
which operated before Kinburn, and seem to be
constructed more with a view el running down op-
posing vessels than of resisting their fire. Our own
experiments as to the value of thick iron plates to
resist the effect of shot fired from heavy ordnance
appear to the last degree contradictory, if the re-
ports which •are occasionally published are to he
received as correct. Thus, we are sometimes told

that plates of four inches in thickness resist the
effelts of shot perfectly, and a few days after it is
reported that the plates of a floating battery of si-
milar thickness are shattoredby the Armstrong bolt.
In the midst of these contradictions, the Admiralty
ought to be the best judges of the matter, inasmuch
as they have before them the official reports of all
the trials that have been made under their orders ;
and it is presumed that they would not direct new
batteries to be -constructed unless they had some
assurance that they would prove valuable in future
wars.
In the steam batteries now constructirf; on the
Thanies and Clyde regard is paid to the general
usefulness of the ship as an instrument of offensive
warfare, rather than to its ability, by its mere
weight of metal, to resist the effects of the.con tinned
fire of heavy ordnance. The old floating batteries
were entirely covered with iron, except below the
line of immersion ; but the weight of the vessel was
found to be so great, and, its consequent immersion
so largely increased, as to render it difficult for the
engines to propel it. In order to avoid this evil,
the batteries now constructing are ordered to be
plated with iron only on the sides of the vessels, the
bows, stern, and the immersed parts of the hull
being unprotected. To afford security, however, to
the crew when in action, the deck is coated with
iron, and shot-proof bulkheads run across the inte-
rior of the vessel at intervals.- The plates used in
the construction of these vessels were tested at
Woolwich a few days since, when those taken in-
discriminately bore a pressure of between 20 and 21
tons per square inch, and those selected by.the con-
tractor sustained between 22 and 23 tons per square
inch. As far as dead resistance is concerned this
must he held to be highly satisfactory, but the
momentum of an Armstrong bolt may tell a different
tale, and may cause even these powerful plates to
give way to its resistless force.
As to th..) power of running down a hostile vessel
at sea (setting aside the cold-blooded idea that it
!implies of wholesale assassination, like smoking
Arabs in cifres, or flinging poisonous compounds),
experience will show that there are two sides to
the bargain. Theoretically, it is like putting the
pinch 'of salt on the bird's tail, or the recipe for
conking the hare. In the first place, in order to
accomplish the scheme successsful Iv, the steam bat-
tery must be faster than the vessel she is chasing ;
but as steam batteries, whatever the power of their
engines, must always, from their. immense d isplace-
men t, be slo tv vessels, there is not miieh probability
of their out-steaming ordinary vessels of war. They
ni igh t, it is true, catch an old sailing vessel asleep in a
calm, and run into her, but the opportunity will
not readily be afforded to them, inasmuch as the
conversion of sailing vessels to screw vessels is pro-
ceeding rapidly in every navy, in Europa. And
even between running into a vessel and running her
down there is, we humbly suggest, a very wide
difference.

We may " call spirits from the vasty deep," but
whether they will obey our behest and come is an-
other matter, and.,the ability of one vessel, what--
ever her power, to run down another, depends upon
circumstances over which little control can be exer-
cised. In nineteen out of twenty collisions at sea
the result is simply to damage one of the vessels or
both, and it is only when a vessel is struck by an-
other stem on, on her broadside? or in some other
vulnerable part, that she is so damaged as to sink.
The momentum with which steam batteries would
strike an opposing body would, no doubt, be im-
mense, but in many cases this would simply cause
the two vessels to become locked, and it would re-
quire considerable force to separate them. Theie is
another danger lurking in these "running down"
speculations. If a man like Nelson had found him-
self pursued by one of those batteries what would
his ready genius and daring have suggested ?
What, but to get ready his boarders, and on the
contact of the vessels, in the first moment of colli-
sion, to send them swarming over the bulwarks of
the foe, to -hoist the union Jack on the shrouds of
the enemy's ship. In such a case, the commander
of a steam battery might find that he had caught a
Tartar. We throw out these suggestions, not with
the view of detracting from the merits of these ves-
Kis of war, but for the purpose of guarding the public
from attaching to them an overweening import-
ance. Great things were anticipated from the bat-
teries constructed during the Russian war, which
many persons thought would prove invincible, but
when put to the proof they accomplished nothing
whatever. The batteries now constructed may
prove far more serviceable, but that they will re-
alise all the exaggerated results that are expected
from them is a simply, absurd conjecture. The
truth is,,tliat in the science of , warfare, as in all
other sciences, we must be content to advance step
by step, and to make secure the inventions of to-
day before we attempt to perfect tho4o of to mor-
row,—Steam. Shipping Chronicle.

ALLEGED ARBITRARY CONDUCT OF TURKISH
OFFICIALS.---LIVERPOOL, Thursday.--The Turkish Go-
vernment was the object of some animadversion here to-day,
in consequence of the detention of the ship Romance of the
Lee at Constantinople while on her voyage to Ibrail. Cap-
tain Havelock, of that ship, was obliged to deliver up to the
government officials 250 barrels of gunpowder, which had
been shipped on board his vessel at Liverpool for a firm in
Ibrail. Fortunately the captain succeeded in procuring a
roosipt for tbp gunpowder takeit from 9hboar4 his ship.