NAVY 



419 



accommodation is found for the boats, cliart- 

 house, and armoured conning-tower ; the funnels, 

 ventilators, and means of communication with 

 the interior of the ship when the hatches on the 

 upper deck are closed, all lead up through this 

 structure, which is sufficiently spacious to form a 

 small promenade in had weather. These ships 

 and others of the same type are ventilated below 

 by means of air whicli is driven down by fans 

 worked by steam. They have only what is called a 

 military mast, the principle use of which is to serve 

 as a support for the derrick used to hoist out the 

 large boats. The original armament of these ships 



Fig. 7. Diagram shoving Disposition of Armour in 

 H.M.S. Dcmutatiim (1872), twin-screw double-turret 

 battle-ship, 1st class, four 29-ton guns in pairs in 

 turrets. 93:50 tons, 7000 n.f. 



a, a. turrets ; b, superstructure ; c, upper deck. 



consisted of four 33-ton muzzle-loading guns, but 

 since 1890 they have Ijeen supplied with 29-ton 

 breech-loading guns of the most modern type, 

 and a full complement of 3- and 6-pounder quick- 

 firing guns, which are mounted on the super- 

 structure. The introduction of this new type of 

 sea-going turret-ship was a bold experiment and 

 the occasion of much controversy ; but even in the 

 tirst venture a large measure of success was achieved. 

 Deficiency of freeboard forward is the fault of the 

 Devastation and her sisters, as also of many of the 

 later ships, for with such a form of bow it *is dim- 

 cult, if not impracticable, to maintain a high rate 

 of steaming against a heavy sea. Of course, the 

 object of the bows being kept so low is to offer a 

 smaller target to the enemy and to enable the 

 guns mounted in the fore-turret to command an 

 all-round lire. 



Captain Coles was not satisfied with the Royal 

 Sovereign or the turret-ships subsequently de- 

 signed. He believed he could build a turret-ship 

 which, with a low freelioard, should yet be heavily 

 masted and able to keep the sea under sail alone ; 

 so the Captain, a large ship of over 6000 tons, was 

 liuilt from his designs with a freeboard of only 

 6 feet ; she was heavily masted so as to give her 

 great sail-power ; her design was not approved at 

 tin- Admiralty, hor freelioard for a masted-ship 

 being considered dangerously low. So the Monarcn, 

 a turret-ship of about the same tonnage, hut with 

 a freeboard of 14 feet, was built at the same time, 

 embodying the Admiralty idea of what a masted 

 turret-ship ought to be. Both ships carried four 

 2j-ton guns in their turrets. The fate of the 

 unfortunate Captain is well known. About an 

 hour after midnight on the morning of the 6th of 

 September 1870, while cruising with the Channel 

 Squadron off Cape Finisterre, she was capsized 

 when under sail in a heavy squall, and went down 

 i in mediately ; 500 officers ana men, among whom 

 were her captain, Captain Btirgovne, V.C., and 

 Captain Coles himself, were lost. 1*116 Monarch, on 

 the other hand, has been continually in commission, 

 nn<l in 1890 was re-engined and provided with new 

 breech-loading guns. After the completion of the 

 BtUmpkox in I *<>6 an entire change was made in the 

 arrangement of the guns in the batteries ami in the 

 dhpOMtioa of the armour plating in the new broad- 

 side xliips which followed her. The BeUerophon, 

 like her predecessors, was armoured all over, the 

 plating extending some 5 feet below the water-line. 



while her guns extended along the maindeck as in 

 the old wooden ships. An attempt was now to be 

 made, without materially increasing the size of the 

 ships, to carry yet heavier guns and protect them 

 with thicker plating ; at the same time various 

 devices were resorted to to try and combine some 

 of the advantages of the turret-ship with the 

 broadside system of mounting guns, by giving an 

 end-on fire to bow and quarter guns and generally 

 increasing the arc of training. 



The result was what are now known as central- 

 battery ships, of which the Hercules, Sultan, 

 Temeraire, and Alexandra are very fine speci- 

 mens. These ships have a complete belt of armour 

 round the water-line tapering from 12 inches to 

 5 inches in thickness. The armour is carried up 

 over the central portion of the ship and the bat- 

 teries ; athwartship armour bulkheads shut in 

 the batteries fore and aft, forming a complete 

 armoured citadel ; before and abaft these bulkheads, 

 above the armour-belt, the sides are unprotected in 

 any way, and here are the quarters for the officers 

 and men. The guns are carried in the batteries, 

 there being an upper and a lower one, the lower 

 being the main or principal battery ; the foremost 

 and after ports are recessed so as to give a nearly 

 end-on fire, while in some cases the upper battery 

 is made to overhang, the ship's side being made to 

 fall in, and thus a direct bow and stern lire is 

 obtained. Both the Alexandra and Temeraire 



Fig. 8. Diagram showing Disposition of Armour m 

 H.M.8. Alexandra (1876), twin-screw central-battery 

 broadside battle-ship, 1st class. 9490 tons, 8610 H.I-'.. 

 18 guns. 



a, upper battery, two 25-ton and two 18-ton guns; d, main 

 battery, two 26-ton and MX 18-ton guns, six 6-inch guns ou 

 upper deck ; c, men's quarters ; d, officers' quarters ; e, poop. 



carry 25-ton and 18-ton guns in their batteries; 

 these ships were launched in 1875, and were the 

 last broadside ships to be built, as they are the 

 finest. After the loss of the Captain, and in view 

 of the rapidly increasing competition l>etween guns 

 and armour for the mastery, as illustrated by the 

 fact that in ten years progress had been made from 

 4J to 14 inch armour, and from 68-pounders to 35-ton 

 guns, the Admiralty appointed a committee of 

 naval officers and architects to consider and report 

 on the best design for the battle-ship of the future. 

 The result of their deliberations was the adoption 

 of what is known as the citadel type of ship, and 

 on this principle, with certain modifications, several 

 battle-ships were built. 



In this type of ship the continuous armour-belt 

 round the water-line is done away with, and in its 

 place the armour of great thickness is concentrated 

 round a citadel in the central portion of the ship;" 

 the length of the citadel vanes from about one- 

 third the length of the ship to nearly a half ; the 

 armour extends to a depth of some 5 feet below the 

 water and abont 6 feet al>ove ; at each extremity 

 rise the turrets in which the guns are mounted. 

 In the Inflexible, the first ship of this type built, 

 the armour at the water-line is 24 inches thick, 

 with 17 inches on the turrets ; the plates, how- 

 ever, are of iron, while in the later ships they are 

 compound iron faced with steel. The Inflexible 

 carries two 81-ton muzzle-loading guns in each 

 of her turrets, capable of throwing a projectile 

 of 1750 Ib. weight a distance of 6^ miles, with an 

 initial velocity of 1800 feet. From the base of 



