The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-29 00:00:00

OUR IRON-CLAD FRIGATES.

When the Emperor of the French first began
building his iron fleet it was thought by many
shrewd observers in this country that he made
rather a false step in the attempt to secure prepon-
derance for his navy by the use cf the new mate-
rial, for that, from the immense resources of
our great private yards, and our unquestioned
superiority in all relating to ironwork, it would
be seen that England could turn out six such
ships quicker, better, and cheaper than three
could be built in France. Not more than three
years have elapsed since that time, and already
the prediction is fulfilled. It reflects no ordinary
credit on the skill of our manufacturers and
naval architects that they have even now over-
taken the long start France had of us in this re-
spect ; that while the French dockyards are still
feeling their way, experimenting on kinds of
plates and forms of ships, and turning out a succes-
sion of almost failures at prodigious cost, we have
already sent afloat two of the finest, fastest, and
most invulnerable ships in the world. It is a very
general but a very great error, however, to suppose
that all our iron frigates are Warriors and Black
Princes. We did not jump at once to perfection, and
all our ironsides, except the two we have named,
represent more or less strongly the successive stages
of failure through which we have passed to success.
The Resistance and Defence are neither steam rams
nor iron frigates. Unwieldy in form and slow in
speed, they can never be safely used for more than
floating batteries. Fortunately, however, they are
built entirely of iron, instead of, like the first float-
ing batteries, iron over oak, and the Defence and
Resistance, therefore, are likely to be as strong a
century hence as they are now, while the batteries
built in 1855 are some of them already broken up,
and the rest rotten. The Hector and Valiant, now
building at Westwood and Bailie's and Napier's, are
as great improvements on the Defence and Resis-
tance as the Warrior and Black Prince have been
improvements upon them all. To take a single in-
stance of the rapidity with which science and en-
gineering skill are developing to the utmost the
powers of these tremendous ships, look at the War-
rior and Black Prince. These are sister ships, alike
to a rivet, and on the trial cruise of the first named
she attained, and with wind and steam maintained,
a speed of I'7l knots an hour, or 20 statute miles—
vary nearly the speed of a Parliamentary train.
Yet, from the experience of the Warrior, it is said
that Mr. Penn already sees where he may introduce
such modifications into the engines of the Black
Prince as will give her nearly half a knot an hour
more speed than her great sister. But even with
these results, which surpass the most sanguine ex-
pectation, we are not content to stand still. The four
improved Warriors ordered and now building—the
Achilles, at Chatham, the Minatour, at the Thames
Ironworks, the Captain, at Mr. Laird's, and the
Northumberland, at Mr. Mare's—are each and all
of them to be larger, longer, stronger, and swifter
than any that have gone before. In fact, when we
look back on our brief but vigorous com-
petition with the French, we find that
our first attempts at iron ships were in
many important particulars below the standard
from which the French started with La Gloire.
But the difference is that the French have adhered
to their standard, while we have constantly striven
for improvements and more improvements ; and the
result is that, Iso far as our present knowledge
goes, we have:attained perfection, while our neigh-
bours are comparatively still drudging at the bot-
tom of the form. That this statement of the merits
of the two countries in iron ships is perfectly well
founded we think we can show. Only a few weeks
since one or two of our most eminent shipbuilders,
thoroughly conversant with ironsides, visited some
of the French dockyards to see what was doing
there. They were allowed to inspect some of the
iron-clad frigates building, all the works connected
with which were advancing much more slowly
than they had been led to expect. Those which
they inspected were merely wooden ships plated,
or to be plated, with apparently little, if at all,
more than three-inch iron. They were mostly ves-
sels of from 3,000 to 3,500 tons ; in fact, frigates
and two-deckers cut down and much strengthened
in their scantling, to enable them to carry armour
from end to end. From the want of great tonnage,
a flat floor, and large displacement, it was evident
that they would be so immersed by the weight of
their armour as to bring their portsills dangerously
near the water, and render their guns all but use-
less in a seaway. Nor is this their only fault, for
their wooden frames not having the strength of our
iron vessels, which are as rigid as bolts, work so
much when steaming in a seaway as almost to
work them to pieces, and make docking, and
fresh caulking necessary after every gale. But
the worst of all their defects is that the iron and the
oak do not go well together, and we may infer,
from the causes being alike in both cases, that the
framework of the French ships will rot as quickly
as our own floating batteries did—that is to say,
within some eight or ten years. These defects are
very well known to the Admiralties of other Govern-
ments besides our own, and the result is that the
continental powers are coming here to have their
iron frigates built, instead of going to France, and
thus, through the medium of our private firms,
encouraging still further the monopoly we have
almost gained in the manufacture of these great
ships of war. Iron war vessels, of various sizes and
thickne3s of armour, are now building on the Thames
for the Russian, Danish, and Peruvian Governments,
and it is said that in a short time Spain intends to
order two frigates of the same class. If anything
were needed to show that the French are still at
a loss to make really good armour plates, it would
bo found in the recent offer of the authorities at
Toulon to the Thames Ironworks. WI. en the
great experiments at Shocburyness a
gamst the
Warrior target, and to which We s—hall refer pre. i