188 EXPERIMENTAL, CRUISE OF THE 



name of the builder and the model of this corvette are enough to indicate the 

 confidence felt in her qualities. During the ^hole cruise she performed the very 

 laborious service of tender (mouche) to the squadron. Of the two ships of 

 the line the first which arrived to take its place in the division was the Napoleon, 

 commanded by Capt. M. A. Pichon. Ten years ago she was the pride of the 

 French navy, and even foreigners acknowledged her as the most redoubtable and 

 the finest, as well as the swiftest and most powei'ful ship that had ever figured in 

 any equadron. I have elsewhere spoken of the exceptional service she did during 

 the Crimean war, and it is not necessary to repeat it. After thirty years of a 

 most active existence, and after having been employed with more success tiian 

 any other in the hard work of towing, which tries vessels so severely, she is still 

 reraarkaVe for the perfect preservation of her form and lines, and is always dis- 

 tinguished for the strength she puts forth against wind and wave. During the 

 heavy weather that the squadron encountered on its departure from Cherbourg, 

 when this ship was seen, with its lofty masts, its three tiers of guns, and its bul- 

 warks so high out of the water, attaining a speed of ten knots, more than eighteen 

 kilometres, an hour, against a very strong sea, more than a sailor might regret 

 the abdication, after so short a reign, which this noble specimen of naval archi- 

 tecture has had to undergo by reason of the progress of engineering art. Super- 

 fluous regret ! The Napoleon has no armour ; her guns, notwithstanding their 

 number, would be of no avail. against the iron sides of the meanest of the frigates 

 which are sailing in Ix&v company. Her wooden walls would be set on fire or 

 destroyed in an instant by the artillery of the weakest of the iron-clads. She 

 was not attached to the experimental squadron in order to run this chance. 

 Though she has lost her military prestige, she has preserved the nautical qualities 

 for which- she has always been celebrated ; and she was intended to serve in this 

 respect as a means of comparison with vessels whose fighting power is not dis- 

 puted, but which are accused of not being good sailers. We shall see the results 

 which a minute comparison has produced, but in order to appreciate them properly 

 it must not be forgotten what the Napoleon is. Siie is a wooden two-decker of 

 90 guns of calibre SO, carrying a war complement of 920 men, having the same 

 masts as our old sailing vessels of the second class, with a surface of sail of 2800 

 metres. Her engine is of 900 horse power, similar in every respect to that of 

 the vessels against which she was going to be tried; her length is TO metres, 

 breadth 16 metres 80-100, her mean draught of water 7 metres 8-100, tonnage 

 5800, heighth of battei'y 1 metre 8-100; she carries one month's water, three 

 months' stores and provisions, and 600 tons of coal. 



The other vessel, which only joined the experimental squadron in the Brest 

 roads, was the Tourville, and if what has been told me is true, the reason why she 

 was attached to the squadron is an excellent proof of the sincerity and good faith 

 with which these investigations have been conducted. During the few days 

 which they spent at Brest after the gale of the 1st October, 1863, the experiment 

 which they were going to make was naturally much talked of, and the advocates 

 of new ideas showed themselves very well satisfied, as is also natural, but there 

 were still some gceptical people, Avho were not willing to give in ; they argued on 

 o-rounds which seemed to a sailor's eye not to be altogether in fact unreasonable; 



