ere one would not get
speedily washed overboard. As for the below part of the ship, it is
there almost impossible to breathe, even when air has been pumped in
from above, which is the only means of ventilating this portion of the
vessel.

The _Devastation_ carries two guns in each of her turrets, placed side
by side, each weighing thirty-five tons. The turrets, directly the guns
have been fired, can be wheeled rapidly round, thus turning the exposed
parts away from the enemy.

Ships such as the _Devastation_, the _Thunderer_, and the _Fury_ do not,
at first sight, strike one as particularly well adapted for rough
weather, to put it in the mildest phrase. Nevertheless, the
_Devastation_ has been fairly well tested in this way, having
encountered some pretty rough weather, and, it is affirmed, behaved
satisfactorily. The great danger about all ships of this class is that
they may not rise to the seas, but that the waves, breaking over them,
may press them down and founder them. The _Thunderer_ has been known to
have her forecastle, which is somewhat lower than that of the
_Devastation_, completely submerged, and this, too, when no very high
sea was running. These ships are designed, not for home service and
coast defence merely, but for general action in mid-ocean.

To attempt to describe even a single specimen of each type of modern
war-ships would to a certainty weary the reader, for to any but an
expert there would inevitably be a sense of repetition in the perusal of
such a narrative. But in order to place before our readers something
like an approximate idea, at any rate, of the present state of our navy,
we shall examine briefly one other first-class ironclad, the
_Inflexible_, which may be regarded as a leading example of ironclad
ships, and, at the time of writing, as one of the highest achievements
of modern naval architecture.

The _Inflexible_ is the vast size of 11,400 tons burden, her horse-power
being 8000. The length is 320 feet, her armour-plating from 16 to 24
inches thick, with an inner lining of wood from 17 to 25 inches in
thickness. She is divided into 135 compartments, and her engines are
placed at such a distance from each other that should one be disabled
from any cause the other would still be in working order.

The chief characteristic of the _Inflexible_ is the position of the
turrets. The majority of ships of this description have their turrets
in the middle line, from which it