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6 MARINE REVIEW. ANALYSIS OF THE BELLEISLE., A OAREFUL INQUIRY INTO THE INJURIES INFLICTED UPON HER BY THE GUNS OF THE MAJESTIC. (From the Engineer, London.) The Belleisle, her leaks having been plugged and some of the water in her pumped out, has reached Portsmouth dockyard. The accompany- ing photograph of the ship as she came up harbor with a tub on either side of her shows very well the means employed to plug her wounds in the unarmored portions of the hull. The ship was at once placed in dock, where she was shored up, and enough water let out to enable her to rest on her keel. The vessel was subjected to 9 minutes' consecutive firing, instead of the series of two minutes' fire that formed the original program. Why the change was made is'not quite clear; it is generally regretted, as there was rather too much "killing the dead horse" about it for at least half the period. That is to say--saving for one hit--practically every- [J une 28. which has been generally believed to be the conning tower, turns out to be nothing but the seamen's "head," with, we believe, a lamp-room in the OPE ine' tie 12-inch hits first, the demolition of this erection in the bow--clearly visible in the photograph--is variously attributed to a 12- inch and a 6-inch. We think, however, that it was due to one of the latter. On the belt, below where the funnel used to be, there are two points where shell have burst. One or both these are presumably 12-inch hits, there being in one case--the after one of the two--a 12-inch pene- tration of about 2-inch deep. The armor belt just below is cracked later- ally for some 7 feet, and a vertical seam has also opened. -- The lateral crack is about 6 inches wide. There are the marks of a 6-inch shell in the aperture. The other hit has no mark beyond the large star caused urst. ; ae ne water-line directly under the battery, there is a large hole made by a 12-inch shot. This is plugged, and inspection is not yet pos- sible. This hit was that by which the ship eventually sank; though not, as erroneously supposed, the direct cause of her sinking. As we have A SHIP THAT WAS SHOT AT--THE BELLEISLE AFTER THE BRITISH NAVAL EXPERIMENTS, thing of moment was accomplished in the first two or three minutes. The following diagram represents the course and ranges: .M, | M, oo So | My 100 ds, BS 1700 yd. ----__ Mr, esac a The Majestic steaming firing from M1 to M8, the Belleisle (B) being moored with her bow in the direction of the arrow. All the serious hits appear to have taken place between M1 and M2. The Majestic steamed at 6 knots. There being considerable doubt as to the sequence of hits, saving that the second 12-inch shot hit the belt amidships, we propose simply to take them in the sequence in which they registered themselves upon the hull. So far as can be ascertained, the Majestic fired: Eight rounds of 12-inch common shell; seven rounds of 12-inch A. P. shot; about 100 rounds of 6-inch lyddite (at bow and battery); about 100 rounds of 6-inch common (at stern) ; 400 rounds of 3-inch various: 750 rounds of 3-pounder shell, and an indefinite number of Maxims. No torpedoes were dis- charged. Full charges were used throughout for all guns. Roughly speaking, about 30 to 40 per cent. of the projectiles fired were effective, the rest went over or just short, or else went clean through and burst beyond. Only about 10 per cent. of the projectiles were clear misses outside the black-and-white haystack of smoke that shrouded the target. Here, perhaps, we should recapitulate the data of the Belleisle. She is ot about 5,000 tons displacement, and the iron armor is disposed as follows: Belt, 12-inch, 6-inch; battery, 10-inch, 8-inch; redoubt below allery, 9-inch, 8-inch; conning tower, 12-inch. The belt rises about 2 feer to 2% feet albove the water-line, but at the time of the trial about 4 feet were shown. The redoubt is octagonal like the battery. The conning tower is situated under the bridge on top of the battery; it is very low, and the hood at least 18 inches above the walls. The erection in the bow, said above, it was the second 12-inch projectile fired. It is probably the prime cause of the crack a little more forward, as this hit blew the side right in, sending one fragment of armor right up through the flat armored deck above it. It did not, however, send anything down into the engine-room. We have not been able to learn where the shot went after going through the belt, which here offered a resistance equal to from 9 inches to 12 inches Harvey, because it was struck at a considerable angle--one, indeed, in which we might conceivably have expected the shot to glance off. Immediately abaft the casemate a 12-inch shell has hit. This shell has blown away some 10 feet square of side, which here looks something like the ruins of a recessed port. In the armored bulk- head there is a penetration, made either by the head of this shell or by a 6-inch shell that did not burst on impact. Well aft another 12-inch shell has hit. Here, too, a large piece of side is blown in, the deck above has disappeared and the iron deck beams are curled up into shapeless remains more like shavings than anything else. The external area or damage is about 10 feet; internally the whole of the cabins hereabouts were reduced to matchwood. There remain two more hits that may be 12-inch. As we observed at the beginning of this article, there are so many hits, so many close together, and such complete destruction about their immediate areas, that the projectile cannot always be named to a certainty. But at the after end of the unarmored top of the battery, and towards the after end of what little remains of the funnel base, there are huge irregular holes, averaging perhaps 5 feet to 7 feet each. Most of the edges are bent inwards. We now come to the most mysterious hit of any. High up on the port side after porthole is a clean, nearly exactly circular penetration of exactly 10 inches in diameter. There is around it an irregular depression, with a maximum depth of 2% inches, and some 2 feet across at the widest. What made this hole no one seems inclined to be positive about; and, for the present at any rate, we prefer to leave it to conjecture. The head of a 12-inch projectile, a 6-inch lyddite, and a fragment from the hole in the side below, have all entered into the conjectures of those who have seen the hole, but not been allowed to inspect it closely. And here we may mention that on the upper and outer edge of the after port, on the starboard side of the battery, another projectile that is not very traceable has chipped out a piece of armor, and burst, judging by the marks. This