194 EXPERIMENTAL CRUISE OF THE 



qualities they have shewn exceed what their warmest admirers Lad expected of 

 them, and, (which is not less valuable than their swiftness or the easiness of their 

 roll) their decks afford accommodation for the men on board which is exceiitional for 

 comfort and healthiness. The unprotected part forward serves on the lower deck 

 as the warrant-officers' cabin, and on the main deck for hospital ; while the corres- 

 ponding part aft contains the captain's cabin above, and the officers' below, each 

 cabin having a port hole for air and light. Officers and warrant-officers have 

 never before been so comfortably accommodated on board a man of war. 



This is not all; these vessels are further distinguished from their predecessors 

 by the form of their bow which is quite peculiar. Instead of forming, as in the 

 Gloire, a kind of iron axe edge, the bow of the Solferino and Magenta is prolonged 

 perpendicularly in the shape of an angle of which the vertex lies about a metre 

 below the water line ; or, in other words, their stem, instead of continuing its 

 projection forward when parting from the keel, as is usually the case, takes on 

 the contrary a direction backwards towards the interior of the ship, commencing 

 from a point about a metre below the surface of the water. This arrangement 

 has been made on these vessels in order to arm them with a beak or ram, and it 

 is the most novel of their characteristic traits. The ram is fixed on the vertex of 

 the angle we are speaking of, at the end of the armour which envelopes the whole 

 ship along the water line, and in such a manner as to form one body with it and to 

 gain from this union the greatest possible amount of solidity ; it consists of amass 

 of cast firon of about 12,000 chilogrammes and appears at about 6 metres in 

 front of the stem, in the shape of a hollow cone, with two long flaps attachedi 

 like the cheeks of a helmet, to the sides of the ship. Except at the extremity, the 

 cone is hollow, but its walls, which are not less than 12 centimetres thick in their 

 weakest point, are shaped on the inside so as to fit exactly to the wood-work of 

 the vessel ; the ram in fact is one with i». 



This weapon, although it has not undergone the test of experltnce inspires na- 

 val men with very great confidence. Imagine a projectile of 1 millions of chilo' 

 grammes in weight ; yet such is the part the Solferino would play in running 

 down an enemy's vessel, and if she struck it on the beam there is no need to say 

 what would happen. Further, the Solferino possesses a swiftness such that there 

 ar'j very few s' ips, (perhaps there are hardly 10 in the world that could be named) 

 which could escape by flight from the shock of her ram ; to fly would, in fact, be to 

 place themselves at her mercy ; the true plan of defence would, on the contrary, be 

 to wait for the shock, and to manoeuvre to avoid it at the very instant when the 

 collision seems most imminent. The party seeking to avoid the shock should con- 

 sider himself the centre of a circle, the circumference of which the assailant 

 would be compelled to follow before finding his opportunity, and in this position 

 the w^aiting vessel would probably have the advantage of facility ir. evolutions 

 which would be relatively more rapid because much less space will suffice for his 

 escape than the enemy would have to traverse before delivering his stroke. 



In any great naval battle — and whatever may be the weapons employed all 

 serious actions have always ended in a mel6e — the Solferino would certainly be 

 able to fight with her ram ; but we have yet to learn what damage she might do 

 herself by this audacious enterprise. This is an experiment which has not yet 



