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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Now the addition of the overhang and extra weights in the 
turret would have to be compensated by a decrease in the 
weight of armour and guns, or there would be an increase in 
the draught of water. Moreover, the adoption of the closed 
turret would have to be attended with numerous serious modifi- 
cations in various structures on the deck. At present, by 
adopting the barbette arrangement, the only obstacles to an all- 
round fire are the two funnels, one on each side ; and of course 
it is easy for the Popoffka to take such a position with respect 
to the object aimed at that the funnels are kept out of the line 
of fire. But if a closed turret were substituted for the breast- 
work, the guns would have to fire through portholes, and either 
the turret would have to be made much higher than the present 
breastwork, so as to have its ports 12 or 13 feet above the 
water, or the forecastle, the bridge, and the high combings of 
the engine-room hatchway, would have to be lowered or done 
away with altogether. Now this forecastle plays a very im- 
portant part in the economy of the ship. It contains the chief 
quarters for the men, and it protects the upper deck from the 
immense bow-wave raised by the blunt circular bow as it is (so 
to say) forced violently through the water when the ship is 
under steam. “ The forecastle,” says Mr. Reed, “ of course 
adds greatly to the buoyancy forward when the sea rises there 
upon the vessel, and I do not think even circular vessels of very 
low freeboard could be steamed against a heavy head-sea with- 
out such a forecastle, more especially, as we shall see hereafter, 
when driven at a high speed.” The forecastle, then, and the 
other deckhouses, must be maintained ; so that if we are to 
remove the badly protected open breastwork, and substitute a 
closed turret for it, that turret must be of great height, adding 
largely to the weight carried by the vessel, increasing her 
draught of water, and thus taking away from her one of her few 
advantages. 
We have marked out the want of speed as the chief defect of 
the Popoffka system, and necessarily closely connected with 
this is the small coal-carrying power. A round ship could 
indeed be driven through the water at a high speed, and so 
could a square one for that matter ; but this is not the point 
at all. The shape of a ship is, of course, one of the main 
elements in a question of speed ; the others are her draught of 
water and the power of her engines. On her shape chiefly 
depends the amount of resistance offered by the water. Leav- 
ing the question of draught of water out of account, resistance 
is least in a ship built on such lines that her horizontal section 
at the water line generally corresponds to the wave lines formed 
by the water as it is parted by the bow and unites again 
astern. In the case of a short ship with a broad beam, like 
