The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1866-07-14
Iron-cIad War Vessels.

Liz arrival u Iit I4dHCIeCO VI III ChlNSI
States monitor Monadnock, is an event of no
small Importance. She is built wholly of iron.
on the plan invented and first tried by Mr..
Ericsson, in the famous Monitor, which met and
conquered the rebel iron-cIad Mrrimac in
Hampton Roads. Little do we now imagine
how great issues hung on that struggle. Had
the Monitor been disabled and defeated, the
NerrimGc might have turned the whole course
of the war, as she could easily have steamed
round TO Washington, and destroyed that city,
and given u prestige and fame to the rebel cause
which might have crowned it with a success
that would have lasted to this day. So great
events often hang on mere triles.
Tie eyes of all the world have been Watching
the progress of the Monadnock, as she has steam
ed slowly on her voyage Of twenty thousand
miles, for it involved the success or failure of
iron-clad monitors for sea voyages and now that
she has been successful, the same parties who
decried the plan on which she is built, are the
first to applaud.
The Monadnock is a double-turret monitor,
go feet long and fifty feet beam, measures about
$50 tons and draws twelve feet of water.
When in. seagoing order her decks are only
about eighteen inches above the water. She has
tNO GCNOisIHS NulltbSs ~ iOhI iiulihtlct JGtttH-
inch guns. Each throwing a solid shot of $50
pounds. Shei is ventilated by machinery and wind
sails. We had the pleasure of visiting the Die
fator last summer in Boston harbor, and found
her cabins and staterooms rs cool and comfort
able as those of any war vessel. She is rather
larger and longer than this monitor, but in other
respects very similar. The speed of the honad-
mock is eight knots at sea, but she can do better
under favorable circumstances, and is said to be
a remarkably easy sea boat.
There is no doubt that she is the strongest war
vessel now in the Pacific. Admiral Rogers, in
his letter from Valparaiso to his Government,
said that it wouldn't take him two hours to
knock the Spanish iron-clad Numancia into
atoms. The fact that the American Government
has now two iron-clad monitors ut San Francisco
the Camanche and MOnaGuoCk renders it the
most powerful maritime nation in this ocean,
which fact is attracting the notice and COM
ments of the European press. The London Amy
and Navy Gd>euc of May 5, has the following
on the subject
-. The man who would send a ships company to
sea on board Il monitor ought to he tried for wiliul
murder when they go down in her Such was the
opinion Of Il verv distinguished officer of Her
Majcsty's navy. expressed before a number of pro-
fessional people, of whom tine majority agreed with
MIN, Uot HltlN tDltu dEb- 'ltCH li'i'tt- may Ut
said to have been. in general terms. the result of
the opinion held respecting the monitors and their
sea-worthineSs by the great mass of those who
thought at all about the matter. he leading Jour
nal and many other newspapers, discussing the
Coles controversy on the tnrret principle. have
always held that it was ii problem whether moni-
tors could make sea voyages. or were fit for aught
but harbor defense. Whatever may be said about
the claims of Americans to originality in the matter
of turrcts and ironclads, there can be no doubt at
all that they have built a seagoing monitor, one.
too. of tue most Formidable character-a vessel
which has navigated the Atlantic at the entrance
to the Gulf of Mexico, which has coastcd the east
crn shores of South America in spring time, and,
finally. has gone round the Horn in rough weather
in the worst period of the year. and got through
her work to the perfect satisfaction of her officers
and men. in a seagoing craft of the most complete
adaptation to the business of seagoing in any part
of the globe. But when we know that this vessel.
though only fifteen inches above the water level.
carries the largest guns in the world, and throws Il
four hundred and eighty pound shot with Il sixty
pound charge of powder. we must admit she is mt
least worthy of considerable attention from any
maritime people. and demands the serious thoughts
of any Government Interested in naval affairs. The
Americans have emerged from Il war of the most
practical charactcT-thcy have rejected riilcd ord
nance we say they did so because they could not
make them; but the Americans aver that large
cast-iron smcoth-bore guns are preferable to our
built up ordnance. and assert that we cannot make
and therefore dcspise them. Now. in all this they
they have demonstrated the possibility OF putting
the heaviest guns in the world on board of a float
ing carriage which can take them all over inc
world. and thus set at rest all the doubts expressed
as to the possibility of bUildIug Il scagoing monitor.
There will he no laIIrcls now for Captain CowPcr
Coles. or the Naval Constructor, or any one else.
in the demonstration of that which has been proved
already. At least, we suppose so. The whole
story cannot be a myth
The British Government has thus far confined
its efforts in creating an iron-clad fleet to large
sailing ship models heavily plated, discarding
altogether the Ericsson pattern. \ vessel is now
being fitted for the Plcifc, as we learn by the
following item taken from Il London paper:
The IRoN-CIAp CORVETTE FAvoRITE.-The extra
ordinary transformation which the Royal Navy is
undergoing in consequence of the introduction of
armor- plating is well Illustrated by the case of this
corvette. which il now lying at S%pithcad. and
i about to proceed To thh Pacific. She viii be the
iruu-clad to carry the British flag into that
ocean. whittier the American iron-clad monitor
-N0n0dt0c5, i ut present proceeding. The FJroTio
originally laid down at Devouport DoCkvard
as a light and handsome wooden corvette. To carry
about twenty light gus. but when Mr. Reeds
method of armUr-platiuG small ships was proposed
tp tire Admiralty the works upon the FIrOrjfe were
stopped. and it was afterwards determined to con-
vert her into an armorclad ship upon that plan.
or this purpose the beam. or breadth of the ship.
fatneSs of floor. and the iulness of her bow
lines were increased. extra thicknesses of plating
were worked upon her sides and bottom. about
tons Of armor were bolted to her sides in the
form of Il belt at the wat-r-Iinc and a central bat %
and within the battery has been placed an
armament oi eight rified Il ton guns Of the newest
pattern. in addition to a 64-poundcr riied gun at
and stern. The Ftrorjte Is full rugged. has
excellent accommodation Tor both officers and men.
and l. stored with water and provisions for several
The confidence 10 her scaCoing qualities l.
% great that no preliminary Channel trials are !
considered necessary in her case. and she is accord
n-ly to- he dispatched forthwith 10 the Pacific sta
ion to relieve two wooden tri-atcs.