CHAPTER VII
ARMOUR — LATER TURRET SHIPS
Early Iron Plates—Increased Thickness—Competition of Guns and Armour—Steel and Compound Plates supersede Iron—Deck and Coal Protection—Progress of Turret Ships 'Nile,' 'Trafalgar' and 'Hood,' 'Victoria' and 'Sanspareil'—Second-Class Battle Ships Early Types—Latest Development—'Centurion' and 'Barfleur.'
In describing the 'Inflexible' I have stated that her turrets were protected with compound armour instead of the wrought-iron plates which up to that time had been employed. As the struggle between steel and compound plates has for some years been almost as keen as that between guns and armour, a brief history of this portion of our subject seems here desirable.
I have read that about thirty years ago the present Sir John Brown happened to be at Toulon and saw the new French ironclad 'La Gloire.' Her plates were 5 ft. long, 2 ft. wide, and 4½ in. thick. They had been hammered to these dimensions, as were all the plates of the early American monitors. Mr Brown—as he then was—came to the conclusion that such plates could be rolled, and on his return to England instituted a series of experiments which fully bore out this view. When it was decided to put 4½ in. of iron on the 'Warrior,' rolled plates of this thickness were manu-
