440 
ME. E. J. SEED ON THE UNEQUAL DISTEIBUTION OF 
ships I have chosen, when floating in still water, but few remarks are necessary, since 
these moments are much less severe than those experienced by the same ships when at 
sea, or when placed in exceptional positions ashore. The ‘ Minotaur,’ on account of her 
great length, very fine form, and heavily burdened extremities, may be regarded as a 
limiting case in the amount of her hogging-moment, the maximum value of which (at 
a a! in Plate XVII. fig. 8) is about 45,000 foot-tons, equalling the product of the displace- 
ment in tons by about one eighty-eighth of the ship’s length. The ‘ Bellerophon ’ may 
be taken as an opposite limiting case, in so far as strain on the midship part is concerned, 
for the hogging-moment there does not exceed 100 foot-tons. Even at the station of 
absolute maximum hogging-moment ( c d in Plate XVII. fig. 9) for this ship the strain 
only reaches 12,000 foot-tons, equalling the product of the displacement by about the 
hundred-and-seventy-sixth (yyg) part of the length. It will thus be seen that the changes 
made in the ‘ Bellerophon ’ from the ‘ Minotaur ’ have had the effect of rendering the 
maximum bending-moment about one fourth what it would have been if the long fine 
type had been conformed to. I may add that the concentration of weights amidships, 
due to the adoption of the central battery-and-belt system, has had much to do with 
this ; while it has been shown that sagging-moments do not result from the excess of 
weights amidships. This fact adds one more to the numerous advantages previously 
shown to be possessed by this system, as compared with the system of complete protection 
exemplified in the ‘ Minotaur.’ The case of the ‘ Audacious ’ (illustrated by Plate XVII. 
fig. 10) gives further support to this view. The hogging-moment amidships does not 
exceed 3400 foot-tons, and that at the section of absolute maximum strain in the after 
body is only 11,000 foot-tons, — that is, equals the product of the displacement by about 
the hundred-and-fiftieth (xiro) P ai ’t of the length. With respect to the type represented 
by the ‘ Victoria and Albert,’ it will be sufficient to state that the maximum hogging- 
moment (at ««', Plate XVI. fig. 7) is about 5080 foot-tons, equalling the product of 
the displacement by the hundred-and-fortieth (y-^j) part of the length of this ship. 
Hence it follows that in certain classes of unarmoured ships, with excess of weight 
amidships, moderate bending-strains may be anticipated, and that when sagging-strains 
exist their amount is comparatively small. 
In this connexion it may also be proper to revert to the tendency which the over- 
weighted ends of a ship have to break off from the midship part, to which I have already 
alluded in general terms. The fore bodies of the ‘ Bellerophon ’ and ‘ Minotaur ’ afford 
excellent illustrations of the effect which changes in the form of the immersed portions 
of a ship have upon this tendency. At the foremost water-borne section of the ‘ Mino- 
taur’ (IP in fig. 8, Plate XVII.) the bending-moment of about 19,000 foot-tons is pro- 
duced by the unsupported weight (420 tons) of the part before it; at the corresponding 
section of the ‘ Bellerophon ’ (B, 1 in fig. 9) the bending-moment is less than 1500 foot- 
tons, the excess of weight producing it being only 45 tons. Some part of the difference 
between these bending-moments is, as I have said, due to the complete protection of the 
‘ Minotaur ; but a considerable part is due to the difference between the length and 
