60 
THE “INFLEXIBLE” AND HER ARMAMENT. 
By A. HILLIARD ATTERIDGE. 
HE old type of man-of-war is now fast becoming a thing of the 
past. The splendid three-deckers and swift- sailing frigates 
that carried our flag to victory in the days of Jarvis and Nelson, 
or that only twenty years ago engaged the sea-forts of Sebas- 
topol and blockaded the Baltic shores of Russia, will soon be as 
obsolete as the triremes of ancient Rome and the “ tall galleons ” 
of the times of the Armada. Already they have disappeared 
from the line of battle, and are relegated to the humble position 
of guardships at our home ports or cruisers on distant stations, 
where their most serious enterprises are the bombardment of a 
village or the capture of a slaver. One by one they a, re con- 
demned and broken up, and no new ships are laid down to 
replace them ; and already we can anticipate the time when per- 
haps the sole representative of the grand old floating fortresses, 
that once formed our great unarmoured fleet, will be Nelson’s 
ship, the Victory , lying at her moorings in Portsmouth harbour 
like some war-worn veteran of Greenwich or Chelsea whose 
fighting days are over, and who is spending his old age in 
honourable retirement. 
The modern man of war is much more than an armed steamer* 
She is herself a great engine of destruction, provided with huge 
guns, clad in heavy armour, driven by powerful engines, and 
able to send an adversary to the bottom by one successful blow 
of her enormous bow. Year by year the thickness of .armour 
and the weight of naval artillery go on increasing together : 
mechanical appliances have more and more replaced manual 
labour both in the dockyard and on shipboard ; and at the same 
time the form of the ships themselves has been carefully adapted 
to the work they have to do and the conditions under which 
they must act. Our first great ironclad, the Warrior, was only an 
ordinary war-steamer very incompletely protected with armour, 
[PLATE CXXXL] 
