The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1876-07-28
GREAT GUNS md ARMoR-pL4r1NG


are declared to be wholly useless for
naval attacks or defence. Nothing will
now do but vessels coated with thick |
iron plates, and carrying guns of enor-
nous dimensions. Very good but here |
comes the dilemma. Some other nations |
are just as able and disposed to adopt |
these ponderous and costly novelties as
England. And in point of fact, there IS
now going on an extraordinary rivalry as
to who shall have the thickes. armOr-
plated war-vessels and the biggest en-
gines of destruction. 1t is altogether
queer struggle, datiag from about the
time of the Crimean war, when guns OF
large size began to be experimentally
made, before there were suitably strong
ships ready to receive them. Nasmyth's
big gun was the talk of its time Hors-
falls gun was looked upon as a marvel,
because it could fire a ball of two hun
dred and eighty pounds through four
and a quarter inches of iron and Clay's
gun triumphed with a three hundred
pound shot. Then came the beautiful
inventions of Sir Joseph Armstrong and
Sir Joseph Whitworth, carrying the art
OF gun construction tie degree of per
lection never before attained. Next
occurred the American civil war, which
startled our admiralty by showing that
no ship whatever, unless thickly jacketed
with plates of iron, could resist the shots
fired by the Monitor class of vessels.
Therefore, we rushed into two expen-
sive adventures at once-building mont
tors armed with small number of very
heavy guns, and clothing large num-
Der of our ships, some timber built and
some iron-built, with armor-plates. As,
happily, we have not had to fight any
great navy battle for twenty years, we
could not try our big guns against an
enemy's ships; and, therefore, targets
were built up for the shot to bang away
upon. Meanwhile, the navy-yards were
required to construct ships of war that
would carry the largest guns mechanical
skill could produce, and the thickest
armor-plates that Sheffield could send
forth. So matters have gone ON year
after year; ships, guns, shot, aud armor-
/ plates aiding in the struggle to determine
whether the attacking power can be
made greater than the defensive, or the
defensive greater than the attacking.
Loud was the jubilation when, after
the construction of several half-clad
ships of the Warrior class, the admi-
rally set ahoat three fully plated iron
clads of the Minotaur class, with the
enormous length of four hundred feet.
1t was fondly believed that no fighting
ships in the world would even excel these.
Experience showed, however that such
very long ships are not handy for steer
ing ard turning; and the admiralty
adopted Il shorter standard for the
Hercules and Bellerophon. Then came
Captain Cowpei Coles revolving turrets
in which to place the guns, instead OF
ranging them broadside. Then the an
nouncement by sheffield firms that, by
rolling instead of hammering, they could
produce armor plate TOUGHER and
thicker than any before known. Then
the completion of magnificent arrange
ments at Woolwich whereby the Fraser
guns Ga modification of the Armstrong
could lie made of vast size and enormous
strength, on account of being wholly
wrought, not cast. The Woolwich
Infant has become a favorite epithet
for the monster gun of the present day
: and most extraordinary sight was
presented to the car of Russia, when
he visited our great arsenal in 1874, in
the Infant School, where were ranged
a selection from all the great modern
guns that Woolwich could show.
And so matters went on stage by stage
ships, armor, guns and shot becom-
ing alike larger and more powerful
until the momentcus days of the Deyas-
tation arrived Men really did think
that at length we had arrived at such a
I pitch of destructive and defensive force
combined, that further progress would
hardly be sought. We shall see pres
emily how far this superstition was cor
rect; meanwhile it may be well to give
some account of the points of difference
/ between this famous iron clad and those
that preceded it,
Towards the close of 1869, the first
lord of the admiralty, with all the pomp
! that usually distinguishes such a cere-
mOny, laid the first keel piece OF the
( Devastation at Portsmouth. The theory
of very long iron-clads had gone so much
out Of favor, that the length of the De
vastation was settled at two hundred and
eighty-fvG feot-more than a hundred
feet shorter than some of its predeces-
sors; the breadth sixty-two 'eet, rather
more than one fifth of the length. It's
displacement-tha is the weight of the
water which it displaces-exceeds nine
thousand tons; and the steam engines
are capable of working up to six thousand
horsepower An ugly affair it is, with
out any masts proper, having a mass of
ironwOrk on deck which would have
puzzled Nelson or Howe beyond measure
This ironwork marks the strange changes
which have been made in the arrange
menG of the armament of such vessels.
The earlier iron-clads were broadsides,
with horizontal row of big guns peeping
out on each side Then came the revolv-
ing turret ON fiat ship rising but very
little above the sur ace of the water--a
cheese box on raft, as some one called
it, with two enormous guns mounted in
in the cheese box After various mod
ification and combination of the broad
side and the turTet, Mr.. Reed, the chief
constructor for the navy, introduced
something new in the Devastation.
There is kind of armOred wall inclosing
a space in the middle OF the upper deck
the space occupies nearly three-fourths
Of the length, ard one-half the breadth
OF the entire area of the deck. and the
il, n wall around it is seven or eight feet
high. Within this space are two turrets
or circular towers, and various structures
and gangways connected with the navi-
cation of the ship and the accommodation
IL.