waves, the gun would be as a part of the ship’s side.
The thickness of the gun is equal to the bore, the breech (l) being reinforced where the greatest strain of the powder is taken. The breech is closed by a breech-pin (m) flat on the face next the powder and circular behind. This pin can be moved in and out by a moveable pinion and winch, working in the back of the pin, so as to close or open the bore, which is smooth and not rifled, and the vent is on the pin, where it projects at the side of the gun—a cap being struck by a hammer on the upper surface as with an ordinary shoulder-gun. This arrangement facilitates the renewal of the vent in case of wear, but it is yet a problem, whether it is not better to fire the powder in front next the shot. In charging the gun a thick wad of papier-maché, placed between the powder and the breech, will effectually prevent any escape of gas.
The hinder part of the gun is supported by two or (if preferred) by four wheels (n) of small diameter, connected by a frame running in a circle, the centre of which is the ball at the muzzle. The gun is supported on a pivot formed by a water-ram, with a small pump to work it, involving but little labour. In this mode the horizontal and vertical movement can be given to the gun with great accuracy. The wheels may be geared, and not half the number of men will be required to work this gun of five times the usual power.
Fig. 2 represents an outline of the deck of a vessel of say 60 feet beam and 400 feet in length, or any larger size that may be needed for the requisite displacement. Two guns (a a) are placed stem and stern, or rather at either end, being both alike, and five on each side, fourteen in all, being 700 tons of metal on one deck, and capable of throwing fifteen cwt. of metal at a broadside, being equal in weight to the shot of 25 service guns of 95 cwt., but with something like twenty times the destructive effect. If this vessel be covered with armour plates, 11 feet above and 11 feet below the water line, 4½ inches in thickness, the weight will be about 1300 tons, with the guns 2000 tons, or about one-eleventh the carrying power of the Great Eastern. If 3-inch thickness of wrought-iron plates placed at the angle proved better than 4½ inches vertical, the total weight would be about 1570 tons. If the draught of water formed by the apex at f were too great, the inverted pyramid could be truncated say to the ballast-line at e, or any higher elevation, giving sufficient longitudinal stiffness as a beam; but it is obvious that making a perfect apex forms a stronger beam. In any case the angle downwards from the water-line must be preserved.
Now, suppose two vessels of this class to be opposed to each other, they could produce very little effect at long shots. What they would do yard-arm and yard-arm with small charges of powder is a problem. With the muzzles depressed possibly the guns might batter in the top sides, but they could scarcely effect anything below the water-line, and the men would be quite sheltered till the topsides were burst in. No bursting of the guns need take place, for the steam power could easily pour a stream of water through them to cool and cleanse them. Supposing the guns inefficient, there would be two other modes of attack. First by a duel, like two rams butting each other, which would give room for every kind of skill in manœuvring. If one craft could strike the other amidships, it would probably involve destruction; but if, like two rams, they only presented their stems to attack, it would be very difficult to strike. In such case a small quantity of powder might pitch the heavy shot over each other’s bows, rolling them from stem to stern, dismounting the guns, and sweeping away the men. This would be more than ever a fight of skill and energy, and the web-footed people would have the advantage, as of old, over the shore-goers.
If the vessels were side by side there would be a kind of ditch between them, formed by their top sides, eight feet in depth, with the sides sloping at an angle of forty-five degrees, and sixteen feet in width. There would be more skill in hitching the two craft together and boarding. It would then be a question of riflemen picking off and boarding parties encountering. In that kind of fray, muscle and cool courage would certainly have the advantage as ever, over nerves and mere élan.
Of the principles I have endeavoured to set forth in the foregoing columns there can hardly be a doubt. First: iron vessels without any combustible material to be affected by the furnace-fires of the engines, or the combustible compounds of the foe. Secondly: the armour plates, placed at such an angle as to increase their strength and elude the force of the shot. Thirdly: great speed to manœuvre. Fourthly: closed portholes. Fifthly: high iron buttresses—as means of defence. Sixthly: Heavy non-recoiling guns of great weight. Seventhly: spherical muzzles, moving on sockets in the vessel’s side. Eighthly: breech-loaders without complication. Ninthly: smooth bores without rifles. Tenthly: very heavy shot. Eleventhly: elevating water-ram, cheap and powerful—as means of offence.
This is the class of vessels which will outmatch La Gloire, and this also is the class of vessels which, if our enemies obtain before we do, we have, nevertheless, any number of the descendants of the old Norse Coursers, who would try conclusions in getting on their decks, even from the “ships that are but boards,” and may serve only as bridges to get at them, while dodging their shot as best may be.
In all that needs doing there is no need of great expenditure of the public money, but only of our economically putting in practice the system of trial and error. When a thing can be demonstrated to be right, and cannot be demonstrated to be wrong by the use of the English language, it ought to be tried, if probably useful, and not too costly. The costly thing is the obstinate avoidal of trials, and the rushing into large manufactures without the trials, discovering what is wrong, only on a large scale, making a nine days’ wonder at the cost of a hundred thousand pounds, where a single thousand would suffice. There is, it is true, no royal road to originality, but so also