New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-12-27

ever, in favor of the steamer. that she can snow
clean pair Of heels to dangerous antagonis' nav
pressed. "" ~, u,,;oh tho
The class of unarnorcd vessels OF winch '.o
Inconstant is the type built ior epoou' ""o
expectations of their designers nave oeo -, -, -
| ,vo,l mat n sneod of 16 knots. or over 10 mhes'
having been obtained. Their length however 10
nretv nearly serep times their breadth OF Dea' anu
% 6Gbtine ships very little can be expected from
them. They rather the clippers than the nRh'oi,
- a. british Navy Their hulls are of iron covered
,';tb wood. and sheathed with Muntz's metal to
rrevent fouling The fastenings Of the two built by
the Thames Ironworks Company (the Voltage and
Actyel are of copper and BRASS and probably tho
last that will ever be built in that way, for predict
that within two years they will begin to leak 80
badly that the experiment viii DO abandoned "a an
utter failure The composite plan OF building ships
has never given satisfaction, for no way mas YET
been devised TO prevent moisture in them, or the
galvanic action resulting therefrom. As to the
other unarmored vessels of the British Navy there
is nothing in which they materially differ from any
other frigates or sloops-of-war.
CLASSIFICATION.
The iron clads may be divided into l. The broad
SIDE central battery 9. The broadside, crOss-bulk-
head and projecting upper works 8. The broadside,
iron-cad turreted ships They represented respec
lively by the Bellerophon, Invincble, and Monarch
The Bellerophon, central battery inclosed by iron
bulkheads athwartship lacks that horizontal range
which is possessed by the monitor class and although
there something gained in weight OF armor on the
whole length of the ship yet it is mooted question,
and by no means decided. how much better that
plan is than to carry fewer guns, in shorter ship,
entirely covered with impenetrable mail 1t is very
certain that there loss of time in working so long
ship 800 feetl with so great draft (96 feet.
THE PROPER SYSTEM OF CONSTRUCTION.
The Daily Nelcs of May 90 1869, said The intro
duction of the turret system of armament has fully
impressed naval men with the advantages to be de-
rived from all-round fire in shps-ofwar. In the
monitor this is obtained without difficulty owing to
The unobsructed deck and the absence of masts and
rigging And tho concession is fairly made that
there is something Of the indispensable in the mon
tor system in the remark of the writer of the same
article that "Mr Reed felt sure he could obtain in
it 1.-THE Invincible class near approach to that all
! round fire which necessary TO make them to
| compete on equal terms with the monitors of the
United States and other nations" Again. Admiral
Warden, in his report to the House of Commons in
1865, says: "My own idea of the proper theory of
| ron-clad ships is this that they should always be
built of iron. be drmor0d throughout be as heavily
armed as possible and possess bow and stern-tre at
least, to the same extent the Lord Warden and
Lord Clyde. Perhaps the time has arrived when the
enormous increase which has taken place in the
power of artillery and the increased weight and
thickness Of armor-plates necessary to resist the
proectiles in use render the carrying out of
this theory of iron-clad ships impraccable. II this
be So it would to follow that If guns are To he
used of such a weight that the whole length of the
broadside cannot be made of to carry them. and
the space which they occupy is too great to admit of
cta1 hu If
BILE of resisting the shot which will be brought
against them IT seems TO toIlou, say, that the tu'ret
ship IS a necessity Guns Of any weight can be placed
in turrets armor of almost any thickness can be
carried round them and it will then only be neces-
sary protect the water-line with belt as heavy
and as thick the ship can bear"
quote these views of one of the most eminent Of
English naval commanders at considerable length,
because they embOdy so much practical common
sense and are so unanswerable criticism upon the
present condition of the British naval establishment
think that your professional readers will that
they fully warrant the application of q certain
standard of naval construction by which have es-
! timated the French, German, and Russian nayles
| The Admiral further testified: "These conditions
carried out it remains, of course, that the turret
ship should be constructed so that she should be
habitable and comfortable ship for the officers and
men, with a sufciency of sail power to enable her
on British man-of-war. The question again nat
urally arises, whether it is impossible to build such
a ship. The conditions above stated, which seem to
render the resort of turTet ships inevitable seem
also to point out that in the brOadside ship arinor
plating will eventually have to be given up every
where except at the water-lne, at the bow, and
STERN to protect guns firing in line with the keel"
The monitor system has led TO strange expedients
in naval architecture. The Invincible class. the
Vanguard, Monarch, and Captain NOW on the
bottom of the SEAL all were intended as improve
ments on the American monitors and as sand be-
fore, the English architects in attempting depar
ture from the beaten track have as usual advanced
in the direction of risk OF failure. Tho Captain,
as predicted, rolled and turned bottom up be-
cause of too much weight aloft. No tell now
how near the Monarch has been to meeting the |
same fate. She is higher above water than the
Captain, yet at some time the application Of few
more tuns of wind or wave pressure might have
turned her over. The Captain is not the only
ship that England has lost in similar way. doubt
very much if she would have capsized if she had
carried no masts The American monitors Monad-
mock and Miantonomah were in rougher seas,
and the official reports show that they made
better weather than did any other vessel
Of the feet, and yet spars enough can
be put in either of them to insure its
meeting O fate like the Captains 1t is not diffi-
cult to capsize ship put in lateral motion by the
sea- it being only necessary to raise her the proper
weight at the required hight above the floating line.
This was most efiectually shown the Captain,
whose towering masts and spars were supported by
enormous iron tripods the whole forming amount
of tOp-hamper that carried her the moment the
perilous point of equilibrium was reached and
passed ever little by the force of the rolling waves
and moderate gales the ship encountered of Cape
FnsteTTe.
tARNOR AND GUNS.