IRON CLADS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 107, 6 May 1879, Page 4

IRON CL AD S.

: ; (Boston Glole.) ' The Thntftierifr is ond of lire p'nJ l^tiest '. of ' TSngl^od's remarkably; Vnlacky ironcl&d 9. Oii her trial tr ip.at Portemoutb, July 1876, one of. her 1 boilers exploded,' killiug 77 engio'^ra andßtokers, those in- the after atpke 'ftble/'thoagb l protect e9 from the fly [ D g; fragment^ by a wster-tigbt bulkhead; being boiled alive. The Captain, with Burgoyne and s(jO officers and men, is lying at the bottom" near Cape Finish Kerrey and the": Vanguard's hulk bag; never been raised from the sands off Wicklbw"-Head, 'i wheVe the Irori : Doke rammed her, both vessels ranning gailyj thrpugh » fog. 7%0 ronljuke smaahed 1 the Black Pfince as she was coming! out of dock after beibg repaired, and; sdbseqaenily cica'e within ati ace of . sTpkibg from a>alv,e' "^tog 7 lejfk' open. l The Agincour't Ca.ted.ooja, North umJ berland, Hercuie?, and Monarch hove! also atvario^ titnea goi 1 into ir'ouble; o£ one sort or other. When we consider ! tliat France, and TprkVy with; theiri splendid ironclad fleets, did absolutely nothing in their recent wars', and thai the, most notable incident in the history of the German mailed navy is $ha- sinking of the Grosser Korf uerit in May 1 last, it does seem' yery ranch as if rirmdured yeasels 1 had reyolutioniaed jaaval warfare to the extent' of aboliah4 ing it. r We do not' remember an 1 instance -where an ironclad fleet baa itrcceeddd ia kUiing any body not of he? own orew, ot in 'damaging a vessel not a- consort. At Liaaa the Aostriane Mttled matters' promptly 7 * by ramming tba;Be d'ltalia and lending her to the bottom with her whole crew, and the •sample seems not to have been lost upon the commanders of such' hng^ craft, ,The ia eetabliaheJ that a daring xSommabder in a conrpairaL tively light craft, leaving out of conY ; flideration torpedoes and chance ehotb 1 Irom^3B-ton gansj! can withr one by nb means powerful blowsenfl one of 'ttfesb big iron boxefl to the bottom with thb ; grsai majbrity of her occupants, x