The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-12-22
the aynower could appeal TO Inc
English-spoaklng race.
A Fast BattIeshtp.


English-spcaking race.
A Fast 6stteship.
In her active days the Victory bore
the reputation OF being the Fastest
battleship ever built; and as she lies
today in the quiet Portsmouth waters,
her lines still whisper of speed The
typical British three-decker or the
Revolutionary wars resembled-ex-
cept in the matter Of angles--a Dr'aK
on edge She was high, stumpv,
short-bodied, square sterned. Her
bows We're modelled on the contours
OF pumpkin. She was as unsuitable,
perhaps, as a corked bottle, and about
as weatherly. But the lines of the
Victory wear a certain aspect or
grace. Her proportions are harmo-
nious. Her hulls round out for a mt
tie distance above the water-line, and
then tumble home to the upper deck;
and this made her a steady ship. Her
stem is high, naughty, menacing;
and, as she bore down, with leaning
decks, upon some hostile line OF bat
tie, with her sky climbing piles of
white canvas above, and her three
curving lines of guns below, she must
have worn very formidable aspect.
The present Victory was launched
| from Chatham Dockyard in 1855, so
that she has been anoat for nearly
ship, measured by the scale of mod
ern battleships Her length from
| fgurehead to taffrail is 22G feet; the
actual length of keel is only 15l feet
She has an extreme beam Of 50 feet
and a displacement of 1852 tons.
! These are, for a shop that has played
so famous a part in sea history, sur
prisingly modest dimensions, The
first Dreadnought had length of
400 feet-more than double the length
of the Victory-and a displacement of
i17,900 tons. The later Dreadnoughts
l-of the Lion class-are nearly three
tmies as long as the Victory-66O
Ifeet-with a displacement of over
$4,000 tons, and they have engines
Iof 10000 horsepower, capable of driv-
ing the vast steel-cased huIis through
the sea at the rate of thirty knots an
hour. Compared with monsters OF
this scale, the Victory is only toy.
The bigger Dreadnoughts have more
than ten times her tonnage. The lat
est Cunarder will be more than 900
feet in length-four times, that is, the
lie, the length of the Victory, and
twenty times its tonnage.
But the build and equipment of the
q Victory may help us to realize how
close, and how deadly, was the Ggnt
I ing in the naval battles Of Nelson's
day Here is a ship of little Ovel
200 TONS her main gun-deck has 4
length Of only 1876 feet; there are
open ports in her wooded Sides. She
is in effect a floating box of very mod
crate dimensions with sides of planks
But she carried a crew of over 1906
men, and on her triple gun-deck'
Iwere crowded l04 guns. The decks
are low, and the huge beams make
T. them lower still. A man of average
height can hardly stand upright with
out knocking his head against the
beams that carry the deck above.
1t is easy to picture the scene sucl
ship must have presented in battle
the curving lines of guns, each will
it's half-naked crew, and its rOugl
equipment of rope; the officers stand
ing, sword in hand, behind each bat
terry; the running powder-monkeys
the smoke, the shouts, the roar of thu
broadsides, the backward leap of thu
great guns, the stream of the wound
ed. And all this crowded, deck above
deck, into wooden box a little owe
200 feet long, only % feet broad, Will
depth of 81 feet! What an inerva
paras the Victory from, say, Dread
nough, with its vast hulk, its 1O-incl
steel armor, its huge guns Denin'
their metal hoods, its captain in
shot-proof coming tower. At Trafal
gar the Victory had two French line
ofbattleships and the biggest Span
iSrd--the Santa Trnidada-t1ring Of
her for hours with guns almost touch
ing--in the case of the Redoubtable
with guns actually touching-he
sides! It is a wonder that any Of he
Icrew survived, or that she hersel
foated.
The Quarterback
Then came the great day of Trafa
gar.
The quarterback of the Victory i
exactly as it was when Nelson--walh
ing on it with Hardy at his side-wa
struck by a French bullet. 1t is ope
and unsheltered; the tall masts of tn
Redoubtable-its tops yenomous wit