The American monitor, the iliantonimah, arrived at Queens- town on
Sunday—a most unpleasant fact for all the European maritime powers. It was thought this dangerous vessel could not cross the Atlantic, but she has crossed it, amid bad weather, too. She is as unlike a vessel as it is possible to be, her hull rising only h ft. above the water, 268 ft. long by 59 ft., without bulwarks, in short, an enormous raft, and with two turrets and two funnels instead of masts and cordage. She is built of wood, and plated from the deck to four feet below the water line with iron seven inches thick, her deck is twelve inches thick, three of them being iron, and the turrets are cylinders of iron eleven inches thick. Each turret has two Dahlgren guns, and each gun throws a shot of 4801b., or a 15-in, shell of 3601b., the former being effective at a mile and three-quarters' distance. Her maximum speed is nine knots an hour, and the American engineers believe firmly that nothing in the British Navy could stand against her for an hour. That belief may be ill founded, but it is entertained by clear-headed, practical men, and even the unlearned can see that a ship like the Warrior offers an immense mark to a Dahlgren gun, while the Miantonimak offers comparatively none at all. We have no such gun either, actually ready. By the way, how are the lower decks in this ship lighted?
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