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

miralty, however, reserve to themselves the righ

of altering this part of the plan, and substituting
plates of 61 inches thick and doing away with the
teak altogether. But no decision will be arrived at
on this point until some important experiments,
which are about to be made at Shoeburyness, have
been concluded, and proved that the change will be
for the better. As it is at present arranged, even
with the 51-inch plates, it will require nearly 2,000
tons of armour to cover the new ships, while the
entire weight of the plates on the Warrior is only
950. It is this increased number, size, and thick-
ness of the wrought-iron plates which adds so much
to the cost of the new ships. Up to the present the
cost of the Warn .r in hull, engines, and rigging
has amounted to no less a sum than £360,000. With
all her stores, fittings, and guns on board, when
ready for sea she will have cost from first to last
rather over £400,000. The new vessels, for their hull,
engines, and rigging alone, will require an outlay of
no less than £430,000, so that at the lowest estimate
each vessel is certain to swallow up upwards of half a
million sterling before it is fairly at sea. There are
large items certainly, but when the question is
fairly viewed even the sternest of economists will
be inclined to admit that the country will have
got value for its money, for the three ships
will be, beyond all comparison, the finest of their
kind in the world. The shape of the bows in order
to fit them for the disehargo of their tremendously
destructive duties as steam-rams is to be very pecu-
liar. Viewed in outline, the profile of the stem
will present the curved line that a swan makes
when swimming. The breast or beak is thus be-
low the water-line, and projects some 20ft. at least
in advance of what seems to be the bows above.
Thus, the long overhanging weight which the
false cutwater of the Warrior necessitates is en-
tirely done away with, and the bows are water-
borne for some 20ft. at least before the weight
comes upon them. A space of 30ft. long by
9ft. deep of these ostensible bows is without ar-
mour plates, and only defended from the spar deck
line upwards with teak bulwarks, which can be
lowered down like the bulwarks of ordinary
gunboats. Inside this slight defence, however,

comes a semicircular shield of armour plates
7ft. high, and spreading completely across the
vessel from side to side. In this there will be port-
holes for two immense Armstrong guns. On the
main deck:below will be a similar shield, reaching
up to the iron spar deck, but no guns will be on this,
as it is simply intended to protect the crew from a
raking fire. By these means no top-heavy weight is
incurred at the bows, as the semi-circular shields
are more than 40ft. within the water-borne line of
the vessel forward. The bowsprit will be of iron,
and we believe it is intended to make it with a power-
ful hinge, where it springs from the deck, so that
before going into action it can be turned backwarks
and inwards, that there may be nothing to deaden
the force with which the ships will strike when the
occasion offers to use them against a foe as steam-

rams. As far as is yet known the Admiralty still
cling to the conventional three wooden masts and
square rig, which is about as unsuitable for these
ships as the full uniform of a Lifeguards-
man would be to a swimmer. The wooden
masts are not only easy to be shot away, but are
perfectly certain to break away the very first time
an attempt is made to use the vessels in running
others down. It is very possible that with the pre-
sent form of square rig the masts, even if made of
wrought iron, would do the same too. But iron
masts at least have this advantage, that they could
not be shot away, and even when they went over-
board would sink alongside like a deep-sea lead and
prevent all chance of the screw being fouled by the
mans of cordage they drag after them. The wooden
masts of the Warrior cannot only be easily shot
down, but would be certain, as they drifted and
floated astern, to foul the screw and cripple the
in two minutes afterwards. These iron
vesselswhole
shipa,r e so special and peculiar both as regards