with paddle-boxes, the arrangement had the appearance of a great
undershot mill-wheel on each side of the boat, above the deck of which
was placed the steam-engine, a position it has retained in all these
river-boats, in which a huge, rhombus-shaped beam, oscillating high
above the deck, is a conspicuous feature. Another boat of much larger
dimensions was built the following year, having a tonnage of nearly 300,
and from that time there has been a more or less regular increase in the
sizes of the vessels, until in 1866 a tonnage of nearly 3,000 was
reached. In 1817 a vessel called the _Livingstone_ was launched, which
was able to go up to Albany in eighteen hours. In 1823 was launched the
_James Kent_, a novel feature in which vessel was the boiler made of
copper, and weighing upwards of 30 tons. It was so planned that if it
happened to burst, the hot water would be carried through the bottom of
the vessel by tubes or hollow pillars. From this it appears that
considerable apprehension existed as to the liability of the boilers
exploding. We are told that the cost of the copper boiler was in this
case nearly one-third of that of the whole vessel. The cabins are
described as having been very handsomely fitted up, and the speed was
such that fourteen hours sufficed for the trip up river to Albany. Many
fine boats were placed on the river during the twenty following years,
and these were marked by various improvements, as when, in 1840,
anthracite coal was for the first time substituted for wood as the fuel
for the furnaces, with the effect of reducing the cost of this item to
one-half. Then, in 1844, iron began to be used for constructing the
hulls, and a few years afterwards, steamers having a speed of twenty
miles an hour and over, became quite common. In 1865, and again in the
eighties, some four screw-propeller boats were built; but this type does
not appear to have found much favour on the Hudson, for the large
paddle-wheels and the single or double beam, working high above the
deck, have continued the almost universal form of construction. A very
popular and famous boat was placed on the Hudson in 1861. This was the
_Mary Powell_, called the “Queen of the Hudson,” which, although a boat
of moderate tonnage (983), was able on occasion to steam at the rate of
twenty-five miles an hour. This vessel was placed on the line between
New York and Rondont, and was still running in 1894.
One of the most modern and most elegant boats on the Hudson is the _New
York_, launched in 1887, and declared by Mr. Stanton to be one of the
finest river steam-boats in the world, well arranged, and beautifully
finished and furnished. She is built on fine lines, is 311 feet long, 40
feet broad, and with a tonnage of 1,552, draws only 12¼ feet of water.
She can steam at twenty miles an hour, and is placed on one of the New
York and Albany lines. Throughout the summer there are both day and
night boats for Albany, and the latter especially are of great size,
three stories high, and provided with saloons, state-rooms, and, in
fact, all the accommodation of a luxurious first-class hotel. The
vessels named in this notice include but a few of the splendid boats
that ply on the River Hudson, and, in respect of their numbers, speed,
and comfort, it may safely be asserted that they cannot be equalled on
any other river in the world.
[Illustration:
PLATE X.
THE “NEW YORK.”
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 69.—_H.M.S. Devastation in Queenstown Harbour._
]
SHIPS OF WAR.
“Take it all in all, a ship of the line is the most honourable thing
that man, as a gregarious animal, has ever produced. By himself,
unhelped, he can do better things than ships of the line; he can make
poems, and pictures, and other such concentrations of what is best in
him. But as a being living in flocks, and hammering out with alternate
strokes and mutual agreement, what is necessary for him in those flocks
to get or produce, the ship of the line is his first work. Into that he
has put as much of his human patience, common sense, forethought,
experimental philosophy, self-control, habits of order and obedience,
thoroughly wrought hand-work, defiance of brute elements, careless
courage, careful patriotism, and calm expectation of the judgment of
God, as can well be put into a space of 300 ft. long by 80 ft. broad.
And I am thankful to have lived in an age when I could see this thing so
done.” So wrote Mr. Ruskin about forty years ago, referring, of course,
to the old wooden line-of-battle ships. It may be doubted whether he
would have written thus enthusiastically about so unpicturesque an
object as the _Glatton_, just as it may be doubted whether the
armour-plated steamers will attain the same celebrity in romance and in
verse as the old frigates with their “wooden walls.” Certain it is that
the patience, forethought, experimental philosophy, thoroughly wrought
hand-work, careful patriotism, and other good qualities which Mr. Ruskin
saw in the wooden frigates, are not the less displayed in the new
ironclads.
Floating batteries, plated with iron, were employed in the Crimean War
at the instigation of the French Emperor. About the same time the
question of protecting ships of war by some kind of defensive armour was
forced upon the attention of maritime powers, by the great strides with
which the improvements in artillery were advancing; for the new guns
could hurl projectiles capable of penetrating, with the greatest ease,
any wooden ship afloat. The French Government took the initiative by
constructing _La Gloire_, a timber-framed ship, covered with an armour
of rolled iron plates, 4½ in. thick. The British Admiralty quickly
followed with the _Warrior_, a frigate similar in shape to the wooden
frigates, but built on an iron frame, with armour composed of plates 4½
in. thick, backed by 18 in. of solid teak-wood, and provided with an
inner skin of iron. The _Warrior_ was 380 ft. long, but only 213 ft. of
this length was armoured. The defensive armour carried by the _Warrior_,
and the ironclads constructed immediately afterwards, was quite capable
of resisting the impact of the 68 lb. shot, which was at that time the
heaviest projectile that could be thrown by naval guns. But to the
increasing power of the new artillery it soon became necessary to oppose
increased thickness of iron plates. The earlier ironclads carried a
considerable number of guns, which could, however, deliver only a
broadside fire, that is, the shots could, for the most part, be sent
only in a direction at right angles to the ship’s length, or nearly so.
But in the more recently built ironclads there are very few guns, which
are, however, six times the weight of the old sixty-eight pounders, and
are capable of hurling projectiles of enormous weight. The ships built
after the _Warrior_ were completely protected by iron plates, and the
thickness of the plates has been increased from time to time, with a
view of resisting the increased power which has been progressively given
to naval guns. A contest, not yet terminated, has been going on between
the artillerist and the ship-builder; the one endeavouring to make his
guns capable of penetrating with their shot the strongest defensive
armour of the ships, the other adding inch after inch to the thickness
of his plates, in order, if possible, to render his ship invulnerable.
[Illustration:
FIG. 70.—_Section of H.M.S. Hercules._
]
One of the finest of the large ironclads is the _Hercules_, of which a
section amidships is presented on the next page. This ship is 325 ft. in
length, and 59 ft. in breadth, and is fitted with very powerful engines
which will work up to 8,529 indicated horse-power. The tonnage is 5,226;
weight of hull, 4,022 tons; weight of the armour and its backing, 1,690
tons; weight of engines, boilers, and coals, 1,826 tons; total with
equipment and armament, 8,676 tons. Although the _Hercules_ carries this
enormous weight of armour and armament, her speed is very great,
excelling, in fact, that of any merchant steamer afloat, for she can
steam at the rate of nearly 17 miles an hour. She also possesses, in a
remarkable degree, the property which naval men call _handiness_; that
is, she can be quickly turned round in a comparatively small space. The
handiness of a steamer is tested by causing her to steam at full speed
with the helm hard over, when the vessel will describe a circle. The
smaller the diameter of that circle, and the shorter the time required
to complete it, the better will the vessel execute the movements
required in naval tactics. Comparing the performances of the _Warrior_
and the _Hercules_, we find that the smallest circle the former can
describe is 1,050 yards in diameter, and requires nine minutes for its
completion, whereas the latter can steam round a circle of only 560
yards diameter in four minutes. The section (Fig. 70) shows that, like
the _Great Eastern_, the _Hercules_ is constructed with a double hull,
so that she would be safe, even in the event of such an accident as
actually occurred to the _Great Eastern_, when a hole was made by the
stripping off of her bottom plates, 80 ft. long and 5 ft. wide. The
defensive armour of the _Hercules_ is, it will be observed, greatly
strengthened near the water-line, where damage to the ship’s side would
be most fatal. The outer iron plates are here 9 in. thick, while in
other parts the thickness is 8 in., and in the less important positions
6 in. The whole of the hull is, however, completely protected above the
water-line, and the iron plates are backed up by solid teak-wood for a
thickness of from 10 in. to 12 in. The teak is placed between girders,
which are attached to another iron plating 1½ in. thick, supported by
girders 2 ft. apart. The spaces between these girders are also filled
with teak, and the whole is lined with an inner skin of iron plating, ¾
in. thick. The belt along the water-line has thus altogether 11¼ in. of
iron, of which 9 in. are in one thickness, and this part is, moreover,
backed by additional layers of teak, as shown in the section; so that,
besides the 11¼ in. of iron, the ship’s side has here 3 ft. 8 in. total
thickness of solid teak-wood. The deck is also covered with iron plates,
to protect the vessel from vertical fire. The _Hercules_ carries eight
18–ton guns as her central battery, and two 12–ton guns in her bow and
stern: these guns are rifled, and each of the larger ones is capable of
throwing a shot weighing 400 lbs. The guns can be trained so as to fire
within 15° of the direction of the keel; for near the ends of the
central battery the ports are indented, and the guns are mounted on
Scott’s carriages, in such a manner that any gun-slide can be run on to
a small turn-table, and shunted to another port, just as a
railway-carriage is shunted from one line to another. Targets for
artillery practice were built so as to represent the construction of the
side of the _Hercules_, and it was found, as the result of many
experiments, that the vessel could not be penetrated by the 600 lb. shot
from an Armstrong gun, fired at a distance of 700 yds. The production of
such iron plates, and those of even greater thickness which have since
been used, forms a striking example of the skill with which iron is
worked. These plates are made by rolling, and it will be understood that
the machinery used in their formation must be of the most powerful kind,
when it is stated that plates from 9 in. to 15 in. thick are formed with
a length of 16 ft. and a breadth of 4 ft. The plates are bent, while red
hot, by enormous hydraulic pressure, applied to certain blocks, upon
which the plates are laid, the block having a height adjusted according
to the curve required. The operation requires great care, as it must be
accomplished without straining the parts in a manner injurious to the
strength of the plate.
[Illustration:
FIG. 71.—_Section of H.M.S. Inconstant._
]
Fig. 71 on the next page is the section of another ship of war, the
_Inconstant_, which has not, like the _Hercules_, been designed to
withstand the impact of heavy projectiles, but has been built mainly
with a view to speed. The _Inconstant_ has only a thin covering of iron
plating, except in that portion of the side which is above water, where
there is a certain thickness of iron diminishing from the water-line
upwards, but not enough to entitle the _Inconstant_ to be classed as an
armoured vessel. This ship, however, may be a truly formidable
antagonist, for she carries a considerable number of heavy guns, which
her speed would enable her to use with great effect against an adversary
incapable of manœuvring so rapidly. She could give chase, or could run
in and deliver her fire, escaping by her speed from hostile pursuit in
cases where the slower movements of a ponderous ironclad would be much
less effective. The _Inconstant_ carries ten 12–ton guns of 9 in.
calibre, and six 6–ton 7 in. guns, all rifled muzzle-loaders, mounted on
improved iron carriages, which give great facilities for handling them
The ship is a frigate 338 ft. long and 50 ft. broad, with a depth in the
hold of 17 ft. 6 in. She is divided by bulkheads into eleven water-tight
compartments. The engines are of 6,500 indicated horse-power, and the
vessel attains an average speed of more than 18½ miles per hour.
[Illustration:
FIG. 72.—_Section, Elevation, and Plan of Turret of H.M.S. Captain._
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 73.—_H.M.S. Captain._
]
A new system of mounting very heavy naval guns was proposed by Captain
Coles about 1861. This plan consists in carrying one or two very heavy
guns in a low circular tower or turret, which can be made to revolve
horizontally by proper machinery. The turret itself is heavily armoured,
so as to be proof against all shot, and is carried on the deck of the
ship, which is so arranged that the guns in the turret can be fired at
small angles with the keel. The British Admiralty having approved of
Captain Coles’ plans, two first-class vessels were ordered to be built
on the turret system. These were the _Monarch_ and the _Captain_—the
latter of which we select for description on account of the melancholy
interest which attaches to her. On page 155 a diagram is given
representing the profile of the _Captain_, in which some of the
peculiarities of the ship are indicated—the turrets with the muzzles of
two guns projecting from each being easily recognized. The _Captain_ was
320 ft. long and 53 ft. wide. She was covered with armour plates down to
5 ft. below the water-line, as represented by the dark shading in the
diagram. The outer plating was 8 in. thick opposite the turrets, and 7
in. thick in other parts. It was backed up by 12 in. of teak; there were
two inner skins of iron each ¾ in. thick, then a framework with
longitudinal girders 10 in. deep. The deck was plated in the spaces
opposite the turrets with iron 1½ in. thick. The _Captain_ was fitted
with twin screws—that is, instead of having a single screw, one was
placed on each side, their shafts being, of course, parallel with the
vessel’s length. The object of having two screws was not greater power,
for it is probable that a single screw would be more effectual in
propelling the ship; but this arrangement was adopted because it was
considered that, had only one screw been fixed, the ship might easily be
disabled by the breaking of a blade or shaft; whereas in the case of
such an accident to one of the twin screws, the other would still be
available. The twin screws could also be used for steering, and the
vessel could be controlled without the rudder, as the engines were quite
independent of each other, each screw having a separate pair. The
diameter of the screws was 17 ft. The erections which are shown on the
deck between the turrets afforded spacious quarters for the officers and
men. These structures were about half the width of the deck, and tapered
off to a point towards the turrets, so as leave an unimpeded space for
training the guns, which could be fired at so small an angle as 6° with
the length of the vessel. Above these erections, and quite over the
turrets, was another deck, 26 ft. wide, called the “hurricane deck.” The
ship was fully rigged and carried a large spread of canvas. But the
special features are the revolving turrets, and one of these is
represented in detail in Fig. 72, which gives a section, part elevation,
and plan. Of the construction of the turret, and of the mode in which it
was made to revolve, these drawings convey an idea sufficiently clear to
obviate the necessity of a minute description. Each turret had an
outside diameter of 27 ft., but inside the diameter was only 22 ft. 6
in., the walls being, therefore, 2 ft. 3 in. thick—nearly half this
thickness consisting of iron plating. Separate engines were provided for
turning the turrets, and they could also be turned by men working at the
handles shown in the figures. Each turret carried two 25–ton Armstrong
guns, capable of receiving a charge of 70 lbs. of gunpowder, and of
throwing a 600 lb. shot.
After some preliminary trials the _Captain_ was sent to sea, and behaved
so well, that Captain Coles and Messrs. Laird, her designer and
contractors, were perfectly satisfied with her qualities as a sea-going
ship. She was then sent in the autumn of 1870 on a cruise with the
fleet, and all went well until a little after midnight between the 6th
and 7th September, 1870, when she suddenly foundered at sea off Cape
Finisterre. The news of this disaster created a profound sensation
throughout Great Britain, for, with the exception of nineteen persons,
the whole crew of five hundred persons went down with the ship. Captain
Coles, the inventor of the turrets, was in the ill-fated vessel and
perished with the rest, as did also Captain Burgoyne, the gallant
commander, and the many other distinguished naval officers who had been
appointed to the ship; among the rest was a son of Mr. Childers, then
First Lord of the Admiralty. Although the night on which this
unfortunate ship went down was squally, with rain, and a heavy sea
running, the case was not that of an ordinary shipwreck in which a
vessel is overwhelmed by a raging storm. It might be said, indeed, of
the loss of the _Captain_ as of that of the _Royal George_:
“It was not in the battle;
No tempest gave the shock;
She sprang no fatal leak;
She ran upon no rock.”
[Illustration:
FIG. 74.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 75.
]