Part 24 (1/2)
This, of course, told heavily against us in the war with the United States, but we were taught a lesson which perhaps helped us later on.
In truth Britain's battles were won not because her s.h.i.+ps were superior in size or armament to those of other nations but on account of the pluck, courage, determination, and good seamans.h.i.+p of British officers and crews, and because the latter had been well trained to use their guns.
At last British naval architects woke up from their long lethargy and began to think for themselves. Till the end of the eighteenth century the s.h.i.+ps were flat-sterned with heavy ”quarter-galleries” projecting from the side at the stern, while their bows below water were bluff with long projecting beak-heads which, to avoid weight, were but flimsy structures, affording no protection whatever to the crew. In 1805 Sir Robert Seppings remedied this defect by constructing a solid circular bow right up to the main-deck, thus protecting the crew from raking shot. A dozen years later the same designer abolished the quarter-galleries, and introduced the neater and stronger circular stern. From this time forward, improvements were considerable and rapid until about 1860, when the ironclad settled the fate of the ”wooden walls” that had protected England for well-nigh a thousand years.
But, while the sailing s.h.i.+p was being brought to its highest perfection, it was on the eve of being supplanted altogether. In 1769, Watt took out his first patent for the steam engine, and in October 1788 Mr Miller, of Dalswinton in Scotland, first applied the new motive power to propel a vessel. An engine was placed on a frame, fixed between two pleasure boats, and made to turn two paddle-wheels, one in front of the other--the invention of William Symington--which drove the improvised steamer across Dalswinton Loch, at the rate of five miles an hour. The first practical steamer, however, was not built till 1801, when Lord Dundas, taking advantage of Mr Miller's labours, after spending 7000 pounds on experiments in two years, built the _Charlotte Dundas_. It was intended to work her on the Forth and Clyde Ca.n.a.l, but the proprietors having objected that she would damage the banks, she was laid up, as was a second boat.
In 1804, John Stephens of Hoboken, near New York, built a small vessel 22 feet in length, which ran at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour, and Fulton soon afterwards introduced steamers on the Hudson. In the year 1812 the _Comet_ was launched by Henry Bell, a s.h.i.+p carpenter of Helensburgh, and began to ply on the Clyde, being the first British steamer that ran regularly with pa.s.sengers. The _Comet_ was of 40 feet keel, 25 tons burthen, and 3 horse-power. The second steamer launched on the Clyde was the _Elizabeth_, in 1813, and the year following, Mr Fife of Fairlie launched the _Industry_, which was in use for upwards of fifty years. After this, steam navigation rapidly increased, steamers being introduced on the Thames in 1815.
The first war steamer ever built, was constructed by Fulton during the war between the United States and Great Britain in 1814, It was a large vessel after the plan of the first experimental steamer, two vessels with the paddles between them, evidently to protect them from the enemy's shot. This vessel was intended to carry 30 guns, and was fitted with machinery to discharge hot water through the port-holes, by which the ammunition of the enemy would be rendered useless, and her crew scalded to death, if they attempted to come to close quarters. She was also said to be armed with numerous cutla.s.ses and pikes moved to and fro by machinery, so that the boarding would be impossible, while it was supposed that her paddles would enable her to keep ahead or astern of her enemy, so that the broadside guns could not be trained on her. It is doubtful, however, if this marvellous production was ever actually completed, and as her machinery could only have been imperfectly protected, she might have been disabled and left at her enemy's mercy.
Some years later the Americans had the honour of performing the first Atlantic voyage under steam, with the _Savannah_, which arrived at Liverpool on July 15th 1819, after a voyage of 26 days from New York.
Six years later the _Enterprise_, an English vessel, made the longer voyage to India.
Some years pa.s.sed before it occurred to the Admiralty that steamers could be of any use to the Navy, and it was not till 1823 that they purchased the _Monkey_ tug, which, not withstanding its undignified name and humble employment, had the honour of being the first steam-vessel belonging to the Royal Navy. She was a vessel of about 212 tons, and 80 horse-power, and did good service in her day. Both Admiralty and naval officers held steamers,--”smoke-jacks,” or ”tea-kettles,” they were generally called--in great contempt, supposing that their only possible use would be as despatch-boats, or as tugs. It was reasoned that paddles would be so readily disabled in action, that it would be useless to fit them to fighting s.h.i.+ps. However, after a year or so, several steam-sloops and frigates were built which took some part in the Syrian and Chinese wars, as also in operations in the Parana. In none of these wars, however, were they subjected to any severe test of their liability to damage under fire.
All possible difficulties on this latter score, were solved in 1834, when Mr Francis Pett.i.t Smith invented the screw propeller, which works wholly under water. He succeeded in propelling a small model by this means on his father's horsepond at Hendon, in Middles.e.x, and in 1836 he took out a patent for his invention. The idea was old; in 1775, Bushnell, an American, had utilised it to propel a submarine boat, but up till then, practical difficulties in working had not been solved.
Smith was neither a naval man nor an engineer, and for some time, neither Admiralty, engineers, nor naval men believed that the invention would work with sufficient power to drive a s.h.i.+p against the wind.
Fortunately others thought differently, and in 1836, a vessel of 10 tons, with an engine of 6 horse-power, was built and successfully tried, first on the Paddington Ca.n.a.l, and then on the Thames. Finally, it put out to sea, and demonstrated by its behaviour in severe weather, that the screw was equally successful in rough water.
This turned the scales in favour of the screw. A larger boat was built, which showed her powers to the Lords of the Admiralty, by towing their barge to Blackwall and back, at the average rate of 10 miles an hour.
Still they were not convinced, and it was not for a couple of years or so that they took the matter up, after a successful voyage made by the _Archimedes_, the first sea-going screw steamer. They then built a small craft called the _Bee_, fitted with both paddles and screw, to try which was the better means of propulsion. The screw had the best of it, and after the further experiment of building two vessels of the same size and power, the one with paddles the other with a screw, and finding the screw still superior, it was finally adopted as an auxiliary to the sails. Little thought the naval experts of that period, that another fifty years or so would see both sails and wooden s.h.i.+ps quite obsolete-- as far as the Navy was concerned at any rate.
These experiments showed clearly that the screw was absolutely essential to every wars.h.i.+p, as in a calm, the finest sailing s.h.i.+p would be at the mercy of any small steamer, armed with long-range guns. Thus while new vessels were laid down specially designed to carry screws, wherever it was found possible to do so, all the efficient battles.h.i.+ps and frigates were fitted with auxiliary engines. Of course these converted sailing s.h.i.+ps, not having been designed for the purpose, could only carry engines of small power, still, it was a case of half a loaf being better than no bread, and was the best that could be done under the circ.u.mstances.
The first propellers were in the form of an ordinary screw thread, but it was soon found that separate fans were equally satisfactory, and more convenient to make. Much discomfort was caused by the excessive vibration caused by the early screws, but various improvements in their design reduced this. The fans of the screws are now attached by means of; bolts to a hollow sphere on the end of the shaft, and should a fan be damaged, it can be readily replaced. At first all screws were so constructed, that they could be lifted up through a well when sails alone were being used, so that it would not impede the s.h.i.+p. The funnels, too, being made to shut up like a telescope, a steamer could thus be easily turned into a sailing s.h.i.+p.
At the very time that the screw propeller was initiating a revolution in the method of steam propulsion, another revolution was taking place in s.h.i.+pbuilding material. Iron barges had been used as far back as 1787, and an iron steamer had been built at Tipton about the year 1821, but for another twenty years iron s.h.i.+ps were not viewed with favour, and only began to force their way to the front about the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria. Even then they were deemed utterly unsuitable for war vessels, as being very difficult to repair and keep afloat when perforated by the enemy's shot, as they must inevitably be in action.
But in the course of time, the iron vessel naturally raised the possibility of protecting wars.h.i.+ps by armour, and the matter, was forced to the front when gunmakers followed the lead of the s.h.i.+pbuilders and engineers, and set themselves to see what could be done in the way of improving ordnance, that had remained practically unchanged for hundreds of years, saving for more accurate workmans.h.i.+p.
Up till this time, only solid round-shot had been used on s.h.i.+pboard. An attempt had been made to get Napoleon the First to sanction the use of sh.e.l.ls for naval use; fortunately, for some reason or other, he declined to do so, and thus our great struggle for naval supremacy was carried on with the solid round-shot that had been in vogue from the earliest introduction of cannon. The smooth-bore cannon from which they were fired, could not be relied on to project them with accuracy to distances greater than about 1500 yards; beyond this range, their flight became so erratic, that it was simply a waste of ammunition to fire them.
Whitworth and Armstrong set themselves to solve the problem of how to make cannon shoot better.
The experiments of Whitworth and Armstrong resulted in the production of rifled guns, based on a principle that had already been tried with success in small-arms. The rifling enabled long conical shot to be fired with far greater accuracy than the old round-shot, and as these conical shot were two or three times as heavy as the round-shot that could be fired from a gun of the same bore, the guns of a given bore had only to be rifled to be suddenly raised to a much heavier grade, supposing them to be strong enough to stand the heavier charge of powder required. Not only that, but their range would be much greater, and their shot would pa.s.s through both sides of the stoutest s.h.i.+p in existence. For, when fired at wooden targets identical in material and thickness with the side of a s.h.i.+p, the projectiles went through them as if they had been paper, or, if sh.e.l.ls were used, tore them to pieces.
Even strong iron plates failed to withstand their impact. The thinner plates they tore open; as the thickness was increased, they first buried their heads in the metal, but stuck fast; then indented it only; and finally glanced off, but not until the plate had been made 4 or 5 inches thick.
Further progress was also made by the invention of breech loaders, which gave an increased rate of fire to these already formidable weapons, and to make matters still worse, much larger guns than had ever been made before could now be constructed without difficulty, and naval men justly began to feel uncomfortable about the safety of our ”wooden walls.”
In 1859, the French led the way by constructing the _Gloire_, which was covered with thick iron plates, and our Admiralty had to face the task of constructing ironclad s.h.i.+ps, and of armouring existing s.h.i.+ps, pending the construction of others. One thing was very plain; the existing high-sided s.h.i.+ps could not carry the weight of even the thinnest armour that would be of any service.
In 1861, the _Warrior_ was produced in answer to the French _Gloire_.
She was a frigate-built vessel doing 14 knots, and carried thirty-two heavy guns, 200 feet only of her length of 310 feet were armoured with iron plates 4 and a half inches thick--which was proof against any guns then existing--as it was thought that her seaworthiness would be impaired if the great weight of the armour were extended to the two ends. But to protect the vessel from raking shot--that is, shots fired at her when bow on, or stern on, to the enemy--armoured part.i.tions, or ”bulkheads”, as they are called, were provided.
In 1861, s.h.i.+ps of the type of the _Minotaur_ were built, armoured from stem to stern. These were considered monster s.h.i.+ps at the time, as they had a displacement of, 10,627 tons and were 400 feet in length. Their speed was 14 or 15 knots, attained by engines of 6,700 horse-power. The bow was constructed on the ram principle, projecting some distance under the water, and her sides were covered with iron plates 5 inches thick, tapering off in thickness, however, as they approached the bow.
Further, she was divided into many compartments below water, with watertight doors, so that if pierced, either in action or by grounding, she might still be kept afloat. She was fitted with five masts, made partly of iron, while her armament consisted of thirty-four 12-ton and 18-ton guns. Her cost was, 478,000 pounds but she and her sister s.h.i.+ps the _Agincourt_ and _Northumberland_ did not come up to their expectations, being found unwieldy on account of their great length, while in a few years it was found that their armour was not thick enough to withstand the more powerful guns that were being manufactured.
The next type of design was that of the _Hercules_, the prototype of the ”citadel” design. This s.h.i.+p was protected from end to end by much thicker armour than had hitherto been used, but instead of carrying the armour right up to the upper deck, to save weight it was in the form of a narrow belt protecting a few feet above and below the water line only, except amids.h.i.+ps, where it was carried up to the upper deck, forming a ”citadel,” inside which her ten 18-ton and 12-ton guns were well protected. In this way her guns, waterline, and engines--or ”vitals,”