86 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



the surface of the 12-inch wooden backing, but not in any way break- 

 ing through the same, or damaging the shell of the vessel in the slight- 

 est degree. 



" Such results certainly seem to open a new system of ship-building, 

 for we do not see how it is possible to qualify them or explain them 

 away. The attack had the fairest possible chance. The shots of the 

 most powerful piece of ordnance in use were delivered one after 

 another with extraordinary accuracy, and yet we are assured that 

 they failed in reaching the wood-work through the iron plating. It 

 follows, therefore, that if there should be no other objection to Mr. 

 Jones's principle, we have found a way of making men-of-war shot- 

 proof It deserves to be mentioned that the iron plates were of pe- 

 culiarly good manufacture, and they appear also to have been set on 

 to the wood- work in a judicious fashion, but the essence of the device 

 consists, of course, in the shape or angle given to the face of the armor. 

 The next question, then, is, whether such a slope is compatible with the 

 sea-going qualities of a ship ; whether a vessel built with sides falling 

 in at an angle of fifty will answer in all other respects as well as in 

 her power of resistance to shot. That is a point which we shall prob- 

 ably see discussed. It has been said that such a vessel would be 

 washed over by the waves and drenched like a half-sunk rock at 

 high tide. It has also been urged, and with obvious plausibility, 

 that a high-sided ship, ranging alongside such a craft, and firing 

 down upon her, would strike her armor plates no longer at an angle, 

 but point-blank, so that the charm would be broken. 



" If, however, these objections can be refuted or removed, we may 

 perhaps see our ships of war assuming the form which we have de- 

 lineated above, and of which models have been constructed already. 

 Sails and masts would probably be dispensed with, and reliance 

 placed upon steam alone. The vessel lying low in the water, with 

 her single tier of guns, and her low sides sloping off like the roof of 

 a house, would offer no mark to an enemy, and, indeed, would hardly 

 be a visible object at a little distance. The change would be exactly 

 analogous to that which took place in fortification after the discovery 

 of gunpowder. Instead of strong towers and massive walls, the new 

 system introduced sunken walls and low parapets of sloping turf. 

 The principle of defence consisted in exposing no surface to at- 

 tack. A fort in a flat country was scarcely visible. Citadels of the 

 first order, and capable of sustaining a six months' siege, could only 

 be distinguished by a few low embankments from the meadows 

 around them. Just so will it be with ships if the new principle 

 should prevail. The poetry of the old idea will be lost. There will 

 be an end of lofty masts, swelling sails, and graceful hulls. A ship 

 will no longer be a splendid compound of strength and beauty, sit- 

 ting the waters like a bird. She will be a terrible machine of destruc- 

 tion, invisible till she suddenly discloses herself, and as impregnable 

 to ail attacks as a submarine rock. The conflict of two such vessels 

 would be like the conflict of two catamarans. A man-of-war, in short, 

 would be reduced to the simplest form of a floating battery, moved 

 by steam. The only object of the builder would be to cover a cer- 

 tain number of Armstrong guns with an impenetrable shield, to make 

 the fabric float in water, and to propel it at the quickest possible rate. 



