80 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



tacked or the one ahead or astern of her, and she crushes in either 

 bow, beam, or quarter of the enemy. Every sailor knows that in so 

 short a time it would be impossible to get a large ship to avoid the 

 blow, still less to man, point, and fire her guns at so rapidly-moving 

 an object as the steam-ram, going eight or ten knots. What must 

 be the moral effect, also, upon the crew attacked, knowing that no 

 earthly courage or skill can save them from the inevitable destruc- 

 tion awaiting them in a few seconds ! 



As the two vessels have different movements (the beak of the 

 steam-ram is made only to penetrate to a certain distance), and the 

 latter immediately backing, she quickly disengages herself, disappears 

 in the darkness, and returns to repeat the same mode of attack. No 

 steam-frigate can do this. The shot-proof steam-ram's most effective 

 mode of attack is when she presents her sharp stem to the enemy and 

 uses her front battery. A shot striking her in that position, it either 

 must glance off the oblique surface, or, hitting the iron plate obliquely, 

 the shot must have double the quantity to penetrate. The steam- 

 ram is safe, therefore, from the artillery of the steam-frigate, the only 

 mode of offence or defence of the latter. The steam-ram, particu- 

 larly if she has the superiority in speed and quickness of movement, 

 could knock away the masts or bowsprit of the steam-frigate, or dis- 

 able her rudder by shot, so that, screw-fouled by wreck, or the rud- 

 der useless, the steam-frigate must give up or be sunk by the blow 

 of the beak. It is unnecessary to prove that no lateral strength can 

 possibly be given to the steam-frigate which would enable her side 

 to resist the blow or concussion of a vessel, constructed for the pur- 

 pose, and running into her with the weight and impetus of three or 

 four thousand tons and speed of eight or ten knots, from instantly 

 bursting in her side. 



I now answer some objections, apparently well-founded, which have 

 been made to me against using the principle of the steam-ram. 



It has been said that if the steam-ram were going at a high speed 

 against a large vessel, the force of the blow or concussion would 

 throw the engine out of gear, and render it useless. This opinion 

 is abundantly refuted by innumerable facts. We hear, unfortu- 

 nately, almost every day, of steamers, some that have run down other 

 vessels, upon rocks, and going at eleven or twelve knots against 

 stone walls, or into a stone pier, mounting up the stones on either 

 side as if it had been an earthquake, and in every case the engines 

 have never been injured or inutilized until either the bottom has 

 been beaten in by the rocks or the fires have been extinguished by 

 the water rushing in ; but the engines have never, and even the stem 

 of the vessel has but seldom, been much the worse for the shock. 

 We must recollect that all these cases of collision or wreck have oc- 

 curred with merchant vessels of ordinary construction and strength, 

 and as such, therefore, are far inferior in solidity and strength to 

 what the war steamers would be, expressly built and prepared for 

 purposely effecting what has been so often unintentionally done. 

 The beak of the steam-ram rushing upon a large ship with the mo- 

 mentum of three or four thousand tons can never encounter a sud- 

 den check ; it is the gradual crushing blow, the side yielding to it, 

 the vessel struck heels over, and is more or less driven before the 



