Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1859-08-12
An Engine of Destruction.

The English government Is about to
try costly experiment in the line of
naval warfare, and which bids fair to
succeed, and accomplish revolution in
marine encounters. l. is no less than
the building Of steamer Of immense
strength and great speed, which shall be
able to run down and destroy the largest
ships, literally crushing them in. The
ship will oe of great size, six thousand
tons. in order to give her sufficient
momentum. The following statements,
extracted from the London Times, may
give an idea OF the enormous strength of
the vessel:
The keel is made Of immense slabs of
wrought scrap iron, an inch and quar-
ter thick. and three feet six inches deep.
From this spring the ribs-massive
wrought iron T-shaped beams. which
are made in joints about five feet long
by two deep, up to where the armor
plates begin. five feet below the water
line. These beams are only three feet
eight inches apart, while for distance
of ten feet on each side of the keel they
are bolted in at only half this distance
asunder. Over the ribs, transversely,
are bolted beams of teak foot and a
half thick, and outside of these again
come the armour plates. Each of these
plates is to be fifteen feet long by four
feet broad and four and half inches
thick. These ponderous slabs go up to
the level of the upper deck. The orlop
deck will be of wood. and - feet above
the keel. The main deck will be Of iron,
cased with wond, and 9 feet above the
orlop. The upper deck will also be of
wrought iron. and 7 feet 9 inches above
the main. All the decks are carried on
wrought iron beams OF the mos. power
full description; whio along the whole
length Of the vessel, from stern to stern.
are immensely solid wrought iron beams
at intervals of five feet inside the ribs.
which are again crossed by diagonal
bands, tying the whole together in a
perfect network. The armor plates
are not intended to shield the whole
vessel, only the fighting position, about
220 feet being thus protected. This
broadside, however, will mount fourteen
Of the Armstrong l00lb. guns, which,
with two broadsde guns on the upper
deck, and two pivot guns of the same
kind forward and two aft, will give her
total armament of thirty six guns, each
throwing lO0lb. shot over range Of
nearly six miles. Neither the bows nor
stern have any Of the large armor plates,
bat are coated with wrought iron plates
of nearly one inch aud half thick over
two feet of teak, which will Offer suf-
6cient resistance to prevent most shots
from going through. But 20 compensate
for this apparant deficiency, both bows
and stern are so crossed aud re.crossed
in every direction with water-tight
compartments, that it is matter of
perfect indifference whether they get
riddled or not. and each of these ends
are shot off from the engine.room and
fighting portion of the ship by contin-
uous massive wrought-iron transverse
bulkheads. So that, supposing it
possible that both stem and stern could
be shot away, the centre of the vessel
would remain as complete and impene-
trable as ever, still offering to all "a
inches of teak coated with fre inches cf
wrought iron to every shot. But both
stem and stern are built inside Of such
immense strength that coating with