AJAX  and

AGAMEMNON (of 1876) " Imagine a floating castle 110 ft. long and 75 ft. wide, rising To ft. out of the water, and having above that again two round turrets planted diagonally at its opposite corners . -Imagine this castle and its turrets to be heavily plated with armour, and that each turret has within it two guns of about 8o tons each—perhaps in the course of a few years guns of twice 8o tons each . Conceive these guns to be capable of firing, all four together, at an enemy ahead or on either beam, and in pairs towards every point of the compass . Attached to this rectangular armoured castle, but completely submerged, every part being 6 ft. to 7 ft. under water, there is a hull of the ordinary form, with a powerful ram bow, with twin screws and a submerged rudder and helm . This compound structure is the fighting part of the ship . Seaworthiness, speed and shapeliness would be wanting in such a structure if it had no additions to it; there is therefore an unarmoured structure lying above the sub-merged ship and connected with it, both before and abaft the armoured castle; and as this structure rises 20 ft. out of the water, 104 ft 280 ft ------------ Pk g £NGINES 180/itR5 BOILERS 9,61~11~ e P/an of under water Protective Deck riddled but (it was contended) not be destroyed . The arrangement shown in fig . 51 represents the " Ajax " and " Agamemnon." The " Inflexible " was similar but larger . Sir N . Barnaby described the design of the " Inflexible " in 1874 before the Institution of Naval Architects thus: 18 4r/noar )~lOJL O . L.R . 'I 1~ .

— 3 m.1 N 63 T0n.9 . LR n2" 1 5• M' -•~•,~,•• s - _ '~2 =Y//MIM~!llwiliR~wlw ow . .,~~~\\\\N\u\~~o~Nwwp\Oly\\pp\p\~mW\\\\\

aRm\\0\MXm\\\\WOWIM\\\\\\Itv1V'\W\\N\\\\\\A \\Y.VA\\\PAt~gy\~\\\\\U'd`~ .