626 



NAVY, UNITED STATES. 



Hence, in England, a very strong feeling, on 

 this score, adverse to wooden hulls exists in 

 naval circles. It is stated that the four large 

 frigates which lately made a trial trip to Por- 

 tugal returned with their plates so loosened 

 that they required to be at once docked and 

 'repaired. Mr. McKay, favoring -wooden hulls 

 for reasons some of which have been given, 

 asserts that, since thick oak planking of from 

 40 to 60 ft. in length, can be obtained in abun- 

 dance in Delaware and Ohio, and nowhere 

 else on the globe, therefore far stronger wood- 

 en vessels can be built in America than in the 

 old world. 



One very apparent result of the great inno- 

 vations which are being made in the construc- 

 tion of ships of war is, that but little at- 

 tention is paid to ornament, or even to beauty 

 of form. This, in view of the more vitally in- 

 teresting questions that are now at issue, is not 

 surprising; and some of the armored vessels 

 and designs for such are not a little strange 

 and uncouth. The decoration of the head and 

 of the stern and quarters of these vessels is 

 wholly sacrificed ; both extremities of the ship 

 are plain, and, in some instances, scarcely to be 

 distinguished, unless it be by some such mark 

 as the unsightly cowl sometimes employed to 

 protect the rudder post where it rises through 

 the deck. If many of the new styles of vessels 

 have any beauty whatever, it is only of the sort 

 that springs from utility, and a utility in this 

 particular class of cases which it requires a 

 good degree of philosophy to discover. 



Preserving the Bottoms of Armored Vessels. 

 The bottoms of wooden vessels not covered 

 with sheathing are known to be liable to be- 

 come worm-eaten ; while a sheathing of iron, 

 or an iron shell, becomes rapidly fouled. The 

 value of copper sheathing has been above re- 

 ferred to, as also the method of covering iron 

 bottoms with wood and then with copper. 

 Against this plan it is urged that the timbers 

 so applied give no structural strength to the 

 ship, so that while the frame requires to be as 

 heavy as before, the whole timber applied is so 

 much additional expense. Brass or copper can- 

 not be applied as a sheathing directly over an 

 iron bottom, on account of the galvanic action 

 and rusting of the iron that would thus be in- 

 duced. Only two methods appear to remain. 

 Of these, the first is that of sheathing with 

 copper over iron, but with the introduction 

 between the metals of a layer of non-conduct- 

 ing material, such as bitumen of Trinidad. 

 This is the plan and material adopted by Mr. 

 C. W. Lancaster, the bitumen being used to 

 separate the metals and also to cause adhesion 

 of the copper sheathing the latter purpose 

 being aided by copper studs tapped at consider- 

 able intervals into the iron plates, and riveted 

 upon the surface of the copper sheets. This 

 plan appears to be that now most generally in 

 favor among English shipbuilders. There are 

 those who doubt the practicability of sufficient- 

 ly insulating the metals in this way, and who 



rely on the second of the remaining methods, 

 that of coating iron bottoms with some paint 

 or composition resisting the action of salt 

 water, and perhaps in other ways unfavorable 

 to adhesion of barnacles and weeds. It is said 

 that, in 1859, the British iron steamer Hima- 

 laya ran during nine months a distance of 26,000 

 miles, and in all climates, and that when dock- 

 ed on her return for repairs, the bottom was 

 found quite smooth and free from rust. The 

 bottom had been coated with red lead, and 

 over this with a composition, chiefly of asphalt. 

 Mr. James Jarvis, U. S. government inspector, in 

 a letter written in 1853, declares that equal sur- 

 faces of wood and of iron, one set of each coat- 

 ed with three coats of red lead, and the other 

 with three coats of zinc white, being placed 

 during the summer in the water (salt) adjacent 

 to the Gosport Navy Yard, at the end of the 

 time the surfaces coated with the red lead 

 were found quite covered with barnacles, and 

 those coated with the zinc white entirely free. 

 While most of the paints or compositions used 

 for the purposes under consideration afford but 

 partial protection and require frequent renew- 

 al, the zinc white has been found, when applied 

 to iron bottoms of steamboats in this country, 

 to afford the most enduring and effectual means 

 of protection ; and accordingly the bottoms of 

 the Dictator, Puritan, and some other iron-clad 

 vessels, are to be coated with this material. 



Hams. Mr. Stevens, some ten years since, 

 determined on introducing into his battery, in 

 order to give it efficiency in acting as a ram, 

 engines of full 8,000 horse-power, although 4,000 

 would have given the speed of ordinary war 

 vessels. It is universally admitted that, for the 

 purposes of securing a choice of position, ability 

 to attack with the greatest effect and upon any 

 desired point, and if needful to escape, as well 

 as that of passing forts with the least risk of 

 being struck, speed of movement and celerity 

 of turning are qualifications not less essential 

 in rams than is actual strength of the hull and 

 beak with which their blows are to be inflicted. 

 Yet, singularly enough, no steam ram or vessel 

 furnished with the appendage of a beak is yet 

 afloat which possesses in high degree the im- 

 portant requisite of speed. A strong construc- 

 tion is secured, but not the rapid resistless dash 

 of movement that must overtake almost any 

 flying foe, and make the monster the most truly 

 effective against whatever it encounters. Pos- 

 sibly this fundamental defect may be remedied 

 in the Stevens Battery, the Puritan class, and the 

 Dunderberg, when these are brought into ser- 

 vice. With a mass so heavy as that of the ram, 

 since its damage is due to momentum, a slightly 

 greater speed than that of the vessel struck, 

 and of course, if the latter be at rest, a slow 

 movement, may suffice to do to the enemy's 

 sides or to the screw and stern an irreparable 

 injury, and that without racking the structure 

 of the ram itself. It has been urged as par- 

 ticularly a mistaken plan to give unnsual 

 strength to the head and bow of a ram, as ne- 



