steamers cannot. But the screw-steamer, which is reported to have
astonished everybody, is certainly an exception. Perhaps by this
contrivance the rapidity and convenience of steam locomotion may
be combined with the power and stability of our huge sailing
batteries."

Under convictions thus slowly recasting, the first big steam
ships-of-war carried merely "auxiliary" engines; were in fact sailing
vessels, of the types in use for over a century, into which machinery
was introduced to meet occasional emergencies. In some cases, probably
in many, ships already built as sailers were lengthened and engined.
As late as 1868 we were station-mates with one such, the _Rodney_, of
90 guns, then the flag-ship of the British China squadron; and we had
already met, another, the _Princess Royal_, at the Cape of Good Hope,
homeward bound. She, however, had been built as a steamer. She was a
singularly handsome vessel, of her majestic type; and, as she lay
close by us, I remember commenting on her appearance to one of my
messmates, poor Stewart, who afterwards went down in the _Oneida_.
"Yes," he replied, "she possesses several elements of the sublime."
They were certainly imposing creations, with their double and treble
tiers of guns, thrusting their black muzzles through the successive
ports which, to the number of fifteen to twenty, broke through the two
broad white hands that from bow to stern traversed the blackness of
their hulls; above which rose spars as tall and broad as ever graced
the days of Nelson. To make the illusion of the past as complete as
possible, and the dissemblance from the sailing ship as slight, the
smoke-stack--or funnel--was telescopic, permitting it to be lowered
almost out of sight. For those who can recall these predecessors of
the modern battle-ships, the latter can make slight claim to beauty or
impressiveness; yet, despite the ugliness of their angular broken
sky-line, they have a gracefulness all their own, when moving slowly
in still water. I remember a dozen years ago watching the French
Mediterranean fleet of six or eight battle-ships leaving the harbor of
Villefranche, near Nice. There was some manoeuvring to get their
several stations, during which, here and there, a vessel lying quiet
waiting her opportunity would glide forward with a dozen slow turns of
the screws, not agitating the water beyond a light ripple at the bows.
The bay at the moment was quiet as a mill-pond, an