A good deal of interest has recently been aroused by the peculiarities of a steamship named the _Monitoria_, which, though not a turret-ship, is sufficiently out of the ordinary design to warrant special mention. She is just an ordinary single-deck cargo steamer, but instead of the usual wall-sided shell-plating has two longitudinal corrugations along the outside of her hull. These swellings, so to speak, extend below the water-line and gradually merge into the ship’s lines at bow and stern. The claim made for this novelty is that it is effective in reducing the wave-like irregularities, and allows of more power being available for propulsion, whilst it also lessens the rolling and pitching of the ship. The captain of this ship is reported to have said that these corrugations had a beneficial effect on the steering, whilst the wake of the ship was found to be smooth and about half the width instead of the full breadth of the ship. Very interesting as practical comment on a subject that we have treated elsewhere in this volume, is her commander’s remark that whilst in a diagonal sea, which was running at a height of 9 feet or 10 feet, a ship of ordinary form and the same dimensions as the _Monitoria_ would have been safe proceeding at no higher speed than 6 or 6½ knots, yet the _Monitoria_ was safe going ahead at 7¼ to 7½ knots. The corrugations are said also to increase the ship’s buoyancy, and thus admit of three per cent. more cargo being carried, while the hull is more readily able to resist the strains than vessels of ordinary shape. It is probable that this novel principle will be presently exemplified in a first-class liner, and in a foreign cruiser. Similar to the turret-type is the “trunk-deck” steamer, which possesses like advantages. She resembles in appearance the former type, but instead of the curves (seen in the _Inland_) at the gunwale and bases of the turret or “trunk,” the sides of the trunk rise from the main deck nearly at right angles, the harbour deck being really a true deck. This kind of ship owes her birth to Messrs. Ropner and Sons, of Stockton-on-Tees. Such vessels afford even more than the turret-ships the appearance of a kind of up-to-date man-of-war, without the guns which one would almost expect to see protruding from behind some of her steel plates. It should be borne in mind that both the turret and the trunk type possess an absence of sheer, for the height of the lofty turret, or trunk, enables this to be dispensed with, while to make up for this lack of sheer from the bows to the stern, the vessel is given a top-gallant forecastle. [Illustration: THE TURRET-SHIP “INLAND.” _From a Photograph. By permission of Messrs. W. Doxford & Sons, Ltd._] [Illustration: MIDSHIP SECTION OF A TURRET-SHIP. _From the Model in the Victoria and Albert Museum._]