The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-16 00:00:00

Admiral Warden of the performances of the Channel

Fleet during its last continental cruise, much as it does-
to repair to the Admiralty the too great candour of his
previous report, is not at all reassuring as to the efficiency
of our ironclads. In anything like a wind they roll and
oscillate to such a degree that they cannot keep their
ports open, and cannot fight their guns. In the voyage
from Queenstown to Lisbon, during which the weather
was fine throughout, only two of the ships—the Achilles
and Minotaur—were able to keep their ports always open;
the Bellerophon, for three days, had most of her ports
closed, though she could always fight her guns ; the War-
rior and Lord Warden had, during four or fis e days, to
close all or some of their ports, but were able to fight
their guns, though not well " from rolling so heavily ;"
and the Lord Clyde for five out of the eight days which
the voyage occupied, bad to close her ports, and could
not fight her guns at all. The Bellerophon, the Lori
Warden, and the Clyde, are the masterpieces of the pre-
sent Chief Constructor of the Navy ; and of these, the
first makes only an approximation to the qualities of
fighting ship ; while of the second it may be said that
nothing could have been worse had not the Chief Con-
structor produced the third. There are three principle.;
upon which ironclads may he constructed : the first is that
adopted by Sir Baldwin Walker and Mr. Watts, when
the former was Controller and the latter Chief Constructor
of the Navy. They held that the largest proportions were
necessary in order to combine heavy armour with great
speed and ensure good seagoing qualities. Upon this
principle six were constructed—the Warrior, Black
Prince, Achilles, Minotaur, Agincourt, and Northumbene
land. Two of these, the third and fourth, were the onls
ships which, during the voyage from Queenstown to
Lisbon, could always keep their ports open. The present
Chief Constructor came to his duties with the advantage
of all that had been done before him, yet the best of hi§
ships is inferior to the Achilles and Minotaur, and his
second and third best may almost be said to be out of the
running. His principle of construction is small vessel,.
and enormous horse-power. He has himself said that
" speed now means steam-power, and for steam-power
.nothing is needed except coal and iron." But this is not
quite true. There is also needed room to put them in.
This is what his ships do not possess. Enormous engines
in small ships simply means ships that cannot keep the
sea for any length of time because they have not space for
the requisite amount of fuel. The Bellerophon and
Hercules, Mr. Reed's most successful achievements, if the
word is admissible when success has not been obtained,
carry only, at full speed, three days' fuel. captain
Mackinnon justly summed up the results of the Chief Con-
structor's principle of small ships and huge steam-power:
" Commencing with the Enterprise and Research, and
going down to the last of Mr. Reed's vessels, he considered
that there existed a most glaring evidence of the
misappropriation of public money for building purposes ;
their unseaworthiness and rolling propensities were re-
markable evidences of want of skill, and called for great
caution in voting more moneys for future designs from tl:e
same source, seeing that as yet not one vessel designed by
Me. ]iced had proved the type of another which should
follow." The third principle upon which ironclads may
be built is that of the turret, which has not yet been fairly
tried. And we may here remark that however true may
be the boast of the First Lord that our ironclad ships are
superior rather than inferior to those of any other country
in the world, that cannot be a satisfactory reflection so
long as we persist in building ironclads upon a principle
which has failed.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.—The arrangements
in connection
.with the Norwich meeting of the British
As*cciation for the Advancement of science are making
bteadar progress. _