The Portland daily press., 1863-05-22

The tremendous iron frigates Puritan and
Dictator, the huge ram Dunderberg, the IRON
clads Miantonomah and Onondaga, the wooden
vessels Metacomet, Mendoza Shamrock, Che
mango, Mackinaw, Peoria, Nyack, Maumee,
and in Jersey the iron-clads Manhattan, Ma
hopac, and Tecumseh, are in various stages
of progress The following is a brief account
of their construction.
The Puritan and Dictator are the two
Ericsson ocean iron-clads, each being over
$40 feet long, and having the largest cylinders
attached to their engines ever built for man
of-war, thus rendering it probable that they
VIII be the fastest vessels of their kind in the
world. Both are now in about the same state.
the ribs OF the hulls being all up and portion
of the inner skin of armor going on The cross
inside beams on the bottom are being put in
their places. Every bolt used in fastening the
interior armor to the frame of the hull is put
in hot and hammered home in the same man
ner. The present appearance of the vessels is
little different from that of the skeleton of an
ordinary first-rate in frame, except that the
beams are iron instead of wood. The plates
designed for these vessels are preparing rap
idly, so that they may probably be completed
by this time next year.
The Onondaga is nearly finished and will
be launched next week. She is almost exelu-
sively iron, has her plates put on in solid
thicknesses, like the Roanoke, but has no
wooden backing under them. The overhang
which seems to be an Objectionable feature i'm
the Monitor, seems to be dispensed with in
this vessel. She has turrets like the Ericsson
batteries, and will be armed on the same gen.
eral plan. She is nearly 400 tons heavier
than the latter, although a stranger might mis-
take her for one of them as she looks now on
the stocks. The iron-clads Tecumseh, Man
haitian, and Mahopac, building in Jersey, all
belong TO the first batch of lioht-drauoht yes
sells ordered after the completion OF the nine
Monitors. They are all well advanced. have
armor covering them, and will be completed
by July. Each has one turret, pierced for two
guns, which may be eleven or fifteen inch
bore, as the Department decides on. The
Camanche is also building here. but any men-
tion of her in detail is prohibited, for good
reasons.
The great ram Dunderberg, building by Mr..
Webb, has now her first wooden story on and
her ram shaped. She will be built altogether
OF wood, the mail or armor going on over it,
She will have turrets. The ram is prolonged
over thirty feet from the hull proper, and ris-
ing upward from the keel about half the dis
tance from the water line, is there rounded,
presenting blunt end, in shape like the pro-
file Of an axe-edge. The bow, for length of
fifty feet from its extreme end, will be a solid
mass of wood. The frames of the hull are no
less than twelve inches thick. She cannot be
completed for at least two years to come
The Miantonomah will be the first regular
navy-built iron-cad She is now nearly finish
ed, and embraces no new principle. resembling
the Ericsson batteries in all her chief features.
She is about 200 feet long and over 1000
tons burden. 1t is said she will be floated out
OF the ship-house on the 1st of May. - Ma
lional Inteligencer.