486 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



a ship can be built to do this as sure as you can fire a shot through a pine 

 board. Mr. Stevens has said he can build a vessel that will bear the test 

 guns of the navy, and there are no better guns thfin in our own navy, and 

 he says this vessel will have a speed of 20 miles an hour, and he offers her 

 to the government on these conditions, and if she is not shot proof and of 

 this speed, the government need not take her, and he will be at the loss of 

 building her; this is indeed a very liberal offer. Mr. Stevens has made nu- 

 merous experiments to satisfy himself that this ship can grapple with any in 

 the world, but the mounting of his guns in barbette frightened the commit- 

 tee who examined it, and they reported against the purchase of her by the 

 government. Mr. Stevens places very little dependence on his guns, but 

 mainly on the use of this ship as a ram; the use of port holes, he said, 

 would so weaken her sides, that he could not warrant her impenetrable; 

 the loading of the guns was from below and by steam power. It can be 

 made one-third stronger by having no ports. The practice we have had at 

 the South fully illustrates the utility of rams; give the Monitor a speed of 

 12 miles an hour, and she would sink every vessel to be met with south. 

 The Merrimac had only five miles an hour, and therefore she could not do 

 much as a ram; there can be no possibility of one ship overcoming another 

 that has superior speed. Take the little steamboat Frank, on the North 

 river, and even as she is now, I will venture to say she will sink some of 

 our large steamboats by her superior speed and manoeuvering; show me a 

 boat of five miles an hour, and give me one of ten, and I will sink it. Mr. 

 Stevens has had an engine in his boat some eight years, capable of giving it a 

 speed of 20 miles an hour, and from his long experience in such matters, I 

 say he understands more of this subject than any one in New York, for he 

 has made some thousands of experiments, -and could give very valuable 

 information to the harbor defence c(>mmittee. 



Mr. Geo. Bartlett. — In illustration of Mr. Dibben's remarks, I may men- 

 tion the case of the steamer " Winfield Scott," which, on coming into her 

 dock at Aspinwall, her commander, desirous of showing off, ran his vessel 

 at considerable speed into the dock, and the ship struck against the pier 

 and went twelve feet into the timbers and through other mason work, and 

 the vessel was but little damaged, and the shock was but little felt on 

 board. 



Mr. Dibben. — I saw the steamship Atlantic, at the foot of Charlton street, 

 strike against the pier, which was newly made and filled in with stone, and 

 she cut through the timbers and stone work for some twenty-five feet, and the 

 engineer did not know that anything extra had happened. The Atlantic is 

 solid wood for thirty-two feet in the bow; if this bow was braced with iron 

 and a speed of twenty miles an hour attained, she would go through the 

 Warrior, and come out the other side. 



Mr. Geo. Bartlett. — Mr. Webb is now building an immense ram 350 feet 

 long, and 60 feet beam, of solid oak nine inches thick, with a long massive 

 nose- it is to have a speed of sixteen miles an hour, and to be propelled by 

 one screw. 



The subject of "Petroleum" was chosen for the next meeting. 



Adjourned. John W. Chambers, Secretary pro tern. 



