be better resistance. And now the question is, how best to apply armour defences to ships’ sides. Firstly, we have the plate, and secondly, the inclined position—but it must be attached to something firm and solid, that will absorb the concussion, and, if the shot passes through the plate, will prevent it from reaching the vessel’s side.
The best plan is to make the armour and its support a separate structure from the vessel, i. e., a solid-built rampart surrounding the sides of the vessel, and attached thereto, with floating power, to help to carry the armour.
Supposing the sides of the vessel to be vertical, a mass of solid fir balks should be trenailed together in a triangular section, one side to be covered with plate iron, and attached to the vessel’s side. The two other sides, the upper one forming an angle with the horizon, and the lower side immersed in the water, should be covered with armour plates, the apex at about the water’s edge being formed of armour plate rolled to an angle. The upper portion of the armour plate to be carried partially over the deck, forming a kind of penthouse. Through these plates the guns are to pass in a closed port, formed by a ball muzzle to the gun, working in a socket. The ramparts will thus have eight feet of timber behind the armour plates at the level of the deck, and it would be scarcely possible to damage the hull of the vessel by any amount of existing shot, while their bearing on the water will steady the vessel under a heavy armament. The ramparts are to be built in sections, so that any part can be removed in case of damage, and replaced.
Hull — two skills of iron stayed together and filled with bitumen. Ramparts of iron plates lined with solid timber attached to the vertical sides of the hull.
The hull of the vessel should be formed of two skins of plates, two to three feet apart, connected by stay bolts three to four feet apart, and filled in with solid elastic bitumen, Seyssel Asphalte, or similar material. The diagram shows a midship section of the principle of structure.
The objection to be raised here is, that the immersed section is considerably increased. True, but we have a really shot-proof vessel capable of carrying a heavy battery on her deck, of great strength of build, and not liable to strain rivets, or to leak. To make her perfect, the plates should all be solidly welded together, and not riveted; and to make up for increased resistance by greater immersed section, is simply a question of increased length and increased power, which the increased strength will bear. No stern propeller would shake this hull to pieces.
After all that has been said of the damaging power of the Armstrong and Whitworth guns against armour plates, it has been stated that the most mischievous weapon is the service 64-pounder of 8-inch smooth bore. There are obvious reasons for this result, and one chief reason probably is, the friction of the rifles which diminish the velocity of the shot.
Sir Charles Napier, of Scinde, was accustomed to say that the smooth bores had not been given a fair chance. There is little doubt of this, and the time will come when the children of a future generation will ask why soldiers were called riflemen, and the answer will be, because the guns were contrived with one defect to compensate for another.
We have not yet seen the ultimatum of great guns, and shall be glad of Sir William Armstrong’s next instalment as a contribution towards what will be. In heavy guns, with the gunners thoroughly protected, and in the highest speed, will be found inevitable victory—always supposing the crew and gunners to be of our own webfooted race.
PASQUIN AND MARFORIO.
Pasquin and Marforio are probably not so old, by some hundreds of years, as Mr. Punch, who began life as a popular actor in very early Roman times, but their first literary efforts preceded his by nearly five centuries. They continue to exercise their moral and political censorship in Rome to this day; their names are as universally known as those of their illustrious brother of London; but whilst his works are in everybody’s hands, theirs have, for the most part, succumbed to the arts of suppression practised by the Papal government, and little of them has been left to the world except
