508 Mr. John Scott Russell [May 16, 



Mr. Scott Russell then went into the details of what he advocated 

 as the best class of shot-proof vessel — the improved ' Warrior ' class. 

 This class was 58 feet wide, 400 feet long, and more than 7000 tons in 

 size, and cost, fully armed and fitted for sea, not much short of half-a- 

 million. The distinguishing quality of the ' Warrior ' was, that she 

 had proved a very excellent sea-going vessel. He was happy to say 

 that four more of this class were building, and two already built. 

 Her armour consisted of 4^-inch iron plates, and extended over the 

 whole length to be protected, and came down about 5 feet below water. 

 This arrangement of armour was such, that its centre of gravity was 

 brought to 6 feet above the water. Now, for a comfortable ship it 

 was held, that the centre of gravity should be near the water-line, and 

 this was therefore a problem of some difficulty ; but the ship had 

 turned out, nevertheless, a faster man-of-war than any other, and also 

 an easy, good sea-boat. 



This difficulty of top-weight was got over, in Stevens's early armour 

 vessel, by a different method from the ' Warrior.' Giving up the 

 problem of a sea-going ship, he took to smooth water, and built his 

 vessel much on the mid-ship section of a London barge ; the sides 

 sloped outwards under water, and sloped inwards above water, so as to 

 form a narrow upper deck, carrying seven guns, the angles of the sides 

 being usually a little above water, but capable of being sunk to the 

 level of it during action. So little, however, was she adapted for a 

 sea-going ship, that a false side was obliged to be put up to make her 

 at all seaworthy ; and he would only ask our naval officers if such 

 vessels were fit to protect our trade and our possessions on the wide 

 ocean ? The Stevens battery is as long as the ' Warrior,' is to have 

 as high a speed, and carry a central, shot-proof platform, with seven 

 large guns mounted on turn-tables, and worked below decks by machi- 

 nery. The guns were pointed downwards for loading, and were re- 

 turned to their positions, and worked thus by men and machinery below 

 the iron deck, and wholly under cover. There were points of this 

 battery so like some recently proposed to be constructed in this country, 

 that it was difficult to conceive the secret had not transpired. This 

 battery was begun in 1854, and is now about to be finished. The 

 Stevens battery is a favourable specimen of a ship built for action in 

 the smooth waters of America. But it is our duty to construct quite a 

 different class of ships, and the ' Warrior ' is the type of that class. 

 No one can help seeing the superiority, for our uses, of having such 

 vessels only as can go anywhere and do anything, and are faster, more 

 powerful, more enduring, and more seaworthy than any other steam- 

 ships of any other navy. 



The * Merrimac,' one of the most beautiful of the American fri- 

 gates that first set the pattern which has been followed in so many of 

 our own noble vessels, was cut down by the Southerners, and said to 

 have been covered with rails ; but, in reality, covered with one coating 

 of plates, six inches broad, and an inch and a half thick, laid dia- 

 gonally, and a second coating two inches and a half thick in an oppo- 



