The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-09 00:00:00

FRIGATES v. THREE-DECKERS.

A correspondent, writing to the Times, says : —ln your
leading article of the 4th on the subject of screw line-of-
battle ships you observe that the Americans, " instead
of providing themselves with a line of three deckers,
have built a few frigates -of extraordinary armament and
great swiftness, and if a vessel like the Niagara should
really bo found to answer it is expected that she will keep
out of reach of a line-of-battle ship and hammer at her
from a safe distance with her ptodigious guns." I be-
lieve, however, that these magnificent American frigates
have not yet reached the speed under steam of our own
line-of-battle ships. In a very detailed account of the
Merrimac which appeared in your columns tt hen that
ship was at Southampton, her speed under steam alone
was (I believe, for I quote from memory only) stated
to he not more than seven knots • while our own
Agamemnon, a 91, the first line-of-battle ship built
entirely for a screw, attained a maximum speed of 11
knots ; and the French Napoleon, also a line-of-battle
ship, reached the extraordinary speed of 14 knots;
though in this latter vessel it was at an enormous
cost of coal, and by the sacrifice of a large amount of
stowage, in consequence of the great size of her engines
and boilers. Before, therefore, a frigate can keep out of
range of a line-of-battle ship she must have a still higher
rate of speed, which has riot yet been accomplished.
Moreover, the heavy (Tuns of the Merrimac are all made
for hollow shot and shell only, and cannot fire solid shot
at all. Now the range of guns firing hollow shot
is lees than that of solid shot guns, and at long ranges
they are far less accurate in aim. lam not able to say
what the extreme range of the new American guns is,
but I doubt whether it is greater than that of the 95 cwt.
solid 68. pounders, one 'of which, as a pivot gtin, each of
our line-of-battle ships is armed with on the upper deck,
while I am confident they are not so true in their range.

In answer to the above another correspondent writes :
Sir, —Observing in your columns a letter signed "P.,"
which displays considerable ignorance of the subject,
upon which he writes, I take the liberty of correcting
some of his misstatements, which, if allowed to go un-
contradicted, will tend to mislead the public mind.
He is quite correct in stating that the Merrimac is
Alt; to steam only seven knots, but she does this on a
comparatively slight consumption of coal, and with en-
gines intended and used merely as auxiliaries, she being
full-ship rigged and heavily sparred, even fora sailing
ship of her class, and having proved herself a good sailor
under canvass alone.

The Niagara is of a totally different class of vessel,
everything (Afety alone excepted) being sacrificed to
speed, her builder guaranteeing her to perform 14 knots
under steam power alone, and her armament being com-
paratively light.
The armament of the Merrimac in time of peace con-
sists of 40 guns, throwing hollow shot or shell of the
weight of 1,3801 b. to the broadside. She is, however,
pierced for, and in time of war would carry 60 guns,
when the weight of her broadside would be 2,0301 b. ;
but if solid shot were used,
.which both ship and guns
are quite equal to, the weight of her broadside would be
2,4201 b., or somewhat more than the Duke of Welling-
ton throws from double the number of guns. '
Of the range I can give no statistics, but would ask
" Common Sense" whether a 10-inch gun carrying shot
other things being equal, as they undoubtedly are,
would throw further I

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