A RESUME OF THE IRONSIDES QUESTION. T HE present feeling of
the public with respect to the iron ship question is very much that of a man whose newly-built mansion, embracing every possible modern im- provement, has come tumbling about his ears. There were many who stood by and shook their heads when, three years ago, Sir John Pakington, taking warning in time, followed up the idea of our astute ally, and gave orders for building the first iron frigate. Of course the " regulars " adopted the set formula of condemnation, which has been the specialty of the navy from time immemorial. They pronounced that " the service was going to the devil." Others there were who looked at the question entirely from a picturesque or sentimental point of view, and could not dissociate the twain ideas of wood and defences, owing to a habit of never talking of the navy in any other terms than as "our wooden de- fences." A very small minority perceived that if there really was anything in the new idea the days of wooden vessels were at an end ; but hardly any one, even of the most san- guine, anticipated that which really has come to pass, viz. that a new era in naval construction and naval tactics has set in, not to speak of the vexed questions of artillery and land fortifications.
The Gloire had got to sea ere our Warrior's lines had been laid down, and great was, and indeed still is, the mystery affected as to the merits of that renowned pioneer. She carried her guns too low, she leaked at every seam, she rolled her masts overboard, she could not fight, she could not run. The truth is, we believe, that she has as few defects as a pioneer vessel can have, but that whatever important new principle she illustrated our own Warrior or Resistance presents in a still more conspicuous degree. There were certain errors of detail which the first vessel constructed on a novel principle was likely to be affected by, but which experience would obviate ; and such we verily believe has been the case with the Gloire and her sister ships, and the Warrior and her consort. It is satisfactory to remark here that we did not order ten vessels to be laid down upon similar lines at once, and that consequently we may expect the gradual lessons taught by each succeeding ship to bear fruit in an ever improving type of Iron Frigate. During all this time, however, there was nothing but theory to go upon, and since Warriors and the like are simply vessels very much of the ordinary form, sheathed with iron, or armed with a few powerful rifled and large-bore guns, instead of a broadside of carronades, there was room for other inventions, likewise founded upon theory, to be laid be- fore the Lords of the Admiralty, a tacit permission, which the inventive world was not slow to avail itself of. Of the many schemes laid before the much-enduring Board, only two proved in the long run of practical value, after they had un- dergone the usual probation of years of official neglect. Captain Cowper Coles had, so far back as 1855, sketched the first rough draft of a vessel almost flush with the water, propelled by steam, and steering perfectly, whose offensive armour consisted of two powerful guns moving on a turn- table or platform, over which was a cupola of defensive ar- mour presumed to be shot-proof. The other new idea was a submerged ram, which should likewise be attached to a vessel propelled by steam, and which impelled with the whole weight of the vessel, multiplied by the square of her speed, must necessarily cut down any ship, wooden or iron, that ever floated, unless built in water-tight compart- ments, and of strength and proportion hitherto never at- tempted. These three forms of iron naval architecture—the ordinary ship, the cupola ship, and the iron ram—each found their ad- mirers and impugners, and the public standing quietly look- ing on, and therefore seeing a great deal more of the game, perceived that nothing short of actual practical proof could advance the question one step. An experimental target was set up, a new gun, which had been purchased for the nation at an immense cost, was tried against it, and found unable to even indent the target which had been constructed to repre- sent the side of one of the new class of ships. Even the most sceptical could not refuse the evidence of their senses, and those who had shaken their heads were content to allow "there might be something in it after all." The Armstrong gun, as all our readers know, is rifled, so as to enable a bolt to be fired in a more direct line and lower trajectory, though with a less initial velocity, than a round shot from the ordi- nary smooth bore cannon. The cupola ship and the ram thereupon were quietly shelved, as John Bull prided himself on having invented the best ship and the best gun in the world.
Suddenly the entire world was startled by the intelligence that all these principles had found practical exposition in American waters. An iron-clad ship, imperfectly covered, and mounting only 12 guns; bat armed with a ram, had sunk a powerful 24-gun wooden frigate, rained an "awful fire" upon another of 50 guns, which was totally unable to make the least impression upon her antagonist, and had amused herself with exchanging an occasional shot with a third frigate, as well as with one of the most powerful land batte- ries in the world It is fortunate we did not receive the news of' the Merrimac's success by a different mail from that which chronicled the successful check given her by the Monitor, or we should have had a dozen or so ships ordered off-hand. The cupola ship now appears on the scene, for the Monitor is nothing else, and though outmatched in every other respect, was able to drive off her rival, and to complete, as it seemed, the chain of evidence as to the merits and adap- tability of the various descriptions of vessel. Nothing was now spoken of but the invulnerability of iron ships. We do not care to weary the reader with recapitulating the argu- ments used to show that defensive armour must always be superior to any offensive armament. This was the latest and the most earnestly supported theory upon the subject, and it must be confessed that those who adopted it had every possible argument on their own side. Shot of a weight hitherto almost unknown in mere artillery practice had been found unavailable against even imperfect iron armour in actual warfare. What more natural than to suppose that a limit had been reached in the destroying power of shot of even the heaviest weight hitherto known ! The latest prac- tical phase of the question, as already mentioned, is that this latest theory has been blown about our ears by the ex- periments at Shoeburynese, when the Warrior target, quite as solid an affair as the revolving cupola, was blown into lucifer matches and tenpenny nails by a round shot fired from a smooth bore.
The moral is obvious. It is of no use theorizing as to our having attained the utmost limits of a question, the very conditions of which are constantly changing. And it would be obviously still more absurd to spend vast sums of money upon any given theory, ere we know whether the attack or defence it professes to provide for may not be disproved by the very next phase of Armstrong artillery practice. A lump of iron of ten tons weight dropped from a steam crane on to the Monitor would have gone through her decks, and a submarine shell may yet be discovered which would sink the Warrior without a chance of defence. Moreover, each new invention that is subsidized virtually offers a premium upon further improvements. Cost alone seems to be the limit of both the destroying and the resisting power, and, therefore, though it behoves Government to advance—to keep England at all hazards and at any expense secure— yet it will be vain for it to endeavour to keep pace with the march of theory in invention. We are in all probability on the eve of still more striking discoveries and inventions, and We therefore trust that the etapified pause which public opinion is now making with reference to this important sub- ject may tend to sober our estimates, financial as well as theoretical.
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