projecting between 4 feet and 5 feet, the spread commencing at 18 inches above the water, and terminating at a height of 6 feet. The armored citadel of the Tegethoff is to be furnished with a transverse armored bulkhead abaft the two foremost guns, an arrangement which will prevent the battery from being raked in chasing. This improvement exists in the Alexandra, where it was, I believe, introduced for the first time by the present Admiralty constructors. The foremost bulkhead of the battery is inclined forward at a considerable angle to within about 4 feet of the middle line, where it becomes transverse, as shown. Immediately over this foremost portion of the battery, at the middle, is a very strong pilot-tower, standing well above both the gunwale and the forecastle. This shows that the Austrian officers who have been in an action with iron-clads do not consider such towers unnecessary. The above appear to me to be the principal features of the Tegethoff. It may be interesting to add that, while the outer skin and angle-irons of the hull are of iron, all the remainder is of Bessemer steel, varying in tensile strength from 30 to 33 tons per square inch of section, and possessing this, as I am informed, in combination with 25 per cent. of ductility. This Bessemer steel is produced very successfully in Styria and Carinthia, from which districts of Austria the chief supplies of the Tegethoff are derived. I may further add that, in designing this ship, much consideration has been given to securing both strength and subdivision by means of water-tight bulkheads between the coal-spaces and the boilers and elsewhere. S. Ex. 27--12 |