| Show ud iron cased ve asels capt pharard cibor borneR Os horner e R N X writes valte s on this important subject SIR cordially concurring concur as I 1 do with your leading article of af sunday tast last upon the importance of 0 our navy possessing more ironclad ships allow allowee me to point to important testimony in support of their value as engines of 0 war I 1 saw the wench trench floating batteries after the capture of kinburn forts in the black sea they took the brunt of the fight there and I 1 was told did their work uncommonly well the russians had more than one heavy hard hitting gun yet they had not penetrated a single plate of the french ships the only loss of life experienced e ap e r encee by our allies was owing to shot lp passing abig asig through the gun ports Mec mechanical hanica in means ean can be invented to prevent this occurring for the future in close action hearing what I 1 did of the ship attack on se sevastopol Sepa pa in 1854 and seeing what I 1 did of the t trifling effect of the russian guns on the iron floating batteries in 1855 1 felt convinced conven ced that the french emperor had hit the right nail on the head in producing ships coated with iron as the only means of laying land batteries sufficiently close on board to be breached of breaking a line of battle in sea fight and of scouring out such roadsteads as the sound portland Spi thead and the downs unless you are able to meet such invulnerable vessels with others of exactly a similar character the experiments which captain halsted writes of seem to have arisen from some misgivings as to the well known fact that with patience and perseverance you may punch a hole through any metal of any thickness I 1 should have thought that any of the master blacksmiths in our dockyards dock yards would have reassured us upon that head and I 1 must sa say 1 I think taink the french government has been far more profitably employed in perfecting the form of their iron vessels and improving the texture of the plates covering the sides I 1 do not take all for gospel that we hear about the eloire but there is no doubt upon the minds of all those who have seen anything of modern warfare and who are unprejudiced enough to accept innovations even though they come from a frenchman but the days of wooden ships of the line are numbered and that in a close fair fight iron frigate against wooden two decker the latter would be knocked into lucifer matches or if they were both armed with rigged rifled guns probably blown up after a round or two How however every everi in spite of present disbelief the fact will one day dawn on intellects s till still becalmed in the smoke of trafalgar we sailors of this generation have ived ved to see old prejudices mastered in which wood and rope made a hard fight against iron tanks iron cables iron anchor stocks iron ballast iron messengers iron rigging iron collars and iron block straps iron has carried the day dax dai dak on all th those ose poi pol points ants and I 1 am sanguine enouf enough to think if you and the public keep the pres sure surd bureon su reon on that some morning the good old souls will rub their eyes oyer over tae times and exclaim flyod god bless usi us then these people are right and iron does stop shot and snell better than wood london times |
