The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-01 00:00:00

LOND'ir-4L WED,s, ESDAY EVENING AUGf UST

possesses at the present hour, giving their designers and
the years when built:—

Name of Ship,

Length between
the pi rpeud I cu' ars
Length of keel for
ton age
RrPalth. extreme
Brdth. for to'-nag.
Breadth, moulded
Depth in bold

Burdan in tons.

In what year built

Hone p ,wer

r.,b=

IFt. in.

186 0

53 11
51 6

N

Ft. in.

1205 6

170 6
54 8

5,

Ft. in

21 6
2160

115

icsq.

IFt. In

204 2

c :..
0~,~
:~~ c
i .., c
~~~

Ft. in

o '" Fc
~ .~
z~

1240 C

101 3
21 3
21 C

Ft. In.

c a..
n~~
~o
n~

215 6

166 6
60 of
59 2j

202
60. (

11 11
238

Ft. in

1231 0

r 6 4
61 21
60
59 6?,.
•25•10
4000
1855/

203 5
50 0
49 6
44 8
17 .8
2650
now
build-
-600

reserved for the lips of Royalty to name, or christen,
as it is called, these floating fortresses ; and they expect
from the Royal hand the signal which, as it were, gives
. them their ocean life. Sovereigns of other times had
their great deeds. They built and named pyramids
which still challenge the wonder and curiosity of man-
, .kind. They founded cathedrals with aisles like forest
avenues, and spires that touch the skies ; they built
churehes upon churches, and churches side by side, one
still lerger tbau another, and so large at last that they
will never be finished, and to this degenerate age only
record the magnificent ideas of our forefathers. "There
were ghats in those days." But who that was present
at the Naval Review of 1853 will deny that there are
giants in these days also ? We are waging a war of
Titans. Just now, for the instant, indeed, peace seems
to be gaining upon war, fur there is a passenger ship
building in.the Isle of Logs that would take the Marl-
' borough on deck, and'only sick two or three feet with
its bu-. der.. But wait a little. In a few years we shall
have a man-of-war—then several men-of-war—then a
whole fleet—on the scale of Mr. Scott Russell's mem--
meth ship. It is proper to the dignity of the British
nation that we should do so ; and, as we are geographi
tally prevented from extending our frontier on lend, it
is but natural we should add as much as we can of the
sea, at least of that portion of the sea which is repre-
sented fir the time by the deck of a man-of-war.
But, amid all these honourable aspirations for national
grandeue, and this swollen, and still spelling magnifi-
cence, a certain thought will obtrude uninvited. So
long as we were at peace, and so long as these huge
castles really frowned upon the ocean to some pnrpose and
kept the world in awe, there was unreason why we should
not go on building ships bigger and bigger continu-
ally, and particularly when the usual destinatt_n of the
ship weiiese muddy berth high 'up Portsmouth harbour,
or some other asylum ftr idle and eventually invalid
met -of-war. We should not be far off the mark if we
were to say that about a hundred ships of-the-line have
never been used at all, but have rottedin ordinary, from
the day of tht;ir launch to that which saw them sold for
" old stores," and broken up by some ship-knacker.
But, as it is better that a man-of-war, as well as any
other weapon, should not be used, we will waste no vain
regrets on the fact that so many successive monarchs of
the deep, after lives of inglorious ease, have been gathered
to .the sepulchre of their fathers. But is change has
come over the scene, and we are now in a state which
may be said to have been wholly unanticipated by the
builders of our fleets—a state of war. What is more, we
are at war with a naval. Power, with a Power which
arrogates to itself the dominion of two great inland seas
and threatens a third—the third being that sea, only less
than ocean, to the possession of which the ancients
justly assigned the dominion of the world. Russia is
pushing her fleets froM north and south towards the
Gates of Hercules, and embraces the Old World. This
same Russia has insulted us in the very tenderest•point ;
she has obtained our exclusion from the Euxine, she has
destroyed, under our eyes, as it, were,. the fleet of our
ally ; she•has proclaimed that wooden walls are no match
for granite ; she has defied not only us, not only our de-
crepit and semi-barbarous ally, but our great neighbour,
more than our equal in military resources, and only not
our equal, in naval power. Here, then, is the very proof
'and occasion of our vast naval armoury. Here is the
destined enemy for whom our floating castles were
reared. Here is the peril against which our pro-
vident forefathers warned us and prepared us
in time. Open the gates of the ocean, out with
these detnigods, let them go forth in solemn pro-
cession and do their stern errand. They have gone
forth ; they have stalked and are still stalking over the
surface of the ocean. They cover seas, they spread from
shore to shore, they create cities on the waves ; they
give to. Watery wastes " a local habitation and a name."
The Black Sea and the Baltic are full of our fleets, and,
not only ours, but the French as well, besides myriads
of vulgar craft ministering to their wants. They have
done this now for two years. Well, what have they
done ? They have retained their barren empire over
the ocean. The ocean was theirs, and it mast be said
they have nut yet been deprived of it. Bedouins of the
trackless deep, their reign is undisputed. They march
to and fro ; like the rude champion of the Philistine host,
they menace and provoke. Were all the earth sea, it is
manifest we are its lords. But there is the very diffi-
culty. The earth is not all sea. There is land, with its
natural defences, its shore-, its shoals, its shallows, its
creeks,.and all that fringe of neither sea nor land. There
our dominion ends; The Titans are baffled, not by Jove's
thunder, not by incumbent lEtna, but by treacherous
mud and shifting sands.

Does not common sense—the common sense that go-
verns the world,—comtnon sense that makes the con-
queror,—common sense that gives life to men and
nations,—does not that sacred gift itself tell us that now
is the time to stop building these long-cherished extrava-
gances ? Granting that they have their use, and that it
is still necessary to assert the dougeion of the:ocean,
have we not enough of them, and more than enongh of
them, for the purpose ? Have we not four, or even ten
times enough, to dispose of the Russian fleet, if it should
ever show itself ? Of course, if we could do everything,
we might as well do everything. But we eatingtdo
everything. In sober truth, we want craft for the
"fringe,"—that which is neither sea nor land. We want.
a whole fleet of gun-boats, and other apparatus cl:rectly
suited to the work to be done. Rich as we fancy
ourselves, we want " small change" in our fleet. We
cannot do both together; we may, perhaps; have the
money ; we may, perhaps, have the material, but we
have not the men. The naval strength of the country is
absorbed, shipwrecked, in these enormous vessels, which
only ride amid seas, and meet no foe but the elements.
Such a ship 'as that which refused to be latinclied yester-
day requires a craw equal to all the adult psopulatiou of
a considerable town, and costs the maintenance of a
town: Imprison a thousand or twelve hundred men in
a floating castle, and at the end of the yea! they will
not have done anything in this war worth their salt.
Set them free, and distribute them in a flotilla of gun-
boat, and they may do something. wily, on Sir
Charles Napier's authority, it takes a couple of seasons
to teach a fleet the very first elements of naval warfare,
such ss the use of signals. If it's the Atlantic that is in
question, well and good ; let us have fleets to cover it,
and signal across from Gibraltar to the Gulf ef Mexico.
Let us have ships that the Atlantic itself may be proud
to bear. But it is not the Atlantic, it is not the Medi-
terranean, it is hardly even the Baltic or the Black Sea
that is the arena of this struggle. The quarrel is to be
fought out in havens, and creeks, and narrow winding
channels, in rock-strewn
.pools and tideless shallows.
Stop every big ship ; set free every ship carpenter,
every smith, every forge, every furnace in the Queen's
dockyards, or in any workshop now employed by her.
Transfer them at once to that smaller craft without
which it is quite evident we cannot undertake offen-
sive
carry o
operations—thatnthe
war. v
is
‘toe say, without which we can-
not fear it is too late to expect
anything this year. Next year let us meet Russia on
her own amphibious domain. We cannot doubt the
final issue of the struggle ; only let us not be our own
worst enemies, by wasting our strength and diverting
all our resources in unprofitable demonstrations.

reed immediately, and at his own expense, to Malta, to
join the reserve battalion stationed there.
The following officers belonging to the 57th are under
!orders to proceed to Malta, viz.—Capt. Woodall, Lieut.
Russell, Ensigns Mills, Hasted, Powell, and Thompson.
The Holyrood, steam-transport, sailed yesterday from
Woolwich, with warlike implements of ev'-ry description
for the Black Sea.

The hired transport Hesper, which sailed on the 27th
ult. for the Crimea, caught fire off Ramsgate, and was
brought back to Woolwich dockyard on Monday even-
ing for repairs. A number of men were kept working
through the night in laying down iron plates and other
necessary repairs, so that she will be in readiness to pro-
ceed again on her voyage this evening. The accident
was occasioned through overheat from the boilers, but
the pumps being speedily set to work the lire was soon
got under without any serious damage. The Dee has
sailed also for Plymouth with stores, &c., from Wool-
wich dockyard.