The Sun.
London, England, 1852-07-28 00:00:00

VaVENING-,

2..4-- ea

RE POn 7' OF Tl 7 E NA ['el L (! 0 M MISSION:I,. '.7. N't
ON TILE STATE OF THE FRLINCIL, '
NAVY. •••
*p:4 ~.
The Sitseeie contains the following:— - .lse'e,.ll4;.
.e, - " " When the revolution of December 2 brokitKegt,s
Hon. M. lief:sure had only terminated the portion *us
repsto, rel save to the materiel or the fleet. This report
was read to the commission, in the sitting of the Bth,
13th. and 16th of November, 1851. Political events
having rut an end to the commission, M. Dufaure has
not drawn up, or, at least, bus not presented to the
Government, the other three parts of his report
relative to the naval personnel, the administration,
and accounts. We have obtained one of the rare
sailing
ii
ng to
vessels
1 s a 0
f t
copies of the printed part of this able document, and
summaryhefleetoafeciotrdtiong"tor
readers.wo will
endeavour
The
the return annex _ed to the budget of 1352, are 214 in
number, thus dtvididt—shoat fitted out, 70; in conon:s-
Sian tie port, 30 ;in ordinary, 114. In this number
must tie placed in the first rang the vessels which must
be considered instruments of war—men of war, fri-
gates, and corvettes. We have afloat 26 men of war,
37 frigates, 11 corvettes. The question is to know
what these vessels are worth in war? Let us first speak
of wen of war. racy are 26 in number; but, utter
the most scrupulous investigating, only 12 have been
found Et tor combat at sea; the 14 others could only
be empleeed to protect the coast and close the road-
steeds. The report even says that it might happen, as in,
1836, that our officers would hesitate to accept the com-
mand of ouch machines. An average duration of twenty
years is ascribed to a man of war; it is, therefore, es-
sential to know the age of ours. Amongst our six
men of war of the first rank, three, aged more than 30
years, have already undergone at least one thorough
(repair; the other three are of recent construction.
The oldest of our four men of war of the second rank
is only 15 years. Out of the ten men of war of the third
rank, five, aged above 20 years, have undergone thorough
repairs; the other five are not old. As to the six men of
war of th© fourth rank, five have been thoroughly re-
paired, and although the least aged is only IS years, all
are considered as unfit for war or distant voyages. The
commission thinks it right in consequence to declare
that, though materially exact, the list of our navy is not
the less a fiction. The truth is, that out of the 26 men
of war, 8 are armed and fit for war; that 4 may receive
the same destination; and that the rest ate at best
only calculated to give France an imprudent confidence
in her maritime power. We are, thank God, better off
as regards frigates and corvettes. The frigates afloat
are 37 in number, and only 8 of them have been eon-
'eructed more than 20 years. Six frigates are armed,
14 are in commission de port, and 17 are in ordinary. Oat
of 11 corvettes, 8 are fitted out, 3 in ordinary; only• 1 of
them, a very old one, has been thoroughly repaired, and
that was in 1844. As to the 103 small vessels, the com-
mission condemns most of them to be sold. If we were
to follow the order of the report, we should have to
speak here of the situation of oar present steam fleet,
but we shall proceed to say at once how the commission
proposes that the fleet shall be composed:—Men of war
afloat, 30, some of them provided with auxiliary ma-
chines, others with machines which would enable great
speed to be obtained; men of war on the stocks, 15—
total, 45. If the 30 men of war afloat were to be fitted
out, the number of the crews would be 26,160 men;
, 39,240 would be required to man the 43 men of wars
' but it will be understood that such a provi-
sion is not absolutely necessary. The commission
leaves to the executive government to fix the
number of men of . war of different rates ; and
it is by taking the average 'of the crews that
it arrives at the amount we have given. The
crew of a man of war of the first
rate is 1,087; of a
wan of war of the second rate, 91 s;ofthe O.
.„
and of the fourth, 675. These four sets of figures give
an average of 872. Although the
commission does not
pretend to impose on the Government itsv:iews as to the
merits of men of war of . different rates
expresses the opinion that the man of, it
warof very clearly
the first
class is the best for war ; that the manof
the second rate, of 100 guns, has not answered
expectations of the constructors; and that those of the
expectations of the Constructors; and that those of the
third and fourth rates possess remarkable qualities.
In the effective• proposed for the fleet, we count, first,
20 fast-sailing frigates, of which 14 are afloat, and 6
on the stocks; next, thirty frigates, all afloat, provided
with an auxiliary screw, and capable of carrying six
months' provisions; 50 corvettes, also all afloat, some
fast-sailing and others with an auxiliary screw; 20 large
transports afloat, with paddle-wheels or screws; and
lastly, 80 advice vessels, all afloat. This would make a
total of 235, instead of 328, existing in the preceding
reguletion • sof the effective. It is needless to add that
in making for these different sorts of vessels the calcu-
lations established for the crews of men of war,
the commission declares that France possesses a suffi-
cient naval personnel to man her fleet, even if it were
afloat. The crews of our 235 war vessels would consist
of 87,440 men. In a time of peace the fleet would be
manned by 27,064 sailors. Tho following would bo the
composition of the fleet:—Experimental squadron-
-10 men of war, 3 frigates, 3 corvettes, 4 advice-
vessels; crews, 11,382 men. Stations for the pro-
tection of our commerce-6 frigates, 11 cor-
vettes, 2 steamers of 450-horse power, 27 advice-
vessels; crews, 8,700 men. Voyages of circumnoviga-
tion-5 frigates, 5 corvettes; 3,500 men. Interior ser-
vice of the colonies-15 advice-vessels, manned by
600 men. Service of the five naval ports-5 steamers
of 450-horse power, 22 advice vessels, 2,331 men ;
gunnery frigate, 321 men; 1 corvette for a naval school,
230 men—total, 10 men of war, 15 frigates, 20 cor-
vettes, 7 ateamers of 450-horse power, 68 advice-ves-
sels, with crows of 27,064 men. On the subject of
the experimental squadron, we shall ask permission to
express a doubt. The report states, with reason,
that in time of peace, and when there is nothing to
induce the Government to have under its hand all its
forces united, it is proper to keep up two experimental
squadrons, in order to accustom our sailors to the diffi-
culties of the navigation in the Channel, the North
Sea, and, we will add, the Baltic. In this arrange-
ment, there would be an advantage to which the
repor,
does not allude—that of keeping two vice-
admirals at sea. Out of the ten now in the service two
the prefectures of Brest and Toulon, one Com-
mands
at the
Council of the Admiralty, and four are neces-
sarily en disponthat .....
te ~ Would it
i not be a great advan-
tage to have two vice-admirals at sea instead of one?
This is a question which we respectfully submit to the
commission. According to the present system of naval
evolutions it would be impossible to divide 10 sail of the
line, 3 frigates, and 3 oorvettes into two squadrons.
The system of mateeuvring might be changed, but the
commission makes no mention of it. It appears to us,
therefore, that it would Ile° better to decide that the ex-
perimental squadron should be composed of 12 sale..of-
the-line, 4 frigates, and G smaller vessels, to be divided
in case of need into two squadrons, each having at its
head a vice-admiral, with a rear-admiral under him.
The expense would not be a million a year more, and the
importance in the event of war would be very great.
We have great interests at stake in the Mediterranean;
but these interests are, in ordinary cases, protected by
our squadron in the Levant, and we do not very clearly
see why our experimental squadron of 12 sail of the
line, divided into two squadrons, should not every.year
assemble iu the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, in
order to give our admirals an opportunity of acquiring
experience in commanding during a naval combat on a
large scale, but we regret to say that the commission
does not express itself in an explicit manner. W•
insist, however, on the necessity of fixing the stfeactiVa
strength of our experimental squadron, so that it can be
divided exactly into three, according to the presen
system of naval evolutions. We now come to that pert
of the report relative to the transformation pi the
fleet,
why we have
and it will we hope be readily understood
resent steam
delayed until this moment to speak of onfist:
in
la.,
f t re-
fleet, which, by the progress of
the utility of which we
ductel to a transport fleet,
gut
te
look at the comparison
i are far from denying
when
betweenw the expedition to
established by the reportte 1
0010 in 1849. It was ne-
Algiers in 1830 and thati
rs
35,000 men, 3,800 horses,
cessary to convey to Algiers 35,000
for that force. For this
and the materiel nee
employed 130 ships of war, 140
operation they©
w2ertransports. The expense amounted
gun-boats, and 4.3;39. _
In the expedition to Rome it was
to about 12 mac,
convey
necessary to c°
horses, with to Civita Vecchia 30,127 men, and
3 •the all the materiel for the siege of Rome.
,019
The operation
executed in one-sixth of the time of
that of .
was
rs and cost only 1,300,000 f. The port of
Toulon only
A igle ;employed in this service 9 steamers of 450
t. each, which made altogether 32 voyages,
horse-power
of 400 ,
steamer
one and one of 600-horse power, which was pro.
voyages, • • the Mediterranean °ceding to Jain squadron off Naples,
' true that steamers, whether worked by paddles
It i• or
screw, have not sufficient room for their machines, their
fuel, and the stores necessary for a distant expeditio
But if we had to maintain a great naval war, it i a.
3 pro.
battle that we should not have to transport large
of troops to distant points. We now come to the ques-
tion
of the changes which are tasking in our fi
will be seen that without pretending to have Solved'et. e' It
very
difficulty, the commission consider the problem of the
use of steam for ships of war, and the combination of
steam and sails, as solved by the ado t.
M. Laurencin, commanding the mop hadn of the screw.
or, the largest
paddle-steamer ever fitted out in the French navy, gave
the reasons to the commission, which, previous to the
introduction of the screw, had prevented the application
of steam to our large ships of war. 'We did all we
possibly could,' said M. Laurencin, 'to protect the en-
gine of the Mogador; we surrounded it with coal
hutches, but the vessel was still very vulnerable, and
such must always be the case with vessels having their en-
gines above water.' In fact, it has never been the weight
of the machine, the boilers and the coal, which before. the
e
adoption of the screw has prevented steam from
.13911 zuLIF..
adapted to our large ships of war. The obstacltehelyplawtne:
impossibility of preserving to largo vessels
heels half under
of fighting, by attaching to their sideds
swbora
water, and
water, moved by a machine Pladceto pieces by the first
consequently exposed to be
knocked. The screw and the
broadside from a large sailing
Yeller water, and leaving
machine which works it beinaseurn
1 working her guns the
the sides of the vessel free The only thing to deter-
transformation becomesfaesagt;iling vessels and the number
1 mice is, the numberof
motive power, that a of battle
of those with auxiliarocm ot
The
establishmentline of' these two
should be composede,_r_f war was no longer anything
kinds et large vS,saisalneouy, with the exception of the modi-
ficationsbut a qaestiodne of
red necessary by the progress of naval lo•
rendered
hereport sums up as follows its advice es
cornotion. The
be done relative to the war fieet:--,.' Not
eh; to
to what ought
building any ship of the line before a dee--
to COM
ailj
the two systems has been made; to apply to
sivo trial
ile torin an advanced state on the stooks an
vessels - ja
- epower, requiringleast possible al-
motive
auxiliary
lay down the keels her hull; to immediately
teration in
moved by weir
of frigates and corvettes, capable, when
~:
_ of going from 10 to 11 knots an hour."'power