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Nov. 12, 1864.] but she has made eight knots against a heavy sea and a strong head wind; and her extreme roll, even in double-reefed topsail breeze, is not more than has been experienced in some of our finest wooden vessels of the old time. While in the very roughest weather the turrets and guns have been found to work admirably; nor, though nearly two hundred rounds have been fired in every variety of weather and sea, has a single breeching been carried away, nor (a thing which might easily have happened when the heaviest guns ever yet put on board a ship were being worked on a wholly novel plan) has the most trifling hurt been sustained by a single man.

The chief objects then which Captain Coles proposed to himself and promised to his countrymen,—greater rapidity and accuracy in shooting; greater, indeed complete protection to the crew; and greater economy in the construction, maintenance, and working of the ship,—appears to have been successfully attained. The attainment of the first is established by the trials of which we have already spoken. The attainment of the second, at least until it is defeated by the production of guns so large as to crush through any armour under which a ship can float, is proved by the details which have been given above of the composition of her sides and her turrets, to be so far perfect as to be equal in every respect to that of any ship yet launched or designed, and to be superior to that of any except vessels of the Minotaur class, the only ones which carry plates of the same thickness, 5½-inch, those of the Warrior class, the Royal Oak class, and the Achilles being all alike 4½-inch. To even the strongest of these, the Minotaur, the Royal Sovereign is still superior in that most important point of having no port-holes, the Minotaur, like the Warrior, having 20 on a side, presenting collectively an opening of 260 square feet. Moreover, the crew of the Royal Sovereign have an additional protection in the smallness of the target which their ship presents to the enemy. She is 240 feet long, and, as we have said before, 8 feet out of the water, or, including the rise in her deck, 9 feet 6 inches, the whole area therefore which she presents to the aim of an enemy, including her four turrets, is one of 2668 square feet. The Warrior has a length of 380 feet, and her gunwale is 22 feet out of the water, she therefore affords a mark of 8360 feet, while we must add, as a source of danger to her men ,themen, the [sic] opening of 260 square feet of porthole. How undeniably the third object, cheapness in construction and working, is arrived at, is proved by the Parliamentary returns. As she is a converted ship it is impossible to state with precision the cost of the Royal Sovereign: but that of the Prince Albert is fixed at £157,303, an amount which would be augmented by less than £10,000 if she were built as a sea-going ship with somewhat increased tonnage, and with the masts to fit her for a long voyage, while the cost of the Warrior is given in the Parliamentary returns as having amounted to no less than 360,995l. The economy in maintaining and working her is equally established by a comparison of the number of her crew with that of the Warrior, the Royal Sovereign having, as has already been said, 300 men only of every class and rank; while the crew of the Warrior, reckoned in the same manner, exceeds 800; nor, leaving out of the question the saving of money, would it be a trifling advantage in the event of war breaking out suddenly, and its becoming requisite to equip a fleet in haste, to be able to man two ships completely with fewer men than would otherwise be required for one.

The Royal Sovereign, as we have said, is not a sea-going ship, but Captain Coles earnestly desired to make her such, and not only believes that there is nothing in his plan of construction nor in the disposition of weight on board such a ship calculated in the least to render her unfit for long voyages, but he even maintains that his system is especially suited for ships to fight in the open sea, since guns placed in the centre of the ship are less likely to be disabled by its roll in a heavy sea than guns on a broadside, where it is sometimes necessary to close the portholes,—the guns even of the Warrior, though unusually high above the water, being six inches nearer to it than the guns of the Royal Sovereign. To which argument, it may perhaps be added, that no other kind of ship gives room for availing ourselves of these improvements in artillery which are now proceeding at so rapid a pace. Whatever may be the size to which guns may eventually be carried, none can be made so large or so heavy that, if we believe Captain Coles, a turret ship cannot receive and work them, while it is not clear that our gun makers have not already produced pieces too large to be placed at the side of a ship: at all events it is certain that even on board the Minotaur, a ship exceeding the Royal Sovereign in size by nearly 3000 tons, it is not contemplated to place any gun of more than 1lOlbs. calibre; though against 5½ inch plates, a ball from such a gun would be almost impotent. Moreover, though we have as yet taken no steps to test this portion of Captain Coles’s assertions, other nations have had sea-going ships built entirely on his plan; and the complete success achieved by the Danish Rolf-krake, in her action with a