THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
219 
A steel shell weighing 612 lbs. fired from the 13"*3 Fig. 17. 
E. gun with a 70 lbs. charge, and containing a bursting 
charge of 24 lbs., made a hole 30" x 24" in a (< Warrior” 
target at 1000 yds. range; sixteen armour plate bolts 
were broken, and the shell burst into 12 pieces. Fig. 17 
shows the nature of this hole in the skin of the target, 
and it will be seen how difficult it would be to repair the 
damage of one shell of this nature, more especially if 
the ship was struck at the water line. 
The Eeport on this experiment speaks of the damage caused by this shell 
as- 
“ Greater than that of any other projectile which had been fired at Shoeburyness.’ 
On the 15th of last August an experiment was made at Shoeburyness,* 
the result of which showed that a structure such as the “ Warrior,” could 
be pierced by one of these shells at 2000 yds. range. The hole made in 
the target was 16" x 13^" in front, and 4 ft, x 2'3" in rear, and one armour 
plate was blown off the target ; the destruction to the fastenings was, as in the 
previous case, very great; seventeen armour plate bolts, twenty-one rivets, 
and thirteen backing bolts having been broken. This shell only broke into 
four pieces. 
In the experiment on the “ Small Plate w target, it was found that a steel 
shell of 206 lbs. weight, containing a bursting charge of 11 lbs., and fired 
from a 9"*2 E. gun with a charge of 44 lbs., could penetrate a structure of 
this nature with ease at 200 yds. range, doing very great damage. The result 
is thus recorded,— 
“ Shell burst well in target, ignited timber; large hole in rear, daylight through; 
very numerous and large splinters blown out.” 
The great disadvantage of these shells is, that they break into such few 
pieces, and in some cases even do not break up at all, owing to the great 
toughness and tenacity which is given to them, to enable them to penetrate 
the iron plates ; and consequently their action as shells cannot be compared 
to cast-iron. But it is quite possible that gun-cotton may become the 
means of remedying this great defect, by its employment in lieu of gun¬ 
powder for the bursting charge. 
I have already alluded to the serious damage caused to the fastenings of 
iron clad structures by steel shell, and the report made on the experiments 
with Mr Whitworth's shells in November 1862, calls especial attention to 
this point as follows :— 
“The opinion which we have already expressed regarding the objections to the 
present mode of fastening armour plates, received confirmation by the number of 
bolts broken after a very few rounds of firing; the injury in the present instance is 
the more remarkable considering the nature of the damage inflicted by the Whit¬ 
worth projectiles, viz. the punching of a clean hole in the plate.” 
In a recent experiment at Shoeburyness, two Armstrong 70-pr. steel shell 
fired with charges of 14 lbs., broke eighteen bolts in a “ Warrior ” target; 
one round was fired at 50 yds. range, and the second at 200 yds. 
Captain Hewlett, E.N., late in command of the “ Excellent,” and who, 
up to 1861, had had a larger experience of the results of practice against iron 
* Vide p. 176. 
