The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-04 00:00:00

their construction and intended uses that a special
rig should be designed for them. Three masts,
it is confessed, will not spread sufficient canvass
to enable these monsters to beat off a lee shore
in a gale. Yet somehow a fourth mast is objected
to as an innovation, as if all these iron frigates were
not the most stupendous innovations that naval
men have welcomed since the introduction of
steam. When our line-of-battle ships were only
150 ft. long three masts were crammed into them,
and now that we are building them 400 ft. long
only three masts arc allowed. The Defence and
Resistance, however. have iron masts, but the
Warrior and Black Prince, which need them ten
times more, have wooden spars. On all the new
ships there is to be an iron tower on the spar deck,
crenelated for musketry, in case of an enemy
boarding. It is rumoured that the noble Secre-
tary to the Admiralty got this hint from a
visit to the French iron frigate Invincible, build-
ing at Toulon. It is capable of improvement,
however, if, in addition to the loopholes for
rifles, two small ports are cut at the base for short
carronades, which, with a single charge of
canister, would do more to sweep the decks than
the fire of a dozen riflemen. The sterns of the new
vessels will be what is called " pink" sterns, that is,
instead of being round and full, like that of the
Warrior, will come to a fine wedge-shaped point,
almost similar to the bows of a fast-going iron
packet. By adopting this shape the number of
armour plates required to coat it is reduced by at
least a third, while the angle will be such that all
shots must glance, unless fired point blank at the
broadside. The internal subdivisions as to water-
tight compartments, &c., will be almost precisely
similar to those of tile Warrior. The main decks

are to be armed with 36 100-pounder Armstrongs,
and the spar deck with 21 guns of a similar calibre.
Two forward guns through the shield we have
already mentioned will, it is said, be 200-pounders,
and so also will the pivot-gun at the stern. In
the meantime the Achilles, which it has been
stated over and over again that the Government
are building at Chatham, remains almost as

much a myth as ever, so far as actual progress
is concerned. Even the keel is not yet laid.
There are two line-of-battle ships at Chatham which
have been altered and strengthened so as to bear
coating with armour plates, and there are two
others at Portsmouth which are to be similarly con-
verted, but it will probably be a long time before
any of these are afloat. Even the Warrior, which
is fitting at Greenhithe, is not likely to be ready to
go round to Portsmouth before the end of this month
and when there she must be many days in dock be-
fore she can really be said to be fit to proceed to
sea. None of the other vessels nominally finished
will be ready this year at all.
In the course of another fortnight or three weeks

the public will learn, from the result of actual ex-
periments at Shoeburyness, the precise amount of
resistance which vessels of the Warrior class may
be expected to offer to the cannonade of an enemy.
Hitherto the iron-plate commission at Shoebnryness
have conducted their experiments against what we
may call theoretical or fancy targets. Certainly, in
nine cases out of ten, the targets fired at were very
different in their method of construction from the
broadside of any of our iron ships, either as they
are now built or are ever likely to be. The Commis-
sioners, however, have now ordered the Thames
Ironworks to build a target 20 feet by ten, to be a
precise fac simile of the Warrior's broadside. This
has just been completed at Blackwell, and will be
sent down to Shoeburyness in the course of a week
or so. When fixed on the practice ground there it
will be fired at until it is completely destroyed, but
if appearances are to be trusted, it will take a great
deal of hammering to make any serious impression
on it. In any case the defensive value of the War-
rior and others like her will be ascertained to a
single shot. Perhaps the public may wonder why an
experiment so conclusive and so easily made was
never thought of till the ships were quite finished,
when blunders (if any have been made) are of course
now itrevocable. In the Thames Ironworks are
also lying the masts for the Defence. These are
splendid samples of wrought-iron work. Each ie
1.15 feet long by 32 inches wide, and though only
a ton heavier than a wooden spar of the same size,
are more than ten times as strong. So also at
the same yard is an iron spar of 120:feet by 2 feet
diameter at the base, which has been made for a
flagstaff for the Victoria Tower of the new Houses
of Parliament. This huge flagstaff is built up of
boiler plate half an inch thick, with six wrought-
iron T-shaped ribs passing along its entire length.
Its weight is rather over 10 tons, and the summit
of the pole is surmounted with a gilt copper crown,
almost large enough for a small party to dine in.
This staff is to fly a standard of proportionate size
—namely, about 15 yards wide by 40 long. When
one sees of what size and strength these iron poles
can be made, it appears more to be regretted than
ever that the Warrier and Black Prince are not fitted
with them. The wooden ones the former ship has
now got are too large for the men to handle easily,
though much too weak and slight for the strain and
shock they will have to bear if ever Capt. Cochrane
has to charge an enemy and run him down. In all
other respects the Warrior is perfectly qualified to
cut through a three-decker down to the very keel.