selected as the latest efforts of shipbuilding skill in France and
Great Britain. Nothing but the armored surface in each several class
is shown, the same scale having been adhered to in all cases.

[Illustration: Armored Surface for Various Ships]

Two impressions cannot fail to be made upon our minds, both as to
French and British armor plate disposition. These two impressions, as
regards Great Britain, point to the Royal Sovereign as embodying the
idea of two protected stations with a narrow and partial connecting
belt; and to the Nile as embodying the idea of a vast and absolutely
protected raft. For France, we have the Marceau as representing the
wholly belted type with four disconnected but protected stations; and
the Dupuy de Lôme, in which the armor plating is thinned out to a
substance of only 4 in., so as entirely to cover the sides of the
vessel down to 5 ft, below the water line; this thickness of plating
being regarded as sufficient to break up upon its surface the dreaded
mélinite or guncotton shell, but permitting the passage of
armor-piercing projectiles right through from side to side; provision
being made to prevent damage from these latter to engines and vitals
by means of double-armored decks below, with a belt of cellulose
between them. Thus, as we have explained, two prominent ideas are
present in the disposition of armor upon the battleships of Great
Britain, as well as in that of the battleships of France. But, while
in our country these two ideas follow one another in the natural
sequence of development, from the Inflexible to the Royal Sovereign,
the citadel being gradually extended into two redoubts, and space
being left between the redoubts for an auxiliary battery--this latter
being, however, singularly placed above the armored belt, and _not
within its shelter_--in France, on the other hand, we find the second