THE MODERN WARSHIP.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 411, 16 October 1889, Page 4

THE MODERN WARSHIP.

Ik his remarks at; Sydney upon the fleet now being constiucted specially for the Australian station, Admiral Fairfax lately described them as likely to be a considerable improvement upon the class of ships hitherto stationed in these water.*. Of improvements made in men-of-war it may be said they have quite equalled those made in the mercantile marine. Great changes in shape, size, and fighting power have taken place since the days of the old Victory, when in 1805 she was considered one of the most formidable vessels in the all-victorious British navy. The Victory's puns, then the best afloat, were the merest toys in weight and power of penotration. At the Battle of Trafalgar the heaviest of her 104 guns were only able to throw a 321b shot, the whole of her cannon together weighed but 224 tons, and at a double broadside she could only throw projectiles woighing in the aggregate 2,2881b. Contrast that with the Anson in 1S81), one of the four representatives of the Admiral cla q s of battle ships. The Anson is armed with foui 67- ton guns, each of which requires 5201b of powder to hurl its 1,2501b-weight of shot or shell. She also carriessix 5-ton guns and 19quick-firingand machine guns. Without including tho storm of shot and shell which these latter implements of destruction can rain upon a foe, the Anson's double broadside means a weight of no less than 5,6001b, or more than double that which the Victory'slo4guns could pour forth when she led the van at Trafalgar. But even the Anson does not carry the biggest guns in the navy. There is the Trafalgar, with her cannon each weighing 111 tons. Then Nelson won his victories with guns which conld at best throw their 321b round shot for 2.000 yards, but the ships of to-day will hurl masses of iron I,Boolb in weight 25,000 yards, or 12£ nautical miles. The improvements are purely pretty considerable in naval architecture, and the man-of-war of the period may well be said to have lost all claim to beauty, and to be but a combination of brute strength and mechanical science.