They were imposing-looking ships, though, of course, to-day about as obsolete as the _Henri Grace à Dieu_. [Illustration: H.M.S. _WARRIOR_, OUR FIRST SEA-GOING IRONCLAD BATTLESHIP She was a very efficient reply to the French _La Gloire_, which was a wooden ship converted into an ironclad. Observe the Red-and-blue Ensign. The White Ensign with St. George's Cross did not become universal in the Royal Navy till 1864.] I have a vivid recollection of a visit to the _Minotaur_ when a boy. Possibly a few extracts from notes made at the time may be of interest. "She has five masts and is a tremendous length. Her upper deck is furnished with a good many small guns for repelling boat attacks. Round the masts are placed some of the shot and shell for the large guns below, painted white, and the knobs (i.e. studs to fit the rifling) and points gilded. Were here shown a Gatling gun for service on shore or for clearing the decks of boarders, &c. On going below we saw a couple of rocket-tubes burnished like a looking-glass.... In the steerage we saw a 7- or 9-pounder boat gun polished beautifully (as was all the metalwork in the ship) which had an arrangement for reducing the recoil by a cylinder full of oil. The main-deck battery consisted of 12-ton guns, lacquered to look like jet." The carriages, I remember, were painted white and the slides under them scarlet, which, with their burnished gun-metal machinery, gave them a most brilliant appearance, very different from the slate-coloured monsters of to-day. These guns were some which had replaced her original armament of more numerous but lighter cannon, and in consequence every other port in the battery was vacant. But the long line of guns presented a most imposing appearance. "Between the guns were field-guns, boat-guns, &c. Round the hatchways were ranged shot, shell, and canister, which also appeared in every available corner." Among other notes, too long to be transcribed, I find that the Whitehead torpedoes in the _Minotaur_ were made of copper, a material which has long since been superseded by steel, and that I was shown "the Rumpf coil for generating the electric light which can be shown in three places". Compare this very modest installation with the numbers of powerful search-lights which a battleship carries to-day, to say nothing of the thousands of incandescent lamps which light her interior. The "cylinder full of oil" for checking the recoil of a small boat-gun, which is referred to above, is noteworthy as the prototype of the almost universal system now in use both ashore and afloat, though in the _Minotaur_ none of the big guns were fitted with this very effective apparatus.