after midnight he was roused from his sleep by a noise, and feeling the
ship uneasy, he dressed, took a light, and went into the after turret,
to see if the guns were all right. He found everything secure in the
turret, but that moment he felt the ship heel steadily over, and a heavy
sea having struck her on the weather side, the water flowed into the
turret, and he got out through the hole in the top of the turret by
which the guns were pointed, only to find himself in the water. He swam
to the steam-pinnace, which he saw floating bottom upwards, and there he
was joined by Captain Burgoyne and a few others. He saw the ship turn
bottom up, and sink stern first, the whole time from her turning over to
sinking not being more than a few minutes. Seeing the launch drifting
within a few yards, he called out, “Jump, men! it is your last chance.”
He jumped, and with three others reached a launch, in which were fifteen
persons, all belonging to the watch on deck, who had found means of
getting into this boat. One of these had got a footing on the hull of
the ship as she was turning over, and he actually walked over the bottom
of the vessel, but was washed off by a wave and rescued by those who in
the meantime had got into the launch. It appears that Captain Burgoyne
either remained on the pinnace or failed to reach the launch. Those who
were in that boat, finding the captain had not reached them, made an
effort to turn their boat back to pick him up, but the boat was nearly
swamped by the heavy seas, and they were obliged to let her drift. One
man was at this time washed out of the boat and lost, after having but
the moment before exclaimed, “Now, lads, I think we are all right.”
After twelve hours’ hard rowing, without food or water, the survivors,
numbering sixteen men and petty officers and three boys, reached Cape
Finisterre, where they received help and attention. On their arrival in
England, a court-martial was, according to the rules of the service,
formally held on the survivors, but in reality it was occupied in
investigating the cause of the catastrophe. The reader may probably be
able to understand what the cause was by giving his attention to some
general considerations, which apply to all ships whatever, and by a
careful examination of the diagrams, Figs. 74 and 75, which are copied
from diagrams that were placed in the hands of the members of the
court-martial. The letters b and g and the arrows are, however, added,
to serve in illustration of a part of the explanation. The vessel is
represented as heeled over in smooth water, and the gradations on the
semicircle in Fig. 74 will enable the reader to understand how the heel
is measured by angles. If the ship were upright, the centre line would
coincide with the upright line, marked o on the semicircle, and drawn
from its centre. Suppose a level line drawn through the centre of the
semicircle, and let the circumference between the point where the last
line cuts it and the point o be divided into ninety equal parts, and let
these parts be numbered, and straight lines drawn from the centre to
each point of division. In the figure the lines are drawn at every fifth
division, and the centre line of the ship coincides with that drawn
through the forty-fifth division. In this case the vessel is said to be
inclined, or heeled, at an angle of forty-five degrees, which is usually
written 45°. In a position half-way between this and the upright the
angle of heel would be 22½°, and so on. The reader no doubt perceives
that a ship, like any other body, must be supported, and he is probably
aware that the support is afforded by the upward pressure of the water.
He may also be familiar with the fact that the weight of every body acts
upon it as if the whole weight were concentrated at one certain point,
and that this point is called the centre of gravity of the body.
Whatever may be the position of the body itself, its centre of gravity
remains always at the same point with reference to the body. When the
centre of gravity happens to be within the solid substance of a body,
there is no difficulty in thinking of the force of gravitation acting as
a downward pull applied at the centre of gravity. But this point is by
no means always within the substance of bodies: as often as not it is in
the air outside of the body. Thus the centre of gravity of a uniform
ring or hoop is in the centre, where, of course, it has no material
connection with the hoop; but in whatever position the hoop may be
placed, the earth’s attraction pulls it _as if_ this central point were
rigidly connected with the hoop, and a string were attached to the point
and constantly pulled downwards. This explanation of the meaning of
centre of gravity may not be altogether superfluous, for, when the
causes of the loss of the _Captain_ were discussed in the newspapers, it
became evident that such terms as “centre of gravity” convey to the
minds of many but very vague notions. One writer in a newspaper enjoying
a large circulation seriously attributed the disaster to the
circumstance of the ship having lost her _centre of gravity_! The upward
pressure of water which supports a ship is the same upward pressure
which supported the water before the ship was there—that is, supported
the mass of water which the ship displaces, and which was in size and
shape the exact counterpart of the immersed part of the ship. Now, this
mass of water, considered as a whole, had itself a centre of gravity
through which its weight acted downwards, and through which it is
obvious that an equal upward pressure also acted. This centre of gravity
of the displaced water is usually termed the “centre of buoyancy,” and,
unlike the centre of gravity, it changes its position with regard to the
ship when the latter is inclined, because then the immersed part becomes
of a shape different for each inclination of the ship. Now, recalling
for an instant the fundamental law of floating bodies—namely, that the
weight of the water displaced is equal to the weight of the floating
body—we perceive that in the case of a ship there are two equal forces
acting vertically, viz., the weight of the ship or downward pull of
gravitation acting at G, Fig. 74, the centre of gravity of the ship, and
an equal upward push acting through B, the centre of buoyancy. It is
obvious that the action of these forces concur to turn a ship placed as
in Fig. 74 into the upright position. It is by no means necessary for
this effect that the centre of gravity should be below the centre of
buoyancy. All that is requisite for the stability of a ship is, that
when the ship is placed out of the upright position, these forces should
act to bring her back, which condition is secured so long as the centre
of buoyancy is nearer to the side towards which the vessel is inclined
than the centre of gravity is. When there is no other force acting on a
ship or other floating body, these two points are always in the same
vertical line. The two equal forces thus applied in parallel directions
constitute what is called in mechanics a “couple,” and the effect of
this in turning the ship back into the upright position is the same as
if a force equal to its weight were applied at the end of a lever equal
in length to the horizontal distance between the lines through B and G.
The righting force, then, increases in proportion to the horizontal
distance between the two points, and it is measured by multiplying the
weight of the ship in tons by the number of feet between the verticals
through G and B, the product being expressed in statical foot-tons, and
representing the weight in tons which would have to be applied to the
end of a lever 1 ft. long, in order to produce the same turning effect.
When a ship is kept steadily heeled over by a side wind, the pressure of
the wind and the resistance of the water through which the vessel moves
constitute another couple exactly balancing the righting couple. The
moment of the righting couple, or the righting force, or statical
stability as it is also called, is determined by calculation and
experiment from the design of the ship, and from her behaviour when a
known weight is placed in her at a known distance from the centre. Such
calculations and experiments were made in the case of the _Captain_, but
do not appear to have been conducted with sufficient care and
completeness to exhibit her deficiency in stability. After the loss of
the ship, however, elaborate computations on these points were made from
the plans and other data. The following table gives some of the results,
with the corresponding particulars concerning the _Monarch_ for the sake
of comparison:
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ │_Monarch._│_Captain._│
├───────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│ I. Angle at which the edge of the deck is │ 28° │ 14° │
│ immersed │ │ │
│ II. Statical righting force in foot-tons at │ 12,542 │ 5,700 │
│ the angle at which the deck is immersed │ │ │
│III. Angle of greatest stability │ 40° │ 21° │
│ IV. Greatest righting force in foot-tons │ 15,615 │ 7,100 │
│ V. Angle at which the righting force ceases │ 59° │ 54° │
│ VI. Reserve of dynamical stability at an angle│ 6,500 │ 410 │
│ of 14° in _dynamical_ foot-tons │ │ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────┴──────────┘
From No. V. in the above table we learn that if the _Captain_ had been
heeled to 54°, the centre of gravity would have overtaken the centre of
buoyancy—that is, the two would have been in one vertical line. Any
further heeling would have brought the points into the position shown in
Fig. 75, where it is obvious that the action of the forces is now to
turn the vessel still more on its side, and the result is an upsetting
couple instead of a righting couple.
These figures and considerations refer to the case of the vessel
floating in smooth water, but the case of a vessel floating on a wave is
not different in principle. The reader may picture to himself the
diagrams inclined so that the water-line may represent a portion of the
wave’s surface; then he must remember that the very action which heaves
up the water in a sloping surface is so compounded with gravity, that
the forces acting through G and B retain nearly the same position
relatively to the surface as before.
No. VI. in the foregoing table requires some explanation. To heel a ship
over to a certain angle a certain amount of _work_ must be done, and in
the scientific sense _work_ is done only when something is moved through
a space against a resistance. When the weight of a ton is raised 1 ft.
high, one foot ton of work is said to be done; if 2 tons were raised 1
ft., or 1 ton were raised 2 ft., then two foot-tons of work would be
done, and so on. The same would be the case if a pressure equal to those
weights were applied so as to move a thing in any direction through the
same distances. It should be carefully noticed that the foot-ton is
quite a different unit in this case from what it is as the moment of a
couple. If we heel a ship over by applying a pressure on the masts, it
is plain that the pressure must act through a certain space, and the
same heel could be caused either by means of a smaller pressure or a
greater, according as we apply it higher up or lower down; but the space
through which it must act would vary, so that the product of the
pressure and space would, however, be always the same. No. VI. shows the
amount of work that would have to be done in order completely to upset
each of the vessels when already steadily heeled over to 14°. The
amounts in the two cases are so different that we can easily understand
how a squall which would not endanger the _Monarch_ might throw the
_Captain_ over. A squall suddenly springing up would do more than heel a
vessel over to the angle at which it is able to maintain it: it would
swing it beyond that position by reason of the work done on the sails as
they are moving over with the vessel, and the latter would come to a
steady angle of heel only after a series of oscillations. Squalls,
again, which, although suddenly springing up in this manner, could not
heel the ship over beyond the angle where the stability vanishes, might
yet do so if they were intermittent and should happen to coincide in
time with the oscillations of the ship—just as a series of very small
impulses, coinciding with the time of the vibrations of a heavy
pendulum, may accumulate so as to increase the range of vibration to any
extent. It is believed that in the case of the _Captain_ the pressure of
the wind on the underside of the hurricane assisted in upsetting the
vessel. This, however, could only have exerted a very small effect
compared to that produced by the sails. The instability of the _Captain_
does not appear to have been discovered by such calculations as were
made before the vessel went to sea. It was observed, however, that the
ship when afloat was 1 ft. 6 in. deeper in the water than she should
have been—in other words, the freeboard, or side of the ship out of the
water, instead of being 8 ft. high as intended, was only 6 ft. 6 in.,
and such a difference would have a great effect on the stability.
[Illustration:
FIG. 76.—_H.M.S. Glatton._
]
The turret system has been applied to other ships on quite a different
plan. Of these the _Glatton_ is one of the most remarkable. Her
appearance is very singular, and totally unlike that which we look for
in a ship, as may be seen by an inspection of Fig. 76, page 162. The
_Glatton_, which was launched in 1871, is of the _Monitor_ class, and
was designed by Mr. E. J. Reed, who has sought to give the ship the most
complete protection. With this view the hull is covered with iron plates
below the water-line, and the deck also is cased with 3 in. iron plates,
to resist shot or shell falling vertically. The base of the turret is
shielded by a massive breastwork, which is a peculiarity of this ship.
The large quantity of iron required for all these extra defences has, of
course, the effect of increasing the immersion of the vessel, and
therefore of diminishing her speed. The freeboard when the ship is in
ordinary trim is only 3 ft. high, and means are provided for admitting
water to the lowest compartment, so as to increase the immersion by 1
ft., thus reducing the freeboard to only 2 ft. when the vessel is in
fighting trim, leaving only that small portion of the hull above water
as a mark for the enemy. The water ballast can be pumped out when no
longer needed. The _Glatton_ is 245 ft. long and 54 ft. broad, and she
draws 19 ft. of water with the freeboard of 3 ft., displacing 4,865 tons
of water, while, with the 2 ft. freeboard, the displacement is 5,179
tons. This ship cost £210,000. Mr. Reed wished to construct a vessel of
much larger size on the same plan—a proposal to which, however, the
Admiralty did not then consent. The _Glatton_ is, nevertheless, one of
the most powerful ships of war ever built, and may be considered as an
impregnable floating fortress. Above the water-line the hull is covered
with armour plates 12 in. thick, supported by 20 in. of teak backing,
and an inner layer of iron 1 in. thick. Below the water-line the iron is
8 in. thick, and the teak 10 in. The revolving turret carries two 25–ton
guns, firing each a 600 lb. shot, and is covered by a massive plating of
iron 14 in. in thickness. Besides this the base of the turret is
protected by a breastwork rising 6 ft. above the hull. This breastwork
is formed of plates 12 in. thick, fastened on 18 in. of teak. The turret
rises 7 ft. above the breastwork, and therefore the latter in no way
impedes the working of the guns. The _Glatton_ has a great advantage
over all the other turret ships in having a perfectly unimpeded fore
range for her guns, for there is no mast or other object to prevent the
guns being fired directly over the bow. There are no sails, the mast
being intended only for flying signals and hoisting up boats, &c. The
hull is divided by vertical partitions into nine water-tight
compartments, and also into three horizontal flats—the lowest being
air-tight, and having arrangements for the admission and removal of
water, as already mentioned. The stem of the ship is protruded forwards
below the water for about 8 ft., thus forming a huge ram which would
itself render the _Glatton_ a truly formidable antagonist at close
quarters even if her guns were not used. The engines are capable of
being worked up to 3,000 horse-power, giving the ship a speed of 9½
knots per hour, and means are provided for turning the turret by steam
power. The turret can be rotated by manual labour, requiring about three
minutes for its complete revolution, but by steam power the operation
can be effected in half a minute. The commander communicates his orders
from the pilot-house on the hurricane deck to the engine-room,
steering-house, and turret, by means of speaking-tubes and electric
telegraphs. The _Glatton_ was not designed to be ocean-going, but is
intended for coast defence.
[Illustration:
FIG. 77.—_H.M.S. Thunderer._
]
The British navy contains two powerful turret-ships constructed on the
same general plan as the _Glatton_, but larger, and capable of steaming
at a greater speed, and of carrying coal for a long voyage. These sister
ships are named the _Devastation_, Fig. 69, and the _Thunderer_, Fig.
77. The _Thunderer_ has two turrets and a freeboard of 4 ft. 6 in. Space
is provided for a store of 1,800 tons of coal, of which the _Glatton_
can carry only 500 tons. The vessel is fitted with twin screws, turned
by two pairs of independent engines, capable of working up to 5,600
horse-power, and she can steam at the rate of 12 knots, or nearly 14
miles, an hour. With the large supply of coal she can carry, the
_Thunderer_ could make a voyage of 3,000 miles without re-coaling.
Though the freeboard of the heavily-plated hull is only 4 ft. 6 in., a
lighter iron superstructure, indicated in the figure by the light
shading, rises from the deck to the height of 7 ft., making the real
freeboard nearly 12 ft. This gives the ship much greater stability, and
prevents her from rolling heavily when at sea. The length is 285 ft. and
the width 58 ft., and the draught 26 ft. The hull is double, the
distance between the outer and inner skins of the bottom being 4 ft. 6
in. The framing is very strong and on the longitudinal principle, and
the keel is formed of Bessemer steel. Each turret is 24 ft. 3 in. in
internal diameter, and is built with five layers of teak and iron.
Beginning at the inside, there is a lining of 2⅝ in. iron plates; then 6
in. of teak in iron frames, arranged horizontally; 6 in. of armour
plates; 9 in. of teak, placed vertically; outside of all, 8 in. armour
plates. Each turret carries two Fraser 35–ton guns, rifled
muzzle-loaders. The turrets revolve by hand or by steam-power. There are
no sails, and thus a clear range for the guns is afforded fore and aft.
The bases of the turrets are protected by the armoured breastwork, of
which a portion is seen in the figure in advance of the fore turret.
Another very powerful ship of war, which possesses some special
features, is represented in the diagram on page 165, Fig. 78. This
vessel, named the _König Wilhelm_, was built at Blackwall for the
Prussian Government by the Thames Ironworks and Steam Shipbuilding
Company, from designs by Mr. Reed. Her length is 365 ft., width 60 ft.;
burthen, 6,000 tons; displacement, 8,500 tons. She is framed
longitudinally, that is, girders pass from end to end, about 7 ft.
apart, and the stem projects into a pointed ram. In this case also the
hull is double; there is, in fact, one hull within another, with a space
of 4½ ft. between them. The armour plates are 8 in. in thickness, with
10 in. of teak backing; but on the less important parts the thickness of
the iron is reduced to 6 in., and in some places to 4 in. This ship has
a broadside battery, and there are no turrets, but on the deck there
are, fore and aft, two semicircular shields, formed of iron plates and
teak, pierced with port-holes for cannon, and also with loop-holes for
muskets. From these a fore-and-aft fire may be kept up. The ship is
fully rigged, and has also steam engines of 7,000 horse-power, by
Maudslay and Co. Her armament consists of four three-hundred-pounders,
capable of delivering fore-and-aft as well as broadside fire, and
twenty-three other guns of the same size between decks. These guns are
all Krupp’s steel breech-loaders.
[Illustration:
FIG. 78.—_The König Wilhelm._
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 78_a_.—_The “Victoria” leaving Newcastle-on-Tyne._
]
The great contest of armour plates _versus_ guns has already been
alluded to, and to the remarks then made it may be added that, while on
the one hand, guns weighing 110 tons are mounted in turrets, ships are
already designed with 18 in. and even 20 in. of steel armour plates. It
would be very difficult to predict which side will sooner reach the
limit beyond which increase of size and power cannot go. The gradual
increase of thickness of plating, attended by increased weight of guns,
projectiles, and charges of powder, may be illustrated by stating in a
condensed form a few details of some ships, as regards the thickness of
armour, and its resisting power, which is nearly in proportion to the
square of its thickness; and also some particulars respecting the guns
originally carried by those ships.
┌──────────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┬──────────┐
│ │_Warrior._│ _Her- │_Glatton._│ _Thun- │ _Vic- │
│ │ │ cules._ │ │ derer._ │ toria._ │
├──────────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┼──────────┤
│Date when │ 1861 │ 1868 │ 1872 │ 1877 │ 1889 │
│ completed │ │ │ │ │ │
│Thickness of │ 4½ │ 9 │ 12 │ 14 │ 18 │
│ iron plating│ │ │ │ │ │
│ in inches │ │ │ │ │ │
│Relative │ 20 │ 81 │ 144 │ 196 │ 324 │
│ resisting │ │ │ │ │ │
│ power of │ │ │ │ │ │
│ plating │ │ │ │ │ │
│Guns carried │Cast iron,│ Wrought │ Wrought │ Wrought │ Steel, │
│ │ smooth │ iron, │ iron, │ iron, │ Rifled │
│ │ bore │ rifled │ rifled │ rifled │ │
│Weight of guns│ 4¾ │ 18 │ 25 │ 35 │ 111 │
│ in tons │ │ │ │ │ │
│Charge of │ 16 │ 60 │ 70 │ 120 │ 960 │
│ powder in │ │ │ │ │ │
│ lbs. │ │ │ │ │ │
│Weight of │ 68 │ 400 │ 600 │ 700 │ 1,800 │
│ projectiles │ │ │ │ │ │
│ in lbs. │ │ │ │ │ │
│Destructive │ 452 │ 3,863 │ 5,165 │ 8,404 │ 56,000 │
│ power of │ │ │ │ │ │
│ projectiles │ │ │ │ │ │
│ in foot-tons│ │ │ │ │ │
└──────────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┴──────────┘
One of the latest additions out of the thirty or forty armoured ships
that have been added to the British Navy since the preceding pages were
written is included in the above table for the sake of comparison. Our
ironclad fleet now includes vessels protected and armed in many
different ways. Some have the protective armour extended continuously
along the water-line, others have it for only a greater or less part of
their length. The armaments are also very diverse as to the size of the
guns and the way in which they are mounted. A few carry one or two of
the huge 110–ton gun mounted in massive revolving turrets; others have
their guns in central batteries, or in _barbettes_, and others again are
arranged as broadside ships; while these plans are also variously
combined so as to form a great number of different types. In the ships
built within the last 15 years, steel has been almost invariably used
instead of iron for the armour-plating. A great increase of speed has
been obtained in late years. The largest British armoured ships yet
launched have displacements between 10,000 and 12,000 tons, but another
class of first-rate line-of-battle ships of still greater size is in
process of construction, and of these it is estimated that four will be
completed in 1893. They are all of the same design and armament, and
will have a displacement of 14,150 tons, a length of 380 feet, and a
breadth of 75 feet. The armour plates at the sides will be 18 inches
thick. Each ship will carry four 67–ton breech loading rifled guns, ten
6–inch quick firing guns, and 18 other smaller guns, also quick firing.
These vessels are expected to realize a speed of about 20 miles per
hour; but this is somewhat less than a few of the heavy ironclads now
afloat have given by actual trial, a rate equal to 21⅓ miles an hour
having been attained by some. Several of our rapid unarmoured cruisers
are able to steam at 25 miles an hour.
Before the close of 1894, the British navy possessed no fewer than eight
of the largest armoured line of battle-ships mentioned in the foregoing
paragraph, each being of 14,150 tons displacement, and having engines of
13,000 horse-power. At the same period there were in course of
construction four ships surpassing even these in tonnage, though of
somewhat less engine-power. Two were building at Portsmouth, to be
called the _Majestic_ and the _Royal George_, whilst the _Jupiter_ was
in progress at Glasgow and the _Mars_ at Birkenhead. All these are very
heavily armoured vessels, each displacing 14,900 tons, provided with
engines of 12,000 horse-power, and a very effective armament of guns.
Among the powerful ships of the navy may now also be noted the _Blake_,
the _Blenheim_, which, although the displacement is only 500 tons
greater than that of _König Wilhelm_, have engines of nearly three times
the power, namely, of 20,000 horse-power. Of large armoured ships,
namely, those of _9,000 tons and upwards_, Great Britain now has afloat
at least fifty; and the advance that has taken place in the size and
power of war-ships during the last twenty years may be inferred by
reference to the foregoing paragraphs giving the dimensions, &c., of the
_Glatton_ and the _Thunderer_, which paragraphs are, for the sake of
comparison, allowed to appear as they did in the first edition (1876) of
this book. Besides these very large armoured vessels, of which the
smallest is nearly twice as big as the largest of twenty-five years ago,
the British navy comprises ships of every size and for every purpose,
and so many of them that their names and classifications would occupy
many pages.
Two recent additions representing new type of ships claim notice before
this article is concluded. These are first the _Terrible_, with a sister
ship the _Powerful_. The former, of which a representation[3] is given
in Plate V., is pronounced, for its size, armour, armament, and speed
taken together, to be the most powerful cruiser in the world. The length
is 538 ft., breadth 71 ft., depth 43 ft., and the displacement is 14,250
tons. A special object in the design of this vessel was high speed, and
she is provided with twin-screws and two engines, the combined effort of
which is equal to 25,000 horse-power. There are forty-eight boilers and
four funnels, the ship being capable of carrying 3,000 tons of coal. The
vessel is built on the lines of the great Atlantic steamers, and the
engines, guns, and magazines are protected by a thick curved armour
deck. The vessel has a speed of 22 knots, or 25⅓ miles per hour. Her
armament consists of two 22–ton guns, twelve 6–in. quick-firing, and
many other smaller machine guns, and she carries besides four submerged
torpedo tubes. A second ship to be noted is amongst those designed
mainly to exceed all other craft in speed, and ranging in tonnage from
3,800 to 4,500. The _Janus_, a torpedo-boat destroyer of this class, was
found, at a recent trial over a measured mile, to attain the then
unexampled speed of 28 knots, or 32¼ miles per hour. But even this has
been beaten by a new torpedo-boat destroyer, built by Messrs. Yarrow at
Poplar for the Russian Government, and launched in August, 1895. This
vessel, within a few hours after leaving the stocks, cut through the
water at the rate of 30·285 knots, or nearly 35 miles, per hour.
Footnote 3:
From _Graphic_, 1st June, 1895.
A sad fate befell the _Victoria_, which was one of the heaviest armed of
British ships (_vide_ page 129), when taking part in some naval
manœuvres off Tripoli, on the Syrian coast, where she was the flag-ship
of Admiral Tryon, commander-in-chief of the squadron. On the 22nd June,
1893, in consequence of an inconsiderate order given by the admiral
himself, the _Victoria_ was struck by the formidable ram of the
_Camperdown_ (10,600), and in fifteen minutes turned over and sank in
sight of the whole fleet, carrying down with her the admiral, 30
officers, and 320 men, out of a crew of 600. [1895.]
[Illustration:
FIG. 78_b_.—_Firing at a floating battery._
]
[Illustration:
PLATE XI. H.M.S. “TERRIBLE.”
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 79.—_Krupp’s Works, at Essen, Prussia_.
]
FIRE-ARMS.
The invention of gunpowder—or rather its use in war—appears at first
sight a device little calculated to promote the general progress of
mankind. But it has been pointed out by some historians that the
introduction of gunpowder into Europe brought about the downfall of the
feudal system with its attendant evils. In those days every man was
practically a soldier: the bow or the sword he inherited from his father
made him ready for the fray. But when cannons, muskets, and mines began
to be used, the art of war became more difficult. The simple possession
of arms did not render men soldiers, but a long special training was
required. The greater cost of the new arms also contributed to change
the arrangements of society. Standing armies were established, and war
became the calling of only a small part of the inhabitants of a country,
while the majority were left free to devote themselves to civil
employments. Then the useful arts of life received more attention,
inventions were multiplied, commerce began to be considered as
honourable an avocation as war, letters were cultivated, and other
foundations laid for modern science. If such have really been the
indirect results of the invention of gunpowder, we shall hardly share
the regret of the fine gentleman in “Henry IV.”:
“That it was great pity, so it was,
That villanous saltpetre should be digged
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed
So cowardly.”
We often hear people regretting that so much attention and ingenuity as
are shown by the weapons of the present day should have been expended
upon implements of destruction. It would not perhaps be difficult to
show that if we must have wars, the more effective the implements of
destruction, the shorter and more decisive will be the struggles, and
the less the total loss of life, though occurring in a shorter time.
Then, again, the exasperated and savage feelings evoked by the
hand-to-hand fighting under the old system have less opportunity for
their exercise in modern warfare, which more resembles a game of skill.
But the wise and the good have in all ages looked forward to a time when
sword and spear shall be everywhere finally superseded by the
ploughshare and the reaping-hook, and the whole human race shall dwell
together in amity. Until that happy time arrives—
“Till the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle flags are furl’d
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world—
When the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law,”—