THE NEW IRON STEAM RAM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 721, 5 October 1859, Page 5

THE NEW IRON STEAM RAM.

The means by which/the destruction of '-human, Wings may be accomplished on the easiest.and , largest, scale is rapidly taking its place among, the , applied sciences of the 19th century. Since the, days of cumbrous ordnance and old Brown Bess, when the butt of the musket was used as effectively and as fatally as its. bullet, Moloch has been fruitful of suggestions, how to kill, and the, fields of Magenta and Solferino are still cumbered wjth the ghastly evidences of the. .proftciency which has. heen already attained in the new science^ But sanguinary as. 'these contests have been, they, after all, afford but a slight indication of the real progress . which has been made in :the destructive branches of. the art of war, and it is only when a naval engagement takes place ,that maritime powers will see_ with dismay the awful effect of the! .weapons/ which science has placed in their hands. An en-: gagement between two hostile fleets at the present .day would probably not last an hour, for by that /time two-thirds of all the ships engaged would be sunk or blown up. The time when ships lay yardarm to yard-arm; firing into one-another for a whole day, has gone by for ever. It will be short and sharp work nowa-days, for wooden ships as at present built will no more withstand the tremendous armaments which all fleets carry than so much basket work. It is a perfect knowledge of this fact, and a certainty that wooden ships after receiving one of at most two well concentrated broadsides must sink immediately, that is leading maritime powers at the present moment to see if science cannot devise some means for ■ rendering their ships, invulnerable, at least for a time. , But while securing this object a' still more awful element is introduced into the art of naval warfare, since these iron-cased monsters are to be used not" alone for defence, but for'running down and sinking by .wholesale the vessels of the enemy. , The attempts to make iron shot-proof vessels have hitherto proved downright failures,both in the. French and English • navies. The. English floating batteries, went to pieces under a fire of solid 68.-pounders. The French, boats; employed, in. the attack on Kinbum, though only hit by 32-pound shot, gave unmistakeable signs of a solution, of continuity, and that, more knocks or heavier metal woulcl^ soon send them to the bottom. Efforts in this direction have therefore been discontinued, and the French, Emperor has set to wort to'see if he cannot case large ; vessels with sufficient iron to give a fair immunity ifrom the effects of shot, while theif prodigious streng-th and weight may be turned to awful account in running down opposing first-rates. J^The-idea, was a good onej but it went no furttfer .than an : idea, as, instead of building ships specially com 1 struoted for the purpose, the-two : vessels 'which the Emperor is now.with such vain secrecy having coated with iron plates are old sailing three-deckers, which can never carry a' sufficient weight of iron to answer the purpose, and which, : even when fitted with machinery, will never, it is said, attain1 a rate of more than four or five knots an hour, or so. The English Government have very wisely determined to adopt a different plan, and to'bu'ild a wrought iron vessel of immense size, strength, and steam power, specially adapted as a vessel of war, and for running down ships of the. largest kind, nof, 'even excepting the Great Eastern itself.'. .The con-., tract for this tremendous'engine of war has bden taken by the Thames Iron Shipbuilding 'Company-, and sufficient progress has been made with the ironwork to be used in her to make it certain that she will be afloat and fitting for sea by 'Junejie'xt. • Her dimensions will be—'extreme length, 380 feet; breadth, 58 feet; depth, 41 -feet' 6 inches • and her tonnage no less than 6177 tons. 'The weight of the empty hull will be ■57G0 tons;- The engines are to be by Perm and Sons, of 1250 horse power, and of. these we shall give s description-on another occasion. Their weight,with boilers will be 950 tons;.she will carry 950 tons of coals, and her armament, masts, stores, &c, will amount'to 1100 tons. more. 'Thus at sea her total weight will be about 9000 tons,, which will be. driven, when so wanted, through the water against an enemy's ship at the rate of 16 miles an hour- 'It is difficult by mere description to give an adequate .idea'of the tremendous strength with which this vessel is to be built. The keel, or rather the portion to which the ribs are bolted, is made of immense slabs of wrought scrap iron, an inch, and, a quarter .thick, •and three, feet six inches deep. From, this spring the vihs-r— massive wrought iron T shaped beams, which are made in joints about five-feet long by two deep, up to where .the armour plates begin, five feet below the water line. These beams are only 3 feet 8 inches apai't, while, for a.distance of 10 feefe on each side of the keel, they are bolted in at Only half this distance asunder. Five feet below the .water-line the armour plates commence, and, to give room for. these, the depth of the rib-diminishes to about half, or nine inches. Over'the ribs, and crossing transversively, are bolted beams of teak a foot and a half thick, and outside these again come the armour plates. Each of these plates is to be 15 feet long by 4 feet broad and 4g inches thick. Several of them have been made by'th'6 company of • puddled iron, of annealed scrap iron,ahd of scrap ir6n unahnealed, and experiments are now being made at Portsmouth with a viewof testing practically which best withstands the tremendous attacks of 68-poundei-B. It is almost needless to say that each plate is the very perfection of material and manufacture. These ponderous slabs go up to the level of the upperSfeck. The orlop deck will be of wood, and 24 feet; above.the keel. Ihe main deck will be of iron, cased with wood, and 9 .feet above the orlop. The upper deck will also be ot wrought iron and 7 feet 9 inches above the main. All the decks are carried on wrought iron beams of. the most powerful description, to which both the ribs and iron decks are bolted; while, along the •whole length of the Vessel, from stem to stern, are immensely, solid wrought iron beams at interva sot five feet inside the ribs, which, are again,-crossed by diagonal bands, tying the whole together in a per--feof network. The armour plates arc not intended to shield the whole vessel, only the fighting portion' about 220 fettt of the broadside, being thus protected. This broadside, however, w.ill mount il4 of the Armstrong 1001b. guns, which, ■ with two broadside guns on the upper deck and two pivot guns of tl),e same kind forward and two, aft, will give her a total armament of 36 K iin», eiieli throwing a 1001b. shot over a range of nearly six i miles. -Ifeither the bows, nor stern have any vi the

large.unnour plate, hut are con tod with wrought iron plates of nearly cue inch and a hurt1 thick over two feet of teak, which Will offer sufficient ve*is!anco to prevent most shots from goim; through. But io compensate for f th is apparent'deficiency, kith bows and atefn ate so crossed and i eerosswl in every direction with water-tight; compartments, that it is a matter of perfect indifference whether thoy «et riddled or not, and each of these ends are shut "off from the engino-l'odm and fighting portion of the ship by continuous massive brought iron transverse bulkheads. So that, supposing it possible that both ■ stem and stem could be shot away, the centre of the vessel would remain complete and impenetrable as ever, still offering in all 24 inches of teak coated with five inches of wrought iron to every* shot. But both, stem and stern are built inside of such immense strength that, coating, with armour plates would be almost superfluous. 'The .bows, as the spot where the whole shock must be received in running down: ships, are inside a perfect web of ironwork, strengthened back to the armour plates with no less than eight wrought iron decks ail inch thick, and crossed and re-crossed in all ways and methods with diagonal bracings and supports. In the design sent into the Admiralty by the Thames Shipbuilding Company the shape of the bows was made exactly after the outline of the neck and breast of a swan when .swimming. Thus the point which would strike ah enemy's vessel was 'the " breast," which was placed under the water line. In the Admiralty model, according to which the"" ram" is to be built, the bows form an obtuse angle, the point, of which is just'level with the'water, receding back at a rather sharp slope both above and -below it. This peculiar shape, however, will be concealed ■ under the usual figurehead, and forward ge&r with a light artificial cutwater of. wood, so that apparently the vessel will be an ordinary frigate of'the largest size. The Admiralty, no doubt, intend by these devices to disguise her real character! but we need hardly point out how utterly futile such an attempt ! would be. Could any naval officer, be deceived by any amount of painting about the character of a 'ship of ,6,000 tons, nearly 400 feet long, rigged like ■, a three-decker, yet only carrying a.broadside of 14 : guns on her main deck? Or do the Admiralty, suppose that there will not be perfect photographs of her, , when finished, taken for all the foreign Powers, which will be reproduced and distributed among their navies, with strict injunction in case of war always to avoid such a vessel'if they can ? The very idea of attempting ;to conceal the: real purpose of a vessel so remark"able, and the only one of its kind afloat, seems absurd. Coming, up into action with other. firstrates in line of battle,, no-doubt she would pass muster unobserved, but under such circumstances, even if as well known to the enemy as to the English, the knowledge ! would avail nothing to the former. Once a general Engagement was commenced, the " ram " would be able to pursue her mission of. destruction by .running into the sterns of the.enemy's vessels almost without hindrance. WJien such, is avowedly her purpose it seems, to say the least,. unwise to cumber! her with the masts and rigging of a line-of-battle ship. The shock of striking, the first vessel would bring down all her masts by the board, like reeds, ■and ieave the ram's decks so encumbered with wreck as might even render her almost, useless for further efforts. The mode in which. she attacks will 'be to run straight at the enemy, taking him if possible, in the stern or quarter, all the men on deck retiring to ' the., stern to avoid injury "from fallingJspars. When about half the vessel's length fr6.ni;v:>the'enemy the engines are to be stopped and'the?engineers stand ■■■■by- to reverse the en'gines''in' order; to clear her from the, wreck of her antagonist •before; ; the, i latter;gq,es;dow,n. It is calculated .tha|striM^ in. the "stern the ram"wonldrsink' ner^ithjn;.three minutes. The 3'■bowsprit'willjSvJe'belieye/he' telescopic, in or;:der to be?hbusedion, board'with'l'hl^hchors before the enemy, thatthereHnay Be no chance of ;beco,raing;> entangled with the wreck of the sinking vessel.! :i lt ibfts, lioweye.riry.et-.-toi;be explained how fshe .isiv|o' getxid of her. qwnrrwi'epk of masts and ■spars v -§f4 abp.ve';all what, precautions will.be adopted to: i --piWe^V\any^cjfiance,'p,f\i;jb.|B rigging fouling ;her screw. The cost of ithe/liuil. will be about £200;00bj th^'engines':abbufpv^7s^6oO, and her .fittiugfor sea abouti£4s^ooO; niore^oi- £320,000 in all. If. she only does one-half.;of what may fairly he anticipated from hei'isheAvill be cheaper to the nation than a dozen sail of the. line, and we hope before- long to announce that.another of the same ildnd has been decided on. ,