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Special pages :
Bomb Vessel
| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 6 October 1857 |
Reproduced from The New American Cyclopaedia
Source : Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 18
Bomb Vessel, or Mortar Boat, is the expression in use for the more modern class of ships constructed to carry mortars. Up to the Russian war,[1] those built for the British service drew 8 or 9 feet water, and carried, beside their 2 10-inch mortars, 4 68-pounders, and 6 18 lb. carronades. When the Russian war made naval warfare in shallow waters and intricate channels a necessity, and mortar boats were required on account of the strong sea-fronts of the Russian fortresses, which defied any direct attack by ships, a new class of bomb vessels had to be devised. The new boats thus built are about 60 feet long, with great breadth of beam, round bows like a Dutch galliot, flat bottoms, drawing 6 or 7 feet water, and propelled by steam. They carry 2 mortars, 10 or 13-inch calibre, and a few field-guns or carronades to repel boarding parties by grape, but no heavy guns. They were used with great effect at Sveaborg, which place they bombarded from a distance of 4,000 yards.[2]
- ↑ The Crimean war of 1853-56.— Ed.
- ↑ Sveaborg (Suomenlinna) was a Russian fortress situated on a group of islands at the entrance to the Helsinki harbour in the Gulf of Finland. The bombardment of Sveaborg by British and French ships took place on August 9 and 10, 1855, during the Crimean war, 1853-56. For more on this event see Marx and Engels' article "The Anglo-French War Against Russia" (present edition, Vol. 14, pp. 484-89).