Page:The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century.djvu/79

, as in action they are sources of great danger.' Two years previously the First Lord of the Admiralty had defended the sending of troops to India in sailing ships, on the ground that if the screw ships ran short of fuel they would be helpless.

The 'Warrior' was thus given extensive sail power, and to all appearance she was a long, graceful frigate. The transition was thereby rendered more palatable to the old navy, whereas if we had gone at once to those structures irreverently—but not inaptly—termed 'flat-irons,' now so familiar in the later turret ships, the exasperated feelings of the ancient mariners would have been pitiable to contemplate.

The 'Warrior' was built at the Thames Iron Works, and a proof of the excellence of her construction is to be found in the fact that after an interval of thirty years her hull is as sound as the day on which she was launched. That day was a memorable occasion. All the world had been interested in the 'bold experiment,' as Sir John Pakington truly described it on her trial trip. No ship ever had so many visitors from all parts during her construction. In France, though first in the field, they had simply cut down a wooden ship and plated her with iron. It was a great advance on the floating batteries, but in England an entirely new departure had been taken, and in my opinion there is no question as to which was the best fighting ship. I should infinitely have preferred to command the 'Warrior,' taking into consideration her higher speed and greater dispersion of armament. The gun ports were 15 ft apart, in 'La Gloire' they were