LAUNCH OF HER MAJESTY’S SHIP INFLEXIBLE.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 628, 23 June 1876, Page 3

LAUNCH OF HER MAJESTY’S SHIP INFLEXIBLE.

The monster turret ship, the Inflexible, was launched at Portsmouth Dockyard ou April 27th, with all the rejoicing, ceremonial adjuncts, and pictorial accessories befitting the event. There is only one such ship as the Inflexible in tbe world ; and not only did her Majesty recognise the importance of tbe launch by delegating to the Princess Louise of Lome the duty of naming and starting the vessel, but the exceptional character of the event, in a national and patriotic sense, was instinctively appreciated by the public. The Queen, Lords, and Commons, were duly represented on the occasion, and probably never before in its history had Portsmouth dockyard witnessed such crowds of people. The dockyard gates were thrown open to the public about ten o’clock, and at half-past eleven the clamour of numerous bells gave notice by previous arrangement to the workmen to cease work for the day, whereby the stream of spectators was considerably swollen. In the shed from which the launch took place was a booth set apart for the Princess Louise, the Lords of the Admiralty, and a select few ; on the right was a stand for the House of Lords, and ou the left a stand for the House of Commons, while a little further down were platforms for the use of naval and military officers, who were required to be in full dress uniform. Among the earliest to arrive were Admiral Sir Rodney Mundy, who had been specially invited by the Admiralty ; General Sir Hastings Doyle, His Serene Highness Prince Leiningen, Rear-Admiral Sir L. M’Clintock, the Mayor of Portsmouth, the French Attachd, Admiral Popcff, Admiral Likhatchoff, Captain Vogag (Captain of the Russian Monitor, Peter the Greatj, Captain Seebotim (the Constructor of the GeneralAdmiral), Lieut Goulaef, Lieut Razkazoff, and Lieut Linden.

At eight minutes past twelve a royal salute from the flagship and the St Vincent and the garrison battery indicated the approach of the Princess, and at twelve minutes past her Royal Highness made her appearance at the head of the ship, being escorted by Mr Ward Hunt, and followed by the Marquis of Lome in a yeomanry uniform, Captain the Duke of Edinburgh, Admiral Milne, Captain Lord Gilford, Admiral George Elliot, Rear Admiral Houston Stewart, and other distinguished officers. After the cheering had subsided, the religious service was read by the Rev J. Cawston, the chaplain of the dockyard, after which Mr W. B. Robinson, the chief constructor of the Inflexible, and the Mayor of Portsmouth (Mr W, Pink), had the honor of being presented by the First Lord of the Admiralty. The Princess, who wore a dark blue velvet dress, with a light blue polonaise, and a black hat with a blue feather, then stepped forward for the purpose of having the mschanism of the launch explained to her by Mr Robinson, At the close of these preliminaries the work of launching the ship proceeded in earnest. Hammers and battering rams were applied to the foremost blocks, which were gradually knocked away, and tho keys, of which there were fourteen, were removed, whereby a certain play was allowed between the bilgeways and the ribands. The tell-tales having shown that the ship had begun to draw, after only about three blocks remained, the Princess pressed the button in the mechanism in front, and christened the ship. In the meantime the Chief Instructor had given orders for the triggers confining the dogshores to be withdrawn, and the princess having again pressed a button in the table the weights fell with a crash precisely at twenty-two minutes to one. Two workmen stood at each dogshore with iron mallets upraised to complete the work should the weights have fail to accomplish the duty expected of them. The precaution, however, was superfluous, the weights having completely flattened the dogshores. Still the ship did not move. But the suspense was only momentary, for, the powerful hydraulic rams having been brought into play, the ship glided beautifully into the water amid the cheers of the assembled thousands and the familiar strains of “Hearts of Oak” from the military bands in attendance. The launch was a marvellous success, and was without a single drawback. The abyss which the ship left behind, and the

scene which the many-colored multitude on stands presented as soon as the obstruction hud been removed, distracted the attention of the spectators for some time from the Inflexible itself after she entered the water. But when the novelty of the proceeding had ceased to surprise, it was impossible not to admire the noble vessel which had been added to the navy. She is not a monstrosity like the Devastation, but possesses regular lines, though slightly rotund in build. After the launch the ship was towed round and moored in the new tidal basin, and the princess, accompanied by the Lords of the Admiralty, having embarked on board the Alberta, proceeded forthwith to open the Extension Works. The business was purely formal. The yacht steamed through the the tidal basin and then through the north lock into the repairing basin, and having disembarked the princess at the lofty sheers at the eastern end, she declared the works opened. Entering a special train the Royal party were then conveyed to the Factory G ate, where a temporary platform had been erected, whence the princess was driven to the Admiralty House, where a distinguished company sat down to luncheon. During the afternoon her royal highness was presented with a miniature model of the Inflexible, fully equipped, as a souvenir of the launch, a special feature of which was a silver plate arrangement, the invention of Mr Barnaby, whereby the appearance of water was produced. The princess and party left Portsmouth under salutes at five o’clock, but not before her royal highness had been shown over the Sultan by her captain, the Duke of Edinburgh.

This new and latest addition to our ironclad fleet has just been successfully launched at Portsmouth, and is said to be the most tremendous instrument of offensive and defensive warfare yet created. The Inflexible will carry in turrets four 81-ton guns ; her turrets will be protected by 18-inch armour ; and the citadel, or vital part of the ship, will be guarded by no less than 24 inches of armour. She is designed to be a floating castle, the rest of the ship besides the citadel being mainly useful for the purpose of giving buoyancy to the central stronghold. She will be fitted, however, with a spur, which can be taken off at pleasure, and her enormous bulk will give her terrible power as a ram. Her disp l acement, when all her weights are on board, will be no less than 11,407 tons, exceeding that of any ship yet constructed. Nevertheless, unless the intentions of her designer are unexpectedly frustrated, this huge vessel and tremendous armament she carries, will be more manageable than many a frigate of old days, Twin screws, worked by the most perfect form of engines known, will control her movements with the utmost delicacy, and the masts with which she fitted, in deference to a naval prejudice, will probably be the only weak and inconvenient part about her. But for the recent accident to the Vanguard, we might well suppose, on reading the details of her construction, that she is practically invulnerable. Unless her citadel can be pierced and her engines stopped, it is difficblt to imagine hoW those innumerable watertight compartments, successive skins, and various beams and bulkheads can ever be so shattered as to disable her. No part of the ship, itwould seem, is vitally connected with any other part, and as long as her engines can propel her she must be a mighty floating projectile. But her guns furnish, of course, her chief fighting force, and machinery would appear brought to perfection in their management. By the complete application of hydraulic power, the 81-ton guns of the Inflexible will be more easily worked than the 38-ton guns of the Thunderer. The turrets, : ;by the aid of the same wonderful agency, will either make a complete revolution in one minute or will revolve as slowly and uniformly as the minute hand of a clock. They will thus turn a gun instantly to bear upon an enemy, or will enable its aim to be gradually and steadily fastened upon a distant and moving object. Fewer men will be required to work these guns than have hitherto been required for guns of half the size, and the question now would seem to be, not how many men are requisite to work the ship, but how few men it is prudent to carry on board. In short, alike in construction and in armament, the vessel represents a prodigious concentration of strength, skill, and mechanism ; and if we consider her only as the last product of mechanical genius, she is well worthy the honour which has been paid her by the Queen. This is all very satisfactory, and it may seem ungracious to suggest any drawbacks to such a gratifying picture. But it would not be wise, on the strength of our possessing the biggest ship yet built, to flatter ourselves into forgetfulness of the realities of naval and national existence, and there is another side to the picture, which might make us doubt the advantage of these stupendous inventions. First of all, the ship is no sooner ready to be launched than we hear she is about to be surpassed. Her keel was laid down two years ago, and since then the science both of gunnery and of armour has made such advances that the Italian Government has already under construction two vessels which surpass her both in defensive and offensive power. The Dandolo and the Duilio, now building at La Spezzia and Gastellamare, will carry four 100-toa guns instead of 81-ton guns, and their turrets will be protected by armour of twenty-two inches instead of eighteen inches. Both offence and defence, moreover, are being daily developed, and there is no sign of a limit being approached by either. A Krupp gun a few mouths ago pierced a target representing the'citadcl of the Inflexible at a distance of a mile,’ and the complete control over guns now given by hydraulic machinery renders it difficult to say that a gun of any size will be too heavy to be worked at sea. But if the power of offence is thus unlimited, that of defence claims to be at least correlative in its development. The Sheffield firm which rolled the 22in plates for the Italian frigates have declared that they are prepared to roll armour of 30in or 40in, if that becomes necessary in order to resist the penetrating power of gnus ; and we presume the floating of citadels or guns of any size or weight is a mere matter of calculation. These vast instruments of Iwarfr-re, moreover, take about two years to build, and two years is now-a-days an epoch in the art of constructing ships and guns. We build ships, it would seem, only to have them superseded, and the more money we spend, the more we are likely to have to spend. The latter consideration is in one point of view a consolatory one. [ln proportion as the future empire of the seas becomes more and more a question of money, in that proportion may this country feel that the means of security are within her command. But those means must be applied with unceasing vigilance ; and, if this race of offence and defence is to go on,

we may as well make up our minds to have to spend money as if we were constantly at war. Unless our Admiralty are incessantly devising and launching new, more powerful, and more expensive ships, we shall be liable to find ourselves any year distanced by some foreign State. The danger, moreover, is, that one of these ironclads, if really a considerable advance upon our predecessors, ought to be practically invulnerable to them all ; and the last Russian or German or Italian construction may make as little account of the ironclad fleet we have been building for the last ten years as one of our own ironclads would make of our old wooden navy. We can never be secure, as things stand at present, unless we maintain an incessant race in invention, in [construction, and in expense. .