The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-10 00:00:00

THE FIRST LORD EXPLAINS.-DEBT TO PAY

AND SHIPS TO BUILD.

The First Lord of the Admiralty has issued a state-
ment explanatory of the-Navy Estimates for the year
1888-89. It appears from this document that the esti-
mated expenditure for the year ending March 31,1888,
is £12,476,800, and for the year ending March 31, 1889,
£13,082,800, showing an apparent increase of £606,000.
Taking, however, into account the reciprocal transfer
to Army Estimates of the military transport vote and
to Navy Estimates of the vote for naval ordinance,
the difference between the estimates of the two years
under comparison is a net decrease to naval votes
for the year 1888-89 of £905,518. It is stated that
the financial policy of the present board has been
to wipe off, as rapidly as they could, the large liabi-
lities for ship-building which had been incurred in
1885, and until these had been reduced to a manage-
able shape, to postpone the commencement of an
enlarged shipbuilding programme of their own. B,
adhering to this course they had now reduced to small
dimensions their past liabilities, and completed with
celerity the great bulk of the ships previously laid
down, and know n as Lord Northbrook's special pro-
gramme. Another cause has, however, largely con-
tributed to the reduction of the expenditure for the
forthcoming year. The reforms in dockyard ad-
ministration, begun in the year 1885, are now pro-
ducing most satisfactory results. Supplementary
estimates for building have practically vanished;
the cost of repairs has much diminished,
and much of the work done in the past
year has been well within the estimate sanctioned.
During the year 1887-8 all the first-class torpedo
boats (20 in number, from 125 ft. to 150 ft. in length)
have been completed, and a considerable amount of
experience has been obtained with boats of the vari-
ous types on actual service. At the close of 1887-8
we shall possess 80 first-class torpedo boats and 63
second-class boats, of which latter 12 are built of
wood and 51 of steel. It is contemplated to order six
first-class torpedo boats, and 10 second-class boats in
1888-9. The decision of the Board to discontinue the
building of torpedo boats for sea-going purposes, and
to substitute vessels of a much larger diaplacement,
was amply justified by the experiments of the past
year. The two cruises in the Channel confirmed
the previous, opinion of the Board, that this class
of boat, although doubtless of great value
for the protection of ports and their vicinity, are
not well suited to accompany fleets at sea, and in bad
weather would be a source of anxiety. On the other
hand, it is stated that the torpedo gunboat Rattle-
snake, has been an undoubted success, and in conse-
quence a design has been approved for a larger and
swifter vessel than the Rattlesnake. The Sharp-
shooter (provided for in the estimates of last year)
has been commenced at Devonport, and arrangements
have been made for building six other vessels of the
same type at Devonport and Chatham. Lord George
Hamilton enters at some length into the shipbuilding
programme for the current year. He says that after
completing the seven armoured ships already com-
menced, there will remain in hand the following
armoured vessels when the next financial year closes :
Victoria, Sanspareil, Aurora, Nile, Trafalgar, and
of these the first three will be approach-
ing completion, while considerable expenditure wilt
still have to be incurred on the Nile and Trafalgar.
The board had therefore decided not to lay down
during 18PS-89 any new ironclads. They proposed,
however, to re-engine the Superb and Thunderer, and
rearm the latter, and provision for these purposes has
been made in this year's Estimates. Excluding the
special squadron for Australasian service, the follow-
ing are the new vessels to be built in 1888-89 : Pro-
tected ships—First class cruisers, 2; torpedo depot
ship and torpedo boat carrier, 1 ; third class cruisers,
steel bottomed, 2; sheathed and coppered, 4. ilnr-7
protected ships-,--Sloops (Buzzard type), 2; gunboati
(Rattler type, improved), 6; torpedo gunboats) Sharp-
shooter type), 6 ; one sailing brig (training boys), 1
—total 24. The special squadron for service in
Australasian waters is to consist of five protected
cruisers (now design) and two torpedo gunboats
(Sharpshooter type). The total number of vessels to
be laid down is 31, comprising an aggregate dis-
placement of 60,000 tons.
DOCKYARD ADMINISTRATION.—OUR FIGHTING