430 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
viz. protecting ordinary wooden ships with thick armour plates of small area, 
and securing them to the side of the ship by a large number of “ wood 
screws.” 
The fastenings were very numerous, being placed 14" from centre to 
centre, thus allowing about one screw to every square foot of surface, in place 
of to every 3 Jft. as in the “ Warrior.” The form of the “wood screws” JE will 
be seen on reference to the accompanying drawing, 
but it may be as well to state, that they are merely 
screws of iron with raised threads to be screwed 
into wood.*' Those used in the “Small Plate” 
facturers in Prance, and were sent as a sample of 
those supplied by them for the “fregates cuirassees” 
of the Prench navy. They proved of excellent 
quality, and it is recorded that during the firing 
some of them were “bent almost into a knot 
without cracking.” 
The total thickness of timber in the “ Small 
Plate” target was 2' 3", viz. frame timbers (A) 
11"; inner planking (. B ) 6"; and outer planking 
( C ) 10". The armour plates (D) were of two thick¬ 
nesses, viz. the upper rows 4|" and the lower 5*9", this being the plan 
adopted in Prance in order to afford additional protection at the water line. 
3,113 lbs. weight of shot (chiefly steel and chilled cast-iron) struck the 
target at 200 yards range, and the following appears to be the general 
results obtained from the experiment:—- 
(1) A wooden ship simply plated with 6 inches, of iron (although proof 
against the 68-pr. smooth bore or 110-pr. rifled artillery with steel shot), 
may be successfully attacked at 1500 yards distance by steel shot from rifled 
guns capable of bearing about 40 lbs. charges of powder. 
(2) The great number of splinters of wood, in rear of this target, shows 
how untenable wooden ships must be when penetrated by heavy artillery, 
without the protection afforded by an iron skin. 
(3) Plates being decidedly weaker towards the edges than in the middle, 
small area is a disadvantage. 
(4) When plates are of good quality, bolt holes are less injurious than 
had been supposed. 
(5) The method of fastening the plates was a marked success. 
target were 19 inches long and 1J inches in diameter; 
they were procured from Messrs Petin and Gaudet 
of Eive-de-Gier, the leading armour plate manu- 
* This description may appear superfluous, but I give it, on account of much misconception having 
existed on the subject. In an article in Frazer’s Magazine for January, on “The Condition and 
Prospects of the Navy,” the writer makes the following statement.“the French system of 
fastening their plates to the side of the ship with large wooden screws is superior to our own, in 
which for all ships hitherto launched, iron bolts with the old-fashioned nut are still adhered to.” 
