THE NEW MAN OF WAR SHAH.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 2195, 22 April 1874, Page 2

THE NEW MAN OF WAR SHAH.

The London Baily Telegraph thus refers to the new war ship recently launched at Portsmonth i— " She was to .have been called the Blonde — a name fall of glorious memories. The old Blonde was one of the best shipß in the fleet under Sir John Jorvis, and did some gallant things, especially in the way of cutting oat French frigates wkh*-ber boats. But when His Majesty Nasr-ed-Deen wont down to Portsmouth, the complimout was offorodto him of standing god-father to tho youngost water-baby of Britannia ; and the man-of-war ia question will therefore be christened The Shah when the bottle of champagno is broken npon her bows. The Shah wears no more than an iooh qf iron plate nnder an outside skin of teak ; and the smallest service gun oarried nowadays wonld send its shot .through both 4idee of suoh a vessel at a mile range. It is not solid, round, or elongated shot, .however, <wbiob do much mischief unless they -strike between wind and water. Shells are the deadly mißsiles which have led to so mnch piling op of plate npon plate ; a,ud tho nino inohes of the Shah's aide would be, perhaps, enough to explode a percussion shell oxterDidly^ where the shock docs -comparatively little damage. Hut it is meant to be tho Shah's own fault if shot or shell ever gnt much chanotf' of falling npon her.; she is to prove agile and nimble enough to run round and round almost any antagonist, avoiding or delivering battle, as may suit bo veritable a falcon of the waters. The new veseo) is, nevertheless, of magnificent proportions, being ,835 feet k>ng nith 52 feet beam, and a capacity of 4,039 tons. Her splendid engines will work Dp to 7,000 horse-power, and her Bails will cover an area of an acre in extent, being twenty-nine in number when all are let. These fine proportions are seemingly diminished by the extreme beauty of her hull. Sharp and fall below, with tho entrance of a facing steamer and the run of a steam yacht, Ac doeaaot look the powerful frigate which the is— just as the beautiful proportions of a handsome woman conceal her stature. The Shmb brings ns back again to the old days when a ship of war was glorious in graco as well oi strength. Her Bpars will soar aloft in towering grandeur ; her wings of snow white canvas will spread wider than those of any of her gieat ancestors whom Nolson called tho ' ladies <rf ttt* fleet.' She will be as eyramotrioal and comely as most of her modern consorts are the reverse % and even her own sister^ 4&e Inconstant and iho Raleigh, will be put iv 4he -ehiule by the appearance of this really beautiful new vessel. But looks, alas ! are little now-a-days, as the grim Devastation -sufficiently reminds ns. ' Handsome is that .handsome does;' and tho question of importance whioh instantly arises is, What will the Shah do P Her contractors promise and vow for her as follows : — With a fair wind, a clean copper bottom, and all plain sail -set, -she will make thirteen or fonrteon knetfl an hour — whioh is fourteen and a half to 41x1000 -inilea. Under full pressure of steam, without anything but a steadying sail or two, she wall do fifteen knots ; and with steam -and -unil? .combined «he is expected to accomplish eighioen knots — wbieh is nearly twenty-two miles, or moto than a mile in three minutes. Let us compare this rate of speed with that of some of oar finest war Bbips. The Shannon and Diadem — triumphs of construction after their kind — loggod no more than tvreJvo knots in 1855. Ariadne and Orlando touched thirteen knots, and this was the limit for oar fastest wooden line-of battle ships and frigates ; while the best of oar corvettes and sloops of the same dato never equalled ■neb performances. Weight and engine-power are wbnt tell most in respeot of speed, .along with good linos ; and therefore the ponderous Jroßcladfl, with their huge sorow-engines, outdid lighter and weaker craft. Tho Black Prince, Aehillos, Minotaur, and Monarch haveeachexceededfourteenknots per hour in the best trim ; and tho Agincourt barfahown slightly better speed even than this, although it was not inseagoingtrim. Briefly tho limit of speed for our ironclads may be Pet at fonrtcen knots, and th«»y must burn coal at a terribly prodigal rato to nchievo so much. I» ib not, perhaps, generally known that to increase a pace of twelve knots to fourteen, takes (roughly speaking) nearly doublo the horse-power, whioh means coal consumption and wear and tear. In many B hips of war even the difference of a single knot, when the vessel is going fast, implies an additional exertion of 2,000 horse-power. Nothing in the heavier olasses of foreign navies goes beyond

tho limits of spoed which we have named, nnless it be tho Rochambonn, and in oar own tho Inconstant alono has aohieved fifteen and fifteen and three-quarters. It will be clear, therefore, how remarkable a rate is promised for this new frigate, whioh is to sail as fast as tho best armor-plated ship can steam, to steam as fast as the Inoonstant can fly (with sails helping her engines), and to travel at tho pace of an ordinary rail way- train, when the wind is abeam or on tho quarter, and when her canvas can be all set, as well as her screw kept going. Furthermore she Ib to have a great stowing capacity for coal, enough to lake her ont to New York and back again, even with a dead head wind blowing both ways. And now for the teeth of this sea queen. Of these she carries twenty-six ; namely, sixteen guns on the main deck, eaob of six and a half tons, with two 64-pounders, and six more of these lost oa the npper deok, besides a heavy pivot gun fore and aft, ,each of eighteen tons, firing in a line with the keel at an advancing or retiring enemy. Snoh a ship, with her arrowy speed, her plentiful armament, and her large crew, would be, it is clear, of magnificent utility in case our commerce were threatened by Alabamas. To proteot the trade of Britain is, in fact, hor natural service ; for she could Bwoop from point to point, destroying all plunderers of the slighter sort, as a sea-eagle drives off or kills the thievish gulls. In point of fact, sho is an answer to the American vessol Wampanoag, which was a failure because built too small, and of wood alone. The official specification for that ship promised a craft 'having a greater speed by several miles per honr than any other ocean steamer, whioh should be able to burn, sink, and destroy every vossel of inferior force, naval or merchant, that might be found. Nothing she pursued could escape her, and nothing sho fled from could overtake her. The moro heavily armed but slowor cruisers of tho enemy could only follow by tho flames of the burning wrecks she left behind her. She would obtain a plentiful supply of coal, wator, provisious, and other stores from her prizes, for an indefinite length of cruising, and could nentralise tho large number of naval steamers required to form a cordon round the enemy's coast for the protection of his commerce from her depredations.' The Shah is that which the Wampanoag was meant to bo. With four or five similar vessels the privateers of the future wonld never menace the merchant ships of onr flag ; ono of suoh would keep a whole sea protty dear. Tboso who have found fault with tho armament of the Shah forget that it is heavy enough for cruising on her probablo mission ; a vessel of this kind could not carry very large broadsido guns, and has no turret to receive tho monstrous artillery of the Devastation typo. How will she fare when sho meets an ironolad foo ? The answer lies in her speed and in those two heavy guns which she carries under her poop and forecastle. They are long range pieces, weight of missile being subordinated to distance of flight and accuracy. If the Shah, while sho audaciously approaches, can polt a gigantic enemy with four hundred ponnd pellets from h&r bow-gun, while sho shows no more than the knifo-edgo of her Rtom ; and thon, whon obliged to retreat, can hurl bolt aftor bolt from her sternchaser, in the Parthian manner, upon her foe, she may prove formidable against any single antagonist, however mail-clad. Too light for ramming, and too weak for ' give-and-take' fighting, she is yet likely lo prove of the greatest utility if ske Hvos to see a war, and if the Admiralty put the right captain and the proper orew on board of her. For the rest, her beautiful form brings back the poetry of ocean life ; and her fnir whito decks, unencumbered with the hideous appliances of naval ironmongery, give splendid accommodation with all the conditions of hoalth and comfort at sea. It will be a pleasure to serve . on board of such a sea-beauty ; though wo feel that the Most Reverend Primate who lately deplored the sproad of Paganism in our literature must share tho hiddon regrets of all true lovers of Britannia's history that the two hnudsomeat vessels in the navy aro known as the Sultan and the Shah. It is all very proper, of course, to compliment our Eastern allies ; but the ' she' will sit badly upon this bandsomo godchild of Nasr-ed-Deen — and yot it would not of course, bo proper to call her ' Kisai Kiesi.' "