THE WORLD 3 S WAR-SHIPS. 
15 
barque. 1 Her iron plating is higher in the central battery^ though it 
extends in a narrower belt throughout the ship’s length. All three 
have the reverse-curved, swan-breasted bow. Originally her armour 
was the same height throughout, but part has been removed. 
From this time forth far shorter ships prevail, the long vessels having 
been found awkward to manoeuvre. Now again, twin screws having 
been introduced, we are fast approaching the old types ; short vessels 
proving bad at keeping up their speed in a heavy sea. 
A long advance, however, was made with the Bellerophon, the first 
of the central battery ships. She has also a double bottom, while her 
construction differed structionally from the earlier ships. Her armour 
is six inches, running in a narrow belt from stem to stern, while an 
additional belt runs on the top of this for 98 feet of her length, then 
passing at right angle across her, thus forming a rectangle. This 
provides cover for the central battery of 10 8-inch B.L. guns, while the 
same height of armour runs round her bow, where she has mounted four 
6-inch ditto. She was also the first ship built with a ram ; the form 
of her bow enabling her to give a bow fire from her 6-inch guns 
though she was unable to thus use the guns in her central battery. 
She has also lighter guns in the open. It will be observed that here 
the extra height of armour is used to protect her armament and gun 
crews. Her length is but 300 feet. She has two funnels, standing 
above the central battery. 
The Hercules, a little larger, is an improved Bellerophon. Her 
armour is similarly put on, except that the curious form of double bow 
has disappeared, the belt running up to her bow; while a similar 
battery is formed at her stern for stern chasers. But the chief im¬ 
provement consisted of recesses in the ship’s sides forward and aft of 
the battery ; thus making four ports in the corners of the central 
battery, from which they are able to fire within a few degrees of the 
line of keel. Her armour is of the thickness of nine inches at the 
water-line, and extends three feet above and 3”5 feet below it, of eight 
inches on the most important parts of the battery and six inches 
elsewhere, Mr. Reed, her designer, says :— 
“ The total thickness of iron (neglecting the girders and frames) 
is, then, 11*25 inches, and of this nine inches are in one 
thickness; the teak backing has a total thickness of about 
40 inches. The trial at Shoeburyness of a target con¬ 
structed to represent this part of the ship’s side, proved 
that it was virtually impenetrable to the 600-pr. gun, 2 and 
perhaps no better idea of the increase of the resisting 
power of the sides of our ironclads can be obtained than 
that derived from a comparison of the 68-pr. gun which 
the Warrior’s (and Black Prince’s) side was capable of 
resisting with the 600-pr. tried against the Hercules’ 
target.” 
Here, then, is a vessel that requires skill in hitting, since on the water- 
1 I have doubts about this at present, but it was the fact in 1882 at least. 
2 Armstrong. 
