174 REPORT 1860. 



I can find no such thing anywhere in such shape that the public can judge 

 it by its fruits. 



We are now in full career of a competition of expenditure, and England 

 has no reason to flinch from such an encounter, unless her people should tire 

 of paying a premium of insurance upon a contingent event that never may 

 happen ; and if it should happen without our being insured, might not cost 

 as much as the aggregate premiums. Tire they will, sooner or later, but 

 they are more likely to continue to pay in faith and hope, if they had some 

 confidence that their money is not being spent unnecessarily. 



There is now building at Blackwall the ' Warrior,' a ship to be cased with 

 4^-inch plates of iron, whose length at water-line is 380 feet, breadth 58 feet, 

 intended draught of water (mean) C 15\ feet, area of section 1 190 square feet, 

 and displacement about 8992 tons, and she is to have engines of 1250 nomi- 

 nal horse-power. 



Is there any experience respecting the qualities and performance of such 

 a ship ? Anything to guide us in reasoning from the known to the unknown ? 

 Do the performances of the 'Diadem,' 'Mersey,' and 'Orlando,' inspire 

 confidence? Where are the preliminary experiments? 



Before any contract was entered into for the construction of the Britannia 

 Bridge, a course of experiments was ordered by the Directors, which cost not 

 far short of £7000, and it was well expended. It saved money, and perhaps 

 prevented failure. This ship must cost not less than £400,000, and may cost 

 a good deal more when ready for sea. But there is another of similar, and two 

 others building, of smaller size. What security is there for their success? 



The conditions which such a ship as the ' Warrior' must fulfil in order to 

 justify her cost are deserving of some examination. The formidable nature 

 of her armament, as well as her supposed impregnability to shot, will natu- 

 rally lead other vessels to avoid an encounter. She must therefore be of 

 greater speed than other ships of war. To secure this, it is essential that 

 her draught of water should be the smallest that is compatible both with 

 stability and steadiness of motion, and that she should not be deeper than the 

 designer intended. To ensure steadiness it is necessary, among other things, 

 that in rolling, the solids, emerged and immersed, should find their axis in 

 the longitudinal axis of the ship. To admit of accurate aim with the guns, 

 her movement in rolling should be slow and not deep. Every seaman knows 

 how few ships unite these requisites. 



It is not quite safe to speculate on the ' Warrior's ' speed ; nevertheless I 

 will venture on an estimate, such as I have stated in the case of the ' Great 

 Eastern,' whose smooth-water speed I will now assume to be 15f knots, as 

 before estimated, with 7732 horse-power, when her draught of water is 23 

 feet, her area of section, say 1650 square feet, and her displacement about 

 18,588 tons. The speed of the ' Warrior' in smooth water ought not to be 

 less than 16 knots, in order that she may force to action unwilling enemies 

 whose speed may be 13 to 14 knots. 



The question I propose is the power to secure a smooth-water speed of 

 16 knots. 



Reducing the ' Great Eastern ' to the size of the ' Warrior,' and applying 

 the corrections for the difference of speed of £ knot, and for their respective 

 coefficients of specific resistance "0564 and -07277, the horse-power for 16 

 knots is 7543. 



Raising the ' Niagara ' to the size of the • Warrior,' and applying the cor- 

 rections for the difference of speed between 10*9 and 16 knots, and for their 

 respective coefficients of specific resistance "0797 and '07277, the horse-power 

 to give the 'Warrior' a smooth- water speed of 16 knots is 7867, being an 

 excess over the estimate from the ' Great Eastern ' of 324 horse-power. 



