1862.] on the Iron Walls of England, 509 



site direction, over a backing of wood. By this simple means she was 

 converted into the formidable vessel that attacked so victoriously the 

 * Congress ' and ' Cumberland,* and disabling them by the shells poured 

 in, as much as by her power as a ram, destroyed them in a short en- 

 counter. Tlie ' Monitor,* improvised by Ericsson in three months, is 

 160 feet long, 40 wide, and six feet deep, and below this upper body 

 is another propelled by steam. She carries a revolving iron tower of 

 six inches thick, containing two heavy guns. Now the upshot of the 

 contest of these two vessels has decided two points for us. 1. That 

 wooden men-of-war are worthless in presence of iron-coated ships ; for 

 the 'Merrimac' sank two of them without the slightest difficulty. 

 2. That wooden ships, even coated with iron, are ineffective against 

 iron ships coated with iron armour ; for after a long contest the * Mer- 

 rimac * failed to injure the ' Monitor,' and had to retire. 



Capt. Coles's shield vessel was next described. His plans were sub- 

 mitted to the Admiralty in 1859, long prior to the construction of 

 Ericsson's battery. These shields and the * Monitor's ' are much 

 alike in principle, but Capt. Coles's vessel is a far better sea-boat than 

 the ' Monitor,' and carries twelve guns instead of one as in that vessel. 

 Coles's shield has a conical roof, and carries one or two Armstrong 100- 

 pounders fixed in slides, which are parts of the interior of the shield, 

 that moves round on a central pivot, and the men working the guns 

 are turned round in it entirely under cover. The construction of the 

 shield ship designed by the Admiralty is altogether better than the 

 * Monitor's '. The speaker does not wish, however, to see our war- 

 ships replaced by vessels of this class, but by those worthy of ourselves 

 — a fleet of * Warriors.' 



Mr. Scott Russell hoped he had now shown how it had come to 

 pass that we had got a useless navy of wooden ships, and only two iron 

 ones ready for service. There were two more nearly ready, not of the 

 ' Warrior ' class, about which the less he said the more he should praise 

 them. The Government had, however, laid down the lines for four 

 more enlarged ' Warriors,' and this was an atonement for the two he 

 would not say anything about. We must then look to a long time 

 before we shall have more than two ships of the ' Warrior' class. He 

 considered this delay deplorable. When the Duke of Somerset was 

 asked in the House why he had not sooner built more iron ships, he 

 said, " the House of Commons had been in no particular hurry." And 

 when he was asked about his tardy adoption of Capt. Coles's plan, he 

 replied, " he delayed until he had consulted the House of Commons 

 about it." Now the serious difficulty was this, while the French 

 Emperor had been making rapid use of his experience of iron batteries, 

 we had not. In 1854, his were at Kinburn and up to their work. In 

 1856, Capt. Halsted made application to have one of our batteries 

 made the subject of experiment, in order to see if she would resist shot 

 and shell, with a view then to make an iron navy. The Admiralty 

 did have the * Trusty ' made ready ; and had her out. Then they 

 took fright and sent her back again ; and so we lost two years' start. He 



