The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-01 00:00:00

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THE SUN, LOP-Za

Our Gunboats and Mortar Vessl-1..

Created to meet a sudden emergency in ta
waged by England and France against Russia,

last vessel of our gun and mortar boat fleet.,
might in the due course of time have passed
away with and into those convenient " waters
of oblivion" into which' individuals and peoples
are so ever ready to consign their failures, their de-
feats, add their disappoiattnents, had, their history
hitherto been "written in sand." It could not be
• I
so, howeier. under the circumstances of their :his-
tory
subsequent to their creation. The r o;. in sung
over the inauguration of this miniature fleet of hoe, j
nets cannot readily be forgotten. This flotilla of
gun and mortar craft were termed " the best legacy
of the Russian war, the only solid advantage that
remained to us after all our experiments. We had
not only learnt that a maritime Power requires
other vessels besides line-of-battle ships, bat we had
actually got a stiondfleet of these vessels ready
built for any future emergency. There they were'
all hauled up safe and sound, all paid for,' andlfiteto
be launched at an hour's notice in strength suffi-
cient to sweep the Channel of an enemy." But this
precious flotilla, —this real naval reserve—this
squadron on which so much moneyleOeenlitidie
was found rotten and good for nothing, and the
boats were only fit to break up or crumble to dust
where they lay. They were not broken up, and
they were delayed at an immense expense in fall-
ing literally to pieces. Two certainly, the Caroline
and the Mackerel, were eventually condemned and
taken to pieces, but even now fragments of their
poor rotten skeletons may be met with in obscure
corners of the Hasler Yard, each fragment forming
part of a tale of fraudulent copper bolt fastenings
and sappy timbers. Others of the gunboats had as
much as £l,OOO and £1,500 each spent upon them ;
some, it is said, still more, and others less ; but the
one professed object aimed at war to render this
rotten and useless fleet available for some purpose.
The exposure of our folly had made as to a certain
extent ashamed of ourselves, and we were glad to
hide the cause from sight as quickly as possible.
All visible defects were made good, and each
vessel the partial repairs of which only were thus
" made good" at an enormous expense had
her planking carefully caulked, her bottom payed
over with an honest coat of tar and with an " air
stroke" of planking left out (too near the top sides
to be of any service). The gunboat squadron stood
under their sheds at Hasler, looking, to all outward
sign, bright, sound, and fit for anything. At this
time the fact was the boats were only partially re-
paired, English elm had been introduced alongside
partially decayed plank and framing, and the whole
closed in, airtight from keel to " air stroke," and
now all again are rotten.
The recent annual inspection of the naval estab-
lishments at Portsmouth is, however, likely to cause
the curtain to descend upon the last act of the gun
and mortar boat comedy. In anticipation of their
lordships' annual Visit to the yard at Hasler a re.
port of the condition of the boats stored under the
sheds was prepared, which led to further investiga-
tions being made, and the result is that this too
famous yard at Hasler is to be degraded from its
hitherto maintained position, and to descend from
its high-sounding title of " gunboat yard and slip.
way," to " a yard for building and repairing ships'
boats and repairing gunboats ;" the latter, we should
presume, means so long as wooden gunboats are
still supposed to be of use.
The gunboats now on the blocks under Hasler
sheds are 47 in number (exclusive of six building),
and their destiny in the immediate future has been
assigred as follows _ _

Condemned to be broken up—The Tiny, 20 horse
power ; the Midge, 20 ; the Flirt, 20 ; the Ready,
40; the Pincher, 60; the Swinger, 60; the Thrush,
40 ; the Didger, 60 ; the Beaver, 60; the Beacon,
60 ; the Traveller, 60 ; the Savage, 60; the Por-
poise, 60; the Pert, 20; the Grinder, 60; the
Brazen, 60; the Bullfinch, 60.

To be surveyed further, for sale or breaking up :
The Wolf, 60 horse power; the Crocus, 60; the
Camel, 60 ; the Garland, 20 ; the Garnet, 40 ; the
Primrose, 60 ; the Prompt, 60; the Pickle, 60; the
Gnat, 20; the Redbreast, 60; the Parthian, 60; the
Blossom, 20; the Confounder, 60; the Gadfly, 20;
the Rocket, 60.

For repairs, to be added to, or rather, to form the
reserve ;—The Brave, 60 horse-power ; the Peacock,
60; the Cherokee, 60; the Wave, 60; the Swan,
60 ; the Whiting, 60 ; the Fenella, 40 ; the Hunter,
40 ; the Skylark, 60.

To be fitted for coal depots :—The Pe, 20 horse-
power; the Snapper, 60.
This list only includes the Haslar gunboats, but
in addition to these there are some 110 others of the
same class of vessel afloat in our home ports and on
foreign stations, all of which must be looked upon
by the lights of our present experience as possessing
a still more favourable average of condition than
even those quoted above as in the " Haslar" list.
With regard to the original construction of these
vessels, while it is admitted that the contractors
were compelled to turn them out of hand in a very
hurried manner, owing to the nation's requirements
at the time, and to build portions of them with un-
seasoned timber, owing to the impossibility of
obtaining seasoned wcod, there is at the present
moment a vessel under repair in Haslar Yard which
from having been originally constructed with sea-
soned timber, affords a remarkable contrast in her
condition to the exotic gunboats which have cost the
nation such immense sums of money, but the days of
which we may now reasonably hope are numbered.
The vessel alluded to is simply an open dockyard
lighter daily employed in doing all kinds of rough
work. She was launched 69 years ago, and her
original timbers, which now form her frame below
the water line, are as sound and hard as on the day
of her launching.
So much for the Haslar gunboats, their rotten and
fungus-covered hulls, their short copper belts,
their partial repairs, their subsequent rot on the
blocks high and dry under the sheds, their last
sflouBrr6mv3e,ayftari
and
dnmn
the d,
of
gntcondemnation
uhenecbesosaatr yil
yard,
rpd designationos inthe p
ph sheds,
dso proposed
Haslar
nigadrns
si seaflbrcint .
pa nw tya
:e
establish-
mentyr n, of
ts
0
the more modest one of " boat building and repair-
ing yard."

The mortar vessels at Hasler have not attracted
the same amount of public attention, from the fact
of their being fewer in number, and therefore more
unimportant than the gunboats, and also from their
having been left in a comparatively undisturbed
state. There are 19 mortar craft now on the blocks
at Haslar—nine of iron and ten of wooden con-
struction. The iron ones aro being converted as
they are wanted into open lighters for dockyard
use, and the larger bodied wooden craft are being
handed over to the Coastguard as they require ves-
sels for stations in the different rivers and creeks
around the coasts—the very best purpose to which
both classes of vessels can now be applied, although
both would have done good service doubtless be-
yond what they effected at Sweaborg, had the war
with Russia fortunately or unfortunately lusted a
twelvemonth longer.

The Hasler gunboat history will also, like every
other part of our naval administration, illustiatn in
the most forcible manner our present system of
dockyard departments. The head of the " wood"
department is perfectly aware that the hulls of the
tmlcss craft which he is patching np and passing
off as sound vessels to order, aro rotten to the core,
and are but a horrible sham. The head of the
metal department, on the other hand, can know
nothing (officially, and therefore he must be igno-
rant) of a wooden vessel's hull being hopelessly
rotten, and therefore displays an unwonted de-
gree of activity in " bringing forward" her er-
gines, ,q)t giving, as would be the case in
any ptivate Establishment, any tilought or eLre
about tt • expense, but showing how smart his de-