94: ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



pieces. Compared with the ironsides, their fire is very slow, and not 

 at all calculated to silence heavy batteries, which require a rapid and 

 continuous fire to drive the men from their guns ; but they are famous 

 coadjutors in a fight, and put in the heavy blows which tell on the case- 

 mates and bomb-proofs. The smaller class of monitors, as at present 

 constructed, will always require the aid of a steamer to tow them and 

 take care of them." 



Admiral Porter also says he has never yet seen a vessel which came 

 up to his ideas of what is required for offensive operations so much as 

 the New Ironsides. She combines very many good qualities, the 

 most important being the comfort with which the people on board of 

 her live, though she would be no match for the Monadnock in a fight. 



The American frigate " New Ironsides.' 1 '' During the service of 

 this vessel in 1863, she was struck by the shots of the enemy 241 

 times ; 140 of which thundered against her in the short period 

 of two days ; but, notwithstanding, she has passed through the 

 terrible ordeal without having sustained any serious damage, and 

 with the loss of only one man killed. This is a most satisfactory 

 evidence of her great powers of endurance. During the same period 

 she discharged 4,561 rounds against the enemy. 



The latest British Iron-clad. The London Times gives the following 

 description of the most approved and most formidable of the iron-clad 

 vessels designed and in the process of construction by the British Gov- 

 ernment. The name of the vessel is the Jjcllerophon, and her builders 

 are the well-known firm of Penn & Co. The Times says : 



" This vessel is in point of strength intended to be a monster among 

 these monsters ; to be, in fact, as terrible an assailant to iron-dads as 

 an iron-clad would be to wooden ships. The object with which this 

 vessel is designed is, in case of another great naval war, to avoid 

 a repetition of the long dreary work of blockading an enemy's fleet by 

 wearisome and dangerous cruising off the mouth of harbors. The Bel- 

 lerophon is to be a vessel of such strength and speed and tremendous 

 weight of guns as, in case of an eneiny 1 s iron fleet running into port, 

 she can follow them with impunity, and at long range fight them at 

 their moorings, till she either drives them ashore or forces them out 

 to sea. Specially built for the discharge of such duties, it is almost 

 needless to say how carefully every point in her equipment has been 

 considered ; and as Mr. Penn undertakes that her speed shall equal 

 her strength, there seems to be very little doubt but that, with her im- 

 penetrable sides, and her armament of ten 300-pounders and two 600- 

 pounders, she will be the most formidable sea-going frigate the world 

 has yet seen. The length of tin's vessel is to be 300 feet, and her 

 breadth 50 fjet ; her tonnage will be 4,246 tons, her displacement 7,- 

 053 tons ; a:ul though Carrying the heaviest armor and armament ever 

 sent afloat, her draught will be only 21 feet forward and 26 feet aft, 

 less than the- draught of ordinary two-deckers. The height of her low- 

 est portsill from the water will be 9 feet, the distance between the 

 guns 15 feet, and the height between decks seven feet. Her midship 

 section is smaller than that of the Warrior, and to that extent, there- 

 fore, she will be easier to steam and sail. Shu is to have four masts, 

 only the first square-rigged, the three others carrying immense fore- 

 and-aft sail. , a rig from which the French have got such admirable re- 



