THE WORLD'S WAR-SHIPS. 
19 
while her speed is 13*84 knots. She proved undoubtedly a success ; 
for after a long trial, she and her sister ship, the Thunderer, have 
amply proved themselves good sea boats. Before dismissing them I 
may remark that they cannot be mistaken from any of the mastless 
ships yet mentioned from their having two funnels, and from their 
superior size and a fighting top on their military mast. 
The Dreadnought, the next of this type, is an improved Thunderer. 
The armoured breastwork extends against the sides. She is 85 feet 
longer, while the armoured belt extends the whole length of the ship 
at the same height above the water-line, while in the other two it 
diminishes considerably towards the bow. The lower edge of the 
armour is carried downwards in the stem both to strengthen it and to 
afford a better resistance to a raking fire. Her armour, too, is nearly 
two inches thicker (14 inches), where the Devastation has only 12 
inches. The only way I can point, to distinguish her from the two 
older vessels, is that her bow is a good deal higher. In fact, almost 
worthy of the word forecastle. I may remark in passing, that the 
need of being able to tell one ship from another, and to know something 
of her structure, was well illustrated this morning. At early drill the 
Thunderer was lying at anchor some 1000 yards from our battery. 
She naturally formed the target laid on. After some little delibera¬ 
tion it was naturally agreed that with the 80-prs. we were using 
the fighting top would be the only part we could annoy her in. 
A 9-inch M.L.R. near might have been used to attepipt to damage 
her magazine, one of the officers saying he knew where it was placed. 
Now the highly important fact of her having an unarmoured super¬ 
structure round her citadel or breastwork was unknown to the battery, 
the destruction of this, even with light guns, was certain ; and, as 
Lord Brassey avers, with a disturbed sea a serious loss of stability 
might occur. Now in this case the papers had informed us it was 
the Thunderer, in war one would want to know whether it might not 
be the Dreadnought, for if so a hopeless task might be attempted. 
While the Dreadnought was being tried, the Brazilian turret-ship, 
Independencia, was bought, and re-named the Neptune. I have already 
mentioned her as being the only vessel in our service that could 
reasonably be mistaken for the Monarch; of which, though built 10 
years later she is an improved type. Her length is, it is true, 30 feet 
less, but her beam is five feet six inches greater, giving her 9300 tons 
displacement to 8800 ; while her armour is 12 inches as compared with 
seven inches, that on the turrets being 13 inches in place of 10 inches. 
The height of the freeboard of the armoured redoubt or breastwork is 
only 11 feet in place of 14 feet, as in the Monarch, but it has been 
observed that the greater beam seems to ensure for this fully-masted 
ship a sufficient stability. She has been called by some a “ masted 
Devastation/' but the description is not, I think, a good one. In one 
thing she somewhat resembles that ship, and that is in the form of her 
flying deck, which is much shorter than in the Monarch, leaving the 
fore turret in the open. This makes a ready means of separating her 
from the Monarch, though she has two funnels instead of one. Her 
weak points are that her engines are only covered with 12 inches of 
