70 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



stores, etc., will amount to 1100 tons more. Thus, at sea, lier total weight 

 will be 9000 tons, which will he driven, when so wanted, through the water 

 against an enemy's ship at the rate of sixteen miles an hour. It is difficult, 

 by mere description, to give an adequate idea of the tremendous strength 

 with which this vessel is to be built. The keel, or rather the portion to 

 which the ribs are bolted, is made of immense slabs of wrought scrap iron, 

 an inch and a quarter thick, and three feet six inches deep. 



From this spring the ribs, massive wrought-iron T-shaped beams, which 

 are made in joints about five feet long by two deep, up to where the armor- 

 plates begin, five feet below the water-line. These beams are only three feet 

 eight inches apart, while, for a distance of ten feet on each side of the keel, 

 they are bolted in at only half this distance asunder. Five feet below the 

 water-line the armor-plates commence, and, to give room for these, the depth 

 of the rib diminishes to about half, or nine inches. Over the ribs, and cross- 

 ing transversely, are bolted beams of teak, a foot and a half thick; and out- 

 side of these again come the armor-plates. Each of these plates is to be 

 fifteen feet long by four feet broad, and four and a half inches thick. Sev- 

 eral of them have been made, by the company, of puddled iron, of annealed 

 scrap iron, and of scrap iron unannealed : and experiments are now being 

 made at Portsmouth, with a view of testing practically which best with- 

 stands the tremendous attack of G8-pounders. It is almost needless to say 

 that each plate is the very perfection of material and manufacture. These 

 ponderous slabs go up to the level of the upper deck. The orlop deck will 

 be of wood, and twenty-four feet above the keel. The main deck will be of 

 iron, cased with wood, and nine feet above the orlop. The upper deck will 

 also be of wrought iron, and seven feet nine inches above the main. All the 

 decks are carried on wrought-iron beams of the most powerful description, 

 to which both the ribs and iron decks are bolted; while along the whole 

 length of the vessel, from stem to stern, are immensely solid wrought-iron 

 beams, at intervals of five feet inside the ribs, which are again crossed by 

 diagonal bands, tying the whole together in a perfect network. 



The armor-plates are not intended to shield the whole vessel, only the 

 fighting portion about 220 feet of the broadside being thus protected. 

 This broadside, however, will mount fourteen of the Armstrong 100-pound 

 guns, which, with two broadside-guns on the upper deck, and two pivot-guns 

 of the same kind forward, and two aft, will give her a total armament of 

 thirty-six guns, each throwing 100-pound shot over a range of nearly six 

 miles. Neither the bows nor stern have any of the large armor-plates, 

 but are coated with wrought-iron plates of nearly one inch and a half thick, 

 over two feet of teak, which Avill offer sufficient resistance to prevent most 

 shots from going through. But, to compensate for this apparent deficiency, 

 both bows and stern are so crossed and recrossed in every direction with 

 water-tight compartments, that it is a matter of perfect indifference whether 

 they get riddled or not; and each of these ends are shut off from the engine- 

 room and fighting portion of the ship by continuous massive wrought-iron 

 transverse bulkheads; so that, supposing it possible that both stem and 

 stern could be shot away, the centre of the vessel would remain as complete 

 and impenetrable as ever, still offering, in all, twenty-four inches of teak 

 coated with five inches of wrought iron to every shot. But both stem and 

 stern are built, inside, of such immense strength, that coating with armor- 

 plates would be almost superfluous. The bows, at the spot where the whole 

 shock must be received in running down ships, arc, inside, a perfect web of 



