NAVY, UNITED STATES. 



005 



the utmost importance. Thus, it is in the case 

 of ships and forts alone that the problem and 

 means of defence become equally essential 

 with those of offence ; and that the former, 

 like the latter, are of a highly definite and 

 special character, and only to be advanced 

 through careful study of the mechanical and 

 other conditions involved. In fact, in the case 

 of ships, it is most distinctly seen to be true 

 that, when the defence can no longer be im- 

 proved so as reasonably to keep pace with 

 increasing efficiency and power in the means 

 of assault, the necessary alternative must be 

 the abandonment altogether of naval warfare, 

 or the comparative worthlessness, at the least, 

 of any resort to it. Now, since the early part 

 of the present century, a steady increase has 

 been going forward in the caliber of ordnance 

 and in its available power, that is, in other 

 words, in the penetrative and, generally, the 

 destructive effect of projectiles ; while the 

 course and prospects of a naval engagement 

 have been, in a particular manner, changed by 

 the introduction of the so-called Paixhan 

 guns, which throw shells of great weight and 

 at a velocity sufficient for penetrating the wood- 

 en sides of the ordinary ships of war, prepara- 

 tory to spreading destruction and conflagration 

 within them. It is these facts that have forced 

 upon military authorities of the time the spe- 

 cific problem of defence, especially for all classes 

 of war vessels, and so urgently that within the 

 past three years it has become the paramount 

 question in connection with the practice of 

 warfare. Under such circumstances, the sub- 

 ject can, of course, only be presented as one 

 in a state of progress its results being not 

 merely still undecided, but for the present be- 

 yond even the reach of conjecture. 



The Necessity of Armor Becognized. A ship 

 or boat, then, being a definite point or object 

 of attack, and the penetration and destructive- 

 ness of solid and hollow shot having been 

 gradually and very greatly increased, the in- 

 evitable consequence was that, sooner or later, 

 wooden war vessels must become too vulner- 

 able to leave even a reasonable chance of their 

 withstanding a well-directed fire. And, this 

 point once reached, the idea of seeking a more 

 efficient resisting material in some metal, and 

 naturally in iron, must, by a necessity just as 

 inevitable, have presented itself; so that it 

 becomes a matter of slight importance at what 

 precise time, or by whom, the suggestion of 

 such a change was publicly made. By some 

 authorities the proposition is accredited to Mr. 

 John Stevens, of New Jersey, its date about 

 the year 1811; by others, to Col. Paixhan, of 

 the English army, some ten years later. 



Among the earliest systematic experiments 

 with a view to the substitution of the resist- 

 ance of iron for that of wood in the sides of 

 ships, were those made by English authorities 

 in the year 1840, and a few years following, in 

 the way of firing upon targets representing a 

 portion of the side of an iron ship, as ordina- 



rily constructed. As a result, it was found 

 that the thin plates of such ships, when struck 

 by projectiles that pierced them, crushed into 

 fragments, which were scattered with pecul- 

 iarly destructive effect ; so that ordinary iron 

 ships were wholly unsuitable for war pur- 

 poses. A definite proposal for constructing 

 shot-proof iron floating batteries was, about 

 the year 1852, entertained by the United States 

 Government; but the results of experiments 

 made with a view to that end being deemed 

 unfavorable, the project was, for the time, 

 abandoned. Still, the subject was more or less 

 under discussion in this country, and in France 

 and England. It is said that, many years 

 previously, an imperfect attempt had been 

 made at mailing the English ships which took 

 part in the battle of Algesiras (1801), and 

 that, subsequently to that occasion, M. Mont- 

 gery, of France, had published several me- 

 moirs on the subject. The project having 

 become, in that country, in a degree forgotten, 

 attention was again called to it during the 

 war between France and Eussia, by the circum- 

 stance that wooden ships were found incapable 

 of withstanding a skilfully-directed fire from 

 near land batteries. The French emperor di- 

 rected, in 1854, that experiments should be 

 made with a view to the protection by iron 

 armor of ships of a draught rendering them 

 suitable to be employed in an attack on Cron- 

 stadt. Upon a renewal of some experiments 

 discontinued about 15 years before, the con- 

 clusion was reached that, in order to afford 

 protection against the round shot then in actual 

 use, a thickness of n, mtre = 3.937 inches, 

 was required. Of the armored boats or float- 

 ing batteries hastily constructed in accordance 

 with these views, and which, from the weight 

 of the plates and the depth of water they 

 drew, were incapable of speed, and even of 

 independent navigation, three that were taken 

 to the French fleet, then before Kiuburn, par- 

 ticipated in the attack, Oct. 1855, on the forts 

 at that place. Though struck by very many 

 24-lb. balls at about 600 yards, the armor of 

 these boats was not actually pierced, but only 

 somewhat deeply indented; but considerable 

 injury was done by shots which entered the 

 portholes. Some British batteries of like 

 construction did not arrive so as to take part 

 in the action. 



In the year 1854, experiments in relation to 

 iron armor were also made in England ; in 

 these, a target, consisting of a wood backing 

 covered with wrought-iron plates of 4j inches 

 thickness, and intended to represent the side 

 of an armored ship, was found to be indented 

 at 400 yards by 32-lb. solid shot and 8-inch 

 and 10-inch hollow shot, to depths respective- 

 ly of U, 1, and 2 inches; while 68-lb. solid 

 shot, fired with 16 Ibs. of powder, penetrated 

 the plates, splitting them especially in the line 

 of the bolt-holes, which were about 1 foot 

 asunder. In France, a new interest was awak- 

 ened, by the comparative success of its trial at 



