, 1866-09-14

that all deck Iabour is taken off the hands
of the crew. Moreover, after the visitor
to the Monitor has spent haIf-an-hour In
her he will have a better opinion of the
quarters assigned to the men. There is
room to stand upright in them and they
are safe against shot, for they are below
the water-Iine, and seven inches of oak
and five inches of iron are between them
and the water. Any danger must come
from shells above or torpedoes below,
and in action, battened down, the crew
Of a Monitor must die together If any
mischance occurred. But 1t would be
remarkably good practice which enabled
the enemy TO pitch a she'll on to the flush
deck of a Monitor which only stands
three feet out of water, and would prove
an uncertain mark at the distance OF halt
a mile. AS to the torpedo, some OF our
own naval officers have concurred with
the Americans in thinking that Monitors
as they are now being built have little
or nothing TO fear from these instruments,
and it is of course in harbours only where
they could encounter them The otfl-
GERS quarters are as comfortable as any
true sailor can desire, and they are now
being fitted up with some attention to
elegance and finish. There are bath rooms
and pantries, and the cabins are IN every
respect more roomy than those IN an or
binary passenger-steamer. The draught
of a Monitor of the size of the Tonawan-
dab is only l3 or IA feet, her tonnage
being 1,564. She carries four engines OF
about 1,4OO horse power, and Is htted
with apparatus for pumping down the air
from the turrrtS and for condenslng
steam, similar to that which the Mlanto-
nomoh carries, and which was recently
described il these columns. The iona
wandah is about 800 feet in length and
81 feet beam. Most of the new vessels
of her class are being built of exactly the
same dimensions.
A ram has long been under construc-
ton in New York which most people
now look upon as an eccentric rather
than a useful development Of the iron
clad theory. 1t is called the Dunder-
berg, and is intended to carry q heavy
armament, broadside and turret, besides
the formidable ram at her bows. This
ram may be detached without injury to
the vessel, but the Dunderberg is too un-
wieldly to please navel men. Her ton
mage is 5000, and her plating thicker
than that Of the Monitors. 1t must be
this vessel ws9ch Sir John Pakington
alluded 10 in the House of Commons as
intended to combine 'three distinct means
Of aliack-ihe broadside, the turret, and
the ram bow" There is no other of the
class in any of the navy yards.
1t is not, however, TO the construction
Of iron-clads hat the naval authorities
in the United States are combining them
selves. They are building 90 "cruisers,"
intended 10 do The work which made the
Alabama and the Shenandoah famous,
only to do it much more efftctualIy.
They are the most graceful and beautiful
vessels in. appearance that were ever
seen, and our own naval officers who
nave been TO the New York yard are the
first to declare that they are far superior
to any vessels of the same kind In the
British fleet. Their bows are as SYM
metrical as the bows of yacht; they are
built to run II knots an hour, and may
be depended upon for Is or Ia. They
carry from 1s to 90 guns, and, without a
doubt, four or five of them could commit
dreadful havoc upon the m of
anv nation. Thew have four smoke stacks,