222 



NATURE 



\yuiy 19, t^n 



Subsequently, that is on June 25, Mr. Barnaby put 

 forward a memorandum (the foot-note before referred 

 to) showing that his own previous diagram might be 

 extended a few degrees by introducing such considerations 

 as that the four guns had been increased by 20 tons each 

 (in a ship of over 11,000 tons !), that the armoured deck 

 was to be broken through to let the cables be stowed 

 lower, and that an allowance might be made for immersed 

 materials ; and by these means some little show of a 

 curve of stability, even with the cork out, is obtained ; 

 but the amount of it must be exceedingly small, as the 

 range claimed is only 17 deg., and the curves which we 

 give in the accompanying engraving indicate by analogy 

 how very small the amount of stability must in this case 



be with so extremely limited a range. We feel bound, 

 however, to demur to any such change in the Admiralty 

 calculations, both because of the doubt v.'hich must 

 inevitably rest on the alteration of calculations made to 

 meet a public inquiry already commenced, and because 

 the actual changes made in this case are in themselves 

 improper. It is improper to make new allowances now 

 ostensibly for the enlarged guns, because still larger guns 

 were originally contemplated in the design, as the printed 

 Papers clearly show ; it is improper to alter the cables to 

 meet the present state of things, as they were o'lviously 

 wisely placed in the first instance ; and it is improper for 

 the sake of a small nominal increase in the apparent amount 

 of stability of this ship to introduce novelties of calcula- 



Range of Stability 

 DESCRIPTION OF CURVES. 



tion which will defeat all comparison now and hereafter 

 between the Inflvxiblc and other ships, and which will 

 absorb into the substance of the calculations for this one 

 ship those small outlying margins which together make 

 up the dividing ground between safety and risk. For 

 these good and sufficient reasons we stand upon those 

 calculations on which Mr. Ward Hunt rested when he 

 addressed Parliament on the subject, and we are obliged 

 to state that, according to those official calculations, the 

 Inflexible is practically without stability when the unar- 

 moured ends have ceased to furnish any. 



The next question which arises is, how is the ship 

 circumstanced with the cork in ? and the answer to that 

 we have incidentally had before us already. Even by 



introducing such considerations as Mr. Barnaby adduces 

 in the foot-note he only claims for his curve of stability 

 with the cork in a range of 35 deg., and with the range 

 so increased the righting lever g z cannot much exceed 

 six-tenths of a foot in amount. It will be easy for the 

 reader of these remarks to imagine, without our assist- 

 ance, the slight alteration of curve e, to which we are here 

 pointing, and when they bring the eye down from the 

 large levers of stability indicated by the curves d, />, and 

 >n, to the curve c, even when thus enlarged, they will see 

 what a striking difference there is between the ship with 

 her unarmoured ends intact and the ship with those ends 

 broken into by the sea. The fact is that even in this state 

 with the curve of stability extended by the devices to 



