It only remains to state that the whole of the book is written and published on my own responsibility, and that it is in no manner or degree an official publication. F. L. R. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE SAILING SHIP 1 II. THE SMOOTH-BORE GUN 61 III. THE STEAM ENGINE 93 IV. “NEW PRINCIPLES OF GUNNERY” 112 V. THE CARRONADE 125 VI. THE TRUCK CARRIAGE 140 VII. THE SHELL GUN 160 VIII. THE RIFLED GUN 181 IX. PROPELLING MACHINERY 210 X. THE IRONCLAD 246 INDEX 303 PLATES A Sixty-gun Ship of late Seventeenth Century _Frontispiece_ _To face page_ A Tudor Ship of Period 1540-50 60 Tudor Ships under Sail 124 The _Speaker_, a Second-rate of the Commonwealth 180 The _Comet_ of 1812 224 _Rattler_ versus _Alecto_ 240 The _Warrior_ 260 The _Monarch_ 280 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT _Page_ Diagram illustrating Distortion of Frames under Load 52 Diagram representing a Ship with Trussed Frames 53 Typical Sections of “Symondite” and contemporary Ships 59 Turkish Bronze Cannon 68 French Twenty-four Pounder, with Spherical Chamber 84 Savery’s Engine 101 Newcomen’s Engine 104 Connecting-rod 111 A Carronade 133 A Truck Gun 147 Method of Gun-Exercise in H.M.S. _Shannon_ 155 A Paixhans Gun 173 Bullet Mould 187 Rifleman Presenting 189 “Carabine à Tige” 195