England has three ships with armor from twenty-four inches to eighteen inches thick, and twelve ships with armor eighteen inches thick; three ships carry six 110-ton guns, six carry twenty-four 67-ton guns, five carry sixteen 43-ton guns, all breech-loading rifles, while one has four muzzle-loading 80-ton guns.
The latest additions to the armored fleet of France are the Hoche, of the Marceau type of battle-ship, and the Cocyte and Mitraille, coast-defence gun-boats. The Marceau, launched May 24, 1887, is built of steel with an under-water skin of iron; a double bottom extends below the engines, boilers, and magazines, and the hold is divided into thirty-one water-tight compartments by horizontal and longitudinal bulkheads. The armor-belt encircles the ship, dips forward to strengthen the ram, is carried twelve inches above the load water-line, and varies in thickness from 13.7 to 17.7 inches; the barbette towers are 15.7 inches thick, and the armored deck, above which there are many compartments, is 2.6 inches thick. The armament is made up of four 13 4/10-inch guns mounted in the towers, of one 5½-inch gun at the bow, and of sixteen 5½-inch pieces in broadside; the secondary battery includes twenty Hotchkiss guns and four above-water torpedo tubes.
The estimated horse-power is 8548 (not 5500 as stated on [page 76]) with natural draft, and 12,000 with forced draft, the estimated speed being 16 knots, the coal capacity 800 tons, and the coal endurance 1500 miles at full power and 3500 miles at 11 knots speed. The Neptune and the Hoche, of the same general plans and dimensions, were launched in the spring of this year. As originally designed the Hoche was expected to develop 16 knots and 7000 indicated horse-power, but by the application of forced draft the speed was increased to 17½ and the power to 12,000. The armament consists—not of the four 52-ton guns given in the table on [page 76]—but, as stated in the text, of two 13.4-inch guns (34 centimetre) mounted one in each of the midship turrets, of two 10.6-inch guns (27 centimetre) carried one in each of the waist turrets, and of eighteen 5.5-inch guns (14 centimetre) so disposed in broadside within the unarmored central superstructure which occupies the deck between the turrets that the forward and after pairs are given bow and stern fire respectively. The armor-belt is similar to that of the Marceau, but the protective deck is from 3.15 to 3.54 inches thick, and the heavy gun sites are protected by 15.75 inches of compound armor.
The Amiral Courbet (formerly the Foudroyant) carries four 10.6-inch, six 5.5-inch, and twelve rapid-fire guns. She developed 6016 horse-power with natural and 8088 with forced draft, the mean speed being 14.2 knots on a consumption of 2.35 pounds per power each hour. The Indomptable, Requin, Caïman, and Terrible are sister battle-ships. They were originally laid down in 1877, and the Terrible was only completed ready for sea in 1887. They are constructed like the Marceau, of iron and steel, the outer skin of the under-water body being of the former metal; the compound armor is from 13 to 19⅝ inches in thickness, and carries five feet of its seven feet six inches width below the water-line. In each of two pear-shaped barbette towers situated on the longitudinal midship line, and protected by 17¾ inches of armor, a 16.5-inch gun, with its axis twenty-one feet above the water is mounted; in addition there are four 4-inch breech-loading rifles and a secondary battery of rapid-fire guns and torpedo-tubes. The Indomptable, launched in September, 1883, made in her trial trip in August, 1886, a speed of 15 knots, and is officially rated as having a sea speed of 13.5 knots. All work upon the partially protected ships Brennus and Charles Martel was stopped in 1886, and their specific appropriation has been transferred to the sum already assigned for the construction of fast cruisers and torpedo-boats.
The Cocyte and Mitraille belong to a new class, or rather they represent a type which, after disappearing for a season of doubt and denial, has had its value so much recognized that three Continental nations are giving it earnest study. A late French Minister of Marine asked within a year for money to construct fifty of these gun-boats, but was then refused the grant, a decision for which Admiral Sir George Elliot thinks England ought to be very grateful. This distinguished officer believes in the value of the type, and hopes that the Admiralty “will take note of the threat thus made” before the theory is allowed to prevail that adequate security can be given to the British coasts by sea-going cruisers, submarine mines, shore batteries, and torpedo-boats. The boats present a small target, and give good armor protection to guns which, when the vessels are inshore or reinforced by land batteries, have sufficient power to keep battle-ships at a distance. They are very handy, have good speed, and are economical, because for the same money they can, as flotillas, bring into the action four times the gun-power possible in the large battle-ships. In France this type is divided into two classes—the Achéron, Cocyte, Phlegéton, and Styx, of 1639 tons, belonging to the first, and the Fusée, Grenade, Mitraille, and Flamme, of 1045 tons, to the second. The iron and steel hulls are extensively subdivided into water-tight compartments, and are protected by complete belts of steel armor at the water-line, and by arched steel-armored decks. The superstructures above the protective decks have water-line belts of cellulose. The armament consists of one heavy gun mounted in a barbette tower, and of a strong secondary battery of machine guns and torpedoes.
The most important contributions to the sea-going navy of France are the cruisers. In the naval programme adopted after the war with Germany, ships of high speed were decided to be of such great value that thirty-four—sixteen of the first and eighteen of the second class—were provided for. At the present day French naval policy seems to pin its faith to fast cruisers, 5½-inch breech-loading guns, and torpedo-vessels. In pursuance of this belief the Tage, the largest unarmored cruiser yet designed by any nation, was laid down in 1885; she is ship-rigged, has a complete under-water curved deck, lightly armored bulkheads forward and abaft the battery, a steel conning-tower, and heavily plated hatchways. A belt of cellulose along the water-line, and the subdivision of the space above the protective deck into water-tight compartments, will, it is claimed, insure the safety of the ship in action. This employment of cellulose to stop leaks automatically was very successfully demonstrated in the experiments made at Toulon with a target “composed of fourteen parts of cellulose and one part of cellulose in fibre, the whole compressed into a felt-like mass, with a lining two feet thick. A shot seven and one-half inches in calibre was fired against this target at a distance to insure penetration. The result was not only satisfactory but extraordinary. The shot, which carried away about one-fifth of a cubic foot of the composition, had no sooner passed through than the cellulose closed up so firmly that a strong man was unable to insert his arm into the hole. A tank filled with water was then hung against the place where the shot had entered, and after an interval of fifteen minutes water began to trickle through, but not more than a man with a bucket could easily intercept. As soon as the composition became thoroughly soaked, it offered increased resistance to the entrance of the water, which eventually ceased to flow, and the breach was closed automatically. The results were the same where shells were used instead of shot, and red-hot coals were heaped upon the composition without causing its ignition.”[28]
The twin-screw cruiser Cecile, which was designed before the Tage, and is somewhat smaller, illustrates the principle of duality in construction; the two main engines are situated in separate compartments, and the six boilers are arranged in three different groups. The sail area is 2153 square yards, and the steel lower masts serve as ventilators to the hold, and carry steel crow’s-nests in which are mounted rapid fire and machine guns. The primary batteries of the two ships are similar, each carrying six 6¼-inch guns on the spar-deck (one forward, one aft, and four on sponsons) and ten 5½-inch pieces on the covered deck in broadside. The secondary battery of the Cecile consists of ten 37-millimetre (1.45-inch) guns, and that of the Tage of three 47-millimetre (1.85-inch) rapid-fire guns, and twelve 37-millimetre revolving cannon—all of the Hotchkiss pattern. Both ships are supplied with above-water torpedo tubes, the former having four, the latter seven. The estimated maximum speed of the Tage is 19 knots, with 10,330 horse-power, and that of the Cecile is 18½ knots, with 9600 horse-power. The latest cruisers laid down are the Jean Bart and the Dupuy de Lôme, the first bearing the name of the rugged old sea-wolf who entered the navy as an apprentice and died a famous admiral, and the other that of the constructor who designed both in wood and iron the first steam line-of-battle ships. These vessels are of 352 feet length, 43.6 feet beam, 18 feet 10 inches mean draught, and 4162 tons displacement; their estimated maximum speed is 19 knots. The main battery is composed of four 6.3-inch guns mounted on sponsons, and of six 5.5-inch carried in broadside, and the secondary armament has six 37-millimetre revolving cannons, four 3-pounder rapid-fire guns, and the usual torpedo tubes.
The Alger and Isly are similar in construction to the Cecile, but have the dimensions and armament of the Jean Bart; they are designed for 19 knots, and a coal endurance of 3600 miles at 13 knots. The Mogador is a rapid cruiser of 4325 tons, and of nearly similar design, armament, speed, and endurance as the above. The Chanzy, Davoust, and Suchet belong to the same class of “croiseurs à barbette,” and are of 3027 tons displacement, with an estimated speed of 20 knots.
The Surcoup and Forbin illustrate another favorite type of cruiser. They are 311 feet 7 inches long, have 30 feet 6 inches beam, and on a mean draught of 13 feet 11 inches displace 1848 tons. The hull weighs 817 tons, and the engines (with boilers filled) 544 tons; the coal capacity is 200 tons, and the endurance 2400 miles at 10 knots. The engines are expected, with forced draft, to develop 6000 indicated horse-power and 19.5 knots. They have a four-masted schooner rig, spread 7255.5 square feet of canvas, and carry a complement of one hundred and fifty officers and men. The battery consists of two 5.5-inch guns on the upper deck, three 47-millimetre rapid-fire guns on the poop and forecastle, four 37-millimetre Hotchkiss revolving cannon on the rail, and five torpedo launching tubes—two firing ahead, one astern, and one on each beam. This lightness of battery and small coal capacity indicate with great precision how much weight-carrying power has been sacrificed to spars and sails. The Coetlogon and Cosmao laid down this year are of the same type.
Wishing to obtain a small class of steel cruisers, the French government lately invited the leading ship-builders to send in competitive designs for a vessel which at an extreme draught aft of fourteen feet would on the least possible displacement sustain with natural draft a speed of eighteen knots for twelve hours, and with forced draft a speed of nineteen knots for two hours. The coal endurance was to be 2400 miles at ten knots, the main battery to include two 5.5-inch guns, and the protective steel deck to be 1.6 inch thick. Five competitors furnished plans, and finally those of the Société de la Gironde were chosen, and the two vessels now known as the Troude and the Lalande were laid down. Their principal dimensions are, length 311 feet 7 inches, beam 31 feet, mean draught 14 feet, and displacement 1877 tons. The armament will be two 5.5-inch and three rapid-fire guns, four 37-millimetre revolving cannon, and a supply of torpedo tubes. The vessels, as with the Surcoup type to which they are very similar, will have a fore and aft rig and a complement of one hundred and sixty.