The Tests of Ironclads.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 107, 20 June 1885, Page 5

The Tests of Ironclads.

THOTJGJTthe English Kavy is vastly superior in every way to the Russian^ ri - wir ; between those nations would be -witched with eager interest by naval authorities all *>ver thexWorldjbecause'it would fix the value" of the modern ironclad in warfare. Therehave been many revolutions' in ship-building in the,' .present century, and f even in. the present 'generation; 11 The English vefsa'ete, like the Minotaur, Achilles;- and Black I^rmc'e', , whose; fpur and- one-half inches* of plate jinade' tnein the terror^ of th'e Sea'early m'puy Civil War, dre'but thitf shells tojthe' liremendous » floating iforfitesses that now de^-; Burbpe upon the od'eaiil 'Somepf-the'seV like the Inflexible 1 ,* which dia^u^'dre.adftfl work} ft*sAleiandH4,' h"ave J armow fronfdne' • ftn^one-halfe to- two-f eet^thick,- ovei* { t^ak n 6f eq^'fil! thioknte3B7.and r J carry" eighty •6n8iton> gvt&a.] eMost 6ftthe^Eiir6p©an»l?ati6h's f HIv^ ibiiilt jihese 'monsters in ! 'thelbst'fiMenlye ( arai and are still adding to them, Yet though

modern navy is,buat .ujgon^ajWbeory ; it is bnly experimental," anH its' test is y©t_to triiefejhas i%eft<|Mfh;f oBe |$ep- , turn, beetfin itnjiortant'ti&ttle betweeniron'clads in European waters, and that was won by skill in manoeuvring ; the engagement between the"'Ghileah and Peruvian ironclads, <*a few yea'rs^ago,! altfo -failed; to throw light uponVariousIdoilbtful^oints.f 1 To this uncertainty, * no doubfo , is due ' a good share of the pessimisticjbalk; wjbich\ha8. been indulged in, by English naval men.and, politicians. The same criticisms, have been made in France and Germany, of their own vessel^. Each nation has qold fits of fearing that its'riavy will be found inefficient 1 in" time of war, because none of t them kndw just what constitutes strength. We hear much about horizontal ,and vertical plafes, about belted ships and unartnoured'erids, but scarcely any Wo authorities agree. One, representative of the Admiralty declares I that a vessel like the Admiral Duperre, belted with armour, would inevitably capsize in a moderate sea, if the woodwork ' above the armour was shot away ; another says the same thing would happen to a' citadel shiji if her unarmoured ends were shot away j while a third declares that neither would capsize, and others deny that the unarmoured portions could be wholly' destroyed under any circumstances. Mixedup in these problems arethequestionsof guns and projectiles It is believed that no armour . has yet been made which the Krupp and Armstrong guns will not penetrate. Certainly all that was tested in the remarka' ble trials at'Spezzia, Italy, last autumn; was shattered by the Krupp steel projectile. Most of the navies are, therefore, adopting e£eel projectiles, but there are experimenters who still contend for the superior penetrating power of chilled iron, while others favour a combination of the two— a steel shot, with chilled iron point.— "St. Louis Globe-Democrat."