ARMOURED DEFENCES. 
325 
defence, and will, I venture to say, maintain its prominence, I cannot 
omit it altogether in this summary of trials. 
In 1861, the cupola of the “ Trusty ” was tried off Sheerness. It 
was in the form of a truncated cone, covered with 4^ ins. of armour, 
and resisted fairly well the guns of those days. The cupola was not 
damaged in its machinery throughout the trial. 
Next, in 1866, one of the turrets of the ee Royal Sovereign,” carrying 
armour in thickness from 5J to 10 ins., was tried at Spithead, with the 
12i-ton guns of H.M.S. “ Bellerophon.” The turret was a good deal 
injured, but the turning machinery remained in working order. 
In 1872, the turret of the “Glatton” was tried, at Portland, with the fire 
of a 12-in. 25-ton gun of H.M.S. “ Hotspur,” at 200 yds. range. The 
armour was 14 ins. thick, and it received two Palliser shot, fired with 
851b. charges, one of which grazed first on the glacis. There was some 
damage done inside the turret, but the goat, rabbit, and fowl, which had 
been placed inside, were unharmed, and the turret turned freely after 
the trial. 
In 1870-1-2, some lengthened trials were made with shot and shell Ships decks* 
impinging upon ship’s decks, which gave some decided results, namely, 
that a 13-in. mortar shell, at 4,200 yds. range, would go easily through 
a strong ship’s deck covered with l|-in. plating and 4-^-in. wood 
planking, and that at 2,800 yds. it would go through it if covered with 
1 -in. plating; that 9-in. live shell from the 12-ton gun striking at an 
angle of 8° is too much for a similar deck covered with l^-in. plating at 
short range, but the same deck will just turn a 9-in. shot at the same 
angle. Also, that a strong deck covered with 3-in. plating and 4 ins. 
of oak, was only just proof against 10-in. shells fired with battering 
charges from the 18-ton gun, and striking at an angle of 10°. 
I venture to suggest that more information is required under this 
head, as regards the effect of later and heavier guns. 
A space must now be devoted to the experimental results of the 
more recent times. 
Without wishing to promote your field guns into the ranks of Rater ex. 
armour-piercing ordnance, I may just mention here that the new 13-pr. tothe Ce as 
M.L. gun has, quite lately, proved itself capable of piercing a 4J-in. 
iron plate with a special solid chilled iron shot, firing its service charge guns, 
at short range—say, 100 yds. 
The rule, that roughly held good a few years back, that battering 
guns could not, at the shortest range, do more than pierce iron armour 
plates equal in thickness to their own calibre, has been quite upset in 
the last year or two by practice from the new long guns, with bores of 
23 and more calibres in length. Thus, a 6-in. gun of less than 4 tons 
weight, and an 8-in. gun of less than 12 tons, have pierced within an 
inch of double their calibre in thickness of solid iron plate; and 
calculations tend to shew that the projected long B.L. guns of 9'2-in. 
of 18 tons, the 10'4-in. of 26 tons, and the 12-in. of 43 tons weight, 
will achieve fully as much as this, if they are successful in other respects* 
Speaking generally, the service guns were always capable of doing 
somewhat more than is indicated by the old rule abovementioned, and 
if, with the improved powders of the present day, their charges can 
40 
