MISCELLANEOUS. 77 
so severely as in the case of the wooden-plated ships of the French, An 
examination recently made of the Zrusty, one of our iron- plated floating batter- 
ies, upon which experiments were tried, has shown that her timbers have been 
very much injured by the great shaking she underwent from the concussion 
of the shot from the Armstrong guns. The Sirius, also, upon the sides of which 
some plates were fixed for the purpose of experiment, before finally deciding 
upon the form to be given to those of the Warrior, also affords unmistakeable 
evidence of the shock to her timbers. The plates fixed on to the Sirius were 
fired at with old 68-pound shot, and at a short range the plates stood the shock 
well, and many persons supposed that a ship cased with this would have been 
perfectly protected against the fire of the heaviest seu ordnance. A close inspec- 
tion of the interior, however, has thoroughly dispelled any such notion. Where 
the shot penetrated and passed through the iron plate as well as the vessel’s side, 
the injury done has been actually less than when the penetration was less com- 
plete. In those parts where the plates have successfully resisted the shot, the 
timbers behind are driven into lathwood, the bolts are drawn, and the massive 
timber knees of the vessel were snapped asunder by the shock on the plate. So 
complete has been the destruction of the timber-work, that the vessel could not 
be repaired except in a dock, and until thoroughly repaired, a ship so struck 
would leak like a sieve and rapidly sink. The outer covering being of iron, it 
is, of cours2, impossible to repair her from the outside, while it would be hope- 
less to attempt to patch up her shattered timbers inside, The hurry with which 
the old French ships have been covered with iron plates may, after all, illustrate 
the fable of the hare and the tortoise in the old proverb, “The race is not 
‘always to the swift.” 
The shell of the Warrior and of the Black Prince is built, as we have stated, 
entirely of wrought scrap iron. The keel, or portion to which the ribs are 
bolted, is formed of immense slabs of 8ft. 6in. deep, and are 1} inch thick. The 
ribs, which spring from this are wrought iron T-shaped beams, made in joints of 
5ft. in length by 2ft.in depth. They aré placed 3ft. Sin. apart, except for a 
distance of 10ft. on*each side of the keel, where they are bolted at half this 
distance apart. The main and upper decks are of iron, covered with timber, and 
the orlop deck is of timber. The decks are supported by rolled wrought iron 
girders of enormous strength. Along the entire length of the vessel, from stem 
to stern, there are solid wrought iron beams placed at intervals of 5ft. inside the 
ribs, and these again are strengthened by cross girders. The bows and stern of 
the ship are divided into twenty-seven water-tight compartments, and are shut off 
from the engine room and fighting portion of the ship by wrought iron transverse 
bulkheads. As the armour is not intended to cover the whole of the ship, these 
compartments will afford increased security to the ship. They may be riddled 
with shot in every direction without affecting the safety of the ship, nay, even 
the bows and stern may be shot clean away and the centre would still remain a float- 
ing battery 210ft. in length, 27ft. in depth, and 58ft. wide. The rig of the 
Warrior will be that of an 80-gun ship, and she will be armed with Armstrong’s 
heaviest guns. The armour of the frigate consists of plates of hammered iron 
four-and-a-half inches in thickness. One cause of the delay which has occurred 
