note the effects I have
endeavoured to describe, the shield is again in its place and the gun
ready for reloading. They tell you that the best part of the sound has
escaped through the port-hole, otherwise there would be no standing it,
and our gunner's mate whispers in your ears, `It's all werry well, but
they bu'sts out bleeding from the chest and ears after the fourth
discharge, and has to be taken below.' You have had enough of it too,
and are glad that they don't ask you to witness another shot fired."

It must be stated that since the _Miantonoma_ was built a new and
improved principle of turret-firing has been introduced. Electricity is
now employed in discharging the guns, and there is thus no necessity for
anyone being in the turret, which is of course a great advantage.

At the close of the civil war, America possessed a fine fleet of
monitors, of which scarcely any now remain. For the time they seemed
all but impregnable to shot and shell; but they were built by contract,
of unseasoned wood, and in the course of ten or twelve years yielded to
natural decay. But the _Brooklyn_ and the _Ohio_, both fine examples of
naval architecture, still survive to maintain, in so far as two ships
can, America's maritime prestige.

A chapter treating of ironclads would, we think, be incomplete without
allusion made to the loss of the _Captain_, whose terrible fate in 1870
has caused a mournful interest to be attached to that vessel.

The _Captain_ was 320 feet in length and 53 feet broad. Her
armour-plating reached to five feet below the water-line. Opposite the
turrets her plating was eight inches in thickness and seven inches in
other parts. The ship was furnished with two screws, placed side by
side. The screws were available for steering, and thus the vessel could
be governed without the rudder. The _Captain_ was fully rigged, and
could carry a large spread of canvas.

The special characteristic of the ship was her revolving turrets. Each
turret was 27 feet in diameter on the outside and 22 feet 6 inches on
the inside. The walls of the turrets were therefore 2 feet 3 inches
thick; and one half of this thickness was composed of iron. The turrets
were revolved by separate engines, but they could also be turned, if
occasion required, by hand-labour. Two Armstrong twenty-five ton guns,
throwing six hundred pound shot, were placed in each turret. The ship
was built after designs by Captain Coles--the archi