On Saturday, H.M.S. Victorious, a battleship whose launching weight is
5,500 tons—she will weigh 15,725 tons when she is ready for sea—was successfully launched at Chatham. The process alone cost E2,000, and in its progress 70 cwt. of Russian tallow, 160 gallons of train oil, and 7 cwt. of soft- soap were used as lubricants. When the 'Victorious' is finished she will be, like her sister-ship, the Magnificent,' one of the most terrible engines of war in the world. Besides four 64-ton guns, twelve 6 in. quick-firing guns, and twelve Hotch- kiss guns, she will carry eight Maxims. Perhaps, however, the most striking thing about the ' Victorious ' is the speed with which she was constructed. She was only begun at the end of May, 1894, and she has now been launched a week, and, if necessary, could be finished and commissioned within another year's time. No foreign Power can approach this speed of construction. As the vast mass was sliding down the slip with a force as great as that of an avalanche, a workman foolishly put his head out of a porthole and was killed by its coming in contact with a wire hawser. Let us trust that this is not an omen.
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