LAUNCH OF THE WARRIOR.

New Zealander, Volume XVII, Issue 1568, 27 April 1861, Page 5

LAUNCH OF THE WARRIOR.

(From the " Times,") This formidable iron-cased frigate, the largest man-of-war ever built, and more than 1,500 tons larger than the largest vessel in the world after the Great Eastern, was safely launched into the river on Saturday. The launch of one vessel is like the launch of every other—the same first steady and then hurried rush into " the native element," and it is finished. The Warrior was not expected to oiler any very peculiar feature in her first taking to the water, but, nevertheless, the ceremony seemed to excite unusual interest, and so, in spite of the intense cold and thick snow which lay over everything, the yard of the Thames Ship-building Company was crowded witli many hundreds of ladies and gentlemen anxious to see the first start of this invulnerable frigate. At one time it seemed extremely probable that all these anxious spectators would be disappointed of the expected cetemony, for the Warrior not only did not go off the slip at once, but was only got to move at all after some delay, and the exertion of all sorts of compulsion. Sir John Pukington himself named the ship,—the first time we believe, since the launch of the Thunderer, that that ceremony has ever been performed to a man-of-war except by a lady. The vessel was duly named and told to go to its element, but this the Warrior seemed most reluctant to do. The intense frost of the previous night had, in feet, frozen her down to the '• ways " so firmly that nothing would move her. Hydraulic presses, which are always kept fixed and ready in case of such contretemps, were worked and pumped to the utmost they would bear, a heivy gun was fired on her upper deck to start her by concussion, but in vain ; she only moved slowly for a few inches, when thefrozen grease on the siips brought her up again as fast as ever. The tide was at its height, and it was evident that if she did not start in a few minutes she could not be launched till the next spring tides. A hawser was made fast to a powerful tug, hundreds of hammers made the ways vibrate, while the men en board ran from side to side to start her, but all to no purpose. At

last two other tugs came to the assistance of the first, and fortunately their united efforts were successful. The Warrior moved a little slowly, then stopped, then started again, and, gaining momentum as she descended, slid rapidly down into the water, and was safely afloat just as the tide began to fall. Of course, in her present extremely light draught of water, it is difficult to judge how she will appear when brought down to her load line. As far, however, as can now he seen, she will, when finished, be one of the most superb, and, from her extremely fine lines fore and aft, one of the lightest looking frigates in the world. When in seagoing trim her main deck portsills will be about feet from the water, and in this respect she posesses an immense advantage over her French rival La Gloire, whose ports are only 5 feet 1) inches—much too near the water to make her guns of any use in a sez way. In point of speed, also, the Warrior will probably be unrivalled even by that wonderfully fist frigate Ariadne, or her sister the Galatea. Among other improvements the Warrior will inaugurate is one which has been needed for years —an improvement on the present cumbrous and awkward ship's gun-carriage. Those which will be furnished to her have the stands fixed, the gun running backwards in a slide, with a pivot for training the gun fore or aft placed about the centre of the gun. The advantage of this is that it will allow the present wide portholes to be reduced to half their width, without at all interfering with the range of the gun fore and aft. Thus the portholes of the Warrior will he three feet seven inches high, and only two wide instead of four—a reduction which, of course, diminishes by one-half the chance of a shot or shell entering the aperture. For the space of nearly two feet, also, all round the ports, the armour plates are seven inches thick, instead of

4'. The result of the experiments made by Mr. Whitworth with his 90-pounder gun and flat-headed shot against the iron sides of the floating battery Trusty showed that under favourable circumstances as to s eadlness of ship and point-blank range be couidsend the projectile tnrough one side of a four-inch iron vessel. Many shots were tired on that occasion. One, owing to a very trifling motion ot the Trusty, which was moored at Southend, glanced from her side in a flame of fire, turn ; d up, and went clear over her. The others all went through the four inch iron, but only one went so completely through the oak timbers inside as to fall dead on the main deck. Yet these oak timbers were merely a nominal protection, inasmuch as they were rotting to powder, and the (i beams" could be torn away in handfuis of yellow dust. This rapid decay always takes place when armour plates are laid over wood. Ivottou as they were, however, so much had the passing through the four-inch iron stopped the momentum of the projectile that they quite sufficed to prevent it going through into the main deck. Mr. Whhworth himself admits that through five-inch iron plates, backed up by 20 inches of solid teak, it would be almost impossible to send a shot, and it is not unfair therefore to conclude that the sides of the Warrior are practically invulnerable to any artillery yet known that can be brought against them. The slope inwards, or " tumble home," as it is termed, of the Warrior's sides, is only two feel, —an incline little, if at all, over a slope of 15 degrees. Every recent experiment shows that this is not enough. In the model sent in to the Admiralty by the Thames Ship Building Company the incline of the side was more than 25 degrees. The value of such an incline was shown when Mr. Whitworth was firing at the Trusty a little movement in which sent the shot glancing up and over her. It is true that shot, and above all spherical shot, will not go through the sides of the Warrior, whether inclined or vertical, but it is equally beyond a doubt that several shots striking the same plate would smash it, in addition to seriously injuring the woodwork behind, which, of course, bears the whole force of the tremendous concussion. ; Impressed with the vulnerability of iron-cased frigates in this respect, Mr. Jones last summer prepared models of frigates with angular sides, coated with armour, ar.i inclining inwards at an angle of 50 degrees. A butt constructed on this plan, and similar to what a ship's side would be, made on the same principle, was erected at Portsmouth and practised at by the Excellent, and the re>ult proved, as might have been expected, t'.ie decided success of the angular armour. Not onlv were the fractures less than half what they would have been had the plates been vertical, but the eifect of the concussion was altogether diminished by one-half, and the woodwork behind suffered less in proportion. A plate manufactured by the Mersey Iron Works took 17 blows in the space of b\ feet by 2\ feet before any part of it was removed, and then the iron was not effectually penetrated, nor the woodwork behind it much injured. This plate, in fact, stood wonderfully, receiving blow after blow from o"8-pound shot, almost on the same spot, and it was some timebeforeitshowed any symptoms of weakness.

There are two other most important advantages belonging to this plan of Mr. Jones. The bolts, or rather the holes in the plates through which the bolts are passed and fastened inside the ribs of the ship, form the weak points of the plates. When struck with shot the cracks spread from rivet-hole to rivet-hole till the plate is almost as fall of fractures as a broken pane of glass. But with plates laid on Mr. Jones's plan at such an angle of inclination, it will be unnecessary to employ more than a very few bolts in attaching them; and if the plates are well dovetailed into each other, five placed thus : •: would be amply sufficient to. attach them. This is one most important advantage, but there is another almost as great in the. diminution of the tendency of the ship-to roll by the weight of ilie iron sides being made to lean in board and mere to the centre of gravity. We do not mean to say that an incline of 50 degrees is necessart for iron ships' sides, as we know there are many important objections to such a " tumble home j" but every error is only a truth abused, and Mr Jones is far nearer the truth when he states 50 degrees to be the necessary incline than the Admiralty when theystatethat 12 degrees are sufficient. The opinions of the ablest authorities in gunuerv in the navy have officially expressed their opinion to ths Admiralty in favour of Mr. Jones' plan, and shipbuilders and practical seamen profess to be convinced that the sides of a floating battery shodd have an incline of 30 to 35 degrees. Still, the Admiralty have as yet done nothing, and in this matter, too, the Em • peror of the French is ahead of them. The success of Mr. Jones' plan was only clearly established iu Uttf

June. Yet already the Emperor has tested the value of the improvement, has built one gunboat (the Tortoise) on this principle, and others are in course of construction. Will the Admiralty profit by this example of our neighbours as they have done in the matter of iron-cased frigates altogether? At all events, if they don't build-angular-sided vessels, let them, at least build others like the Warrior. Let the slip that is now vacant atMillwall be at once occupied by another, and let no time be lost in diminishing the distance between the progress of our navy and that of France in the matter cf iron-sided men-of-war. The Warrior is a superb vessel —all that the country wants is more of them ; all that scientific gunners and seamen want is that such an inclination should be given to their sides as would not only keep out the shot, but glance it upwadrs ofl' the vessel altogether. Having seen the Warrior built, the Admiralty are about to try their hands at building one at Chatham. Far be it from us to say that this ship will not be, in form, strength, and speed, as fine a structure as the Warrior itself; but we may, at all events, venture to express an opinion that some long time must elapse before the public are likely to see it finished. By all means, however, let one be built at Chatham. We are too fir behind the French in this matter of iron frigates not to wish that every means may be resorted to to restore the equilibrium of our navy. But while doing this at Chatham let not the Admiralty neglect to employ to the same end the great private yards which have given such proofs of their skill and resources as are shown in the Warrior and the three other vessels of the same class now building. A few words here about La Gloire may not be out of place here. According to one set of statements, she is the most perfect and most formidable vessel ever built; according to others neither the one o»-the other, but a bad and irremediable failure. Neither of these extreme reports is true, but the latter is nearer the truth. From the immense thickness of the wooden •cantling under the armour plates, and from her being coated entirely with armour, she is so low in the water that, as we have said her portsill is less than six feet from the sea. When fully laden, with all coals and stores on board, it is scarcely over five, and this fatal defect renders her maindeck guns all but useless in a moderate sea-way. For the same reason she is not able to stow more than from three to three and a half days' coal. The bunkers of the Warrrior hold fuel for six and a-half days'full steaming and, with a very little extra stowage, nine days' coal can always be carried out of port. The speed of La Gloire has been stated to be 12 knots. Now, if the statement of one of her officers is to be believed (an officer, too, thoroughly well acquainted with her engines), the utmost speed that has been obtained from her has been short of 11 knots, and at this speed the vibration of the stern was so considerable that it was evident the armour plates would all work loose if it was long maintained. Nine and a-half to ten knots an hour is stated to be her utmost average speed, and this must be considered as a high rate for a ship of such size and weight. None attempt to deny the fact that in a sea • way La Gloire rolls almost dangerously. In fact all iron-clad frigates must roll slowly and deeply, if in their construction especial pains are not taken to guard against such a defect. Their massive iron sides, when once started, are like heavy Hy-wheels set in motion, and roll they must. Beyond a certain degree of inclination also, the weight of both sides leans over on one, and thus the roll must always be both slow and very deep. To counteract such motion the Warrior has two ridges of iron on each side of her bottom, like lee-boards, and extending almost along her entire length. Each of these plates is about two feet deep, and the resistance which they offer to her rolling is, of course, immense. Roll however, to a certain extent she must; but she will undoubtedly roll less than any iron frigate built without the ridges we have mentioned. The work of fitting the Warrior with the rest of her plates and engines will go on as rapidly as possible in the Victoria Dock, whence she will start at the end of May or beginning of June, for Portsmouth, to be masted.