The Battle of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805.—From a drawing by J. O. Davidson[Frontispiece.]
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The “Victory”[13]
The “Glatton”[15]
The “Dreadnought”[17]
The “Inflexible”[19]
Section of the “Amiral Duperré”[23]
Section of the “Inflexible”[23]
Section of the “Collingwood”[23]
New Admiralty Ship[23]
The “Devastation”[24]
The “Sultan”[27]
Section and Plan of the “Alexandra”[28]
Section and Plan of the “Téméraire”[28]
Section and Plan of the “Nelson”[29]
Section and Plan of the “Shannon”[29]
The “Alexandra”[30]
The “Téméraire”[31]
The “Hotspur”[34]
The “Warspite”[37]
Transverse Section of the “Mersey”[38]
The “Inconstant”[41]
The “Colossus”[43]
Transverse Section of one of the New “Scouts”[49]
The “Jumna”[50]
The “Dévastation:” French Armored Ship of the First Class[73]
The “Courbet” (formerly the “Foudroyant”): French Armored Ship of the First Class[75]
The “Richelieu”[77]
The “Amiral Duperré:” French Armored Ship of the First Class[81]
The “Vengeur:” French Iron-clad Coast-guard Vessel[87]
British Torpedo Gun-boat of the “Grasshopper” Class (side view)[90]
The “Grasshopper”—Plan of Upper Deck, Poop, and Forecastle[90]
The “Duilio”[105]
Section of the “Italia”[110]
Deck Plan of the “Italia”[110]
The “Italia”[111]
The “Esmeralda”[113]
The “Amerigo Vespucci”[115]
The “Catherine II.”[119]
Half-deck Plan of the “Sachsen”[121]
Side Elevation of the “Sachsen”[121]
Half-deck Plan of the “Kaiser”[122]
Side Elevation of the “Kaiser”[122]
The “Sachsen”[123]
U. S. Side-wheel Steamer “Powhatan”[150]
U. S. Frigate “Franklin,” of the “Merrimac” Class[152]
U. S. Sloop-of-war “Hartford”[153]
U. S. Sloop-of-war “Brooklyn”[154]
U. S. Sloop-of-war “Kearsarge”[155]
U. S. Iron-clad “New Ironsides”[156]
U. S. Monitor “Passaic”[156]
U. S. Double-turreted Monitor “Terror”[157]
U. S. Frigate “Tennessee”[159]
U. S. Sloop-of-war “Adams”[160]
U. S. Sloop-of-war “Marion”[161]
U. S. Sloop-of-war “Alert” (Iron)[162]
U. S. Sloop-of-war “Trenton”[163]
U. S. Frigate “Chicago” (Steel)[169]
Deck Plans of the U. S. Frigate “Chicago,” showing Battery[171]
Deck Plan of the U. S. Sloop-of-war “Atlanta,” showing Battery[171]
U. S. Sloop-of-war “Atlanta” (Steel)[173]
U. S. Despatch-boat “Dolphin”[176]
Light Draught Coast-defence Vessel, with Deck Plan[180]
The Howell Torpedo[182]
Bronze Breech-loading Cannon captured in Corea, age unknown[194]
Bronze Breech-loader used by Cortez in Mexico[195]
Breech-loader captured in the War with Mexico[196]
Bronze 12-pounder, “El Neptuno,” 1781[197]
U.S.N. Carronade, Slide, and Carriage[198]
U.S.N. Medium 32-pounder[199]
U.S.N. 9-inch Dahlgren (9-inch Smooth-bore)[201]
Horizontal Section of Millwall Shield[204]
A Krupp Gun on a Naval Carriage[206]
Alfred Krupp[207]
Breech-loading Rifle-tube ready for receiving Jacket[210]
Breech-loading Rifle-jacket, Rough-bored and Turned[210]
Putting the Jacket on a 6-inch Breech-loading Rifle-tube[211]
Breech-loading Rifle after receiving Jacket[214]
A Krupp Hammer[215]
Transporting Cannon at Bremerhaven[217]
Breech-loading Rifle after receiving Jacket and Chase Hoops[218]
Breech-loading Rifle with Jacket, Chase Hoops, and Jacket Hoops in place[218]
U.S.N. 6-inch Breech-loading Rifle[218]
Cartridge Case and Grains of Powder, U.S.N.[220]
Common Shells, U.S.N.[220]
Unburned and Partially Consumed Grains of U.S.N. Powder[222]
Section of U.S.N. 6-inch Built-up Steel Breech-loading Rifle[222]
Broadside Carriage for 6-inch Breech-loading Rifle[223]
Rapid-firing Single-shot Hotchkiss Gun[224]
New 6-inch Breech-loading Rifle[238]
Longitudinal Plans of Nordenfeldt Boat[254]
The Submarine Monitor “Peacemaker”[257]

MODERN SHIPS OF WAR.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

During the last thirty years the changes in naval science have been so much greater than in its whole previous history as to be epoch-making. Between the wooden vessel of 1857 and the metal machine of 1887 there exist in common only the essential principles that each is a water-borne structure, armed with guns and propelled by steam. Beyond this everything is changed—model, material, machinery, rig, armament, equipment. In truth, so radical are the differences, and so sudden have been the developments, that authorities are widely separated in opinion, even upon such a primary question as a universally accepted system of classification. But as this is necessary to a proper appreciation of the subject, a generalization may be made in which war-vessels are divided into armored and unarmored types, the former including battle-ships, and the latter those employed in the police of the seas, in commerce protection or destruction, or in the attack of positions which are defenceless.

In the absence of any accepted differentiations of these classes, the new British nomenclature may be adopted with safety, for to a certain degree it explains the terms and includes the types now used so variously in different navies. Under this armored vessels are grouped into (1) battle-ships, (2) cruisers, (3) special types, such as rams and torpedo-boats, and (4) coast-service ships; and unarmored vessels comprise (1) cruisers, (2) sloops, (3) gun-vessels, (4) gun-boats, (5) despatch-vessels, and (6) torpedo-vessels. “As it was impossible to unite all the qualities which are to be desired in a ship-of-war in a single vessel, it became necessary to divide the leading types into subdivisions, each specially adapted to the use of a particular arm, or to perform some special service. For the battle-ships designed for naval operations in European waters great offensive and defensive powers and evolutionary qualities are essential, while the highest sea-going qualities, including habitability, are, in the opinion of some, less essential. For sea-going battle-ships offensive and defensive strength must be partially sacrificed in order to secure unquestionable sea-worthiness. In ocean-going battle-ships canvas is a valuable auxiliary. In battle-ships for European waters, masts and yards involve a useless sacrifice of fighting power.... Heavily armored ships intended for the line of battle must necessarily carry powerful guns. They must be able to traverse great distances, and must therefore have considerable storage for coal. Great speed is required to enable them to meet the inevitable contingencies of an engagement. In a word, the class of ships which may be called battery-ships must be furnished with very considerable offensive and defensive power. Their great size, however, and the enormous weight of their armor and armament, necessitate such displacements as render them unfit for coast defence” (Brassey).

While the antagonistic elements of offence, defence, speed, or endurance have caused the main differences of design in all types, the greatest variances with battle-ships are found in the distribution of armor for protection. A hasty summarization of the policies now adopted by the great maritime nations shows that the French generally adhere to a complete armor-belt at the water-line, that the Italians have in their latest ships totally abandoned side-armor, and that the English favor its partial employment. The popular idea that armor consists only of thick slabs of wrought-iron or steel, or of steel-faced iron, bolted to a ship’s side, is erroneous. “In the earlier broadside ships,” writes the present director of English naval construction, Mr. W. H. White, “this view was practically correct; they had no armor or protected decks, the decks being covered only by thin plates fitted for structural purposes. But in the Devastation class, and all subsequent ships, considerable and increasing weights of material are worked into the deck armor, and with good reason. Experiments showed conclusively that horizontal protection at the top of the armor-belt, or citadel, was of vital necessity, and even now (1887) it is open to question whether the provision made for horizontal protection in relation to vertical armor is as large as it might advantageously be.”

The factors which have most influenced the problem are the torpedo, ram, and gun. Of these the last is indubitably of the highest importance, for the number and nature, the effective handling, the disposition and command, and the relative protection of the guns are the elements which control most powerfully the principles of ship design. In the first stage of the contest between gun and armor the defence was victorious, but so rapidly have the art and science of ordnance developed that to-day the power of the heaviest pieces as compared with the resistance of the heaviest armor is greater than ever before.

The story of the contest can be briefly told. In 1858 the armament of the newest ships was principally a broadside battery of 32-pounders; in this were included a few 56-pound shell-guns and one or two eight-inch 68-pounders, though of the whole number not one had an energy, that is, a force of blow when striking, sufficient to penetrate four and a half inches of wrought-iron at short range. In the earliest iron-clads—the French La Gloire and the English Warrior—batteries mainly of nine-inch calibre were carried, the latter mounting forty guns of all kinds. The Minotaur, the first representative of the next English type, had fifty guns, but after this class was launched there appeared that distinctively modern tendency to decrease the number of pieces while increasing the intensity of their fire. The succeeding vessels carried from fourteen to twelve pieces, until, in 1874, the principle of concentration reached its maximum in giving the Inflexible only four guns. These, like the Warrior’s, were muzzle-loaders, and their relative dimensions and power may be compared as follows: