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

THE ADMIRALTY IRON-CASED SHIPS.

Mr. E. J. Reed read a very interesting paper
" On the iron-cased Ships of the British Admiralty."
After glancing at the circumstances under which
the Admiralty resorted to the construction of iron-
cased seagoing ships of war, he proceeded to point
out the principal features of the ships which the
Admiralty have thus far built, have begun to
build, or purpose to build. Having noticed the
Warrior and the Black Prince, Mr. Reed said the
first of the new ships, the Achilles, which has re-
cently been begun at Chatham dockyard, very
nearly resembles the Warrior and the Black Prince.
The only difference between her and those vessels
is that her beam is slightly broader, and her
floor somewhat flatter than her predecessors',
whereby her tonnage is increased from 6,039 to
6,089 tons, and her displacement from 8,625 to
9,030 tons. All her other dimensions and all
her essential features of construction are exactly like
those of the Warrior, from which it may be inferred
that the method of plating the central part only of
the ship, which was introduced by Mr. Scott Rus-
sell, is still viewed with favour by the Admiralty
designers. In the class of ships which come next,
however, the Admiralty have consented to forego
the plan of plating amidships only, and purpose
plating the ship from end to end with thick iron.
But in order to do this it has been necessary to re-
sort to larger dimensions than the Warrior's, and
hence these six new ships, three of which have just
been contracted for, are to be 20 feet longer than
her, 15 inches broader, of 582 tons additional bur-
den, and 1,245 tons additional displacement. As
the displacement is the true measure of the ship's
actual size below the water, or of her weight, it is
evident that the new ships are to be considerably
more than 1,000 tons larger than the Warrior class.
As their engines are to be only of the same power,
their speed will probably be much less. This di-
minished speed is one of the penalties which have to
be paid for protecting the extremities of the ship
with thick plates. Another will probably be a great
tendency to plunge and chop in a sea-way. The con-
struction of such vessels is a series of compromises,
and no one can fairly blame the Admiralty for build-
ing vessels on various plans, so that their relative
merits may be practically tested. The cost of this
new class of ships will exceed that of the Warrior
class by some £20,000 or £30,000, owing to the in-
creased size. But it will certainly be a noble speci-
men of a warship. A vessel built throughout of iron,
400 feet long and nearly 60 broad,. invulnerable from
end to end to ali shell and to nearly all shot, armed
with an abundance of the most powerful ordnance,
wish ports 9 ft. 6 in. above the water, and steaming
at a speed of from 12 to 13 knots an hour, will indeed
be a formidable engine of war ; and if the present
intentions of the Admiralty are carried out we shall
add six such vessels to our navy during the next
year or two. It has not yet been decided a hether
these new iron ships are to have their plating
backed up with teak timber, as in the previous
ships, or whether plating 61 inches in thickness
without a wood backing is to be applied to them.
All that has been decided is that whether the armour
be of iron alone, or of iron and wood combined, its
weight is to be equivalent to that of iron 61- inches
thick. The designs of the ship have been prepared
subject to this arrangement, and provision has been
made in the contracts for the adoption of which-
ever form of armour may be deemed best when the
time comes for applying it. I now come to notice
a very different class of vessel, in which the hull is
to be formed mainly of timber, the armour plating
brought upon the ordinary outside planking. The
Royal Alfred, Royal Oak, Caledonia, Ocean, and
Triumph are to be of this class. Their dimensions
are to be—length, 273 ft. s breadth, 58ft. bin. ;
depth in hold, 19ft. 10in. ; mean draught of water,
25ft. 9in. ; and height of port, 7ft. They are to be
of 4,045 tons burden, and to have a displacement of
6,839 tons. They are to be fitted with engines of
1,000-horse power. They are being framed with
timber originally designed for wooden line-of-
battle shins, but are to be 18 feet longer than those
ships were to be. They will form a class of vessels
intermediate between the Hector and the 'Warrior
classes, but unlike both of them will be plated with
armour from end to end. They will be without
knees of the head, and with upright round sterns,
and will, therefore, look very nearly as ugly as La
Gloire, although, in other respects, much superior
vessels, being 21 feet 5 inches longer, 3 feet 5
inches broader, and of less draught of water.
They will also be quite equal to her in
speed. With respect to the armaments of the new
classes nothing has yet been finally decided. I
am able, however, to afford definite information
respecting the number of guns which the various
classes of our new ships will be able to carry.
Of the Defence, Resistance, Hector, and Valiant
I shall say nothing, because they cannot be consi-
dered fit for the line-of-battle, or suitable for any
other service than coast defence. Nor need I say
more of the Achilles than that she will in all pro-
bability be armed with such ordnance as may be
found to answer best in the Warrior and Black
Prince. I now come to the plated timber ships, and
these may usefully be compared with the model
French vessel La Gloire, which is 252 ft. 6 in. long,
has an armament of 34 guns upon her main deck,
and two heavy shell guns forward-36 guns in all.
Now, our ships are to be more than 20 feet longer
than her, and will therefore take two additional
guns on either side, so that they will carry not less
than 40 guns, if the ports are placed as close as
in La Gloire. In addition to this, they will doubt-
less have powerful ordnance on their upper decks
for use under favourable circumstances. Let me
now consider the.pecuniary phase of this iron-cased
ship question. We may fairly assume that the
average cost of such vessels will not be less than
£5O per ton, and that their engines will cost at
least £6O per horse-power. Supposing these figures
to be correct, then the hulls of the 18 ships will
cost us £4,681,600, and their engines £1,143,000,
together nearly £6,000,000. When masted, rigged,
armed, and fully equipped for sea, they will of course
represent a much larger sum, probably nearly
£8,000,000. These estimates will:afford some faint
conception of the nature of that reconstruction of
the navy upon which we may now be said to have
fairly entered, in so far as the ships themselves are
concerned. But WE must not conceal the fact that
the introduction of these enormous iron-cased ships
has entailed upon as the construction of other colos-
sal and most costly works. We have now to provide
immense docks for their reception, for at present we
possess none suitable to receive them. Many con-
siderations combine to exalt the importance of
this part of the subject; but there is one
which is paramount—namely, that we dare not
send these ships against a French fleet unless
we have docks for them to run to in the event of a
disaster. We know not svbat may happen to these
altogether novel structures until they have been
exposed to successive broadsides or a heavy naval
battery, and it would be madness to send them out
to encounter a powerful fleet of vessels as strong as
themselves, rtnless we are prepared to open docks
to receive them in case of necessity. What is re-
quired in each case is deep water up to the entrance
of the dock, a depth of not less than 27 or 28 feet
at the sill, and a length on the floor of the dock of
400 feet.
These things are not combined in any dock
in great Britain, and
certainly not in any of her
Majesty's dockyards. In this respect we are far
behind our neighbours, who have docks at Cher-
Toulon varying from
bourg, Lorient, Brest, and