THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
431 
As regards No. 3 of the results here specified, the Special Committee 
on Iron point out in their report that “ it should be borne in mind that 
the smaller the plates the easier their manufacture, the more trustworthy 
their quality, and the less they cost per ton,all very important considera¬ 
tions in dealing with thousands of tons of armour plates. We are, however, 
able to procure plates in this country of uniform good quality, of the largest 
size ever required, but till very recently this was not the case in France— 
Messrs Petin and Gaudet having in 1863 forwarded some plates for trial at 
Portsmouth, they proved to be of excellent quality, and eventually a contract 
was given to the firm for the supply of some tons of armour plates; some of 
the samples subsequently forwarded under this contract, proved, however, very 
inferior, and Messrs Petin and Gaudet attributed the failure to the size of the 
plates, stating that the largest plates manufactured for the French govern¬ 
ment were only 12 feet long, instead of 15 or 16 feet, the length required by 
our government, in consequence of which the pile was required to be so much 
thicker that they could not depend on its being properly heated. 
Subsequently Messrs Petin and Gaudet constructed new and larger furnaces 
and have again been successful in the quality of their plates. 
In a speech at the Institution of Civil Engineers in January 1862, Mr 
Samuda, one of our most eminent iron ship builders, is reported to have said 
that:— 
“ Although he had expressed the opinion, that iron vessels of war would eventually 
supersede those built of iron and wood combined, he still thought, that the Govern¬ 
ment was pursuing a right course in utilizing the present wooden ships by plating 
them ; and he believed that the transition, from wood to iron, would not be the less 
effectual for being gradual. Those ships would be effective and valuable ships for 
a time: and, looking to the necessity which existed for obtaining a mail-clad navy, 
within the shortest possible period, and to the length of time, which iron structures 
necessarily occupied in building, he had no doubt, that the Government was 
exercising a wise discretion in fortifying the wooden vessels, with iron armour 
plates, to the extent to which they were capable of carrying them. At the same 
time, this expedient should only be considered as a provisional measure. In 
armour-plating wooden vessels, iron longitudinal ribs should be let into the wood 
back, to support the edges of the plates, upon a similar system to that which he had 
proposed for iron vessels. The plates should be bolted to the timber sides, and 
the longitudinal ribs, while they prevented the edges of the plates from curling up, 
would add strength to the sides of the vessels.” 
Since this speech "was made, not only have some of the existing wooden 
ships been plated, but new vessels of the “Lord Warden” class have been 
constructed, and the advisability of the course which has thus been adopted 
has been very severely criticized. On the one hand those who agree with 
Mr Samuda's views assert that all our iron-clad fleet ought to be iron 
vessels, whilst the advocates of wooden ships bring forward many arguments 
in favour of wood. For instance ; wooden ships are less expensive to build, 
they can be coppered and therefore kept clean, and furthermore that as long 
as other nations are content with wooden ships armour-plated, we have no 
occasion to resort to the expensive luxury of iron ships. 
