OUR IRON-CLAD FLEET.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 254, 25 May 1868, Page 3

OUR IRON-CLAD FLEET.

A return likely to be called for annually has been laid before Parliament, giving an account of our ironclad fleet built, building, or ordered. The return, which is dated the 30th August) 1867j contains a list of 31 ships then completed, 13 of them wholly armour-clad, and 18 partially. They are.- —The Black Prince, 32guns ; Warrior, 32; Defence, 16 ; Resistance, 16 ; Achilles, 26 ; Hector, 18 ; Valiant, 18 ; Minotaur, 26 ; Agincourt, 26 ; Northumberland, 26 ; Royal Oak, 22 ; Prince Consort, 24 ; Caledonia, 24 ; Ocean, 24 : Royal Alfred, 18; Zealous, 20 ; Bellerophon, 15 ; Lord Clyde, 24 ; Lord Warden, 18 -, Penelope, II ; Pallas, 8 ; Favourite, 10 ; Research, 4 ; Enterprise, 4; Waterwitch, 2 ; Vixen, 2 ; Viper, 2 ; Royal Sovereign, 5 ; Prince Albert, 4; Scorpion, 4 ; Wivern, 4. Twenty-one of these vessels are of more than 3000 tons each. Six other ships were at the date of this return building, two to be wholly armour-clad, and four partially; the Hercules, just launched ; the Monarch, 6 guns, to be launched in June ; the* Captain, 6, the Repulse, 12, to be launched in April; the Audacious, 14, in December ; and the Invincible, 14, in March, 1869. All these six ships exceed 3700 tons. Another, the Bellona, is ordered. Lastly, there are the four wholly armour-clad batteries launched in 1855 and 1856, the Erebus, Terror, Thunderbolt, and Thunder ; the three first of 16 guns, and the last 14, their tonnage ranging from 1469 to 1973. The first cost of the 31 iron-clad ships completed amounted in the whole to £7,284,294. This included fittings, but the accounts for some of the latter ships are not yet closed, and this sum does not include incidental and establishment charges. last indirect charges, calculated in accordance with the recommendation of the Committee on Dockyard Manufactures, add about 35 per cent, to the gross direct charges for labour and materials expended upon each ship in the financial year 1864-65, about 51 per cent, for 1865-66, and the year 1866-67 is for the present estimated to show the same ratio of 51 per cent. These indirect charges have amounted, on the Bellerophon, to no less than £114,372 ; Lord Warden, £104,292, with a further addition to follow ; Royal Alfred, £69,999, also liable to some addition"; Lord Clyde, £66,964 ; Pallas, £61,076. The most costly of the ships have been the Minotaur, £450,774 ; the Agincourt, £446,048, both of them with unsettled claims for extra payment ; the Northumberland, £433-,130; with the accounts not yet cl6sed ; the Achilles, £444,590 ; and the Hercules, estimated at £401,000. Further sums have to be added to the cost of these ships for dockyard, incidental, and establishment charges.