The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-06 00:00:00

Iler Majesty's Navy in Reserve.

According to the latest published Admiralty
Navy List there are at the present time 269 vessels
belonging to her Majesty's navy, steam and sailing,
lying at their moorings in the crowded harbours of
our Government porta, representing an enormous
amount of sunken capital that absorbs an almost
unknown sum to maintain and preserve it, while,
at the very lowest computation, 75 per cent. of the
whole can never under any circumstances, so long as
it remains the property of the Crown, be made to
yield any return whatever for the interest of the
capital originally invested. This vast war material
three fourths of which can never be utilized for the
purposes of war, comprises—two iron frigates, three
ironcased frigates, and three turret ships, which bee
long to the present period; five screw three deckers,
38 screw three-deckers, 18 screw frigates, eight
screw corvettes, seven paddle frigates, 25 paddle
sloops, 22 screw sloops, two floating factories, four
mortar ships, six floating batteries, one screw store
vessel (iron), one screw iron yacht—the Fairy, one
screw iron troopship, one double screw tug, 58 screw
gunboats, eight sailing two-deckers, 30 sailing fri-
gates, nine sailing corvettes, 15 sailing brigs, one
sailing hospital two decker, one Arctic discovery
ship, and one cutter.
Here is a long array of vessels, which has a suffi-
ciently formidable appearance upon paper, but if
we take the ironclads at the head of the list from
them there remains then but very little that could
be deemed available for strengthening our iron-
clad fleet should the country find itself suddenly
embroiled in an European war. For years have our
harbours been crowded with useless ships of war—
nay, ships that have been worse than useless, for
in addition to their forced unproductiveness from
the transitionary phases through which the navy
has passed during the past twenty years, they also,
as we have already stated, entail an immense an-
nual expenditure to keep them in their inefficient
state, and occupy space in our harbour that should
be kept for the service of seagoing ships
requiring repairs or refit at the hands of the
authorities of the dockyards. Thus it has often
happened that o❑ the arrival of the Channel Fleet
at Spithead the repair or refit of some of the ships
has been executed at that anchorage in lien of in-
side Portsmouth harbour, where every ship requir-
ing repairs should have a berth ready to take up
immediately she comes in from sea. It is within
the truth to assert that the repair of a fleet at
Spithead treblea the time and cost of such repairs if
they could have been carried out in Portsmouth
harbour. Money cost alone, however, does not re-
present the actual loss which might fall upon the
nation by this delay in the refit of our fleets in time
of war, for it has been admitted by all who have
given any attention to the subject that, in the event
of a naval struggle for the supremacy of the Chan-
nel, the nation that refitted its fleet the speediest
after the first general engagement would most pro-
bably obtain that supremacy pnd hold it.
Oar case at present stands thus :—We have about
250 wooden vessels, from the screw three decker of
1,000 horse power of engines down to the old
fashioned sailing brig, all of which are useless for
all future purposes of warfare, if sea-going ironclads
are to be constructed, and the majority should be
considered useless, even if sea• going ironclads should
not come into general use. These vessels are en-
cumbering our harbours and entailing an enormous
annual expense in times of peace, and would en•
danger the country's safety in time of war. The
Admiralty are certainly taking measures to remedy
this state of things, nut the movements of the Ad-
miralty are generally slow, and the present instance
is no exception to the rule. To illustrate more
clearly the actual state of the steam and sailing
reserves of her Majesty's navy it will be necessary
to select one port—say, Portsmouth, and this selec-
tion will also explain the measures taken by the
Admiralty to remedy the existing state of affairs.

The steam and sailing reserve at Portsmouth, in-
cluding no ship doing harbour duty, consists of some
70 vessels of ail classes, but excluding the gun-
boats hauled up at Haslar—about 37 more, These
two-deckers, 10 screw three-deckers, 10 screw two-
deckers, 10 screw frigates, five paddle sloops, two
screw floating batteries, one screw troopship, one
screw yacht, and 12 screw gunboats, one sailing
two-decker, six sailing frigates, and six sailing
brigs and sloops. Of the steam vessels all are of
wooden build except the two floating batteries, the
one screw troopship Simoom, one iron sloop Sharp-
shooter, and the yacht Fairy. The sailing vessels
are, as a matter !of course,' all of wooden 'construc-
tion. This latter class of vessel is, nowever, more
scare at Portsmouth than at Plymouth, or in the
Medway, owing to their having been pretty freely
used up as target ships in the testing of armour
plates. If, however, we analyse this list of the
Portsmouth reserve, a pretty correct idea may be
formed of the real value of our ships of war fn re-
serve, and the cost of their maintenance. Of, the
two screw three-deckers one—the ,Victoria, 102
guns (harmless against iron-plating), 4,127 tons,
and 1,000 horse power, nominal, of engines, is
masted, rigged, armed, and partly fitted as the
future flagship for the Mediterranean station. For
duty she would be eminently suitable were it not
that in the event of a naval war the shot from her
guns would rattle harmlessly against an enemy's
iron-clothed sides, while at the same time the
molten iron shells thrown through her wooden
sides by the enemy would turn her into a burning
volcano for the destruction of her crew. This
same argument will apply to the other three-
decker—the Prince of Wales, of 121 guns, 3,994
tons, and 800 horse-power of engines. Of the
10 screw two-deckers, two, the Neptune, 78
guns, 2,820 tons, 500 horse power, and Nelson, 78
guns, 2,726 tons, 500 horse power, have never been
commissioned since their conversion, but they are
useless against ironclads, however small the latter
may be, and possess no great speed. The eight
remaining two-deckers, giving an aggregate of 598
guns, 24,033 tons, and 4,050 horse power of engine,
have all been in commission and all require heavy
repairs to hull and machinery before they can be
again sent to sea. Of the eight screw frigates two
have never been commissioned—the Glasgow (built
as a screw), 39 guns, 3,037 tons, and 600 horse
power, and the Octavia (a converted screw), 89
guns, 3,191 tons, and 600 horse power. The Octavia
is one of three frigates (the others being the Cone
stance and Arethusa) given by the Admiralty to
three separate firms to fit with engines that should
be worked on the most economical principles, ac-
cording to the builders' own make, no restrictions
being placed by the Admiralty upon the builders of
the engines either as to construction or coat. Great
results were expected from a competitive trial of
these three vessels, but, although tbey have now
been completed south years, thu trial has never
came off, and the ships remeiu, costly as was their
engineering outfit, on the inglorious list of the steam
reserves. Thu Octavia was fitted with three-throw
cylinder engines by Messrs. Maudsley and Field.
The remaining eight frigates possess an aggregate
of 272 guns, 20,580 tons, and 4,630 horse power of
engine. All these vessels require heavy repairs
before they conld be again 9,ent, to see ; all the cm-
bustible by horizontal shell, and are therefore unfit
to efig4ge any ironclads ; but five, the Mersey,
Diadem, Inttnortalite, Melpomene, and Bacchante
(probably the handsomest wooden frigates afloat)—
might be rendered available for active service, un-
der certain eonditions, owing to their large engine-
power and the consequent speed they possess at
sea. The remaining three are deficient in speed,
and are therefore useless as part of a fleet of war-
ships, where as a necessity the speed of the slowest
ship becomes the speCd of the whole fleet.
The nine screw corvettes sod sloops give a total

of 109 guns, 7,372 tons, and 1,627-horse power of
engines, Of these the Malacca, 17, and Cruiser,
17, are being repaired under contract in the build-
ing-yard of Mr. John White at West Cowes. The
Highflyer, 21, is rigged, armed, and stored ready
for commission, after having undergone a thorough
overhaul and repair to her hull at Mr. White's
yard, and to her machinery in the steam factory of
Portsmouth dockyard. She is a fine, bold-looking
vessel ; but the same argument is available against
her for war purposes that is now applicable to all
un-armoured ships. The Pearl, 21, of 400. horse
power, is worth repair, owing to her large engine
power, and may rank in point of value with the
Highflyer. The Sharpshooter, 6, of 202-horse
power, is purely an experimental vessel, but is
ready for commission after a considerable expendi-
ture on her in various ways. She was built of iron
at Blackwell in 1847 from designs by the late Mr,
Fincham, and is incapable of offering the least re-
sistance to shot. As a tender at the home ports
she may be found a very useful vessel. Internally
she is coated with two kinds of experimental
cements, and externally her plates are coated with
experimental varnishes for preserving and keeping
clean the iron. She is also fitted with Commander
Warren's patent bow rudder. The Sparrowhawk,
4,676 tons and 200-horse power, has been almost
entirely reconstructed in Portsmouth dockyard, and
will never repay the cost by her future services.
The remaining three vessels are not worth repair.
Five of the paddle frigates—the Odin, the Sidon,
the Penelope, the Sampson, and the Retribution,
possessing a gross tonnage of 7,182, and 2,637-horse
power of engines, have been sold by the Admiralty
to Messrs. Castle and Beach, ship breakers of Lon-
don, together with the paddle sloops Fury, 1,124
tons and 515-horse power, and Inflexible of 1,122
tons and 378-horse power, and one paddle-sloop
—the Rosamond—once the fever-stricken Eclair, is
ordered to be broken up in Portsmouth yard. In
the sale of these seven vessels and the breaking up
of the Rosamond the Admiralty have begun a clear•
ance of our harbours and a diminution of the annual
expenditure of our outports which only requires to
be followed up to lead the best possible results. The
Furious paddle frigate, of 1,287 tons, and 400 horse
power, with a couple of paddle stoops, could also
well be sold at once to realise their capital, so far as
their sale would do so, and make room for vessels fit
for actual service. The screw floating batteries may
be utilised for river or roadstead defences, such as
the Thames or Spithead in support of the forts.
The Erebus, one of these vessels, is now preparing
for work of this kind. The iron screw troopship is
the fine old Siuioom, of 2,000 tons and 400 horse
power, built at Glasgow in 1849, She is ordered to
be brought down from her harbour moorings shortly
and refitted for commission. Report gives her to
Capt. Lethbridge, lately in command of the Adven-
ture screw troopship. It is an absolute waste of
money to allow a vessel like the Simoom to be kept
at a great expense at harbour moorings when pri-
vate ships have to be hired to do her work at sea.
The 12 screw gunboats afloat in Portsmouth hare
hour make very useful tenders, and serve for prace
tics for our seamen at their guns when required for
such a purpose, and that is all that can be said in
their favour. The iron screw yacht Fairy, super-
seded in her Majesty's service by the Alberta, can
be rendered as sound and effective as on the day she
was launched by Mr Mare from his yard at Black-
well, in 1845, for something like £I,COO, and may
do good service as a yacht tender to some Port Ad-
miral. There only now remain the sailing ships to
deal with, and, with one exception, no future can
possibly remain fur these but the breaking-up
dock. 'rho one exception is the Eurydice. She has
now been for some considerable time partly fitted
as a sailing tender to the naval cadet training ship
Britannia, but has never been completed.
As regards the cost incurred in the maintenance
of these few useful and many useless vessels it would
be almost impossible to state the exact sum for
Portsmouth alone without wading through an
almost endless mass of official documents including
the accounts of the steam factory and the steam re-
serve for expenses connected with the machinery,
those of the master shipwright for all relating to the
Emit. manta. ...it., rigging, and other stores, and to
the Navy List and Admiralty regulations for the
amount absorbed in pay, provisions, and pensions to
warrant officers, shipkeepers, &c. It will be suffi-
cient, hcwever, to select one of these returns now
lying at the Admiralty to show the ruinous cost of
maintaining as we have done of late, a large fleet of
vessels—obsolete in their structure or otherwise—
lying idly at harbour moorings, with millions of
capital sunk in the machinery with which they are
fitted, and money spent annually upon them while
in this unproductive state. The documents now at
the Admiralty to which we refer are headed—
" Cost of preserving and repairing machinery afloat
in the Portsmouth Steam Reserve," and by these
documents we learn that this coat averages £27,000
per annum, We must bear in mind that this sum
only represents the cost of the steam reserves at
Portsmouth, so far as relates to work done by the
engineers and stokers belonging to that reserve (in.
eluding, of course, under the head of " labour," en
estimate of the men's pay and provisions when so
employed, but has nothing to do with the steam
factory department bil. (where the actual repairs of
the engines and boilers are carried out), nor to any
other bill from any other department. In one six
months' return, however, from the Ist of April to
the 30th of Septemqer, 1863 (which is selected
owing to the fact of its giving the expense during
that period-of preserving and repairing of the vessels
just sold to Messrs. Castle and Beach), there is in.
eluded a sum of about £6OO for repairs to the ma-
chinery of the gunboats at Heeler. This return
gives totals under the following heads :—Preserving
machinery of vessels afloat, £11,499 88 6d ; gun-
boats at Hasler, £324 lOs 4d; shed rent at Hasler
for gunboats, £43o—total, £12,253 18s 101 d. Re-
pairing machinery of ships afloat, £672 14s 8d; re-
pairing gunboats at Hasler, £689 5s 51d ; tools,
£45 8s 2-}d. Grand total for six months, £13,661
7s 21-d. We have not referred at any length to the
gunboats at Hasler, and all that need be stated now
with regard to their condition is that it would even•
tually prove a great relief to the naval estimates if
their hulls were broken up and the machinery of
every two of them transferred to one new boat of
iron. The coat of preserving and repairing the ma-
chinery of five of the seven vessels sold is given for
the six months as follows:—Penelope, £201; Re-
tribution, £169 7s 6d ; Sidon, £176 ss; Fury,
£169 Gs ; Sampson, £149 14s.

Perhaps the largest amount of sunken capital of
which there is no probability of its yielding any re-
turn is represented in the screw linesofsbattle ships
—two and three deckers. The latter class we know
are clung to yet by our own authorities, and the
Victoria is now preparing, whether in earnest or
sham it is impossible to say, as the future flagship
of the Admiral in command in the Mediterranean ;
but the French Imperial Minister of Marine has
allotted ironclads as the flagships of the French
squadrons on that station, and we must do the
same. In fact, the days of the wooden-built screw
line-of-battle ship have passed away for ever; and
yet it is something appalling if we consider the
capital wo have sunk in stock of this description.
In the return from which we have extracted *le
figures given above is given the six months' cost of
the maintenance in the one item of steam reserve of
this useless stock in the Portsmouth Divisions
alone, the chief of which are as follows :—The
Agiers, £228 14s. 6d.; the Agamemnon, £lBB 14s. ;
the Neptune, £204 18s.; the Caesar, £220; the
Hannibal, £253 19s.
The screw frigates during the .game period 'show
against etch of their names, selr,cting the following
nt random :—The Termagant, :s:161 103.; the Di-
adem, £194 Bs.; the Arrogant;, £164 ; the Irn.
perieuse, £234 158.; the Mi,,,i,pumptle, X 248 78,; the
Mersey, £214.
The Furirins psi dl'4 frigate is debited with
£144 113. 6.1. There are a few wooden and iron
sailing mortar hoat,s hauled up at Haslar, but they
incur no eztraoriiinary expense. They have no
machinery inside them; they occupy ground that
at present would, no be approprir4ted to any other
purpose ; they represent no great amount of sunken
capital ; and they are being gradually utilized,
either in the Coastguard or har'3,-mr service of the
ports and riyera of the Channel.