BM-2 Amphitrite
The Amphitrites were double-hulled vessels, like all recent ships of war, the double bottom of iron coming up to within three feet of the water-line, where it formed a shelf for the support of the belt of armor. This was of steel and extended from stem to stern of the vessel, its thickness being nine inches amidship, from which it tapered to five inches at the ends. The armor-belt was seven feet in width, reaching to a depth of three feet below the water and upward to the main deck, which stood four feet above the water-line. The deck was of 1-3/4 inch steel, overlaid with wood.
The two turrets and the barbettes from which they rise are plated with Harveyized steel, which is eleven and one-half inches in thickness on the barbettes and seven and one-half on the turrets, the latter having roofs of 1-1/2 inch steel. The technical terms here employed call for some explanation. In recent ships the gun-bearing turrets do not rise from the lower deck, as in the old monitors, but descend into circular shields of steel, to which has been given the French title of barbette, and which protect the lower section of the turrets and contain the apparatus for their revolution. The arrangement may be likened to a cylindrical box with a closed top descending into a somewhat larger open cylinder. In other words, the barbette differs from the turret in being open at the top, so that the gun may be lifted above it, while it may form a complete circle, as in this case, or a shield open in the rear, like the barbettes of French and British ships.
The Amphitrite, in common with her sister ships, had a length on the water-line of two hundred and fifty-nine feet six inches, a breadth of beam of fifty-five feet six inches, and a depth of fourteen feet six inches, her main deck standing four feet out of the water, or about twice the height of that of the older monitors. She was fitted, when originally laid down, with twin-screw engines of 1600 horse-power, their varied and intricate parts being very ingeniously stowed away in the narrow space below the protective deck. These engines were capable of giving the vessel a speed of 10.5 knots. The coal bunkers have capacity for a maximum supply of two hundred and fifty tons, and the displacement, under full load, was 3,990 tons. in a later chapter, and it must suffice here to say that it is a surface-hardened steel of great resisting powers.
Just abaft the forward turret stands the conning-tower, a structure of 9-inch Harveyized steel, whose purpose needs some explanation. The conning-tower may be said to form the brain of all modern war-ships. It is the post of the captain during a battle, and is arranged to give him a broad outlook over the surrounding waters, while affording him protection from danger and enabling him to control every operation of the ship. Speaking-tubes, electric wires, and other devices connect him directly with the helmsman, the engineers, and the crews of the great guns, and he can, without stirring from his steel cell, direct the movements of the rudder, engines, and guns, and, if he wishes, can fire the guns himself, by the mere pressure of an electric button.
The field of sight of the captain is obtained by aid of narrow horizontal slits through the thick steel of the tower, at the level of the eye. These enable him to follow the movements of hostile ships and give prompt orders to officers and others in every section of the floating fort beneath him. As the body of man moves in quick response to every order coming from the brain, so does the great mass of wood and iron turn and vibrate or send its mighty missiles of war over miles of sea in instant response to the thinking brain within that central cell of steel.
The position of the captain is far from a safe and is by no means an agreeable one. He stands in battle in the centre of a terrible uproar, that of the shells of the enemy bursting around him, the deafening roar of his own heavy cannon, the incessant din of the quick-firing guns, the rushing noise of the force blast under the engines, and various other ear-disturbing sounds which only a man of exceptional self-control could withstand. And his lurking-place is apt to be made the goal of a direct attack by the enemy, when to the noises named are likely to be added those of shells and balls striking the tower with terrible force and with a crash seemingly sufficient to destroy not only the hearing but the brain itself of the bombarded victim within. As some witty writer says, the safest place for the captain would seem to be, not within, but behind the conning-tower.
As an illustration of the peril of the captain's position, we may return to the original conning-tower, the pilot-house of the Monitor, which stood in front of the turret and was occupied during the battle with the Merrimac by Captain Worden and the pilot. The eye-holes in this instance consisted of narrow slits between the iron-logs of which the enclosure was built. Near the close of the battle the gunners of the Merrimac were directed to concentrate their fire upon this structure, and a shell, fired at the short range of ten yards, struck the iron cell and burst against the slot through which Captain Worden was gazing. In an instant he was flung bleeding and blinded across the narrow space, cement being torn from the inner side of the wall and hurled into his face and eyes. He was a ghastly object when picked up, and spent months subsequently in the hospital. Fortunately, he did not lose his sight, and recovered to take a later part in the war.
The fighting capacity of the Amphitrite is by no means small. Each of the turrets contains a pair of 10-inch breech-loading rifled guns, whose power of penetration is very much greater than that of the 11-inch smooth-bores of the first Monitor, or of the 15-inch guns of her successors. Each of these guns weighs twenty-five tons and is capable of driving from its muzzle a 5oo-pound shell at a velocity of two thousand feet per second. The huge guns of the Monitor proved incapable of penetrating the 4-1/2 inch iron sides of the Merrimac when nearly touching, but the 10-inch rifles of the Amphitrite could send their balls at that distance through more than a foot of steel, and are calculated to penetrate fifteen inches of iron armor on vessel or fort more than a mile away.
In addition to the turret guns the Amphitrite carries upon her decks two 4-inch rapid-fire guns and a secondary battery of two 6- and two 3-pounder rapid-fire guns, two I-pounder Gatlings, and two Hotchkiss revolving cannon, an armament capable of pouring from its iron mouths a frightful rain of bullets upon any hostile craft. The 4-inch guns belong to the most effective class of modern marine ordnance. They stand upon a steel pedestal which is firmly bolted to the deck. Upon this the gun-carriage rotates on a circle of rollers, and can be easily elevated, depressed, and directed through a considerable width of range. In front of the gun is a semicircular shield of 2-inch steel, which moves with it and protects its crew and revolving apparatus.
Between the turrets of this vessel stands the military mast, and an upper deck on which is carried the 4-inch and some of the other guns just described. The fighting-top of the mast constitutes an armored platform on which are stationed some of the smaller guns.
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