STEEL GUN BOATS FOR THE ROYAL NAVY.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1699, 31 July 1879, Page 3

STEEL GUN BOATS FOR THE ROYAL NAVY.

The "Daily News" mentions that a further addition to the English steel flotilla is to be made by the construction of eight gunboats and two more corvettes, the latter to be built at Portsmouth Dockyard, and to be named tho Cordelia and Canada. At Chatham, a corvette of the same class, tho Constance, was commenced six months ago, so that we shall shortly be in possession of nice such crafts, all of which are built on tho same model, and measure the name tonnage. The original half-dozen, which are known as the "C " or ■ omus class, are now almost finished, and several are fitting for sea at Sheerness and Portsmouth. Theso six are named the Cleopatra, Carysfort, Curaco* Champion, Conquest, and Comus, so that it will be an easy matter to distinguish one of the steel compar'ons by its initial letter. AW of these were built on the Clyde, at the yard of Messrs Elder and Co., and have bren constructed of steel for the purpose of combining strength with lightness of construction, for the corvettes are destined principally for foreign service and cruising. Each will carry a pair of armour-piercing guns, if the seveninch Woolwich weapon can still be so designated, together with twelve sixty-four pounders, a favorite gun with the navy. Their tonnage is 2383 tons and their engines aro of 2300-horse power. As the craft are built on fine lines, these eDginei w ; H, it is expected, give a speed of nearly sixteen knots, or eighteen miles an hour. These corvettes are not the only steel ships we possess, for the Iris, which enjoys the reputation of bs!ng the fleetest man-of-war in tho British navy, and the Mercury, a sitter ship, at Pembroke, are both of them built of this costly metal. They are of small dimensions, and designed for despatch service, but their engines have an energy of no less than 70CD horse power. None of these steel ships are armoured, for the steel is but a fraction of an inch in thickness, but the corvettes have a formidable prow, whioh consists of a single gun-metal casting, that could be used npon occasion. They must not, therefore, be confounded with the steel-clad battle-ships that are building, in which the metal is to replace the stout i'on plates hitherto in use. Of the eight steel gunboats, four are to bo constructed on the Clyde, and the others on the Thames or Tyne.