New-York tribune., 1870-08-23

.iers t,,ar Cor home protection At the same time,
90 os remarked above, she is doing better work In
| what she is doing than her antagonist FRANCE ana
| IN 60 far is deserving Of great credit.
Tup ORIGIN OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF PLATING
49, SHIPS.
presume that the origin of the present sys-
fem of iron-plating ships is familiar to such
of your readers as will be likely to read
these reports of mine When the Allies were
besieging >Sevastopo, in 1856 small steamer,
clad in very rude and imperfect way with iron
plates, ran in under the guns of the forts, and as
sisted in the operations of the Allied armies. Very
little was said of the achievement, but from that
dated the commencement of new era in naval war
fare. France encouraged the development of the
new idea, and England and other countries had to
follow suit. Old ships altered, and plated,
until it was discovered that this plan would not
work, and that the ships were failures And yet
these very ships are still counted among the iron
clads of the several navios. The next idea was that
a curassed ship carrying guns at the side, but hav
ing different form from the old lne-of-battle
ships would be about what required;
and upon that they were working until in 1862 an
event. alluded TO in my previous report, occurred
that startled the world. At that time large fleet OF
wooden ships blockading the harbor of Norfolk,
Va, and the James River when, without warning,
sttdln IIIgdtt, pldttu pau Mith
common railroad iron bars appeared in their midst,
sunk two powerful men-of-war, and spread conster-
nation far and near The broadsdes of the fleet played
harmlessly upon her iron roof, and she destroyed
on every side whatever she attacked Sngle-handed
she grappled with entire feet at least one of the
vessels composing which was as large as herself,
Others nearly large, all carrying as heavy guns
and yet she came off without scar after doing her
work of destruction. The Merrimack possessed, in
the then condition of the feet in Hampton Roads, all
the great qualifications of war rship-OienslveDess
defensiveness, speed, and sea-g0ing qualities. But
the lapse of "a hours all that changed. little
war-ship, so insignificant to be called "cheese-
box on raft" steamed into the harbor met the mon
ster five times her size. and in short engagement
crippled her that she had to retreat and ever af-
terward lie off the Norfolk wharves until the Rebels
blew her up Here was the new idea that set the
naval constructors of the world to thinking, little
insignificant vessel presenting hardly any surface to
an enemy's guns, could carry greater destructive
power and combine with it greater defensveness
than anything then built. England saw that what
had been expended in the construction of her iron
clad navy was almost total loss, and she and other
nations at once began to devise notifications of the
Ericsson turret system which they hoped would be
improvements, but which may remark, parenthet
icaly, have not yet proved had the fate of the
Congress and Cumberland in mind when remarked
in my last letter that the wooden walls of En-
glandp were no more impenetrable to enemy's
shot than the walls opposed to them, and it was a
simple question of endurance which should 60 to the
bottom first The two American fngates compared
favorably with the sailing fgatesi in either European
navy and the Congress was certainly as large and
well-apponted any one in the Prussan navy; and
hardly think l shall be taken to task when say
hot nV he
or any other flag mere worthless hulks as fight
ing-ships and good for nothing but stOre-shps,
or barracks, or hospitals Prussia certainly could
have prepared the means for harbor defense instead
of going 80 extensively into the construction of ships
for foreign cruising and thus have kept open places
of refuge for her merchantmen. She cannot hold
her own with France, (although that Power has not
what can in fairness be called a powerful navy,
much less take the offensive. Even her gunboats
are almost worthless for they have too little speed
to run away from formidable pursuer, or to run
the gauntlet of a blockading feet, or to chase
blockaderunner They draw Is feet of water on
the average and were built after the plan of those
English gunboats that were let out by contract but
were so bad that the Admiralty had to expend
large sum on each to fit them out.
RECAPTULATIoN.
To sum mp the whole Prussan strength in a brief
paragraph, we find: First That her gunboats are
so slow as to be practically useless except for police
duty. Second: That her sailingsloops and frigates
are worthless as a means of ofense or defense
Third That her iron-cads too lightly armOred
and armed to enable her to measure strength with
France Fourth: That her mailed champion ship
the King William, would be pretty sure TO be
rammed and captured within half hour in gener-
al engagement; that she is so long to be unhandy
has but screw, and hence cannOtbe easily turned
and maneuvered; and mounts too many guns of too
small a caliber too high above the water-lne. In
fight between this ship and the ROchambeau. Dun
derberg there would be advantages on both sides The
French ship has one gun-the 15-inch-that If prop
erly handled ought to crush the others plating;
both ships are at the great disadvantage of having
but one screw; the plating on the Frenchman being
only about five inches ION the angle, as compared
with the Prussian's eight inches the latter would
have a decided advantage in this respect The bat
tie would be tOlerably even one between them,
provided that both are equally well maneuvered;
but, after all, there is this important item to be
taken into the calculation of chances, viz: that,
whereas the French ship has but one gun that Will,
in all probability, be able to penetrate her antago-
nist's shield, the Prussan can count on every gun
in her battery piercing the veinch skin that is the
sole protection of the men and guns of the much
Wanted Rochambeau.
And yet, the King William must after all be
counted rather as a great bugbear than as the i'm
pregnable floating castle that the Governments of
our times have a right to demand from their naval
architects Her heaviest gun is Krupp 10-inch the
ball of which weighs something like 800 fb-not
enough penetrate 10-inch curass and it is even
doubtful if in heavy sea-way she could open her
ports to fire them at all, although she is built 60 feet
in beam to give her the requisite steadiness. Her
casemate bulkheads, and battery are so far above
the center of oscillation that the natural roll of the
ship, which ought not to be more than IA degrees is