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| Name | Devastation (1871) | Explanation | |
| Type | Turret ship | ||
| Launched | 12 July 1871 | ||
| Hull | Iron | ||
| Propulsion | Screw | ||
| Builders measure | 4406 tons | ||
| Displacement | 9387 tons | ||
| Guns | 4 | ||
| Fate | 1908 | ||
| Class | Devastation | ||
| Ships book | |||
| Note | |||
| Snippets concerning this vessels career | |||
| Date | Event | ||
| 7 January 1873 - 3 October 1873 | Commanded (from commissioning at Portsmouth) by Captain William Nathan Wrighte Hewett, Portsmouth, for sea trials | ||
| 3 October 1873 - 10 May 1877 | Commanded by Captain Frederick William Richards, Channel squadron, then Mediterranean | ||
| 3 June 1877 - 20 November 1878 | Commanded by Captain Walter James Hunt-Grubbe, Mediterranean | ||
| 30 April 1885 - 26 June 1885 | Commanded by Captain Lord Walter Talbot Kerr | ||
| 14 August 1894 - 30 November 1896 | Commanded by Captain William Metcalfe Lang, guard ship, Devonport (and manoeuvres 8 July - 12 August 1896) | ||
| Extracts from the Times newspaper | |||
| Date | Extract | ||
| Th 8 April 1869 | The Navy Estimates have now been all voted, and the moral of the whole discussion appears to be that in shipbuilding, as in every other matter, there is no such thing as finality. It seems but a few days — it is less than twenty years — since we heard of the launch of the French steamship Napoléon . That politic innovation of our powerful neighbour sealed the death-warrant of the sailing man-of-war. It seems but yesterday — it is just eleven years — since we heard that the French were constructing four ironclad frigates. From that day to this it has been one breathless struggle among our naval architects to adapt to the conditions of modern warfare the ancient type of broadside cruiser. The American War introduced to the seas a still greater novelty. Just as the necessity of carrying plates of iron over the side of a fighting ship, in order to exclude the terrible projectiles of modern science, forced us to banish from the service the beautiful old three-decker with her 120 guns, so, again, the increasing power of rifled and unrifled artillery moved our ingenious brethren beyond the Atlantic to lower still further — even to the water's edge — the sides of their armoured vessels. It was a wrench to the minds of sailors to accept as inevitable the new motive power and wall of defence which steam and armour-plating have supplied to our men-of-war. But how much greater is the dislocation of old ideas and associations if we are to banish from the line-of-battle ship masts and sails and fixed portholes altogether, reducing to a minimum the ship's side which has to be armoured, and placing amidships a few big guns in revolving turrets, which will sweep round the compass in search of the enemy, and never expose their portholes to the fire of his breech-loading small arms except when the revolving gun is ready to fire too! Is this the last result of modern science? Is this the conclusion to which experiment has driven us? If so it be, away with sentiment and idle lamentation. As wisely deplore, with the popinjay lord who moved the wrath of Hotspur [in Shakespeare's 'Henry IV Part 1'], the introduction of "villainous saltpetre" as grieve over the final departure from the Naval Service of the poetry of form and all the giddy pleasure of the eyes. "The old order changeth, yielding place to new." There is no finality in war. We are about to build such vessels as the British Navy has never seen. The House of Commons has voted the money, in spite of Mr. Corry's opposition, by a majority of three to one, and nothing remains for our constructors but to hurry the experiment to a conclusion.Let no man think that, in any arguments or comments of ours which may have contributed to this result, we have been unjust to our naval architects. We know well the difficulties with which they have contended, and we rejoice to acknowledge that in several instances, and notably in Her Majesty’s ships Achilles, Minotaur, Bellerophon, and Hercules, they have attained a surprising amount of success. No one deplores more than we can do the necessity, if it be a necessity, that the most powerful class of our men-of-war should be forced to rely for motive power on steam alone. Obviously it will add largely to the cost of their maintenance in commission, and set limits to the services to which they can be applied. But, if the power of modern artillery is so far increased that the armour carried by these formidable and costly vessels will not exclude the shells which in the day of trial would certainly destroy their crews and burn or sink their hulls; if the power of the guns is still on the increase, and new metals and forms of construction may possibly add to their deadly effect, at the same time that it is impossible, without increasing the size of broadside ships beyond all reasonable proportions, to clothe them with iron-plating of sufficient defensive power, — there is but one conclusion. We must choose another type to carry the necessary armour. We must give to these warlike engines, the enormous cost of which, even in a wealthy Empire, must set some bounds to their number, defensive properties corresponding in some degree to their offensive force. We cannot trust the fortunes of England to ships which an hour's fighting may destroy, if there is a stronger type of fighting vessel, and other nations are likely to possess it. All shipbuilding is a compromise. In merchantmen speed must be sacrificed to stowage, or stowage sacrificed to speed. If time be an object, it is gained by the addition of steam power, but the weight of the engine and its fuel is so much taken away from the cargo the ship can carry. In a man-of-war the problem is more complicated, in proportion as steadiness of platform for the firing of rifled cannon, and strength of armour as a protection to the sides, become necessary elements in the construction. The form which is the best adapted for speed is that which, by its length, needs the greatest weight of armour; and if, with Mr. Reed, we deliberately choose the slower form of hull, the balance must be redressed by the employment of more powerful engines, which weigh several hundred tons more, and so detract from the weight of coal and armour which the ship can carry. Again, the carrying of armour on the side of the ship aggravates largely her rolling propensities, and this at the very time when we wish, above all things, to secure a higher measure of steadiness than sufficed in the days of Nelson. Guns of precision need a steady platform for precise firing; the same guns necessitate that armour-plating which makes the broadside ship more unsteady than before. It is in the vortex of these conflicting elements that our naval constructors have whirled around. The wonder is, not that they have done so little, but that they have succeeded in doing so much. They have attempted the impossible. A steady broadside ship of moderate dimensions, carrying powerful guns well out of water, and clad in armour which shells from similar guns will not be able to pierce, with a high rate of speed and coal enough for an ocean passage, is an impossibility; and the sooner this truth is recognized the better it will be. Mr. Childers is acting boldly and wisely in attempting the solution of a difficult problem. Can we, by a radical change in the form of hull, secure in a large degree what hitherto our ironclads have failed to attain? He would be a bold man who would predict with assured confidence the success of the experiment. But there is abundant evidence to justify the trial, and much ground for hope of its ultimate success. The only nations which have tried the experiment at all before us are the United States and Russia, and both of them believe in its feasibility. The Americans, since the conclusion of their great war, have reduced their naval expenditure to such a point that they can indulge no longer in experimental shipbuilding. With an annual outlay of 3,500,000l. sterling for the entire Naval Service, the construction of ironclads and the maintenance of foreign squadrons are together incompatible. They are leaving to European Powers the complete solution of the difficulty; but during the continuance of the war they applied themselves to it with their characteristic energy and accessibility to new ideas. They laid down at least ten distinct classes of turret-vessels with low freeboard — that is, with sides rising above the waterline not more than one or two feet — ranging in size from the Sandusky class, of 450 tons, to the Dictator, of 3,250 tons. The larger craft were intended for ocean service, but have never been tried; we believe they are still unfinished. The smaller were intended for coast service only, but two of these, the Monadnock and Miantonomoh, have respectively rounded Cape Horn and crossed the Atlantic, and the general opinion of American seamen who have tried them is strongly in their favour. But it must always be remembered that these ships were not intended for ocean service. Their tonnage was not, as Mr. Childers is reported to have said, 3,300 tons, but 1,564 tons. They are far smaller than any seagoing ironclad we have afloat. The Pallas of our Navy is 2,372 tons, and the Penelope 2,998 tons, and these are the smallest of our broadside ironclads with any pretensions to cruise at sea. Our sailors have yet to learn the buoyant and steady properties of the low-lying vessel which carries her guns on a platform amidships. The Russians and Americans, so far as they have tried the experiment, assure us that much has yet to be learnt, while that which has been learnt surpasses all expectation. It would be anticipated that the sea would wash over a platform lying so low. It is found, on the contrary, that though the wave often laps over the side, the ship immediately rises to it, and the water rarely reaches the turret. During the attack on Fort Sumter in the American War, while the transports from stress of weather had often to run for safety, the Monitors lay like ducks upon the water, dry and seaworthy, and were never disabled from firing their guns. The ships we are about to construct [Devastation, Thunderer] are not to lie so low. They are to be of 4,400 tons, and to have a freeboard of four and a half feet. They are to carry two turrets, each covered with 14-inch armour, and their sides will be covered with 12-inch armour. Their guns will be the most powerful afloat, and they will have no masts or rigging to interfere with their fire. Our strongest broadside ships, the Hercules and the Bellerophon, exhaust their coal at full speed in less than three days. The new ships are designed to steam at full speed for ten days, so that they may lie in port, awaiting, if so it be, the declaration of war, and steam at a moment's notice in any weather direct to their destination. The crew of the new ships will be so small that we shall save in men if we spend in coal, and there will be an upper deck between if not above the turrets, on which the crew will move secure and dry. For defensive and offensive power such ships must be unrivalled; we trust that time will prove their performance on the ocean, in steadiness and capability for lengthened voyages, to be all or more than their projectors anticipate. | ||
| Ma 8 August 1870 | The Reports of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Matthew Charles Symonds upon the Trials of Her Majesty’s ships Monarch and Captain, to which so many people have been looking forward with interest, have at length been published, and will well repay perusal. No such terse and practical Reports, so far as we can remember, have for a long time been laid before Parliament. Admiral Symonds points out drawbacks in either vessel, but is quick to recognize the superiority of both to all the broadsides under his command. Both ships, he says, are "very easy in a seaway, and can use their guns in any sea in which an action is likely to be fought." Instructed to watch carefully "the effect of a sea combined with force of double reefed topsail breeze on the ship with low freeboard, whether there would be a liability of the height of the wave interfering with the efficiency of the fire of the 12-inch guns of the Captain," he reports that "the ship of low freeboard has shown no failing on this point; . . . they hit a target (a small cask and flag) distant 1,000 yards to windward (at the third shot); and in a treble-reefed topsail breeze and sea, shot were dropped 1,000 yards to windward, the sea not interfering in any way." After a heavy gale on the night of the 29th of May "both ships were very steady;" on the 2d of June, in a long heavy swell from N.W., when the greatest rolling of the Warrior was 10 degrees, the greatest rolling of the Monarch was five, and of the Captain less than four degrees. On the 25th of May, when "the Minotaur's main deck was wet throughout by the sea entering the weather ports, and a great spray wet the poop" of the flagship, the turrets of the Captain were not in any way inconvenienced. Her hurricane deck was dry, although the sea washed freely over her main deck, "but in a far less degree than I anticipated." The Admiral recommends the Monarch to be altered by the removal of the forecastle, the bow guns, and their protecting ironplated bulkhead — on which, by the by, Mr. Reed, in his letter published by us to-day, particularly plumes himself — and then "the Monarch would have no equal among present ships of war;" and his verdict on the other vessel, as she now floats, without alteration, is, — "The Captain is a most formidable ship, and could, I believe, by her superior armament, destroy all the broadside ships of this squadron in detail." This sentence of the Admiral, who has never been known as a partisan of turret-ships, — whatever Mr. Reed may now think fit to assert in this respect, completely confirms the opinion of our Special Correspondent, who last year accompanied the combined squadrons under the Admiralty flag and startled the public mind by writing, — "There can be no manner of doubt that had the Monarch been an enemy, with her turret and four 25-ton guns in working order, she could have steamed down on the fleet from her windward position, and have sunk fully one-half of the ships before her own fire could have been silenced by her being sunk or blown up in turn.” Such is the pith and substance of the Reports which have just been published. The reflections to which they give rise are very mixed, but we are sure the public, who are often puzzled by the disputes of rival inventors, but always ready to do justice to perseverance and successful ingenuity, will be prompt to recognize the merits of Captain Cowper Coles, whose efforts have at length been crowned with such indisputable success. In October, 1861, when we were commencing our broadside ironclad fleet, Captain Coles wrote to the Admiralty as follows: — "I will undertake to prove that on my principle a vessel shall be built nearly 100 feet shorter than the Warrior, and in all respects equal to her, with one exception — that I will guarantee to disable and capture her in an hour. She shall draw four feet less water, require only half her crew, and cost the country for building at least 100,000l. less." In season and out of season he has ever since maintained the same pretensions. In 1865 he obtained an Admiralty Committee to consider his challenge, and it was in consequence of the Report of that Committee that it was determined to build the Monarch. Captain Coles protested against the lofty freeboard which the Admiralty Constructors designed for her. He declared that it was of the essence of his invention that by concentrating the armament in turrets amidships a high freeboard might be dispensed with, to the great advantage of the ship, both offensively and defensively. He obtained at the close of 1866 permission to design a ship after his own idea, in conjunction with Messrs. Laird, of Birkenhead, and the Captain is the offspring of their united ingenuity. Every one at Whitehall declared that a ship with so low a freeboard would be swamped by the sea and unable to use her guns. The Captain was tried under all the disadvantages of a raw crew within a fortnight after she was commissioned, was tested by a most experienced Admiral in rougher weather than most actions have been fought in, and the result is given in the Reports from which we have quoted above. Seldom has it been given to an inventor to reap in his lifetime so gratifying and complete a success. The two ships which carry off the palm in our Navy are the two which represent the invention of Captain Coles; and it is easy to gather from the Reports of Admiral Symonds which of them, as he thinks, embodies the preferable type. There have been two eminent naval designers in Europe during the last ten years — M. Dupuy de Lôme, the advocate of broadsides, an eminent French engineer but no sailor, and Captain Coles, of our own Navy, the advocate of a rival system. The Controller of our Navy proclaimed himself in 1865 a follower of the French designer. and he and Mr. Reed, in more than official antagonism, have for years opposed Captain Coles with an animus which is signally shown in the letter which we publish to-day. If it were wise or patriotic, we could point out hundreds of weak points in all the ships which Mr. Reed, with unlimited scope and skilled assistance, has added to the British Navy. We prefer to listen to the Admirals who command our squadrons — whether "sailing Admirals" or not, as Mr. Reed politely terms them — and rejoice that at length Mr. Reed, who is no sailor, is prohibited, as he tells us, from publishing controversial Minutes in defence of his own ships against the strictures of the recognized professional judges. He trumps up the old story that a shot fired with depression might stop the revolution of the turret. The experiment was tried with the guns of the Bellerophon at short range against the turrets of the Royal Sovereign, and the fear was shown to be groundless. Moreover, in action, when ships are moving and rolling from one side to another, it is no such safe or easy matter, as any artillerist will tell us, to fire a large gun with anything like the requisite depression. Mr. Reed exhibits in his letter all the disappointment of defeat. It is, indeed, no very pleasing reflection at the present moment that of the 40 ironclads which Mr. Childers lately mentioned only four are of the English type, which is now confessed to be the stronger and the better. There is one point of great importance upon which the Admiral in command expresses himself with some doubt and hesitation. Are not the advantages of masts and sails too dearly purchased by the impediments they offer to an all-round fire from the turrets, and by the risks of accident or burning which attach to them in action? He admits that with the Captain as she is "he has never seen such a range of training before, and that the perfect clearance of her 600-pounder guns for action from a training of 60 degrees forward to 60 degrees aft is very satisfactory, particularly when compared with the 30 degrees of the 9-inch 250-pounder guns of the broadside ships." She has since extended her range of firing from 82 degrees forward to 80 degrees aft; but even so she does not meet the ideal of the Admiral, who is anxious to be able to fire right ahead with the turret guns, seeing that "attack in future actions will generally be end-on right ahead, the exposure of broadside or quarter to ramming being suicidal." The class of ships introduced by Mr. Childers, of the Devastation and Fury [renamed Dreadnought prior to launch] type, carrying on a low freeboard without masts or sails the heaviest ordnance invented, will undoubtedly for heavy fighting in line of battle have advantages to which no sea-going cruiser like the Captain or Monarch can pretend. But the British Navy will always require sea-going cruisers, and for that purpose it seems to be now admitted that both the Monarch and the Captain are far preferable to the Hercules or the Sultan. To us it appears that the Captain, which in all other respects is the equal of the Monarch, and which carries more and thicker armour, and can be cleared for action in five minutes, while the Monarch takes an hour and a half, is a ship unequalled up to the present date for the purposes of war by anything afloat, and well deserves to be repeated, with such improvements as can be suggested by the ingenuity of Captain Coles. | ||
| Th 9 January 1873 | The seagoing monitor Devastation was formally commissioned at Portsmouth on Tuesday, by Capt. N.W. Hewett, V.C., and is being manned by seamen from Her Majesty's ship Duke of Wellington, stokers from Her Majesty's ship Asia, and Marine detachments from the artillery and infantry headquarters at Eastway and Forton. | ||
| We 15 January 1873 | The Ordnance steam transport Lord Panmure has arrived at Portsmouth from Woolwich, and is now disembarking at the steamsheer jetty of the former dockyard the four 12-inch, 35-ton guns, with their carriages, which have been built at Woolwich, on the Fraser muzzle-loading principle, for the turrets of the sea-going monitor Devastation, Captain N.W. Hewett, V.C., now completing her outfit for her sea trials at Portsmouth dockyard. The four gun-carriages will be taken on board the Devastation at once, and placed on their slides inside the Devastation's turrets, but the four guns will not be taken on board until the interior fittings of the turrets are further advanced than at present. The four gun-carriages have an average weight of 224 cwt. each. | ||
| Tu 11 February 1873 | Two of the four 35-ton 12-inch muzzle-loading rifled Fraser guns that have been manufactured at Woolwich for the turrets of the Devastation were yesterday mounted upon their carriages in the monitor's forward turret, and on Friday next the other pair of guns will be mounted upon their carriages in the after turret, the officials from the War Department having engaged by that time to have completed the running in and out gear. The guns were yesterday hoisted and placed in the Devastation's fore turret by the iron tubular sheers on the harbour sheer jetty of Portsmouth dockyard, which were tested carefully for the purpose some days since. The whole work of slinging, hoisting, and lowering the huge guns into position upon their carriages inside the great Monitor's turret, including the time taken in changing the slings from the first to the second gun, occupied but one hour and a half. Mr. Penny, the "heavy weights" moving officer on the staff of the Master Shipwright and Chief Engineer of the Dockyard, had charge of the work, which was carried out from the commencement to the finish without check or hitch of any kind. | ||
| Th 27 February 1873 | The Monitor Devastation, Capt. Hewett, V.C., was yesterday placed in dock at Portsmouth to cleanse her hull below the water line, paint it over with anti-fouling composition, examine valves &c. Her preliminary trials may probably be commenced about the end of next month. | ||
| We 5 March 1873 | The Devastation, Capt. Hewett, V.C., was undocked on Monday at Portsmouth and berthed temporarily alongside the Dockyard, where she will remain for a few days until removed into the steam basin for "inclining" to determine the angles of her stability. | ||
| Tu 11 March 1873 | An order has been received at Portsmouth from the Admiralty for more coals to be placed in the bunkers of the breastwork-monitor Devastation, previous to her being inclined to determine the angles of her stability. Capt. Hewett, V.C., who commands the Devastation, has received instructions from the Admiralty to proceed to Pembroke, and take passage round from that port to Portsmouth, on board the Devastation's sister vessel the Thunderer, which is expected to leave Milford Haven to-day, conveyed by the Valorous, paddle steamer, Capt. Thrupp. During the voyage round Capt. Hewett will thus have opportunities for making observations and notes of the Thunderer's behaviour that will be of the greatest value to him when trying the Devastation on her points of behaviour at sea. | ||
| We 19 March 1873 | The Devastation, breastwork monitor, Capt. Hewett, V.C., has completed, alongside Portsmouth Dockyard, taking on board the additional quantity of coals ordered for her preparatory to being inclined to determine the angles of her stability. These angles have been calculated by Mr. E.J. Reed as being about 31 deg. of inclination, is the point of her maximum stability, and about 57 degrees is the point of vanishing stability. | ||
| Ma 7 April 1873 | There appears to be at length a certainty of the Devastation getting away from Portsmouth Dockyard, and fairly entering within a few days upon the Channel and sea trials about which so much has been said, and from which results will be obtained that must, determine the great turret vessel's seagoing capabilities, and determine also, according to Mr. Goschen, whether she is a success or a failure. Captain Hewett, with his officers and crew, changed their quarters from the hulk, on board which they hare temporarily been berthed, to the Devastation on Thursday last, and to-morrow (Tuesday) she will steam out of Portsmouth harbour for Spithead anchorage, where she will take on board her ammunition, be swung to ascertain the deviation of her compass, and complete her preparations generally for sea. This will occupy the whole of the remainder of the week, and will give all on board time to shake down into their places before going out into the Channel. The six hours' steaming trial always made by a ship on commission will precede, of course, all other trials, and this will probably be made off the Isle of Wight about Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, the 15th or 16th inst. This trial will be conducted by Capt. Hewett, the ship's stokers having charge of the furnaces, and coal being used from the stock on board. Under regulations in existence some time since, but now superseded by Admiralty circular, the trial would have been made under the supervision of officers from the Portsmouth steam reserve and dockyard with special stokers and coal on board. The new regulations very properly test the powers of the stokers belonging to the vessel and give the captain and officers an opportunity for measuring the speed of their vessel when driven at full power in continuous steaming, which they did not have under the old regulations, and quite independently of the rate of speed obtained at the official trial under the superintendence and direction of the steam reserve and dockyard offices at the measured mile course. The after-trials to which the Devastation will be subjected will commence with a series of "spurts" in the Channel whenever a suitable force of wind and condition of sea may be met with. Portland will probably be looked into, and also one or two other anchorages westward. It has been said that the Admiralty, after the Devastation has concluded her trial in the Channel — presumably, as it most be presumed, that everything attempted in the Channel turns out quite satisfactory — intend sending her to the coast of Ireland to make her final trials in the rougher water off Cape Clear and the Skelligs. It has wisely been decided by Sir Alexander Milne and his coadjutors at the Admiralty that the Devastation's trials, as those of a purely experimental vessel, shall be conducted with all requisite caution, and not proceed too quickly from one point of success to the next, but it will be admitted that, however decisively favourable may be the Devastation's trials in the Channel, no reliable estimate can be taken of her seagoing capabilities until she has been exposed to the seas which may be found off Cape Clear and that part of the Irish coast in a fresh breeze. The Devastation is now getting into excellent order. The paddlewheel despatch vessel Vigilant, Staff Commander R.L. Cleveland, is under orders to accompany her on her first trials in the Channel after leaving Spithead, and is expected to have one or two Admiralty officials on board, if not Sir Alexander Milne himself. | ||
| We 9 April 1873 | The Devastation, Capt. Hewett, V.C., steamed out of Portsmouth Harbour yesterday morning, and anchored at Spithead to complete preparations for her six hours' and other steaming trials. | ||
| Th 10 April 1873 | The Devastation's six hours' steaming trial off the Isle of Wight will be made in accordance with the regulations laid down in the Admiralty Circular No. 52, dated the 7th of September, 1872, and will be the final trial of the ship's machinery by the Dockyard and Steam Reserve officials. The Devastation will be trimmed to the draught of water she had when tried on the measured mile — I. e., 7in. in excess of her designed draught forward. The furnaces will be in charge of the trial stokers from the steam factory of the dockyard, and the boilers and engines will be made to do their best during the six hours' continuous steaming. The trial of the machinery and boilers in continuous full-power steaming by the ship's stokers will be made after the ship has left Spithead on her Channel trials, and she will then be commanded by Capt. Hewett. | ||
| Sa 12 April 1873 | Tho Devastation, Captain W.N.W. Hewett, V.C., will weigh her anchor at Spithead this morning, and make a trial of her machinery, under the supervision of the representative of Messrs. John Penn and Sons, as a preliminary measure to the six hours' continuous steaming trial, which will be made on Tuesday next. The Chief Architect and the Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy, Mr. N. Barnaby and Mr. Wright, are both expected to be present. What is done to-day will be principally for the satisfaction of Messrs. Penn and Sons, as the contractors for the ships' machinery, but a novel type of war machine such as the Devastation cannot well be making her first essays under steam, even under the varying speeds and short spurts of a contractor's trial, without developing points of more or less interest for observation. On Thursday Mr. Childers paid a visit of about two hours' duration to the great turreted vessel at her anchorage at Spithead. | ||
| Ma 14 April 1873 | TRIAL OF THE DEVASTATION. The Devastation, breastwork turret vessel, under the command of Captain. W.N.W. Hewett, V.C., in accordance with arrangements previously made at the Admiralty, on Saturday weighed her anchor at Spithead, and steamed out south of the Isle of Wight for a contractor's trial of her engines, preparatory to making her official trial of six hours' continuous steaming off the island to-morrow (Tuesday). Being merely a contractor's trial, it was not intended to press the engines beyond the rate at which they would indicate the power contracted for with the Admiralty by Messrs. Penn and Son — seven times their nominal power; and, as this is much below what the engines are capable of doing, and what they actually did when the official trial was made over the measured mile in Stokes Bay, no very startling results were expected, nor were they, as a matter of course, obtained. The weather, also, was unfortunately very fine, only a very light wind from the north-east prevailing, and the sea inside and outside the Isle of Wight being as smooth as is the Thames on a nearly calm day at low water. There was, therefore, again no chance of testing the action of the Devastation in steaming again even ordinary Channel waves, but in the slight swell raised by the tide off both Dunnose Headland and St Catherines Point, the great vessel, as she had done in October last, gave indications of her buoyancy, rising and falling in response even to the small tidal swell she met with. There was also again an almost total absence of vibration in any part of the hull when the engines were being driven at the highest rate they were allowed to reach during the trial — 72 revolutions per minute — and the turning powers of the vessel were again exhibited in a remarkably favourable manner, the time in which the vessel turned and the space over which she moved in turning being less in both instances than any of our ironclads has hitherto required. So far as the trial went, the favourable opinion held relative to the Devastation's capabilities for steaming at high rates of speed with extraordinary steadiness was fully confirmed; but how she will breast heavy Atlantic waves can only be ascertained when she is clear of the Channel. If she should meet with rough weather off the Wight to-morrow, some pretty correct conclusions even upon this very knotty point may be arrived at. At present there is no apparent reason why the Devastation should not prove to be a most efficient vessel among heavy waves at sea, and if she can steam off from the Irish coast against an on-shore gale at a rate of from three to five knots she will be a grand success as the type of our "fighting ships of the future." Between Cape Clear and the Skellig's with Bantry Bay under the Devastation's lee as an anchorage to run for, is the place to solve the problem; but if that should not be considered enough, in the event of the vessel coming out of her trial there triumphantly, heavy cross seas could be looked for in the Bay of Biscay. At the present the officers and crew have been turned over to the Devastation from the berthing hulk but little more than one week, and the crew are not yet up to their duties on board. Every day the ship is under steam causes a certain delay in getting men and things on board in the order that must prevail before the ship can leave the Channel, and some days may be taken up in this way at Portland after the ship arrives there from Spithead. In the meantime, however, time is going by rapidly, and the setting in of a lengthened period of fine weather, with its light winds and smooth seas, would postpone the conclusion of the Devastation's trials to a most provoking extent.The Devastation weighed her anchor at Spithead on Saturday at 11 a.m., and steamed out easy through the channel between the Noman and Horse Shoals, while the anchor was being stowed and secured. Mr. N. Barnaby, Chief Naval Architect, and Mr. Wright, Engineer-in-Chief of the Navy, from Whitehall, represented the Admiralty, or rather, the Controller's Department of the Admiralty. The Steam Reserve, and the Master Shipwright's and Engineer's department of Portsmouth dockyard, were represented by Chief Inspector of Machinery J. Oliver, Chief Engineer W.H. Steil, and Assistant Master Shipwright J.C. Froyne. There were also on board, as visitor, Admiral Sir R. Spencer Robinson, K.C.B., F.R.S., late Controller of the Navy; Lord Henry Lennox, M.P., Rear Admiral Schomberg, and several other naval officers. Mr. Anderson represented Messrs. John Penn and Sons in the engine and boiler rooms. At noon the Devastation was clear of the eastern entrance to Spithead from the Channel, and holding a course outside the Princessa Shoal and across Sandown Bay towards Dunnose, the engines working 68 revolutions, and the bow wave thrown up by the projecting spur rising just level with the stem-head (9ft. 6in. above the vessel’s line of flotation forward), and washing over upon the forecastle deck, but not covering the deck with the constant body of water that is seen when the engines are driven at their highest speed. This flow of water over the fore deck only obtains notice by reason of its novelty. It certainly bas a certain grandeur about it, with its 12ft. head clearing the ship's path and throwing its superfluous force in a smooth green fall over the stem-head upon the forecastle deck, where it is broken up into hissing and snow white foam by contact with chain cables and the deck fittings. It cannot, however, act in any way against the vessel’s efficiency as a seagoing vessel, and among large waves would have a steadying tendency. It is, in fact, contended that if the fore and aft ends of the vessel were cut down level with the water that would not at all lessen whatever good sea-going qualities she may possess, excepting that she would lose a certain amount of reserve buoyancy that she now has in her half-raised forecastle. This explanation seems necessary here, for the Devastation’s bow wave plays an important part when she is under full steam, but it must be seen to be thoroughly appreciated. A cast of the log was taken as the Devastation entered upon Sandown Bay, and this gave her a speed of 13 knots; but as the engines were making 69 and 70 revolutions, her actual speed was in excess of the tale told by the log-line. The headland of Dunnose was passed half an hour after noon, and in the tidal race off the point there was a slight swell — very slight indeed, for the light north-east wind was right astern of the ship's track, and ships lay without motion off in the Channel; but slight as it was the Devastation felt it, and moved her enormous weight of 10,000 tons in a gentle rise and fall as perceptibly as the water heaved. Bonchurch was passed at 40 minutes past noon, and Ventnor and the line of shore and Undercliff were steamed rapidly past. At 1 p.m. St Catharine's Point and lighthouse was passed, when the order was given to reverse the vessel's course, and take the back track for Spithead. The rudder was put over to port to an angle of 30 deg., and the ship reversed her course in 2min 30sec., both sets of engines being kept going at full speed ahead, and the vessel turning in a wonderfully small space. The greatest inclination of the hull during the time the helm was hard over was only 5 deg. On the occasion of the Sultan's trial when her helm was put hard over her inclination was 15 deg. On the way back for Spithead the engines were given full play for about half an hour, and made 72 revolutions per minute, but the fires were in charge of the stokers belonging to the ship, who are not yet equal to feeding the engines with all the steam they can use, and the coal burnt in the furnaces was small, and of inferior steam-generating power. To-morrow the coal will be looked after, and the stokers in charge of the boiler room fires will be men belonging to the steam factory department of Portsmouth dockyard who are accustomed to special work of the kind, and who are equal to the task of giving the greatest strength that can be given from boilers to engines. All that can now be wished for to make the trial of the Devastation to-morrow complete and in all respects satisfactory is a tumbling sea off the Wight that will make the ponderous and not graceful-looking war machine plunge her bows into the seas until the water washes over the top of her forward turret and floods her hurricane deck. Spithead was reached and the anchor let go about 4 p.m. During the five hours the Devastation was under way the engines worked magnificently, entirely free from any indications of warmth in the bearings, and without any cause whatever for easing or stopping their motion, which, indeed, was continuous from the time of leaving Spithead until the Devastation let go her anchor there again at 4 p.m. | ||
| We 16 April 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. The Devastation, breastwork turret vessel, made her six hours' continuous steaming trial yesterday, off the Isle of Wight, with most satisfactory results. Capt. Lord Gilford, commanding Her Majesty's ship Asia and the Steam Reserve at Portsmouth, superintended the trial; Mr. Barnaby, chief naval architect; Mr. Wright, engineer in chief; Mr. Crossland, constructor; and Mr. Steil, inspecting steam officer, were on board from the Admiralty; Mr. J. Oliver, chief inspector of machinery afloat; Mr. W.B. Robinson, master shipwright and chief engineer; Mr. Froyne, assistant master shipwright; Mr. W. Steil, chief engineer, and other officers, were on board, engaged in duties connected with the trial, from the Steam Reserve and Factory Departments of Portsmouth yard. Lord Henry Lennox, M.P., Sir J. Cowell, Mr. Froude, and a large number of naval officers were also on board. The Devastation was under way from Spithead by 9 a.m., and stood out under easy steam for the clear water south of the Isle of Wight. About 1,200 tons of coal were in the bunkers, and the draught of water by the ship was 26ft. forward and 26ft. 6in. aft, being nearly 2in. mean excess of her designed load-line, and 2in. less than on the occasion of her trial over the measured mile. The wind was very light from about E.S.E., and the sea off the Wight was perfectly smooth; so that, to the great disappointment of the many officers on board, there was again no chance of seeing how the Devastation would move under full steam in broken water. The day's doings were therefore confined to the performance of the engines, which did their work in a most unexceptionable manner. The object of the six hours' steaming was to work the engines at a power not much exceeding the contract power — seven times the nominal, or 5,600 horse — and to take account of coal burnt. It will be seen from the figures given below that this was exactly accomplished, with an average consumption of coal of 7·4 tons per hour, or as nearly as possible 2·896lb. of coal per indicated horse-power.The following are the figures obtained from the six hours work in half-hourly returns:— First half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 27lb. Vacuum, starboard, 22¼in.; port, 23½in. Revolutions of engines, starboard, per minute, 73·16; ditto, per half-hour, 2,213; port, per minute, 73·76; ditto, per half-hour, 2,195. Speed of ship, 13·22 knots. Second half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 26lb. Vacuum, starboard, 24in.; port, 24in. Revolutions of engines, starboard, per minute, 73·13; ditto, per half-hour, 2,194; port,, per minute, 73·33; ditto, per half-hour, 2,200. Speed of ship, 13·38 knots. Third half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 26½lb. Vacuum, starboard, 23¾in.; port, 24in. Revolutions of engines, starboard, per minute, 72·73; ditto, per half-bour, 2,182; port, per minute, 72·63; ditto, per half-hour, 2,179. Speed of ship, 13·28. Fourth half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 26½lb. Vacuum, starboard, 23¾in.; port, 24in. Revolutions of engines, starboard, per minute, —; ditto, per half-hour, 2,184 ; port, per minute, — ; ditto, per half-hour, 2,186. Speed of ship, 13·38 knots. Fifth half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 27lb. Vacuum, starboard, 23¾ïn. ; port, 24in, Revolutions of engines, starboard, per minute, 73·13; ditto, per half. hour, 2,186 ; port, per minute, 72·86 ; ditto, per half hour, 2,194. Speed of ship, 13·34 knots. Sixth half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 27lb. Vacuum, starboard, 24in. ; port, 24in. Revolutions of engines, starboard, per minute, 74·86; ditto, per half-hour, 2,203; port, per minute, 73·43; ditto, per half-hour, 2,246. Speed of ship, 13·34 knots. Seventh half-hour.—Steam pressure in engine-room, 28lb. Vacuum, starboard, 24in.; port, 24in. Revolutions of engines, starboard, per minute, 73·76; ditto, per half-hour, 2,213; port, per minute, 73·10; ditto, per half-hour, 2,193. Speed of ship, 13·41 knots. Eighth half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 26lb. Vacuum, starboard, 24¼in.; port, 24¼in. Revolutions of engines — starboard, per minute, 72·63; ditto, per half-hour, 2,179; port, per minute, 72·0; ditto, per half-hour, 2,160. Speed of ship, 13·24 knots. Ninth half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 27lb. Vacuum, starboard, 24in. ; port, 24in. Revolutions of engines, starboard, per minute, 72·95 ; ditto, per half-hour, 2,189; port, per minute, 72·66; per half-hour, 2,180. Speed of slap, 13·20 knots. Tenth half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 26½lb. Vacuum, starboard, 24½in.; port, 24½in. Revolutions of engine, starboard, per minute, — per half-hour, 2,205; port, per minute, —; ditto, per half-hour, 2,185. Speed of ship, 13·27 knots. Eleventh half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 26½lb. Vacuum, starboard, 24¼in., port, 24in.; revolution of engines, starboard, per minute, 72 ; ditto, per half-hour, 2,160; port, per minute, 73, ditto, per half-hour 2,190. Speed of ship, 13·24 knots. Twelfth half-hour.— Steam pressure in engine-room, 26lb.; vacuum, starboard, 24½in., port 24½in. Revolution of engines, starboard, per minute, 73; ditto, per half-hour, 2,190; port, per minute, 69·83; ditto, per half-hour, 2,035. Speed of ship. 13·05 knots. Approximate indicated horse-power each half-hour— 5,700, 5,643, 5,699, 5,604, 5,518, 5,803, 5,754, 5,378, 5,590, 5,496, 5,669, 5,383; average, 5,678. The Devastation anchored at Spithead on her return from the Channel about 6 p.m. | ||
| Ma 21 April 1873 | The Devastation, Capt, W.N.W. Hewett, V.C., is under orders to leave Spithead for Portland at 9 a.m. to-day, the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, G.C.B, embarking on board and making the passage in the great turret vessel to Portland. | ||
| Tu 22 April 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. The Devastation arrived in Portland Roads yesterday at 5 p.m. from Spithead, the lords of the Admiralty and the officers on board having had another opportunity of seeing the great power and magnificent working of her engines, but not of putting her capabilities to any test, otherwise than as related to her steaming qualifications. Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, First Sea Lord, with Rear-Admiral Houston Stewart, Controller of the Navy, Lord Camperdown, Rear-Admiral Richards, Hydrographer to the Admiralty, and Captain H. Boys, commanding the gunnery establishment Excellent, left Portsmouth harbour for Spithead soon after 9 a.m., and embarked on board the Devastation, then lying there, with steam up and cable shortened. By about half-past 10 the great ironclad was slowly off through the eastern passage for the Channel, the wind being about N.E. and very light, the sea quite smooth, and the band on board the German ironclad Prins Carl, anchored at Spithead, playing the English National Anthem in honour of the English war ship as she steamed past. The draught of water by the Devastation was 25ft. 9in. forward and 26ft. 5in. aft, so that she swam as nearly as possible at her designed load line. There was some little delay in stowing the anchor, but by half-past 11 everything was in its place, and the vessel started away at 60 revolutions of the engines. The Fire Queen, with Admiral Mundy and Lord Elcho on board, accompanied the Devastation for a short distance outside the Nab, and the view from the deck of the Fire Queen of the big turret vessel's doings as she hove away across Sandown Bay for Dannose Headland must have been striking. The Valorous paddle, Captain Thrupp, led the way round the back of the Isle of Wight and at a considerable distance ahead. The Vigilant, paddle despatch boat, in attendance upon the Admiralty Lords, accompanied on the Devastation's starboard quarter. The Isle of Wight was passed at a speed of over 13 knots. The Vigilant soon dropped astern, and the Valorous, to keep her place ahead as pilot of the squadron, got out her upper and lower studding sails, in addition to the plain sail she had set before. The Devastation's engines still kept up their revolutions to 70 and 72 per minute, but without any indication of pitching or rolling, and with the white bow wave rising just level with the stem-head, and occasionally passing over on to the fore deck, but making no lodgement there. At 2 o'clock the west end of the Isle of Wight was passed, and the coast of Dorsetshire loomed sharply out in the summer haze landward on the starboard bow. During the run across Christchurch Bay towards the Dorset coast the increasing lightness of the wind rendered the sail of the Valorous of no service to her, and the Devastation was soon up with and ran past her to give a specimen of her turning powers. Her helm was now put hard to starboard, when she steamed over a circle in 4 min. 4 sec., both screws working ahead and the engines making 70 revolutions. Swanage Bay, Durleston, and St. Alban's Head were quickly passed, and then the Devastation's course was steered for a short time off from the land, in the endeavour to find some bit of swell or broken water in the tideway that should make her exhibit, however slightly, her plunging or rolling qualities. But the weather was much too fine, and the tide running too weakly. No wind, wave, or tidal swell was to be found off Portland any more than had been experienced during the whole time of the run down from Spithead, and the course was consequently reversed for the anchorage inside Portland Breakwater, where the Devastation dropped her anchor at 5 o'clock. The Vigilant and the Valorous followed shortly afterwards. The mean speed of the engines between the Nab lightship and Portland was 70 revolutions per minute, with the fires in charge of the stokers belonging to the ship. As at present understood, the Devastation returns to Spithead after making steaming experiments off the land; but the probabilities are that, whatever orders may exist at the present, they will be countermanded by others growing out of the conditions and results that may attend upon the first trials made. Sir Alexander Milne, Admirals Stewart and Richards, and Lord Camperdown were expected to leave Portland again yesterday evening in the Vigilant, for Portsmouth and London. | ||
| Th 24 April 1873 | Our Correspondent with Her Majesty's ship Devastation at Portland, telegraphs under date of yesterday:— "The Devastation steamed out in the Channel today, finding light north-east winds and smooth seas. No satisfactory results can be obtained from these trials until the vessel leaves the Channel for the coast of Ireland or try off Brest her seagoing capabilities with the smooth slopes of the Atlantic waves, which may be found there at this time of the year." | ||
| Fr 25 April 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. The arrival of the Devastation in Portland roads from Spithead on Monday gave temporary promotion to the senior naval officer commanding there, Captain R.V. Hamilton, commanding the Achilles, hoisting a broad pendant, by direction of Sir Alexander Milne, as commodore during the stay of the Devastation. During Tuesday the Devastation remained quietly at her anchorage inside the breakwater; but soon after daylight on Wednesday morning boats were got in, steam got up in four out of the eight boilers, and other necessary preparations made for weighing anchor again and going off into the Channel on the look out for rough water. By 8 a.m. the Devastation was outside the breakwater, and steering a course off the land in about a south-easterly direction. This was kept up for nearly a couple of hours. The wind was at very moderate strength from the north-east, and on the Monitor's port bow, the slight movement of the sea raised by the wind — there was no swell — running up in the same direction. A course was afterwards steered until noon in a west-south-westerly direction, bringing the Devastation's stem right on to the wind and run of the sea. There was no force, however, in either wind or sea to affect the vessel's motion in any material respect as connected with her behaviour at sea, but, slight as was the movement of the sea and the force of the wind, she exhibited again great buoyancy, rising and falling to the run of the sea in periods of from six to eight seconds. There was no attempt at "rolling" by the vessel, nor, in fact, was there sufficient motion of the water, to give cause for any. The Devastation anchored again in Portland roads about 4 p.m., and it will be only a waste of time and of coal to take her out into the Channel again for trial of her seagoing qualities, unless some very extraordinary change from smooth to rough weather occurs. She has to return to Portsmouth to complete certain parts of her outfit, and she ought to proceed there at once, and when that is done be sent off to the coast of Ireland, or across the Bay of Biscay to try the fine weather seas, as a preliminary to doing the same thing in Atlantic waves. | ||
| Sa 26 April 1873 | Our Correspondent with the Devastation telegraphs under date of yesterday:— "The wind remaining at very moderate force from the north-east, and the sea in the Channel continuing quite smooth, the Devastation has remained at anchor inside the breakwater since her return from the Channel on Wednesday, and advantage has been taken of the opportunity thus afforded to clear away the turret guns for action, give the men a lesson in handling 35-ton guns, and, generally speaking, bring things on board into improved working order. Dense clouds have slowly drifted over from the north-east to-day, accompanied by a heavy fall of snow and hail which may possibly indicate a change in the force of the wind and sea, and give the Devastation yet the chance of a day's moderately rough weather off the Bill of Portland." | ||
| Tu 29 April 1873 | HER MAJESTY'S SHTP DEVASTATION. PORTLAND, Monday Afternoon. The hoped-for rough weather has not come yet, and the Devastation consequently remains at anchor inside the breakwater awaiting the pleasure of wind and wave, or sailing orders from Whitehall to proceed in some direction where the prevailing north-easterly winds may be felt more than they can be here under a weather shore. The wind is now slightly north of east, and, in the opinion of all the pilots and fishermen with whom I have conversed, it is likely to remain in a northerly direction for some time. The wind thus blowing directly from off the land gives a perfectly smooth sea on the English side of this part of the Channel; and to take the Devastation out under such conditions would be simply a useless burning of coal, the only benefit being derived by the stokers, who would have a certain amount of "firing" drill. A change of the wind from its present northerly direction to about S.S.W., at moderate strength, would raise a sea off Portland Bill that would serve very well as a preliminary trial for the Devastation; but to wait for some indefinite time for such an opportunity, when it can at once be found somewhere near the chops of the Channel, appears to be almost a waste of time. If the opportunities for these preliminary trials of the Devastation are not found off Portland at this season of the year within a certain moderate space of time, it is evident they will have to be sought for further westward.To-day officers and men have been busily engaged at general quarters, the turrets revolving under steam power. The clearing away and bringing into action the 35-ton guns is at present a more tedious and troublesome affair than with the 25-ton guns of the Monarch's turrets. This, of course, is simply and very naturally owing to the greater weight of the Devastation’s guns and the want of practice by her men in handling them. Advantage has been taken of every hour's time to get the vessel, outside and inside, into as good a condition as possible, and she is undoubtedly very much improved in that way already, although the time for such work has as yet been short. The ventilation is a most important question to be considered, but this can only be fairly dealt with after nights of experience at sea. The present draught of water by the Devastation is 26ft. 5in. forward and 25ft. 9in. aft. This is about the depth of immersion her hull would have after three or four days' steaming, after starting with her coal bunkers full and meeting with a gale on a passage between Queenstown and Lisbon, when an opportunity would be given for trying the water-ballasting properties of her double bottom, with nearly 1,000 tons water space. | ||
| Fr 2 May 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. A change of wind from the north-east gave hopes yesterday that it may now become possible to make the contemplated experiments with the Devastation off Portland Bill. The vessel and her attendant paddle-sloop the Valorous got under way from their anchorage inside the Breakwater, and, steaming out through the western opening, stood off to the Shambles light-ship, and afterwards to the westward, between Portland Bill and the western extremity of West Bay, but found only motionless water. The slight change in the direction of the wind from N.E. to N.W. had brought it more upon the face of the Chesel Beach, and lashed the surf into some turbulence after its long quietude during the N.E. winds, but clear of Chesel and Portland Bill the water lay almost without any perceptible heave or ripple. ln the after-part of the day the Devastation and Valorous returned, and again anchored inside the Breakwater, where they remained to the present, under continued conditions of beautiful summer weather, with light northerly winds and smooth sea. | ||
| Ma 5 May 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. PORTLAND, Sunday. The wind continues from off the land, and the Devastation with the Valorous therefore remain quietly at anchor inside the Breakwater. Yesterday the wind came out in strong gusts from the N.W., and had the Devastation — the "monster of the deep," the Portland folk have named her — been on a lee instead of under a weather shore, some of the desired experiments might have been successfully effected. The Devastation is now 13 days away from Spithead, and her trials have not yet commenced, nor is there any prospect of their being commenced off Portland for some time yet to come. The conditions of weather required to try the Devastation off Portland would be a S.W. wind at gale force, and to change suddenly to this from light N.W. winds in the month of May might be a possible but certainly is not a very probable contingency. Every post is, however, I understand, expected to bring orders for the Devastation to proceed with her convoy, the Valorous, further westward, probably off the Land's-end, and there look out for suitable seas and greater strength of wind. There is nothing to fear for the ship's safety. Her angles of stability, calculated from her last inclination at Portsmouth Dockyard, have been received on board from the Admiralty within the last few days, and these have come out even more favourably than those taken from a previous inclination of the ship and quoted by Mr. Goschen in the House of Commons, on the diagrams of curves of stability for monitors, published in Naval Science for October, 1872. If the angles of the Devastation's stability now sent out from the Constructing Department at the Admiralty are correct, it must be admitted beyond cavil that the vessel it fit to proceed to any part of the World, but to prove their correctness the Devastation must be sent to some part where she will have the chance of meeting with winds and waves suitable for the purpose. It will be the soundest policy to do this at the earliest possible time, for the results to be obtained from the trials of the vessel may suggest modifications in completing or fitting other vessels of her type, which should be known in time for their application. What the public mind requires in the first instance to be satisfied upon is the vessel's sea-going capabilities, and the tests to which she must be submitted to prove this will at the same time bring to the surface whatever faults she may have in form of hull and equipment. The Devastation is the pioneer of an entirely new type of war ship, and, as such, is known to have many and grave faults, none of which, however, can affect her sea-going powers, but all of which, we may believe, will be avoided in our future sea-going monitors, In the first place, although weighing nearly 10,000 tons in the water when her coal bunkers and boilers are full, and all stores are complete, her dimensions are much too restricted, and she is greatly deficient of displacement in her fore body. Then her forecastle deck is the deck of a monitor, but it has not a monitor's deck fittings, and is encumbered with chain cables, capstans, &c., which ought to be on the deck below, and with four anchors carried on bill-boards raised to some 3ft. above the level of the deck, when they might be carried in shafts in the bottom of the vessel, as the American monitors carry theirs. The "superstruction" and the cul de sac at its after end have great disadvantages, which will be avoided in the monitors last designed, by carrying the armoured breastwork upwards from the side armour as has been done with the Peter the Great. Another fault has been committed in the construction of the flying or hurricane deck, which has been made much too heavy, and has steam hoisting machinery fixed upon it which could be much better carried below. The conning tower, an iron safe with 12-inch walls for the captain to stand in and fight his ship, is as great a piece of absurdity as can well be imagined. It rises above the flying deck to a height of about 30ft. above the vessel's line of flotation, and weighs considerably over 100 tons. Its walls of iron might stop the entrance of a 600-pounder shot, but the unfortunate Captain inside would certainly himself "explode" under the force of the concussion, and might, therefore, as well be killed by the shot. No sane person would, however, get inside such a structure, but would infinitely prefer the inside, the lee side, or the top of one of the turrets. Looking at the "derrick" mast, too, rising above the hurricane deck, with its weight of some 20 tons, it is suggestive as likely to be of immense use to an enemy in giving him the means to obtain an angle to determine the exact distance between the Devastation's sides and the muzzles of his guns, The mast bas been placed in the vessel for the purpose of hoisting the boats in and out, but that could be accomplished by other and simpler means.These are some of the principal and admitted faults of the Devastation, but they are simply matters of detail and do not in any way effect her efficiency as a new type of war ship as a sea-going — not a sea-keeping — monitor. It is supposed that whatever sea trials are made with the ship they will commence and be principally made under half-boiler power, or at a speed of about eight to nine knots, although, of course, it will be necessary to make some of the trials at other speeds and up to her maximum rate of 13·8 knots. Eight-knot speed will be the Devastation's ordinary rate of travelling at sea, because at about that speed she will be able to steam economically over the longest distances. The difference between the 8 and 13·8 knots speeds must be looked upon as a reserve of force for use only in cases of emergency, and costly when used. I observed in a previous communication from here that, in the absence of sufficient wind at sea off Portland to try the Devastation, she ought to be ordered back to Portsmouth to complete certain parts wanting in her outfit. I have reasons for now altering that opinion entirely. If the Devastation returns to Portsmouth before she has made her sea trials and once again gets into the hands of the Surveyor of Dockyards, and the officials of Portsmouth dockyard, it will be impossible to say at what date she will be free of dockyard chains and ready for sea again. | ||
| Tu 6 May 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. PORTLAND, Monday. A fall in the barometer to the extent of four-tenths of an inch between 6 p.m. on Sunday and 9 a.m. to-day was accompanied by a complete, but — from our point of view here — unfortunately only temporary, change in the weather, the wind coming out strong from the south-west, with squalls of rain. The Devastation had her anchor weighed soon after 10 this morning, and having battened down her fore deck hatchways steamed out for the Channel round the eastern end of the Breakwater with steam up in all her boilers, the Valorous accompanying, also under full steam. The appearance of the weather during the previous two hours had assumed a more threatening aspect than it had since daybreak, dark clouds rising rapidly from the south-west, with the atmosphere thickening out seaward. The barometer had fallen to 29 5-10th inches, and merchant vessels of various rigs were to be seen running in from the Channel for shelter inside the Breakwater. The draught of water by the Devastation was the same as on the last occasion of her steaming out into the Channel from the Breakwater anchorage on the search for rough weather. The Valorous led the way out past the eastern arm of the Breakwater with her topgallantmasts housed, and with trysails and staysails set to steady her. She was soon put in lively motion by the sea, which, however, was found not to have risen near the land to the extent that had been anticipated. The Devastation followed at a distance of about a mile, and soon began to fling grand masses of spray over her bows. The wind was found to be slightly west of south, the Breakwater, and wind and sea well forward on the starboard bow of the Monitor and her convoy as they stood off in the direction of the Shambles lightship in a south-easterly direction. As the engines increased their speed the water thrown over the bows was thrown up in proportionate force. At about half an hour after noon the Shambles light was passed, and the Devastation's course was then hauled out to about S.S.W., the actual course afterwards steered outwards from the Breakwater being made to keep the Monitors head to wind and sea. The Valorous was now a long way behind, and was left to her own devices. The Devastation was fairly out in the Channel, and the wind after passing the Shambles, was found to be at a force of five, according to the usually observed scale, but freshening to six in the squalls. The waves had not been under the wind’s influence long enough to have any height or length, and ran only in broken and shallow ridges. As there was no occasion to press the engines to their utmost, they were driven at a speed averaging 68 revolutions per minute, sometimes reaching 70. The vessel's speed during the time she was steaming against the wind and sea averaged about 8½ knots, and her fore body, or Monitor deck, as seen from the hurricane deck above, was a magnificent spectacle as the great masses of spray thrown up in front of the ship's bows sprang to a height of 20ft. and 25ft., and fell backwards upon the deck, sweeping the entire length on each side of the breastwork deck and the superstructure. The raised bill boards at each of the after ends of the foredeck, upon which the four anchors are carried, held the water thrown upon the low foredeck, and prevented its escape overboard in a very objectionable manner. Whenever the vessel really dips her bows into the slope of a steep heavy wave the fittings of this deck may give some trouble. The water held there will certainly affect in some degree, although possibly not to the extent anticipated, the buoyancy of the fore body of the vessel, and will also cause leakage through the deck unpleasant to the crew below. ln longitudinal motion while steaming against wind and sea the Devastation pitched about a degree and a quarter, taking the average of a dozen consecutive observations, rising and falling in periods. Taking the average as before in five or six seconds, the buoyancy of the vessel in this respect was again exhibited in as remarkable a manner as on all previous occasions when under steam; but the manner and the time of her rising and falling were necessarily governed by the condition under which the ship's bows and the waves met; at one time the rising and falling being done quickly, at others much more slowly, the vessel occasionally making a straight line through curved water in front of her. About 1 p.m. the Devastation was laid broadside on to the wind and sea, to ascertain what amount of rolling motion could be got out of her, the engines being stopped, and the vessel lying dead, as it were, in the trough of the sea. By this time, however, the wind and sea had fallen considerably, and the very short waves running with the decreased force of the wind produced but little effect upon the great ironclad. A diagram taken with Mr. Froude's automatic apparatus gave a roll of five degrees to the slope of the waves — that is, two and a half degrees each way. The roll was not perceptible on deck, but there was the same buoyant longitudinal movement observed as when steaming against the sea. The only novelty discovered by the experiment was an occasional tremendous thumping heard and felt when a wave broke close under the weather quarter. When the rolling experiment had been brought to a conclusion, the engines were set to work again and a course steered back for Portland. In the failing strength of the wind and the decrease of wave disturbance, to have kept the Devastation longer under steam in the Channel would have been only a waste of coal. In running back the vessel now and then dipped her nose under water and covered her deck forward with foam, occasionally varying the performance by throwing a mass of water over her quarter and on to her low aft deck. Now and then, too, as she steamed along before the sea at 12½ knots speed, that startling thump on one of the quarters caused by the breaking there of some wave of greater force than the majority of its consorts would also be heard. The Devastation reached the anchorage inside the Breakwater, through the Channel between the Shambles light and the island, and anchored shortly before 4 p.m. In putting in for the Channel, and bringing the wind and sea from right astern on to the port broadside the amount of permanent heeling by the Devastation was five degrees only. Should the wind freshen up again to-night, and continue to-morrow with any considerable roughness of sea, the Devastation will again steam out upon the chance of obtaining some results which may pass for a day's Channel trials. The forecastle deck leaked somewhat badly to-day, and let the water find its way below on to the mess deck. | ||
| Fr 9 May 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. PORTLAND, Thursday. The Devastation was detained to-day by Admiralty order, his Royal Highness Prince Adalbert of Prussia having expressed a desire to see the great monitor at her anchorage in Portland Roads. His Royal Highness arrived at Weymouth by the 2 50 p.m. Great Western train from London, and was received there by Lieutenant Ernest W. Rolfe, of the Devastation, as representing Captain Hewett, V.C., the officer commanding the vessel, and who accompanied his Royal Highness to Portland and on board, where his Royal Highness was received by Captain Hewett and his officers. Some time was spent by the Prince on board inspecting the turrets, and the fittings and arrangements generally on and between decks.It is quite impossible to understand the policy governing the trials of the Devastation, Mr. Barnaby, the Chief Naval Architect at the Admiralty, distinctly told the committee appointed by the Admiralty to examine and report upon the designs of ships recently constructed that questions had been raised upon important points relating to the design and equipment of the Devastation which could only be settled by an exhaustive trial in open sea; and yet the Devastation has lain at Portland now since the 28th of last month, all the time supposed to be on her trials, which, so far, have been confined to steaming out now and then from under the lee of the Breakwater on the look-out for seas that she will never find there. It may be that the rumour current is correct, that the Admiralty have been advised to commit a most fatal error with regard to the vessel's trials, and have determined to trust her no further west-ward than Portland, for fear of serious mischance befalling her. It seems almost incredible that their Lordships should have resolved upon such a course, but if they really have done so they will certainly be accused by their political opponents of having some certain knowledge of the vessel's unseaworthiness which they are withholding from the public. Whatever the cause, if the Devastation is not allowed to make her trials clear of the Channel, very few people will be found to believe that she can under any conditions be a safe craft at sea. But, then, what is the value of the elaborate calculations of her stability that are now being worked out at the Admiralty upon different possible lines of flotation, some of which have been already sent on board as applicable to her present draught of water? The professional reputations of the Chief Naval Architect and his assistant constructors must stand or fall by the correctness of these calculations and their application to the vessel, and no one, we may be sure, will be found to assert that they are not prepared for this. Mr. Froude, also, has his automatic apparatus fixed on board for recording the motion of the vessel among waves, but it may be months before he may find off Portland the long, rolling wave it may be presumed he wants for the purpose of his experiments. There is most undoubtedly a wonderful amount of reticence being observed upon the subject of the Devastation's seaworthiness in official quarters outside the constructive department, but, considering that the Devastation has been designed and built to steam under any conditions of weather to or from the Mediterranean and to cross the Atlantic, it is really too absurd to entertain the belief for a moment that the Admiralty are afraid to trust her beyond Portland owing to any fears for her stability. Yet the important fact remains that time is being lost as regards the vessel's trials by her stay at Portland. She has as yet met with no force of wind, or sea disturbance that could at all be considered as bearing in the most remote manner upon her future behaviour as a seagoing vessel, nor is it possible that she can do so off Portland. True, if a strong south-westerly gale were to set in there would be broken water enough to suit any appetite found off the Shambles lightship and the Bill, but such conditions of wind and sea are not required for the Devastation's trials, and a certain risk of damage to the vessel might be run without any prospective chance of results of value being obtained. The Devastation is, or is not, a vessel intended to meet Atlantic waves, and the only satisfactory way in which her powers in that respect can be tested is to allow her to be tried against the slopes of those waves off Bantry in fine weather, and afterwards give her a chance among the larger waves as changes in the weather may afford opportunities, and according to the experiences gained by handling her there in fine-weatherswells. A brief reference was made in the report of the last trip into the Channel from here by the Devastation to a leakage through the forecastle deck on to the crew's messing deck below. The assistant master shipwright of Portsmouth Dockyard, and the foreman of shipwrights, who superintended the building of the vessel from the time her first keel-plate was laid until her completion, arrived here yesterday, by directions from the Admiralty, to examine and report upon the cause of this leakage. In the opinion of these officers the leakage is but a trifling affair, and can be remedied by very simple measures. The forecastle deck covers in a space built up of thin iron plating from the ship's armour-plated band forward at six inches above the water-line, and extends from the stem for about 60 feet on each side until it meets the higher armour of the sides in the wake of the armoured breastwork and of the fore turret. Within this space is the crew's messing accommodation, and any leakage is, of course, a great source of discomfort to the men. Some people think that the whole of this thin-plated structure has been built up of much too weak material, while at the same time it is most undoubtedly the fact that on each of the upper sides it has to carry two large anchors, and along its centre it has to carry lengths of the chain cables, bitts, and capstan, and is pierced with many openings for hatchways, ventilators, &c. It is, in fact, as we have observed in a previous report upon the ship, a monitor's deck without the simple fittings of a monitor, with objectionable weight piled upon it, and with some of the fittings — such, for instance, as the raised bill boards upon which the anchors are carried — executed in the worst possible form. It must be fairly admitted, however, that this forecastle structure has been built up entirely independent of the general structure of the ship, and that if the whole of it were carried away by action of the sea or by enemy's shot the safety of the vessel would not be very greatly endangered. It now affords certain berthing and sleeping accommodation for the crew, which could not well be done without, but the same arrangement is not to be repeated with our larger and latest designed monitors of the new Fury [later renamed Dreadnought ]type. | ||
| Sa 10 May 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. PORTLAND, Friday. His Royal Highness Prince Adalbert of Prussia having, while on board the Devastation yesterday, expressed a wish to see her under steam, she left Portland Roads this morning as early as 5 o'clock for open water off St. Alban's Head, his Royal Highness having arranged to embark from Weymouth on board Admiral Sir G. Rodney Mundy's steam yacht the Fire Queen, Staff-Commander Harris, soon after 6 a.m. for Portsmouth. The Valorous, paddle, Captain Thrupp, as usual, accompanied the Devastation. The wind was light from the north-west, or off the land, and a long but very shallow swell was found outside the Breakwater, running up from the south-west. In the low swell the Devastation rose and fell with her previous average time of about six seconds, the lateral swing at the same time being, by rough observation, 12 seconds. After steaming out at low speed for about two hours, the Devastation's head was turned northwards, bringing the wind and sea nearly ahead, and off Lulworth Cove the Fire Queen was met coming out from Weymouth. The Devastation's engines were now making 68 revolutions per minute, and although she did not create so large a bow-wave as she would have done with four or five more revolutions, the great ridge of foaming water curving in front of and round the bows, with the bursts of spray thrown up from it, were a marvel to look at in smooth water off the land on a beautiful summer's morning. After the Fire Queen had passed outwards, the Devastation's helm was put hard a-port, and the big vessel coming round sharply gave chase to the Fire Queen, and in a very few minutes passed her on her starboard hand. A course was kept with the Fire Queen parallel with the land until off St. Alban's Head, where the Fire Queen bore away for the Needles Channel and Portsmouth, and the Devastation hauled out her course to the south-west. A little more swell was found by the monitor as she got off from the land, steaming head on to the wind and sea, and she was rammed at it at full speed. The sea, however, was running too smoothly and the wind was too light, for the Devastation, as she met the swell, rose to and rode over it. It was desirable, if possible, to put her bows well under water in order to test what leakage actually existed in the forecastle deck, but the smoothness of the swell and the buoyancy of the vessel rendered this fairly impossible, although now and then she would pound the swell into spray and fling it on to the fore deck in thirty and forty ton heaps. As there was nothing to be gained from a continuance of steaming among such low waves, and at a great deal of coal would be burnt in doing so, the Devastation returned to her anchorage in the roadstead before noon. | ||
| Su 18 May 1873 | The Devastation left Portland on Thursday afternoon and steamed slowly down Channel under four boilers only. The wind blew strongly from the eastward, and there was a rough though short sea running in the Channel. The Monitor behaved very well indeed on the passage, and anchored at 5 a.m. yesterday in Plymouth Sound. At 11.30 a.m. Admiral the Hon. Sir Henry Keppel, G.C.B., Port Admiral and Commander-In-Chief at Devonport, with the Admiral Superintendent, Sir W. King Hall, accompanied by their respective staffs, together with all the captains of the fleet in commission at the port, came off in the Admiral's yacht the Vivid, and, embarking on board the Devastation, left the Sound shortly after noon, and steamed out to the southward for about four or five miles This course brought the wind and sea on her beam, and the engines having been worked up to full speed, the ship making 12·8 knots, her head was put to the wind and sea and her course shaped due east for half an hour; the short seas she encountered broke over the forecastle, but the forecastle deck now being tight, there was no leakage below, as was the case on a previous trial. The Devastation's course was reversed at 2.30 p.m., and she returned to Plymouth and again anchored in the Sound. About 4 p.m. the fires were banked. She proceeds to-day for Queenstown. | ||
| Ma 19 May 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. QUEENSTOWN, May 18. The Devastation, with her attendant steamer, arrived in the inner harbour here this afternoon at 5 o'clock from Plymouth Sound, after experiencing squally weather at the commencement of her run between the two ports, nearly a calm on getting clear of the Channel, and a fairly full breeze with a cross sea on nearing the Irish coast. So far as the state of the weather off the coast here could test the vessel's behaviour, no ironclad could possibly behave in a more satisfactory manner, and very few would have behaved so well. The stronger winds and heavier seas she will doubtless very soon meet with off Queenstown or Bantry will give a truer measure of her seagoing qualities, but up to the present time her buoyancy and lateral steadiness have proved to be above the average of our broadside ironclads. Messrs. Penn and Son's engines, it will be seen by the figures at the latter part of this report, worked in the most unexceptionably efficient manner, and without trouble. The Devastation, with the Carron, the latter a powerful paddle tug attached to the Keyham and Devonport Dockyards, left Plymouth Sound half an hour before noon yesterday (Saturday), the Devastation's mean draught of water being 25 feet 2 inches, and therefore somewhat light as compared with her mean draught on her measured mile and six hours' trial, owing to her consumption of her coal, provisions, &c. Steam was up in her after boilers. giving her half power, and the running of her engines was limited to 40 revolutions, calculated to give her a speed of 7½ knots an hour over the distance, or 220 miles between the ports. The wind during the forenoon had been east of north, but on the Devastation and her little escort getting well off the land, and steering their course down Channel, the wind came out from the southward. The barometer was at 29·62, and falling; rain clouds gathered thickly, and appearances seemed to indicate the chance of a rising sea that might give the big Monitor her initiative baptism before letting her anchor go in Irish waters; but with the very moderate wind then prevailing, the low running swell nearly right aft, and the Devastation moving in the same direction with the waves, she exhibited no motion given by the wind or waves excepting the regular rise and fall of her bow and stern due to the buoyancy of her extreme ends. She threw up no spray of water on to her forecastle deck, and only occasionally shot a wreath of spray on to her aft deck. Soon after 3 p.m., the Carron, which had been gradually closing up from astern, signaled "forced to ease, port bearing hot," and the Devastation's engines were for a short time eased down to 30 revolutions to enable the escorting paddle to keep company. About 5 p.m. the Lizards were seen on the starboard beam, but the sea was now quite smooth, and the promise which the look of the weather about noon appeared to give of a good rolling sea when the Land’s-end was cleared. was rapidly fading away to vanishing point. The light tower on the Wolf Rock, with its alternate and brilliant displays of red and white light, was passed at 8 p.m., and from that point the Devastation, with the Carron in close attendance under her helm, steamed on at eight knots speed throughout the unnaturally still water and into the wall of gray mist and thick drizzling rain which encompassed her on all sides as day ended and the night began. During the night the wind backed out easterly, the barometer began to rise again, and at 4 o'clock this morning the wind stood at north-east, reaching a strength of 5 by 8 o'clock, with a sharply-rising cross sea. Roche's Point bore from the Devastation at that time north-west quarter west, distant 50 miles. At 10 o'clock the sea had increased, and broke fully over the starboard bow, the anchors, and the after deck, an occasional sea breaking against the lower edge of the starboard armour-plated band and under the quarter with sufficient force to make the hurricane deck rattle again. The buoyancy and steadiness of the Monitor were, however, surprising, but the seas, although the heaviest she had met with, would not compare in length or height, and therefore weight, with those she will have to meet hereafter when using full steam. All this time the Carron, as may be supposed, had been getting a thorough dusting, nothing being seen of her at times from the Devastation but her paddleboxes and tunnel. At 1 15 p.m. land was sighted on the Devastation's port bow, and her course was at once hauled up for Roche's Point. As she neared the land the water smoothed. At about 5 p.m. she arrived in the inner roads here, and took in moorings near Admiral Heathcote's flagship, the Revenge, where she awaits orders.The coals burnt averaged over 1 ton 6 cwt. per hour. Between Plymouth Sound and Queenstown the mean indicated power of the engines was 1,080-horse, with a mean of revolutions by the engines of 40 per minute. There was scarcely any perceptible slip by the screws. | ||
| Fr 23 May 1873 | THE DEVASTATION QUEENSTOWN, May 22, 5 P.M. After a forced inaction in the inner harbour of Queenstown since Sunday last, owing to the slight force of the wind and sea on the coast, the Devastation this morning, accompanied by the Carron steamtug, took a spurt off into the Channel, west of the Old Head of Kinsale, in search of the strength of wind and height of wave disturbance required to establish her character practically not only as a safe seagoing Monitor, but also as the finest fighting machine in the British Navy. The required force of wind and sea was certainly not found, but the direction and force of such as were actually met with indicated that further westward, where the ship will probably proceed in a few days, both existed, and that the opportunity for an excellent day's work, so long sought for, would be given. The short time spent at Queenstown waiting on the weather has not, however, been lost. Many matters of detail in the engine and other departments required careful examination and possible adjustment before the vessel could proceed further westward. This morning when the Devastation, accompanied by her tender, the Carron paddle steamer, left Queenstown at about a quarter flood for outside, the wind inside the harbour was from the north-west, with a hardening feel about it, of very moderate strength, and was thought to be more westerly outside and also stronger. The Monitor cleared the harbour at slowest speed, but on getting outside Roche's Point her course was laid in a south-westerly direction, well outside Daunt's Rock, under two-thirds of her boiler power — the limit of power intended to be used for the day — so as to gain a certain offing off Kinsale Head at noon. The Old Head of Kinsale was broad on the Devastation's starboard beam. The wind, as had been anticipated, lost its northerly direction and came up round Cape Clear at as nearly as possible west, and the waves were found somewhat longer and higher than they had been east of the Head. With her engines going steadily at 60 to 62 revolutions per minute the Devastation threw what are usually termed clods of spray over her fore deck and the fore end of the weather superstructure. Her speed at this time was 11½ knots. The speed of the wind, as measured by Mr. Froude's anemometer, was 32 miles per hour, or, to express its strength in another form, was such that a clipper merchantman might, with care and under the same condition of sea, carry royals to windward. About half an hour afterwards the Monitor was off the west end of Courtmacsherry Bay, and no further increase in the wind or sea being found, it was considered advisable to return to Queenstown and wait another chance. Previous to doing this the engines were stopped, and the ship laid broadside on to the land and sea for some minutes to see if any roll could be got out of her. The waves were, however, much too small to produce an effect upon her, the greatest amount of roll to the slope of the wave being merely three-quarters of a degree. After setting the engines going again for the return homewards, the vessel outran the waves, which were running in periods of 13 seconds, and rolling three degrees, — that is to say, a degree and a half from the perpendicular. The day was bright, with a clear atmosphere in the distance, and a large number of steam and sailing vessels were seen making for St. George's and the English Channel. The Devastation returned to her moorings in Queenstown Harbour at about 4p.m.In our report of the passage round to Queenstown from Plymouth, in The Times of Monday last it was stated that the consumption of coal averaged "over” 26 cwt. per hour, it should have been "only," &c. | ||
| Ma 26 May 1873 | The Devastation is under orders to steam out to-day to a position some 50 or 60 miles off Cape Clear, where she will remain until to-morrow, on the lookout for any swell the Atlantic may send in. | ||
| We 28 May 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. QUEENSTOWN, May 27. The Devastation, Captain W.N.W. Hewett, V.C., returned to her moorings in Queenstown Harbour to-day about 6 p.m., after a cruise of some 30 hours off the land in search of the Atlantic swell. It would almost seem from what has occurred as yet, that she is not destined to catch it during the prevalence of summer weather and its natural accompaniment of winds ranging between west-south-west and north-west, all giving a Iee of 60 miles under the coast line, extending from Queenstown to Mizen Head, at the extreme south-west point of the land. It will be seen that some wind and sea was met with, although of no very great account; that the Devastation got a good washing down forward, and that she obeyed natural laws in pitching and rolling, like any ordinary ship, and that, under the circumstances, she behaved very creditably, and would have compared very favourably with the performances, under similar circumstances, of those of our best broadside ironclads, such as the Sultan and the Hercules. Admiral Heathcote embarked on board the Devastation about noon on Monday to proceed in her to witness her performance as far as the Old Head of Kinsale, and in an hour's time afterwards the great Monitor was steaming out for the open water south-west of Roche's Point, with the Carron paddle tug in company. Her draught of water was 24ft 8in. forward and 26ft. 1in. aft, with 800 tons of coal in her bunkers, and no water in the compartments of her double bottom. Her angles of stability under these conditions were 27 deg. as the maximum and 54 deg. as the vanishing point. The barometer (29· 90) had a downward tendency, and everything looked promising for a strong breeze and a good sea outside. Half-boiler power only was in use, but the remaining boilers were filled and ready for use if required. On getting fairly outside, the wind, was found steady from W.S.W., at about a force of 5, with but slight movement of the sea, the flood tide heaving with the wind. The atmosphere was clearing, however, and the weather generally began to look harder. A course was steered nearly parallel with the land and with the Monitor's head right on to the wind and sea for Kinsale Head. Nothing of importance occurred between Roche's Point and Kinsale. The vessel felt nothing whatever of the existing strength of the wind and sea, but exhibited her usual steadiness and buoyancy, at which Admiral Heathcote expressed his surprise and admiration. About half-past 3 the Devastation's engines were stopped for a short time, and Admiral Heathcote left her for the Carron steamtug, in which he returned to Queenstown. After the Admiral had left, the Devastation's head was again put to the westward, and after passing Kinsale Head, and gaining due offing further off the land, rather more sea disturbance was found, but the vessel, going at a full eight knot speed, rose to every heave of the waves, and topped them in a style not to be excelled by other ironclads. At half-past 5 p.m. a cross bearing was taken on Kinsale Head and the Seven Heads, an a course thence taken west three-quarters south, or in the direction, of the Fastnet Rock and lighthouse, at 7 knots speed. As the vessel got westward the waves ran longer and higher, indicating the previous existence of a strong blow in from the Atlantic. The swell ran irregularly, and wasted energy. Irregular seas, however, would sometimes affect the ship more powerfully than other seas of a larger, but more regular motion, and undoubtedly at times the Devastation became quite lively, notwithstanding her weight in the water at the time of over 900 tons. The action of the vessel, however, was unexceptionably good in meeting the seas, in pitching and in rolling, and continued without a fault until the end of her trial at midnight, when her course was changed to the eastward, bringing the wind and sea with which she had been battling astern of her track, and a course was then steered under easy steam until 4 a.m. to-day. At 11 p.m. the Fastnet Light bore from the Devastation N.W. by N., distant 25 miles, and the Head of Kinsale N. E. by E., distant 32 miles. At a quarter past 9 the Devastation was put with her starboard broadside on to the wind and sea for one hour, with her engines going at forty revolutions per minute, and her pitching and rolling recorded by the diagrams taken with the automatic apparatus on board, under the superintendence of Mr. Froude, F.R.S., Mr. Brunel, C.E., and assistants. The results were somewhat startling, after what has been said of the expected immobility of the ship at sea, and at the same time consideration being given to the fact that the vessel was not in a gale of wind, although she was possibly among waves raised by a gale a very short time previously, and further off from the land. The rolling and pitching of a turret vessel with low forward and after ends like the Devastation has to the unassisted eye, by day or by night, an immensely greater effect than would be produced by any such observation made of the pitching and rolling of a broadside ironclad. To this may be attributed the undoubted fact that many on board the Devastation saw that the results obtained by the pendulum were inaccurate, and Mr. Froude's results as obtained from his automatic apparatus only were correct. Broadside on to the sea, and with engines driving her at seven knots speed, her maximum amount of roll was recorded on the apparatus diagram as being 14 deg. through the arc, the roll to leeward being 2½ deg. in excess of the windward roll. The pitching of the vessel when lying broadside on to the sea and the wind began to induce a despairing comparison between the absurd rumours generally received of the seagoing doings of the vessel and her practical performances. It is also a fact that the vessel really appeared to roll and pitch more than was recorded by Mr. Froude's automatic apparatus. The pendulum also showed a greater motion than the automatic apparatus did. But there can be no question that the eye recorded it as being 7½ degrees all through. In this pitching of the ship her action was remarkable to the extent of 4 degrees, the lifting power of her bows being much in excess of their falling or plunging motion. Tho rolling was also done easily and regularly, and without that peculiar laziness generally met with in ironclad vessels in their start to arise again from a lee roll. Between 10 and 11 p.m. the Devastation was released from her broadside position, and again placed stem on to the wind and sea. Her course was continued outwards towards the Fastnet Light until midnight. The barometer was now beginning to rise again, the stars came out, covering the whole sky, and with unusual brilliancy. The wind looked northerly, the sea sparkled with phosphorescent lights, and everything looked towards fine summer weather, and, without regard to the rough weather wanted for the ship's trial, it was beautiful to see the Devastation split a great wave with her stem in curling masses of foam, and throw it aside right and left, its foam glittering with millions of globes of light, or take in the sea over her bows in a mighty sheet of water which not only covered the forecastle deck with its foam and its flashes of phosphorescent fire, but throw great masses of water over the top of the fore turret and past the turrets to aft on each side of the superstructure. It cannot be said that any green seas came on board over the bows of the ship in sufficient volume to run up level with the top of the fore turret, but broken waves certainly did reach as high, and in two or three instances higher still; for several of the latter spent the extreme of their iron strength upon the fore end of the hurricane deck, about 7ft. or 8ft. higher than the top of the turrets. At midnight, when the Devastation changed her course from westward for her return eastward, she rolled again considerably, and continued to do so as she held her way on at very moderate speed before the wind and the sea. At 4 o'clock this morning the engines were stopped and the vessel was again laid broadside on to the sea and the wind, but the wind wat now northing fast, coming more off the land. The sea was smoothing down, and the amount of roll made was not equal to what had been obtained in the experiment made the previous night. About an hour afterwards she was steamed at 50 revolutions by her engines head on against such wind and sea as remained, and took in considerable quantities of water over her bows, which was distributed in nearly solid spray far over the foremost turret and the hurricane deck wheelhouse. The wind was now gradually working round to north from west. Directly off the land the sea was fast settling into a perfectly smooth state, and nothing could further be done towards an official decision upon the claims of the Devastation for service as the seagoing Monitor. The question could very soon be decided if routine and prejudices were not allowed to stop the way. The maximum height of the waves was estimated at 15ft., with a length of about 300ft., on the top of which were superimposed the smaller waves. Previous to the return of the Devastation this afternoon to her moorings she cruised for several hours between Kinsale Head and Roche's Point, making experimental trials with her engines, working the port and starboard ones alternately, before going out for another trial, whenever that may be ordered to be made. It is expected coal will be filled up to 1,200 tons, as she is now somewhat light with her stock on board reduced to about 740 tons. | ||
| Th 29 May 1873 | The Valorous, 12, paddle sloop, Capt. A.T. Thrupp, sailed from Devonport yesterday for Queenstown, to accompany the Devastation on her trials off the coast of Ireland. | ||
| Tu 3 June 1873 | The Devastation, with the Valorous, arrived and anchored at Spithead, about half-past 6 last night. Moderate north-easterly winds and smooth water were met with between Queenstown and the Start Point, in the English Channel; off the Start, at midnight on Sunday, the wind increased to double-reefed topsail strength, with a short sea, and continued until the vessels had passed the Bill of Portland, when the sea moderated again. The maximum amount of rolling recorded by the Devastation was 3½ deg., with a maximum pitching motion of 2 deg. | ||
| We 4 June 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. After filling up with coal at Queenstown to 1,100 tons the Devastation received orders by telegram from the Admiralty on Saturday to return to Spithead in company with the Valorous, paddle corvette. Both vessels were clear of the harbour by 6p.m., and shaping a course across St. George's Channel for the English land, the Devastation proceeding under half-boiler power at 40 revolutions of her engines, which was maintained throughout to the time of her arrival at Spithead, and the Valorous using sail as well as steam. The 40 revolutions of the Devastation's engines gave a mean and nearly uniform speed of 7½ knots. A smooth sea with moderate north-easterly winds prevailed up to the time of sighting the Start Point Light in the English Channel. The first English land made was the Land's End, which was sighted about a point or so on the port bow at noon on Sunday, the Seven Stones lightship and Scilly being observed at the same time on the starboard beam. At midnight on making the Start Light, the wind suddenly increased, with a slight easting, to doublereef topsail strength, raising a short chopping sea which soon put the Valorous, with sails now furled, at some distance astern of the Devastation, the latter in the height of the increased breeze and sea, at about 2 a.m., rolling three and a half degrees from port to starboard, through the entire swing, and pitching two degrees (12ft.) from end to end of her length, After passing Portland, the wind and sea moderated again, and about 6 30 p.m. the Devastation anchored at Spithead, the Valorous arriving some little time afterwards.The cruising trials of the Devastation are thus closed for the present, it being understood that she will proceed with the fleet under the command of Admiral Hornby to Dover to render honour to the Shah of Persia on his arrival in this country, and afterwards take part in any naval display at Spithead that the Admiralty may decide upon holding in the presence of the Queen and her Imperial guest. The more carefully these trial cruises of the Devastation, so far as they have yet been attempted, are considered, the more completely will cause be found for regret that up to this time the Monitor's cruises off the coasts of England and Ireland have given absolutely none of the practical results sought for as indicating, beyond any dispute, the certain behaviour of the vessel in heavy weather at sea. The vessel was designed, and has been built to meet with and overcome the dangers of a gale at sea, as British ships of war are generally expected to do when efficiently officered and manned; and since her departure from Spithead for Portland she has been supposed to be in search of large coast waves which should serve as a preliminary introduction to larger ocean waves, and furnish data to Mr. Froude and the scientific staff on board which would determine mathematically the vessel's action in all kinds of weather at sea. This has been the supposition. The realities of the case are, that the Devastation has not been allowed to go in search of large waves but, on the contrary, has been kept aimlessly wandering about under a weather shore off Portland and Queenstown, looking for, under the circumstances, the "impossible;" burning some 800 or 900 tons of coals, and expending a very considerable sum besides in pay and provisions to officers and men, wear and tear, and other items of maintenance in commission. Only once did she manage to escape from the orders which have so effectively controlled all her movements, and this slice of good luck was quite unpremeditated, and was merely one of those fortuitous incidents that do occur now and then in the lives of ships as in the lives of men. This occurred when the ship made her 30 hours' cruise out from Queenstown in the direction of the Fastnet Light on the 26th ult., when at 11 p.m. the Fastnet Light then bearing from the Devastation N.W. by N., distant 25 miles, and the Head of Kinsale N.E. by E., distant 32 miles, some waves were found that had come in from the Atlantic of very fair size, and which had evidently been raised by some recent gale outside, and the Monitor was laid for about an hour with her starboard broadside full on to them, and going at only half power, or 40 revolutions per minute. The maximum amount of roll recorded by Mr. Froude's automatic apparatus through this hours trial was 14 degrees through the entire swing made by the vessel, the roll to leeward being 2½ degrees in excess of the roll to windward. This is the only diagram of value obtained by Mr. Froude throughout the whole of the trial cruises of the Devastation, and represents in its very small value the entire sum expended in commissioning the vessel to this date. The alarmists, in fact, have up to the present time, had it all their own way. There are naval men who argue that, because the Captain was lost the Devastation must also be lost; but there can be no analogy in the two illustrations. The Captain was lost owing to three causes — in the first instance she never swam at her designed draught of water, but much below it; secondly, she was a masted low freeboard monitor; and, thirdly, there may possibly have been some want of seamanship in handling the sails by the officer on deck in a moment of extreme and unexpected emergency. If such arguments as these have really had weight with the Admiralty, the policy pursued with the Devastation was cautious to a fault. Against the opinions of all those alarmists who are so zealously, and, no doubt, with very honest intentions, doing their best to condemn the Devastation without trial, may surely be quoted the opposite opinions of such men as Admiral Sir Spencer Robinson, the late Controller of the Navy; Sir Alexander Milne, the present Admiralty First Sea Lord; Mr. E.J. Reed, C.B., late Chief Constructor of the Navy and the designer of the vessel; Mr. Froude, F.R.S.; Professor Rankine, and the members of the Committee appointed to examine and report upon the designs of Her Majesty's ships built and building, and the recorded official opinions of the members of the Admiralty Council of Construction, including that of the Chief Naval Architect, Mr. N. Barnaby.The lighting and the ventilation of the Devastation below are largely important questions. To live in this type of ship both light and air must be supplied to officers and men in much more abundant quantities than with the seagoing American monitors of the Miantonomah and the Monadnock class. The lighting of the Devastation, all light below being necessarily artificial, is at present very detective; but the light given out by the lamps could be immensely increased and rendered, in fact, as nearly perfect as such light could be by fitting to each lamp the Chappuis patent reflectors, such as are fitted to the lamps in the Southsea Castle land battery magazines, on board Her Majesty's ship Himalaya, in the passages at the Admiralty, and on board the sister vessel to the Devastation, the Thunderer. On board the latter vessel the light thrown out by the reflectors is so strong that a letter may be read with ease at 72ft. distance from one of the lamps. The ventilation on board the Devastation would appear upon a cursory examination of the area of the five fans that drive the fresh air from the air shafts above deck through the different compartments of the vessel below to be amply sufficient for the purpose, but there is an undeniable "stuffiness" in the cabins below, and in the men's quarters forward at night when the vessel is at sea, which proves the want of a greater volume of pure air, and the presence of impure gases. At present, taking the Devastation as she is, however grandly effective she may be as simply a fighting machine, she is not perfect in the two matters of light and air as regards the health and comfort of her officers and crew, although in both instances the remedy could be very easily applied, and at a merely nominal cost. At the same time it must also be observed that the superstructure which has been added to the vessel upon the original design has very largely added to the accommodation on board, especially to that afforded to the captain and officers, besides doubling the ship's stability at sea. | ||
| Ma 9 June 1873 | THE SHAH OF PERSIA. ... The subjoined Information was made public by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on Saturday afternoon: —"The following are the arrangements of the Admiralty for the reception of His Majesty the Shah of Persia on his embarkation at Ostend and arrival at Dover:—"A squadron of ironclads, under the orders of Rear-Admiral Hornby, will leave Spithead on or about the 18th inst. Her Majesty’s ships Vigilant and Lively and other yachts will embark His Majesty at Ostend early on the morning of the 18th inst. Her Majesty's ships Devastation, Audacious, and Vanguard, will escort His Majesty thence towards Dover, where they will be met by the following ships, under the command of Rear Admiral Hornby:— Agincourt (flag), Northumberland, Black Prince, Achilles, Hercules, Sultan, Monarch, and Hector; and Audacious. Vanguard, and Devastation (to be detached to Ostend and rejoin). The squadron will convoy His Majesty to near Dover Pier, where His Majesty will land. On joining the ships at Ostend and the channel squadron, and on landing, His Majesty will be received with the usual salutes and ceremonies due to His Majesty's exalted rank." At Devonport and Keyham the following vessels are being prepared and equipped to take part in the naval review at Spithead:—The Zealous, 20, wood built, armour-plated, screw ship; the double screw, iron, armour-plated turret-ships Gorgon, 4; Hecate, 4; Hydra, 4; and Cyclops, 4; the Prince Albert, 4, screw, armour-plated, iron turret-ship; the Hotspur, 3, double screw, iron, armour-plated ram; the Waterwitch, 4, iron, armour-plated, hydraulic gun-boat; the Goshawk, 4, and the Swinger, 4, screw composite gunboats; the Plucky, 1, screw gunboat; and the Lively, paddle despatch vessel (the latter being intended to join the escort). Besides these vessels, the ironclads Northumberland, 28, Agincourt, 28, and Vanguard, 14, have lately left Devonport for the rendezvous of the fleet at Spithead. On the 17th of June it is anticipated that the Channel Fleet will be lying off Dover to await the arrival of the Shah of Persia, and it is proposed for the yachts of the Royal Cinque Ports Club to go out on Wednesday and sail as a squadron to meet the Shah, and to return to Dover with the Ironclad Fleet. | ||
| Ma 30 June 1873 | The fleet remaining at Spithead anchorage yesterday comprised the following vessels:—The Agincourt, flagship, Rear-Admiral Hornby, C.B., commanding-in-chief; the Sultan, carrying the broad pennant of Commodore Vansittart, C.B., second in command; the Northumberland, Hercules, Monarch, Audacious, Vanguard, Black Prince, Caledonia, Penelope, Hector, Valiant, Achilles, Glatton, Devastation, Royal Sovereign, and Valorous, paddle. The Devastation, Glatton, and Royal Sovereign are expected to go into Portsmouth harbour from Spithead this morning. | ||
| Ma 7 July 1873 | "Official." "The Channel squadron will proceed to sea to-morrow, July 5, about noon, to convoy the Shah of Persia to a spot 25 miles south of St. Catherine's."The squadron will then proceed to Leith, arriving on the 8th, and leaving on the 10th for Trondhjem (Norway) where it will arrive on the evening of the 16th inst., anchoring at the Grit islands on the way. "The squadron will eventually return to the Downs. "Letters should be addressed to Leith up to the 9th inst. From 11th to 17th. inclusive, they should be sent to Trondhjem. By order of J.P. Hornby, R-Ad." N.B. The Valorous accompanies the squadron. Of the fleet assembled at Spithead for the inspection of the Shah of Persia, and to render honour to His Majesty on his visit to England, only three vessels now remain at the anchorage — the Devastation, the Hector, and the Monarch, and these will probably leave the anchorage to-day, the Devastation and Hector being expected to go into Portsmouth harbour, the turret vessel to complete her outfit, effect certain alterations or repairs required, and prepare for sea trial; and the Hector to go into dock and prepare for her autumnal cruise as one of the reserve squadron. The Channel squadron has sailed for Leith and Trondhjem to do honour to the coronation of King Oscar . The Monitor division have arrived from Spithead in eastern and western ports, and the Reserve squadron has also been distributed between Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Sheerness, to be docked and prepared for the annual autumnal drill cruise. | ||
| Fr 11 July 1873 | The turret-ship Devastation, Capt. Hewett, V.C., is under orders to be in readiness to proceed to sea on Tuesday next for gun trials. She is still at Spithead. | ||
| Th 17 July 1873 | THE DEVASTATION. The following is a summarized detail of the experiments: - No. 1 trial shot, left gun in after turret, Palliser shell, weight. 691lb.; powder charge, 85lb. pebble; fired on the starboard beam, deflected to the right from first graze. No. 2 trial shot, right gun in after turret; same charge and description of shot as before; deflected to the right after first graze. This shot, when barely 300 yards from the mouth of the gun, could be distinctly seen to turn three parts over, but immediately afterwards gained its equilibrium and made a steady flight to the end of its course. One and two, experimental or testing shots (all the shots fired were of the same pattern and weight the Palliser shell of 691lb.). Shot, Palliser; powder charge, 110lb., the battering charge of the guns. Both guns were fired from the lower step, and had an elevation of 14deg. 20min. It was intended to fire both together, but the port gun missed fire. The shot from the starboard gun fell at an immense distance, its time of flight to first graze being as nearly as possible 16 secs. Nos. 3 and 4 shots followed from the same guns, with battering powder charges as before, fired with the guns at a depression of 3deg. 10 min. Having been raised by the hydraulic gear — a very slow purchase, by the way, owing to its being worked by hand — to the upper step, both guns went off well together, and sent their shot right astern, and struck the water about 80 yards from the Monitor's stern. Just 1,400lb. weight of metal had been hurled instantaneously from the mouths of the two guns by the explosion of 220lb. of pebble powder; but every one on board wondered where the expected concussion was felt. No. 7 shot was delivered from the starboard gun of the after turret with a battering charge of powder, the gun being trained over the starboard end of the after part of the superstructure and immediately over the captain's dining cabin, with a depression of 1min. 30sec. The shot struck the water about 80 yards from the vessel's quarter, and then strongly deflected to the left. No. 8 shot was delivered from the left or port gun in the same turret, trained over to port and of the after part of the superstructure, immediately over the upper ward room to the weight of shot and powder charge being the same as before; it struck the water about 60 yards from the ship, the latter tilting a little over to port at the moment the shot was fired. Nos. 9 and 10 shots were fired together from the two guns in the fore turret and right ahead, the guns being given 13deg. of elevation; the time of flight to the first graze was exactly 17sec., and both shots fell exactly together. No. 11 shot was fired from the starboard gun of the after turret, the powder charge continuing at 110lb. The gun was given a training forward under the starboard flange of the flying deck at 10ft. clearance of the fore turret, or 11½deg. of training from the ship's central line, and with 1deg. of depression. This latter gave the shot a clearance of about 2ft. above the breastwork deck. The shot struck the water about 100 yards from the ship on the starboard bow; the concussion both on the hurricane deck and inside the turret was found greater than with shots fired ahead, astern, or abeam, and more clear of the flying deck. Nos. 12 and 13 shots followed from the foremost turret, fired right ahead at 2 min. 10 deg. depression, and struck the water about 100 yards ahead of the ship. No. 14 shot was given from the port gun in the after turret trained at 76 degrees before the port beam, and at four degrees elevation the concussion on the flying deck was somewhat stronger than before the whaler gig shook her gear out and overboard, and there was a general splitting up of hammock cloth covers round the bulwarks of the flying deck. No. 15 shot was given from the right gun in the fore turret, trained on the starboard beam, with 15 min. depression, firing to windward. This shot drove up an immense column of water on its first grazing close to the ship, and well washed down the after part of the decks. No. 16 shot was fired from the left gun in the fore turret, firing horizontally, and trained aft to just clear the after turret. The concussion blew a canvas cover off one of the cutters, fixed in crutches, on to the edge of the flying deck, but no damage was done to the boat. The seventeenth shot was fired from the left gun in the fore turret with a full charge of 95lb. of powder (not the battering charge of 110lb. used in the previous 16 firings), the gun being laid out on the starboard beam of the after turret, and the shot having a passage clear to the deck of about 16 inches. The 18th and last testing shot was also fired with an 85lb. powder charge, the gun being laid horizontal aft; and about 5 feet clear of the after-turret the shot struck the water about 200 yards from the ship. After this last shot had been fired a target was dropped overboard, and two shots fired at it from 1,600 and 1,800 yards distance. Both shots were in capital direction of the somewhat tiny target, but fell rather short. The Devastation anchored at Spithead again on her return from the trials about 6 p.m., with all her flying-deck paintwork and upper-decks well blackened by the powder from her guns; the decks here and there scored by unburnt pebble-powder grains, but, otherwise, it may be said, undamaged. | ||
| Ma 21 July 1873 | The Devastation, Capt. Hewett, V.C., has been attached to the Channel Squadron for her trials at sea, and is under orders to proceed to Portland to join there the ironclads under the command of Rear-Admiral Hornby, C.B., on their return from Trondjheim. The Channel Fleet for the spring of 1874 will, it is understood, be composed of the Agincourt, Northumberland, Warrior, Defence, Resistance, Sultan, and probably one of the iron-built unarmoured frigates. The Warrior is ordered to be made ready at Portsmouth for commission by the end of November next. | ||
| Tu 5 August 1873 | It is reported that the Channel Squadron, under the command of Rear-Admiral Hornby, will not make the cruise this autumn with the Reserve Squadron, but will proceed to Lisbon in company with the turret ship Devastation, Captain Hewett, which ship, when crossing the Bay of Biscay and off the Rock of Lisbon, will complete her sea trials. The reason assigned for this change is that Rear-Admiral Heathcote, who will command the Reserve Squadron, was senior in rank to Rear-Admiral Hornby, who commands the Channel Squadron, and there appears to be a disinclination on the part of the latter officer to go on the cruise with the joint squadrons as second in command, consequently the Channel Squadron will go to Lisbon and the Reserve Squadron will take a different course. The Channel Squadron, under the command of Rear-Admiral G.P. Hornby, C.B., comprising the Agincourt (flagship), Capt. Robert O.B. Fitzroy; Northumberland, Capt. John H.J. Alexander, C.B.; Sultan, Commodore Edward W. Vansittart, C.B.; and Hercules, Capt W.M. Dowell, C.B., arrived at Spithead on Sunday morning from Drontbeim and the Firth of Forth, The ships are ordered to coal, and, it is understood, will proceed to Holyhead to be present at the formol completion of the breakwater there by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. | ||
| Fr 9 November 1888 | The Bacchante, unarmoured cruiser, which has been relieved by the Boadicea on the East India Station, has been paid out of commission at Portsmouth into the second division of the reserve. Under the new regulations the ship was restored by her own crew to nearly the same state as she was in before being dismantled. The men have been granted leave until the 27th prox. It is probable that the Bacchante will take the place of the Devastation at Queensferry, while the latter is having new engines placed on board. | ||
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