Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Subjects:

Military Technology, Steamships, Steam-power, Status

    The initial letter of the text is formed from a droll representation of the Royal Navy's new ironclad vessels: a domestic iron floating on water with a gun poking out of its stern. The text ponders the fate of sailors 'Now that floating iron shot-towers are to constitute our fleet'. Considers employing sailors on board 'flat-irons' a 'waste of wages' and an 'insult', not least because they resent steam-powered ships. Notes that while the Navy combined steam-engines with masts and sails, the new fleet will now be 'floating forts'. Imagines the disgust felt by a sailor of the 'old school' on being asked to serve in an ironclad and expects that some of the unemployed sailors will become 'bus-conductors'.