Chapter VI · (continued 2)

The Marengo, another wooden ship which was plated with 8-inch iron armour, was designed to carry twelve guns. She had a central battery extending to the upper deck, and above this at each corner of the battery was an open armour-plated turret. The turrets each carried a large pivot gun, mounted en barbette, this being one of the first vessels France possessed in which it was sought to combine the advantages of the turret system with those of the barbette. These guns could fire in line of keel, and there were also four heavy guns on each broadside. She was 280 feet long by 57 feet 6 inches beam, and 28 feet draught, and was intended to have a speed of twelve knots. Her rudder was on the balanced principle. The rigging was brought down inside the bulwarks, something after the fashion of some modern sailing ships, so as to present a clean side outside. All the French ships were broad for their length.

The first large armour-plated ship to enter the Pacific was the Spanish screw steam frigate Numancia, constructed at La Seyne by the Société des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée. She was 317 feet in length by 57 feet 2 inches beam, and depth 37 feet, and her draught of water was 27 feet 6 inches, with a displacement of 7,303 tons, according to English measurement. She was built of iron throughout, and had 5 inches of armour-plate backed with 16 inches of teak from end to end of the ship, and from no less than 7 feet 9 inches below the water-line up to the level of the upper deck. Her armament was forty 68-pounders. She was built in less than two years, a piece of unusually quick work for a French yard, and was launched in 1864.

In 1868 the Dutch Government received from English builders two single turret ironclad monitors, intended for harbour defence, which were stated to be the first of the low freeboard type completed in this country, and carrying turrets on Captain Coles’s system. These vessels, the Krokodil and Heiligerlee, were about 180 feet in length, with a beam of 44 feet, and a depth of 11 feet 6 inches. From the gunwale to 8 feet below the water-line they had iron armour-plates of a total thickness of 5½ inches, tapering off to 4½ inches at the extreme ends. This armour rested against a teak backing 10 inches in thickness, behind which was an inner skin of 1-inch iron, and inside this again was a series of longitudinal iron girders. For their size they were exceedingly strongly constructed, but as they were designed to be able to meet any hostile vessel which might approach any of the harbours of the shallow Dutch coast where they might be stationed, the reason for such substantial construction is apparent. The turret armour was 11 inches thick at the gunports, and 8 inches thick elsewhere. The armament consisted of two 12½-ton rifled guns firing a 300 lb. projectile, which could be discharged from within four degrees of aft on either side to direct ahead. The turrets could be revolved by steam or hand power as desired. The twin-screw engines were of 140 h.p. nominal.

Another vessel of considerable interest, designed and built for the Dutch Government by Napier, was the turret gunboat De Tygre, which inaugurated a type which found much favour in Holland. This vessel, of 187 feet in length, 44 feet breadth, and moulded depth 11 feet 6 inches, and of 1,613 tons, builder’s measurement, was built in compartments and with watertight doors, and was like most of the turret ships of the monitor variety, as she had a double bottom which could be filled with water to sink her to her fighting level. Thus only about 2 feet of her topsides would be exposed to the enemy. As an improvement upon her came another vessel from the same builders, which was described as “of a build which has long seemed to us as one of those most likely to become employed for the ‘ship of the future,’ not because she is a ram, but because she is essentially a sea-going turret ship.” She was “the De Tygre over again, with the following exceptions: She has about 3 feet less beam, a rather greater draught of water, and light topsides are raised over the armour-plating and the deck, with which it terminates to the level of another deck; the vessel is thus in appearance an ordinary sea-going ship of war, for she is pierced for a few light guns on the lower deck; but her fighting strength consists in her turret, which is similar to that of the De Tygre, except that the ports are at a higher elevation. This vessel is, therefore, a cruiser, unarmoured, higher than a level of 2 feet from the water; but practically for a fight at close quarters she is a monitor exposing only a turret and a low topside as parts vulnerable to shot.”[45]

The Greek armour-clad King George, of 1,774 tons, built at Blackwall by the Thames Ironworks, was remarkable for the smallness of her dimensions in proportion to the strength and extent of her armour-plating. This was 6 inches thick, and had a 10-inch backing, and extended from the gunwale to 8 feet below the water-line, and from end to end of the vessel. She was 200 feet in length, and with engines of 2,105 h.p. indicated attained a speed of nearly fourteen knots on her trials. She was also notable for the peculiar arrangement of a central hexagonal box-battery on the Mackrow system for two 21-centimètre breech-loading Krupp guns (300-pounders), with the portholes so designed that the guns could be fired on both sides forward in line of keel, and nearly so aft; on the actual broadside the guns could be fired direct and parallel at the same time, or made to converge their fire at 70 yards distance from the ship’s side, the racers being so placed that the guns pivoted from the muzzle and could each be trained over on the broadside, through an angle of 93 degrees, the front gun in this way pointing three degrees abaft.

In 1864 Germany made a start with its modern navy by ordering from Messrs. Samuda the cupola ship Arminius. One or two others were added, and then, in 1867, the powerful armour-cased screw frigate Kron Prinz was launched from the same yards. She was of 286 feet in length, and of 3,404 tons, builder’s measurement, with engines of 1,800 nominal h.p. Her armour-plating extended entirely round the vessel from 6 feet below the water-line up to the main deck. The armour was 5 inches thick except near the ends where it was reduced to 4½ inches, and arrangements were made for the protection of the rudder and steering apparatus, as well as of the whole of the lower deck. The armour extended 14 feet upwards about 120 feet along each side, so as to protect the amidship battery, which was also protected by cross bulkheads. She was fitted with a considerable number of watertight compartments, a double bottom, and steel plating over the deck beams. She carried fourteen steel breech-loading guns of 7 tons each in her battery, a pivot gun on the deck at the bow protected by an armour-plated shield, and a pivot gun aft. Her iron lower masts served to ventilate the interior, and her lower yards were of steel; her speed was estimated at thirteen knots.

Apparently so well satisfied were the Prussians with this product of a British yard, that when the opportunity offered two years later to acquire one of the most powerful warships yet designed, they took advantage of it. There had been laid down at Blackwall for the Ottoman Government, a vessel designed by Mr. Reed, Chief Constructor to the British Navy, but Turkey, either seeing a profit in the transaction or being short of cash—deficiencies not being unknown in the history of Ottoman finance—permitted her, when about half finished, to be acquired by the Prussian Government. She was 365 feet in length, or 30 feet longer than the Hercules, with a beam of 60 feet, and a mean draught of 26 feet of water, with a burden of 6,000 tons. Her engines, by Maudslay, were of 1,150 h.p. nominal, and 7,000 effective. She was constructed on the longitudinal system, and within both frames and ribs was another iron skin an inch thick, making her a double ship, the inner one being 4½ feet from the other. The armour was 8 inches thick amidships, and tapering downwards to a thickness of 7 inches to 7 feet below the water-line. It also tapered towards the bow and stern, diminishing from 8 inches to 6 inches. Under the counter or bows, where it was considered almost impossible a shot could strike, the armour was only 4 inches thick. But elsewhere there was never less than 6 inches of armour, besides the 10-inch teak backing and double iron skin. Aft of the bowsprit and forward of the stern were two heavy bulkheads, each of 6 inches of armour and 18 inches of teak, which were continued from the lower deck, through the main deck, and up to 7 feet above the spar deck, where they were curved to form shields, each pierced with four portholes for cannon and loop-holed for musketry. Within these shields were four Krupp’s steel breech-loading 400-pounders, which could be fired forward or aft, or as broadside guns; and there were also twenty-three similar guns between decks. She was at that time the heaviest vessel which had been docked in the Thames.

Her new possessors evidently thought very highly of her, or they desired to pay her builders a compliment, for the German Government selected her to represent the German Navy at the Jubilee Review in 1887.