FRENCH IRON-CLAD SQUADRON. 187 



sel in which he sails. Beside?, how could any cue be so hardy as to advance 

 an opinion about ships -which had been constructed specially for line of battle, 

 that is, for service in a squadron, and yet -which had hitherto sailed only singly 

 and had thus, in their mysterious trials, seemed to set themselves to avoid all con- 

 trol or comparison ? Certainly the -wisest had better -wait before expressing an 

 opinion. 



Today the veil is torn down. Our squadron of iron-elads has returned from a 

 cruise which has put thera to all the chauces oi the sea, — from a calm to one of 

 the most violent gales which it is possible to encounter in the stoimy waters of 

 Brittany and England. During two monihs, and every hour of the day, they 

 have been compared with each other and with the most renowned models of the 

 old navy ; and they have had for witnesses the three or four thousand men em- 

 barked in this trial-squadron, and the hundred and fifty officers in command, so 

 that there is r.o longer any mystery about the matter. The superior authorities 

 will douotless trust us ag little with the reports which will be addressed to 

 thena on this occasion as they have done in the past, but they cannot pretend to 

 make secrets of results which have been accomplished under the eyes of thousands 

 of spectators whom a lawful curiosity is to day earnestly interrogating. Plenty 

 of facts have already been brought before the public, and by adding to what has 

 already been related all that we have teen able to collect, we now propose to 

 study in our turn this interesting cruise, and to endeavour to draw from it 

 the chief instruction it has furnished us. The national vanity will not suffer by 

 this study ; the expectations which had been formed of this squadron have been 

 surpassed even more than confirmed, and the officers who had given it their con- 

 fidence will have nothing to regret. The composition of the commission named 

 by the ministry to direct or overlook this great experiment gave every guarantee 

 that the investigation would be conducted with zeal and activity, with intelligence 

 and impartiality ; for if, on the one hand, there are found among the names we 

 are going to cite, some whom we must consider personally interested in the suc- 

 cess of iron-clad ships, on the other there are some who cannot be regarded as 

 fanatical partizans of the new style. The commission consisted of Vice- Admiral 

 C. Penand, President of the Council of Works to the Admiralty, President also 

 of the Commission and Commander of the Trial Squadron ; M. Dupuy de Lome, 

 Councillor of S ate, Director of Material to the Fleet ; Rear- Admiral Labrousse; 

 Captains Bourgois, Chevalier, Lef^vre ; and MM. Mariel and Robert, master ship- 

 wrights of the first class. The number of commissioners was thus equal to that 

 of the ships of the division, so that there was always one on board of each, and 

 all in turns were aboard of each, so as to study all the types and make all com- 

 parisons, thus placing themselves in a position to command a vie v of the whole 

 and to control the calculations and reports, the work and observations which were 

 made specially on each vessel under the care of its own elatmajor. In ord r to 

 possess in the materiail itself the means of control and comparison which could 

 not be disputed, the ministry added to the five ironclads two old sttamships of 

 the line whose reputation was established in the fleet, and a corvette of 250 horse- 

 power, the 2'alisman, commanded by Capt. Desaulx, and built by M. Normand, 

 of Havre, on the model of Pr.nce Napoleon's yacht, tho Prince Jerome. The 



