St. Helena and Ascension, and that for many days they had been living on paddy and water; no tea, no coffee, nor sugar. They were supplied with a cask of our precious St. Louis cheek, a bag of biscuits, and a can of coffee, and left in high spirits with their prize. The name of that ship and her master are still remembered, but as it is not impossible that he may still be alive, it is wise to conceal it for the present. Strangely enough, after nearly forty years we fancied we heard the name in Liverpool. Two days afterwards a brig hoisted a signal of distress and a request for a surgeon. On going on board we learned that she was from the Benin and Cameron Rivers. In crossing the bow of the latter she had struck heavily, sprung a leak, and a stream of clear water issued from the scuppers indicated the labour the crew must have had to keep her afloat. But they were faithful to their trust and ultimately reached Liverpool in safety. On board were several invalided seamen, and it was to procure a supply of medicines and medical comforts that the signal was made. These were freely supplied from the military stores, prescriptions made up, and with many expressions of gratitude the doctor was conducted over the side. He expressed his surprise that a vessel whose medicine chest originally contained only a few of the coarsest drugs should have been permitted to embark men whose lives depended on care and good nourishment.

The law has long since rendered such acts as the above impossible, and the tide sets in from the opposite direction. Too often seamen, when they ship on their own terms, fail to remember that there is a second party to the contract, and the condition in which many keep their crew-space is almost incredible. On paying off it is often strewed with broken bunk boards, filthy straw, and not unfrequently a broken stove, as if their successors and their employers were enemies to whom no quarter was to be shown, enemies who where to be mulcted and annoyed directly and indirectly. The fact cannot be gainsaid that no class of men are, as a rule, more indifferent to one another's sufferings than merchant seamen. A sick man is looked on as a public enemy, an impostor in fact, who shipped under false pretences, and to whom no quarter is to be shown.

Y

NOMENCLATURE OF DECKS.-The author's remarks on this subject are as worthy of attention now as they were when written seven years since. These, who have spent the major portion of their lives on ships, often, as they step on the deck of a modern steamer, feel like a blind man being led across a crowded thoroughfare by a kindly guide. He hears sounds of whose meaning he is perfectly unacquainted, or at least can only make a rough guess at them, and to make it more unintelligible still the officers of the ship are not agreed amongst themselves on the question. What is the difference between a spar deck, a main deck, and an upper deck? What is the difference between a hurricane deck, an awning deck, and a promenade deck? Of course, every one has privately a right to christen the decks of his own particular ship by any names he deems fit, just as the house builder has to attach high sounding names to his scamped and flimsy structures. But officially it would certainly be advantageous to all parties to have a standing name for each deck. Possibly it might even be judiciously extended further, for there is now a great deal of mystification in describing a ship from the use of so many terms in speaking of one part; for example, skin, ceiling, lining, mean the same thing. There is need of the revision of a second Beaufort in all these points, but we are a free nation and despise or delay the introduction of new-fangled ideas as long as practicable, and too often affect to believe that we are still superior in all that makes a nation great and prosperous.

The

The author gives quotations from the speeches or writings of the owners of sailing ships who complain that too many privileges are accorded to steamers. But it has already been shown that however great they may be they are not sufficient, in many instances, to enable them to pay the smallest dividend. legislators of the past generation wisely foresaw that the necessities of the age would soon demand greater carrying powers than could possibly be supplied by sailing ships, and most wisely endeavoured to foster a source of power which alone enables England to hold the lion's share of the carrying trade of the world. But for steam the mercantile navies of Canada, the United States and Norway would now be well abreast, owing to an unlimited

command of material, and in one if not two instances cheaper labour.

Doubtless the privileges which have been given to steamers are occasionally abused, and a few highly favoured command an extraordinary exemption, yet even where this is the case, it is evident that the public largely share the advantage conferred by securing rapid transit for passengers and letters. It is believed that if the country were polled that no disinterested person would attempt to impose an additional burthen on the boats which have for so many years successfully plied between Kingstown and Holyhead. Other lines are doing their work equally well, but there are none with whose names the travelling public are so familiar, and a fatal accident to one would be looked on as a national calamity.

Sailing ships must henceforth be content to hold a secondary rank in the shipping community, and no legislation can alter the inevitable. Merchant seamen of the old school will regret the change, as naval officers still do the introduction of ironclads; but however much it may be deplored, the laws of progress must not be tampered with. Science is revolutionizing alike the arts of war and peace, and it can only be effected by injuring individuals in a greater or less degree. A far more serious injury to trade exists in the unhappy strikes which have often, in particular trades, wrought more havoc than a famine. Up to the present time all reasoning has been thrown away on the unreasoning masses, and when beaten, so far from learning wisdom by the result, they sullenly await a time to renew the hopeless struggle. In the days of inflation strikes are excellent institutions for obtaining a fair share of the large profits; but when applied to the ordinary principles of commerce, fail hopelessly. There are signs that in order to maintain commercial supremacy labour will have to abate its demands, and in some measure at least allow masters to be the best judges of their own affairs.

IRON AND STEEL ARMOUR PLATES.

HE contest between guns and armour has now been going on for more than twenty years, and the ultimate result appears to be as far off as ever. While in place of the old 68-pounder we now have monster guns weighing 80 and 100 tons, and throwing a shot of nearly a ton weight, the thickness of armour has increased from 44 inches in the Warrior to two feet in the Inflexible. It is doubtful if the limit of thickness of armour has even yet been reached; the limit of size in the gun certainly has not. Still it must be remembered that although we may expect to hear of much larger guns than any at present in existence, the difficulty and danger of fighting these monsters on shipboard will be very great, as has been recently forcibly exemplified by the unfortunate accident on board the Thunderer. It is confidently expected on the other hand that something may be gained on the armour side of the question by the adoption of some material for armour plates which shall offer more resistance to shot than the rolled wrought-iron plates hitherto used. In an article some time ago, we described the processes of armour plate manufacture and the construction of the armoured sides of modern ironclads, since that time the material used for armour has continued to be soft puddled iron, and no very great change has taken place in the arrangements of the iron frames and skins, and wood backing which form the "protected side" of an ironclad. Thus in the French ship Devastation, which is the most heavily armoured full-rigged ironclad, the side consists of an inner skin 1 inch thick, outside which comes teak backing of 12 inches, consisting of logs running in a fore and aft direction, and then 15 inch armour plates. The Italian Dandolo and Duilio, which have thicker single plates than any other vessels, have an inner 1 inch iron skin, backing 17 inches thick, consisting of

*

*Nautical Magazine, 1873, p. 814.

teak logs placed vertically, and having vertical iron frames between them at intervals, the armour plate outside this being 21 inches thick. The English Inflexible has a side made up of an inner 1 inch iron skin, backing 6 inches thick, made up of teak plank placed fore and aft, with iron stringers between them at intervals, then armour plates 12 inches thick, then a backing or rather a cushion of teak 10 inches, consisting of logs placed vertically, and an outer armour plate 12 inches thick. The Inflexible is the first instance of the employment of two thicknesses of armour with wood between them on the armoured side of the ship, but the sandwich system, as it has been called, has been followed in several cases in the construction of turrets, in the English ships Devastation, Thunderer, and Dreadnought, and also in the Russian Peter the Great. We believe this has resulted from the practical difficulty of bending the very thick armour to the extreme shapes which are required for turret armour, or perhaps we should rather say to the difficulty of bending it without injury. The Italian Government however have even the turret armour of the Dandolo in single plates nearly 18 inches thick.

While thus armour has been increased from 4 inches to 24 inches, the same material has been used throughout. The quality of that material is much better than in the early days of armour plate trials, as is exemplified by the fact that, in the early Shoeburyness experiments, the plates were very liable to crack through the armour bolt holes, so much so that many devices were tried with a view to securing the plates in such a way as not to require holes through the armour. The quality of the armour has been so far improved, however, that for some years past the holes for armour bolts have ceased to be seriously objectionable.

Within the last few years, several proposals have been put forward for introducing new material for armour plates. We will not spend much space in noticing one of the first, which, indeed, had more especial reference to armour used in land defences than on ships. It is ably described in a paper read before the Institution of Naval Architects, in 1877, by Commander H. H. Grenfell, R.N., and is due to Herr Grüson, of Magdeburg, in Germany. It is, to use cast-iron of superior quality for armour