TOPICS OF THE DAY,
OUR STEAM NAVY.
GOTER1'I3IENT are beginning to find cut that steam-navigation has destroyed the insular character of Britain. Troops can be transported in steam-vessels with greater despatch, cheapness, and certainty, than even by a railway. The destruction of a rail- way at any one point would put a stop to all operations based on its integrity ; but the loss of one or two steamers would not ma- terially affect the operations of a squadron. The sea is Nature's railway, and cannot be broken up and interrupted like the artificial substitutes of man's invention. Steam has bridged the waters with flying bridges, moveable to any point, resting on every port— flying pontoons, by which Inverness may be threatened one day and Hull the next. Steam has conquered storms and, tides, and given naval operations a certainty they did not formerly Rossess. With every improvement in steam-navigation the coasts of Great Britain will become more accessible to attack from every mar time power between the Cattegat and Cape Finisterre. GOTER1'I3IENT are beginning to find cut that steam-navigation has destroyed the insular character of Britain. Troops can be transported in steam-vessels with greater despatch, cheapness, and certainty, than even by a railway. The destruction of a rail- way at any one point would put a stop to all operations based on its integrity ; but the loss of one or two steamers would not ma- terially affect the operations of a squadron. The sea is Nature's railway, and cannot be broken up and interrupted like the artificial substitutes of man's invention. Steam has bridged the waters with flying bridges, moveable to any point, resting on every port— flying pontoons, by which Inverness may be threatened one day and Hull the next. Steam has conquered storms and, tides, and given naval operations a certainty they did not formerly Rossess. With every improvement in steam-navigation the coasts of Great Britain will become more accessible to attack from every mar time power between the Cattegat and Cape Finisterre. The same cause is changing the requirements of our Navy. Instead of brave and experienced seamen, equally brave mecha- nical engineers and marine artillerymen are needed. The issue of the next naval war will depend upon the steam-engine and Paixhans gun : the men to decide it will not be those who can, "hand, reef, and steer" best, but those who can best work an en- gine and fire an eighty-four pounder with the precision of a rifle. This new triumph of mind over matter will change modern war- fare as much as the invention of gunpowder did the ancient. Sea-fights will become short, sharp, and decisive—their results ca- pable of being mathematically demonstrated beforehand. Less blood will be shed on the whole ; but what is shed will be con- densed into an epitome of agony.
The Right of Search Treaties keep war always hanging by a hair over our heads. If the French or the English War party were to gain the ascendant, (and we dread the fanatics of Exeter Hall more than the Prince Be Joinville and La Jenne France,) peace would not be worth a week's purchase. Let two hot-headed French and English naval officers on the coast of Africa quar- rel about a suspected slaver and settle the dispute by an ex, change of shots, and away would go all security for peace. Who would in that case continue to live at Brighton or Hastings, now that Britain is almost more exposed to invasion and predatory at- tacks than any Continental state ? What a change the first shot fired between England and France would Make in the value of property on our Southern and Eastern coasts ! Government are now awaking to the urgent necessity for adopt- ing new provisions of defence against a new mode of attack : a subject brought before the public by a correspondent of this jour- nal three years ago.* Government have been trifling with the subject in dilettante fashion ever since. Nearly three milliOne of the public money has been spent during the last three years in building, equipping, and hiring steam-vessels; and yet, we are well assured, there is not at this moment one steam-vessel in the na- val service of England, in commission or ready to be commissioned, that could make the passage under steam between Plymouth and New York. During the last ten years, not less than five or six mil- lions has been spent in filling the Navy with steam-vessels, and yet there is no instance on record of one of her Majesty's steam-ves- sels crossing the Atlantic under steam. There is not in commis- sion a steamer capable of steaming three thousand nautical miles. The Admiralty have steamers in China and America, but they did not get there by steam. The Royal Navy could not produce one steamer fit to carry Sir Charles Bagot, or Lord Ashburton, or Sir Charles Metcalfe, to his destination.
The Admiralty orators in Parliament tell us that such or such a vessel has more power than the largest French steamer. ThiS is not to the purpose : let them tell us what the vessel can do ; let them give facts of distances run under steam and the time in which the runs were made. Without this, returns of the horse- power of the steam navy are only calculated to mislead. The capabilities of the Admiralty steamers are never tested in a fair Rractical way. Nothing is heard beyond the puffing of the per- formances of one or other of them on her trial at Long Reach. The Lucifer or the Pluto is reported to steam so many miles per hour on the river Thames, and no more is heard of her. Had the trial-trip been a run to Halifax in the winter, a very different class of steamers would now be wearing her Majesty's pendant. Two causes, combined with the dilettante spirit at head-quar- ters, have mainly contributed to render ineffectual the great ex- pense incurred of late years for the creation of a steam navy. The first is the system adopted by the Admiralty of dividing the responsibility between the builder of the vessel and the engineer. The second is the system of contracting for the conveyance of the mails to America and to the East and West Indies.
By dividing the responsibility between the builder and en- gineer, no one official person was made answerable for the result. If the vessel disappointed expectation, the builder threw the blame on the engines, and the engineer on the hull. The con- tractor for a steamer ought to be responsible for the hull, engines, and the whole equipment. The hull and the engine of a steamer are its body and soul : unless they harmonize, there can be no efficiency. The system pursued by the Admiralty has precluded unity of design ; and the result has been, the creation of a class
* Spectator, No. 726; 2Eth May 1.142.
of steamers combining the qualities of a bad sailing-ship and a useless steam-vessel. A new system is required : the head of the Steam department of the Admiralty ought to be responsible for the efficiency of a. new steamer in every way, as the :surveyor of he Navy is for the construction of his ships.
The system of contracts with private companies or individuals for the conveyance of the mails has done a great deal to suppress competition and prevent improvement in steam-navigation. By inch contracts, Government tie themselves to the preferred party for terms of years. During these periods, they are precluded from availing themselves clef better vessels belonging to other parties. They make it the interest of the contractors not to con- struct vessels on an improved model, lest they should injure the character of their old ones. As long as 500,0001. per annum is paid to contractors for perpetuating the present model of steamers, -they will make no improvements. A curious illustration of this has just occurred. Iron is generally superseding wood in the construction of steam-vessels : last year, twenty-four iron steamers were built in the Clyde, and only one of wood : the solitary wooden vessel was for a company who knew that by building an iron, one they would lower the estimation of their wooden fleet.
Two examples of the practical consequences of the way in which the Admiralty has gone to work may be cited. About twenty years ago, a description of engine called the "direct action engine" was invented : it has been condemned, and at pre- sent no private individual would take the gift of one, unless he were guaranteed from all competition : yet what are called our flrst-class steam-frigates are fitted with engines of this descrip- tion. Again : screw-propelling is yet in its infancy ; no vessel propelled by a screw has yet crossed the Atlantic the screw is not employed by a single passenger-vessel in the Atlantic; : the Admiralty have built and equipped a vessel for the express pur- pose of trying experiments on screw-propulsion ; and, after trying at several times on the Thames, and once between the Thames and Portsmouth, they have actually begun to construct ten large steam-vessels propelled by the screw. The performances of the Rattler have doubtless been ,satisfactory as far as she has been tried ; but are such fresh-water and fair-weather experiments as she has been subjected to, sufficientjo warrant the great expense of building ten ships on the strength of them? More information on these matters is evidently wanted. We have said enough to show the national importance of the subject.
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