obeyed. Lastly, a vessel without guns disabled in her machinery is at the mercy of any antagonist who can lay off beyond the range of torpedoes, if the ram has these weapons, and use his guns without fear of reply. It appears to me that such an advantage should never be conceded; and for these principal reasons I think the gunless ram is a phase of construction based on erroneous assumptions which have a temporary hold on the imagination, but which disappear under practical consideration of the probabilities in war.
It is, moreover, fallacious to suppose that to ram a vessel under any circumstances is an easy operation even with a superiority of speed. Accidental collisions with disastrous results have, we know, not been unfrequent. The sinking of the 'Vanguard' off the Irish coast by the 'Iron Duke,' and the loss of the 'Grosser Kurfurst' off Folkestone, from being accidentally rammed by a companion, are instances of this and examples of the power of the ram. To strike a ship at anchor as the 'Cumberland' was struck by the 'Merrimac' does not call forth any great exercise of skill. When we examine, however, instances in which it has been desired to ram a ship in movement one is struck by the failures to attain this object which history records. In May 1879, during the war between Chili and Peru, the 'Huascar,' a small turret ship then belonging to the latter power, engaged the Chilian wooden corvette 'Esmeralda.' The latter was, of course, quite overmatched, though it required forty shots from the 'Huascar' before her adversary was disabled. The 'Huascar' then
