The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-03 00:00:00

OUR IRON-CLAD FRIGATES.

In the article on this subject which appeared in
our columns last week we stated that it was a great
error to suppose that all our built ironsides were
like the Warrior. We venture now to point out
another error which is also very general—namely,
that of estimating the whole of our iron frigates,
whether building or built, as an already effective
fleet. Now the fact is that at least 20 months from
the present date must elape before four of our finest
vessels—the Minotaur, the Achilles, the Captain,
and the Northumberland, are even afloat; and we
learn from the experience of the Warrior that,
even using the greatest speed in equipment, it
would be at least six months from that time before
they could be ready for commission. The truth is
that our iron fleet is much deficient in numbers as
compared with that of the French. The great size
and enormous massiveness of our vessels render the
building of them a very slow process. It is the
knowledge of this that makes us anxious to see
more of them in hand, and we should heir with
unmixed satisfaction that the Admiralty had car-
ried out the intention they expressed this autumn
of calling for tenders for the construction of three
more, in addition to those now building. The four
really iron ships now being constructed (for we
do not include in this category either the Bul-
wark or the Royal Oak at Chatham, which are
merely wooden two-deckers cut down to be
plated with iron, on the French system) are what
are called the " improved Warriors," whose names
we have already given. Every improvement which
it is now seen that the Warrior requires these ships
will possess, while, on the other hand, they will be
free from all her defects, especially that most im-
portant one of construction, which leaves the stem
and stern vulnerable to shot, The new ships will
be coated with armour from end to end. At every
point they will offer to the fire of an enemy plates
of wrought iron not less than 51 inches thick,
backed up with 10 inches of teak, with half 'an inch
of iron (the skin of the ship) inside all. After the
complete success of the trials at the Warrior target,
the propriety of adding to the weight of the armour-
plates by increasing their thickness an inch is
strongly disputed by some of the highest autho-
rities. For every purpose of warfare the Warrior
is practically invulnerable, and it is contended
that by still further adding to the weight of
the plates no additional protection is gained,
and a great deal may be lost in the effi-
ciency of the vessels by rendering them dan-
gerously unwieldy in rough weather. The War-
riot's plates of 41 inches weigh 950 tons, but to
cover the new larger ships from end to end with
plates of 51 inches will require no less than 2,000
tons of metal—an enormous mass of dead weight
for a ship to carry in addition to her ponderous en-
gines, stores, guns, shot, and shell. It is this in-
creased number, size, and thickness of the plates
that add such a heavy item to the cost of each of
the new vessels, which require for their hull, en-
gines, and rigging alone an outlay of nearly
£452,000. The Warrior up to the present time has
cost rather over £400,000, and her successors, before
they are at sea, will cost £600,000. These are
large items, but it may be truly said that the
country gets value for its money, and the first out-
lay is the last, for the hulls of these tremendous
vessels ought to be as good two or three centuries
hence as they are now.

The new ships are not only to be steam frigat es,
but steam rams also, for their bows project be-
neath the water far in advance of the apparent
bows above. The bows, in fact, are formed like the
outline of a swan's breast, according to the plan first
suggested in the Warrior by Captain Ford. The
length of the Warrior is 380 feet, breadth 58, and
her tonnage 6,170. The new ships are 400 feet long
591 broad, and with a tonnage of 6,815. The in-
crease of breadth in the new ships will, however,
be almost entirely under the water line ; and by
this means, and by giving them a slightly flatter
floor, their displacement is nearly 1,000 tons greater
than the Warrior. This, as the decks are not wider,
also increases the slope of the sides inwards from the
water's edge, which in the Warrior is at an incline
of about 1 in 13 feet, but in the new ships will be at
an incline of 1 in 81 feet. This not only almost
doubles the chance of the shot glancing, but has the
still more important advantage of getting the
weight more to the centre and diminishing the
tendency to roll. The power of the War-
rior is 1,250 nominal ; that of the new
ships has not yet been decided on, though en-
gineers say it is a point which admits of
very little doubt. If the high speed of the War-
rior is to be maintained the new ships should have
an increase of power in proportion to the increased
weight and bulk of the mass to be moved. Bearing
in mind that they will have a greater displacement
and greater midship section than the Warrior,
1,500-horse power is considered the minimum of
what they ought to have to do their 17 knots. No
economy will be so false as that which reduces the
speed of these noble vessels. The arrangement of
the bows in order to fit them for the discharge of
their tremendously destructive duties as steam rams
is very peculiar. The " beak" is below the water
line, and projects, as we have said, at least 20 feet
in advance of what seems to be the bows above.
Thus the long overhanging weight which the false
cutwater of the Warrior necessitated in order to
conceal her beak, which is above water, is entirely
done away with, and the bows are water-borne for
some 20 feet at least before any weight comes upon
them. A space of 30 feet long by 9 feet deep of
these seeming bows is left without armour plates,
and only defended ftom the spar deck line upwards
by teak bulwarks, which lower down like the bul-
warks of the little gunboats. But inside this slight
defence comes a semicircular shield of armour, 7
feet high and 51 inches thick, and spreading com-
pletely across the bows of the vessel before the
foremast, from side to side. In this there are to be
portholes for two immense Armstrong guns. On the
main deck below is another similar shield, reaching
up to the iron spar deck, but without guns, as it is
simply intended to cover the crew against the
chance of a raking fire. By this arrangement the
most complete protection is given to the men both
on the spar and main deck, yet without incurring
any top-heavy weight forward, as the shields are
both within the water-borne line of the hull by at
least 40 feet. The bowsprits of all are to be of
iron fitted with a powerful hinge where
they spring from the deck, so that before going
into action they can be turned backwards and in-
wards, that there may be nothing to deaden
the force with which the ships will strike
when the occasion offers to use them as steam rams
against the enemy. There appears to be very little
doubt but that all these ♦essels will have four masts
specially designed to carry more fore and aft can-
vass. Even the short cruises of the Warrior have
shown that the conventional three wooden masts
and square rig are as unsuitable for these ships as
armour plates would be on a Holyhead packet.
But, above all things, whatever the number of the
masts, it is of the last consequence that all should
be of wrought iron. Wooden masts are not only
easily shot away, but are perfectly certain to go by
the board on the very first attempt to use the vessels
for one of the purposes for which they are specially
built—namely, as steam rams. It is very possibie
that in this last case the iron masts might do the
same too, especially if square rigged ; but they have
this immense advantage over timber, that they
could not be shot away, and that if they went
overboard from other causes they would tear them-
selves clear, and go down alongside like a deep
sea lead. Wooden ones would of course, float ;
drift astern, and to a certainty foul the screw with
the wreck of cordage. No officer in either service
was more alive to the imminence of the dangers
which must thus arise from this cause from the use
of wooden masts than the late Sir Howard Douglas,
and as iron masts are as light, much cheaper,
and ten times more durable than wood, every
. steamship in the service, whether of wood or
iron, should be fitted with them. In the choice
of names for our ironsides the Admiralty do
not seem lately to have been particularly happy.
Twice they have altered the names of those now
building. We hope neither the Achilles nor the
Captain are to be rechristened, though we have not
the least objection to another improvement on the
names of the other two. The Iron Duke would, be J

a far more appropriate name than the Minotaur,
and an Inkermann infinitely more suggestive than
the Northumberland. The sterns of all these new
ships will be what is called "pink" sterns—that is,
instead of being round and full, like the Warrior and
Black Prince, terminating in a fine wedge-shaped
point, almost similar to the bows of a fast-going
steamer.

By adopting this method of construction the
number of armour plates required to cover it is re-
duced by rather more than a third, while the angle
presented will be such that all shots must glance
unless fired point blank at the broadside. All the
internal subdivisions as to water-tight compartments,
Rec., will be precisely similar to those of the War-
rior, and the same effectual protection is given to
the magazines by casing them round with the coal
and water tanks. The armament for each vessel is
to be 36 100-pounder Armstrong on the main deck,
and on the spar deck 21 guns of the same enormous
calibre. The two forward guns through the semi-
circular shield we have already described are to be
200-pounders, with a pivot gun of the same size in
the stern. They will thus be enabled at a single
broadside to throw a ton and a half of shot and
shell to a distance of nearly five miles if necessary.
In addition to these four vessels now building
the Admiralty are preparing at Chatham to coat
the Bulwark and Royal Oak with iron plates on the
French plan. Both these vessels were intended
as 90-gun ships, but have had their dimensions
altered and their scantling increased, to enable
them to carry 4k-inch armour plates. It is
admitted that these ships are only makeshifts
which the Admiralty were compelled to adopt to
keep pace with the superiority of numbers which
the French navy had in vessels of this kind.
Like all hurried makeshifts, however, both
these frigates will be costly, and comparatively
inefficient. In the previous article on this sub-
ject we stated how it was now found in the
French navy that vessels built on this system (and
they have none others) were practically almost use-
less as seagoing frigates, In our own navy it has for
some time been known that woodwork, no matter
of what strength, is unequal to sustain the long-
continued vibrations of the screw, when driven with
a power and velocity which are necessary to the
maintenance of the high speed our war vessels are
admitted to possess. It was only the other day that
the Emerald, a new 50-gun frigate, was compelled
to return to port for caulking and repairs, rendered
necessary by her having to steam against a head
sea and hold her own in a fierce gale. It is easy to
see how enormously this vibration is increased with
the additional weight of armour plates, which make
the timbers work so much that decking and caulk-
ing are necessary after every trip. From this cause
alone La Gloire, the boast and pride of the French
Navy, is now openly admitted to be all but unsea-
worthy. Our Admiralty cannot surely expect a
different result for their ships built on the same
manner. It is but poor consolation to know that
these vessels are only makeshifts, and that no more
are to be built, as the money that will be spent on
them is almost thrown away. Ten years are the
longest time even the most sanguine give them
before the oak rots away under the iron.
It may not be out of place here to notice briefly
what other Governments besides the French are
doing towards reconstructing their navies. The
Danish Government ridicule the idea of 51 inch
plates, and say very truly that, as 2 inches will
keep out any shell, they do not care for the solid
shot. They are accordingly having two very fire
gunboats, of great speed and heavy armament, built
here on this principle. The Russians are building
here a very fine frigate of 30 guns, and 3,500 tons,
en a model somewhat similar to the Warrior, and
to be coated from end to end with 4-inch iron plates.
Orders for other vessels of this class are expected.
The Peruvian Government is building small iron-
plated gunboats here, and in addition to some fine
wooden frigates building for the Spanish Govern-
ment on the Thames, instructions to build iron fri-
gates for the same power arc daily looked for. The
Federal Government are building three gunboats to
be plated with three-inch iron, and one most pecu-
liar submarine boat, called " Stevens's Battery,"
which only shows its six heavy guns on a slight
iron ridge just above the water. A full account of
this extraordinary vessel, which is now being hur-
ried forward by the Federal Government, and will
probably be ready in a month or two, has already
been forwarded to our Admiralty. The Confede-
rate Government is coating, or endeavouring to coat,
the Merrimac, 50, and the Mississippi, 13, the two
vessels which they seized in the Norfolk Navy-
yard, with four-inch plates, and King Victor Em-
manuel is having two wooden-plated frigates of
3,000 tons each constructed on the French plan in
France. It is not too much to say, however, that as
yet nothing has been designed or attempted which
at all approaches the standard of the English iron-
clad frigates. The cause for regret is that we have
so few of them, and that, in spite of the generosity
of Parliament on this subject, the Admiralty are
still so timid about ordering more.