Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/398

 384 IRON-CLAD SHIPS The information contained in the preceding summary of the English ironclads is illustrated in the accompanying engravings, showing speci- men blocks cut from the sides of the ships which may be taken as fair representatives of the va- rious classes. The section from the side of the Kalamazoo may he regarded as fairly represent- ing the strongest class of American monitors. The latest publication concerning the English iron-clad navy (April, 1874) gives a list of 55 vessels, of which 41 are sea-going ships and 14 are available for harbor and coast defence. Of the sea-going ships 5 are in the course of con- struction, and 9 are not fit to go to sea, or worth making fit ; and 9 more which are not yet available for service should also be de- ducted, leaving 18 now about ready. Of the 14 coast-defence ironclads, only 9 are fit for service; the other 5 are on foreign stations and said to be not worth taking home. The French ironclads Gloire, Magenta, and Sol- ferino have armor a little over 4-^ in. thick, worked upon ordinary wooden hulls. The iron-built frigate Couronne and the small wooden floating batteries of the Palestro class carry about the same thickness of armor. All the other floating batteries are iron-built and have 5J-inch armor. The frigates of the Flan- dre class and the ram Taureau have armor a little less than 6 in. thick laid upon wooden Kiev. Hercules. Warrior. Northumberland. Gloire. Thunderer. Bellerophon. Monarch. Devastation. Kalamazoo. Lord Clyde. Royal Oak. FIG. 8. Sections of the Sides of Iron-clad Ships of the Various Classes. hulls, while the corvettes and second-class frigates of the Alma class have armor 5^y in. thick at the water line, and 4 and 4^ in. on the other parts. The vessels of the Marengo class, corresponding very nearly to the English Invincible class, have T^-inch armor at the water line, and from 4 to 6| in. on other parts. The rams of the B61ier class have 7- and 8f- inch armor. By far the greater number of the French ironclads are wood-built, the armor being simply laid upon the outside planking, without inner skin plating or longitudinal girders to give greater strength. They are therefore weaker than the English ships even when the armor and backing are equal. In the American sea-going ironclads, what is known as laminated armor has been largely if not almost exclusively used. This was ren- dered necessary at first by the fact that thick armor plates could not be produced by the rolling mills in anything like sufficient quanti- ties ; but a few ships like the Roanoke and New Ironsides have been made with solid armor, the former having plates 5^ in. thick and the latter 4$ in. With this exception, the armor of our ironclads is made up of consecutive plates averaging 1 in. thick, hut backed, as in some of the monitors, by armor stringers or plank armor of small breadth and moderate thickness. Experiments made by the English admiralty at Shoeburyness prove this laminated armor to be far inferior to solid armor in power