“The ‘Iowa’s’ four 12-inch guns are mounted in pairs in two turrets, and train through arcs of about 260 degrees forward and aft respectively. Her eight 8-inch guns are mounted in pairs in four turrets, and each pair trains through an effective arc of about 180 degrees. “The ‘New Ironsides’ had no direct bow or stern fire. “The ‘Iowa’ fires two 12-inch and four 8-inch guns straight ahead and straight astern. “The maximum shell-range of the heaviest guns of the ‘Ironsides’ was about a mile and a quarter, that of the ‘Iowa’s’ heaviest guns is about eight miles. The muzzle energy of the ‘Ironsides’’ 11-inch smooth bores was to that of the ‘Iowa’s’ 12-inch rifles about as 1 to 26. “The fate of the ‘New Ironsides’ is well known: she was destroyed by fire at League Island in 1866, about a year after her last action.” Judged by modern standards of construction, the time expended in building the “New Ironsides” was marvellously brief, six months, because, as Mr. Cramp said, she was in action against Fort Sumter within eleven months from signing of the contract. Of course, there can be no comparison between the methods of her construction or the nature of her appliances and those of a modern battleship, yet in her time and for her day she was the most formidable and powerful sea-going battleship afloat. Mr. Cramp, notwithstanding that he was entering upon a new and untried field without any prior guidance of observation or experience, undertook the design and construction of this remarkable vessel with all the confidence that a sense of professional mastery never fails to inspire; and so confident was he that the “New Ironsides” would prove a success that, while she was building, he proceeded to design two other vessels of the same type, but embodying numerous improvements which his experience in construction of the “Ironsides” from day to day suggested to him, and when these designs were completed he offered them to the Department. He then discovered that the Navy Department had become entirely under the influence of what might be called the “Monitor craze,” which absolutely dominated the councils of the Department and of Congress in respect to armor-clad vessels. A combination, or “ring,” was formed, with head-quarters in New York, to prevent the construction of any type of iron-clad vessel except monitors, and it had sufficient power to carry its determination into effect. [Illustration: CRUISER NEWARK]