MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 109 



heavy weather, it is made capable of being lowered into the hold, 

 so as to relieve the little vessel of its deck-load, and enable it to 

 carry the weight as cargo. Machinery is also employed for the 

 purpose of working the gun, by which means more than half of 

 tlie ordinary gun's crew can be dispensed with. It is in these 

 mechanical arrangements that much of the interest of this vessel 

 lies. The operation of lifting and lowering is performed by 

 simple but powerful machinery. During the trials, the gun, with 

 its carriage and slide, and the platform carrying them, — weigliing 

 in all, 22 tons, — was raised and lowered in a rough sea, with the 

 boat rolling 11° each way, in from 6 to 8 minutes. When the 

 gun is lowered the gun-well is closed and the deck left perfectly 

 clear, but in a few minutes the gun can be again brought up ready 

 for action. During the trials the 12^-ton gun was easily handh;d 

 by 6 men, and fired with extra charges of 56| lbs. of powder, 

 and 285 lbs. shot. It must be observed that very little, if any, 

 training is requisite with the gun of the " Staunch." The vessel 

 is so small as to be a sort of floating gun-carriage. Her twin 

 screws enable her to turn rapidly in her own length. Her helms- 

 man is placed just behind the gun. The gun, therefore, can be 

 laid by rudder, right and left, with far more ease and speed than 

 any gun of similar weight, otherwise mounted. During the 

 recent trials, with the engines driving reverse ways, the vessel 

 made the full circle, in her own length, in 2| minutes. With both 

 engines going full ahead, she made by the helm a complete circle 

 of 75 yards diameter in 2J minutes. The " Staunch" is wholly 

 unarmored. Her strength and security lie in her great gun and 

 her diminutiveness ; and she must be considered as one of a 

 flotilla of similar vessels. Sixty such could be built at the price 

 of a single armor-clad frigate, and 10 of them, acting from 

 difi'erent points, doubling in their own length, escaping into shal- 

 lows, sheltering under forts, would drive off or render a good 

 account of any hostile vessel venturing to attack our harbors. 

 Primarily they are intended for harbor defence ; but the power 

 of lowering the gun and carrying it as cargo, would afford great 

 security for these vessels at sea, and enable them to be sent from 

 harbor to harbor with safetv. — Pall Mall Gazette. 



AMERICAN ORDNANCE. 



Whatever representations or misrepresentations may have been 

 made on either side of the Athmtic with regard to the perform- 

 ances of American ordnance, it is certain that it comes out very 

 creditably in this respect in the report of the U. S. Chief of Ord- 

 nance, General Dyer, just issued. The official facts contained in 

 this report are at once interesting and instructive, and General 

 Dyer demonstrates that the American heavy smooth bores are 

 *' the cheapest and most effective gun possessed by any nation." 



The report states that the 20-inch gun has been fired with a 

 charge of 200 pounds of powder, and a shot weighing 1,100 

 pounds, and the general states that this may be the regular charge 



10 



