ARMOR. Early in the eighties iron was still to be found as a material for the con of the hulls of battle-ships, and compound armor was in use by all the leading powers ; the complete belt and minor had not yet begun its reaction toward special gun position protection, and deck-protecting the ends had only just become a prominent feature. The French in the Marceau and Roche and the Russians in the Dmitri Donshoi still held to the complete water-line belt. A change in gun-protection, however, is noted in the Hoche, rr sister ship of the :Marceau. in which the barbette with its light shield is changed to a com pletely covered barbette or modified turret. Each of the four heavy guns is carried in a separate armored redoubt—an arrangement of the primary battery rather costly in weight of armor.
The Italians, in the Laurin class, revert to the partial belt, with armored (leeks for water line protection, and a strong central redoubt, carrying the heavy guns in barbette. In this vessel of 11,000 tons displacement, the armor is steel, 19.7 in. in thickness, and the hull is also of steel; the ends are not armored. In this same year, 1881. the English. in the Imperiense and Warspite, show French influence by the battery distribution and its protection. The heavy guns are in separate positions in barbette : a heavy protective deck runs fore and aft, the midship portion being protected by a compound armored belt, 10 in. thick, about one third the length of the vessel.
The English started in this decade by building barbette ships with armored ammunition tubes, but provided no protection immediately below the barbettes (see Fig. 1). There is a pro tective deck, but the armor belt for water- line defense, though thick, is very short.
This typical ship, the Coiling wood, was followed by five of the same class, all of which carry it secondary battery of 6-in. gulls. ln these vessels the armored barbettes are car ried at a considerable height above the armored portion of the hull. In the strength of the protective armor on the tubes and in the general protection of the loading arrangements and gon-monntings, the belting of these vessels has been con sidered far superior to those found in most foreign war-ships. It was decided, however, in view of the great development of high explosives, that in any new designs for barbette ships the proportion of the length at the water-line protected by the belt of armor should be greater in new vessels of this same general type; and, further, that the armored barbette towers should be carried down to the top of the belt, in order that there should be no possibility of the burst ing of shells, containing large explosive charges, under the floors of the barbettes upon which the revolving gun-platforms are carried.
In 1883 the Russians, in the Tchesma. follow closely the then prevalent Italian idea of a central citadel, and have a heavily armored eentral redoubt. The complete water-line belt is given up. the ends being protected by a 3-in. armored deck. The six heavy guns, still in barbette, are mounted on disappearing carriages. The hull of this vessel is of iron and steel. the armor being composed of 1$ in. thickness in the heaviest portions. The first lie Umberto, 13,300 tons, proposed in 1884. was the heaviest vessel designed up to that time. The heavy guns were in harbettes at either end of the vessel, being protected by steel armor 18.87 in. thick, the alum WI 011-th )es had 14.11 in, of armor, while the pro tective deck was 4.7:2 in. at its thickest parts. over the machinery. tapering and running to the extreme ends of the vessel. The auxiliary battery was in an unarmored casemate be tween the positions of the large gams.
In the Russ-lam Alexander II the isolated armor on gun positions is reduced in thickness and spread over a larger and continuous area: the barbette is forward and protected by 10 in. of compouml The spur is also heavily annored ; the auxiliary battery is carried in recessed ports having 0 in. of protection. ln 188•i the English produced the Victoria, in which a departure was made from their former types of battle-ships. There is an armored belt amidships. 1S in. in thickness, and eovering about one half the length of the vessel : then there is another belt, 0 in. thick, to protect that portion of the upper deck abaft the turret, and forming a casemate. The barbette mounts for the large guns are abandoned for a turret having 16 in. of armor, and placed on top of a supporting base also carrying armor 16 in. in thickness : a :3-in. protective deck runs fore and aft.