NAVIES OF EUROPE. 



569 



muzzle-loading class and were worked slowly. 

 The armament of the forts, moreover, did not 

 consist of the most effective kind of modern 

 ordnance. 



The British Admiralty has been engaged in 

 providing several new vessels for the navy dur- 

 ing the past year, and every effort is made to 

 bring the latest improvements into use. Two 

 vessels, which have been in course of construe- 



HER MAJESTY'S SHIP TEMERAIRE. 



tion at Chatham Dock-yards, belong to widely- 

 different types. The Calliope, which was be- 

 gun in October, 1881, is an unarmored corvette, 

 belonging to what is known as class " 0." These 

 are not designed so much as fighting-ships as 

 for patrols and escorts, and for service on for- 

 eign stations. They are of 2,383 tons displace- 

 ment, 2,300 horse-power, and their dimensions 

 are 225 feet between perpendiculars, 44 feet 6 

 inches extreme breadth, and 21 feet 6 inches 

 depth of hold. The transverse frames are of 

 iron, but the bulkhead and skin-plating of steel. 

 They have steel shell-proof decks below the 

 water-line and extending over the whole length 

 of the engines, boilers, and magazines. They 

 are fully rigged and coppered, and provided 

 with large bunker capacity to fit them for long 

 cruises. They are good sailers, and make a 

 ^peed of 13 knots an hour under steam. The 

 Calliope is intended to combine all the quali- 

 ties calculated to give to this class of vessels 

 the highest merit. As compared with the Can- 

 ada, regarded as the best specimen previously 

 floated, it has the following characteristics : 



The Calliope is to be fitted with sponsons for 

 6-inch guns, projecting beyond the sides fore 

 and aft, and with Whitehead torpedoes and ma- 

 chine guns. The other vessel which has been 

 mentioned as under construction is the Impe- 

 rieuse, an armor-clad, swift-sailing, fighting- 

 ship. It is 315 feet long, 61 feet breadth, 25 

 feet draught, 7,390 tons displacement, and 8,000 

 horse-power. She is to carry four 18-ton 

 guns, mounted in barbettes, and six 6-inch guns 

 on the broadside, capable of penetrating 12 

 inches of armor. Two of the barbettes will be 

 built across the middle line forward and aft, 

 and the rest abreast of each other at the sides 

 amidships. The heavy guns are situated at 

 twice the height out of water that they are in 

 the turret-ships, and they can be fired, three 

 together, in any direction ahead, astern, or on 

 the beam. The armor on the sides of the citadel 

 will be 10 inches thick, that across the ends 9 

 inches, that on the barbettes 8 inches, while the 

 armor protecting the pilot-tower will be 10 

 inches thick. The whole of the protection will 

 consist of the new steel-faced armor. The pe- 



