THE FLEET BEFORE ALEXANDRIA.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1105, 25 July 1882, Page 4

THE FLEET BEFORE ALEXANDRIA.

(F.nm the A”. Z. Herald.)

We give Rome particulare of the principal vessels of the squadron now operating on the Egyptian coast: —

The flagship of Admiral Seymour is the Alexandra, the larges masted ironclad yet put to sea. She was completed at Chatham in 1877. Out of twelve guns, four of them, including the heaviest, cat Are straight ahead, and two straight astern. The battery consists of two Woolwich rifled-muzzle loading guns of 25 tons reach, and ten of 18 guns each, the former being a size not previously attempted to be carried on a broadside •bin. The total weight of armour ana backing is 2350 tons. The dimensions of the Alexandra are :— Length between perpendiculars, 825 feet; breadth extreme, 63 feet 8 inches; tonnage, GO5O. She has three masts, is barque rigged, and is designed as a cruiser. She has twin screws, each being driven by an independent set of engines, with three vertical inverted cylinders of the collective power of 4C?3 horses, giving an aggregate indicated hor-e-power of BOC3 tor both sets of engines. She has one chief engineer, ten assistants, and eighty stokers. At the official trial, a speed of 15 knots per hour was attained'

The inflexible is a guest engine of destruction, clad in heavy armour, provided with a ram, and with huge guns which are operated by machinery driven by powerful engines, and fitted with machinery for purposes of all kinds. Year after year the thickness of armour and the weight of naval artillery have gone on increasing together, until the maximum thickness of 24 inches of iron armour has been reached in this ship. Mechanical appliances have more and more replaced manual labor, and at the same time tbs forms of ships have been adapted to the work they have to do and to the conditions under which they must act. No British war vessel yet designed has departed so widely from pre-existing types, and in none has so enormous a stride been made, in offensive and defensive power, as in the Inflexible. It was commenced at Portsmouth in February, 1874, and launched April, 1876 ; is a twin-screw, double-turret ship, with n central-armoured citadel. She has two turrets, each armed with two 80 ton guns. These guns may be fired all four together. The officers and men number 850. The hull is divided, by means of transverse and longitudinal bulk-heads, into no fewer than 135 water-tight compartments. The guns are 16 inches in calibre, and fire a projectile weighing 1700 pounds. Each turret weighs 150 tons, including the guns. The turrets are moved by hydraulic apparatus. In order to load a muzzle is depressed until it eoiSp opposite to an opening made in the upper deck before the turret. A hydraulic rammer works in guides through this hole, and the nuamer-head is hollow, and is so constructed that when it is driven into the recently-fired gun, and comes in contact with the sides of the powder chamber, a valve opeus, and it discharges through a number of holes small jets of water, thus acting as a sponge, and extinguishing any remnants of the charge of the products of the explosion which may have remained smouldering in the bore. It is then withdrawn, and a hydraulic shot lift raises up to the muzzle of the gun the charge, the projectile, and a retaining wad, and then a single stroke of the rammer drives them into the gun and home to the base of the bore. Again the rammer is withdrawn, the hydraulic piston under the breech of the gun elevates the muzzle, the turret swings •round, and the shot is fired. The first advantage of the system is rapidity of fire; the second is economy of labor, the number of men being reduced to a minimum. The machinery was made by John Elder and Co., of Glasgow. Each screw is driven by an independent set of compound engines, with three vertical inverted cylinders each, of the collective power of 4,023 hones, giving an aggregate power of 8,000 horses (indicated) for both sets of engines, The cost of the Inflexible was £650,003. At her trial the Inflexible went 14 knots per hour. The Temeraire is distingjishrd from other ships of the navy, as she carries the upper deck armament in two fixed open-topped turrets, instead of a central battery. At each end of the upper deck is a battery, on which is mounted a 25-ton gu?, worked by hydraulic machinery, on Sir Rendle's disappearing principle —that is, the gun is raised to be fired over the edge of the tower, and immediately after firing sinks under cover to be reloaded. The foremost turret is protected with 10-inch armour, the after one with 8ineb. The Temeraire from the upper deck fires right ahead one 25 ton gun ; right astern, the same; and through a large arc on the beam, two. On the forward part of the main deck are two 25-ton guns ; on the after part four 18-ton guns, for broadside fire only. On the whole, the Temeraire fires three 25-tou guns right ahead; on either bow two 25-ton; right aft, one 25-ton ; on either quarter, one 25-ton; on either beam (if engaged on one side at a time), two 25-tou, and two 18ton, with a third 25-ton gun available through only half the usual arc. The guns of the Temeraire are belter delended than those of any other broadside ship. Bhu attained a speed of 14.05 kuuts,

The Iris is one of the cruisers of a rapid type. She was completed at Portsmouth in 1879, is built of steel, and is one of the class termed armed steel despatch boats. The chief requirement sought is great speed ; to obtain this, engines guaranteed to develop 7000 indicated horse-power have been placed in the ship, which, compared with the displacement, 3735 tons, gives 1.87 horse-power per ton—a higher proportion of power than is possessed by any naval ship afloat. The space occupied by the engines, boilers, and coal is the whole width of the vessel, and 138 feet fore and aft, nearly one-half of the length of the vessel in the most important part. She carries coal to steam 6,200 miles at the rate of 10 knots per hour, or 8000 miles at 8 knots per hour. The Iris is three-masted, lightly sparred, and barque rigged. The armament is also necessarily light, consisting as it does of ten 64-pounder rifles, one at the bow and one at the stern, with fore and aft fire, and eight broadside guns. The above descriptions are of modern ships of different classes. The details of the late bombardment will be read with great interest, as it is really the first time in which questions which have caused great discussion have been submitted to the test of action.