RUSSIAN CIRCULAR MONITOR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 154, 30 June 1879, Page 4

RUSSIAN CIRCULAR MONITOR.

The circular ironclad ip, we believe, the only, monitor of the class to which it belongs. Mr John Elder was the first to: propose a monitor or battery of this type, and the ideas which he suggested in ; a paper he read before the United SerVice Institution, were adopVell ' by Admiral Fopoff, of the Russian Navy, who designed the Npvogorod, and from his designs that vessel was constructed. The ; Novpgorcrd is about a hundred

feet in diameter, end, as she is nearly circular, she most be about 300, feet in ..circumference, She has a curvecPdeck. -. pot more than 6 feet above the waterline in its highest part, and carried : Boirie time back, and we believe does still, two 28-ton guns. She has been compared! to a floating saucer, covered overiWjth anqther saucer, inverted. It is said that considerable speed can be ; attained by. vessels of this class, and they can rbe eaßily steered by means of ..hydraulic machinery. How the Novo-

gorod is moved through the water we ; r dpri't .know ; but if it can be ! on the ; plan proposed by Mr .Elder, it will be . by means of a jet of', water, which is ; eie^ted by means of .a 'pilot house, in a direetton opposite to that in which it

is desired that the vessel should be

steered. The pilpt-houee is, of,coure, .by steam, but Ihere are neither paddles nor screw propeller. Aj.vessel ;f .of kind is only a floating battery, Htferly .unfit for ocean -aervice,but if, well armored, and carrying heavy guns, is suitable for the defence of coasts and harbors. The concussion imparted to the air by the firing of the _£reaj u guaß : .with which monitors like ■the'jS'ovogorod are armed is very dietresßing, even to sailors accustomed to it. The Mian-

tooomob, an American ocean-going po.nitor, which carried two of Pafratt's 480-pounder smooth bores, and which, •fter -the civil war in visited yariooa parts of Europe onc?e, on the occasion o« her Majeaty'a' birthday, joined some ehipa of the British fleet in firing her guns in;honor of ehe event. The effect is thus described by a writer who is quoted by the compiler of " The Sea," one of Messrs. Caaael, Fetter and : Galpin's ihtereating publicationa :— "Prepare. The gunners' mates stand yoa on your toes, and tell you to lean forward, and throat your tongue out of year mouth. Yoa hear the creaking of -machinery. It is a moment of intense auspenae. Gradually a glimmer of light— an inch— a flood. The shield

passes .from the opening, the gun runs Oat. A flash, a roar, a mad reeling of .the senses, and crimson cloudy flitting before yonr eyes j a horrible pain in your ears j a, seose of oppression on yoor cheat, and the knowledge that ; yoa are not oo your feet j a whispering fßf .voices with concert in

your eara ; and a darknesß before your eyes, and you find yonrself plump in a benp against the padding, whither you x bove been thrown by the violence of the concussion." Fortunately for sailors as well cs for curious visitors, the large guns in (he turrets of monitors and iron-clads are now fired by electricity, all hands being out of the turrets ; for otherwise, we presume, the concussion produced by 100-ton gun?, and 80-ton guns, such as are on boaad the Diulio and another Italian war-ship would be unendurable. In most batteries end monitors of the Novogorod type, the sailor must have a hard life, seeing that even in moderately rough weather, he is obliged to live 6ft or 7ft below the surface of the water, his only light being the feeble glimmer of a lamp, while the afr he breathes deseeqJs to him in limited quantities through pipes.