The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-02 00:00:00

THE NAVY.

7'o THE EDITOR OF THI? suiv• as
article
Stu—Observing in The Sun of the 25th inst., in:
anialivoanlgsfatreoethieartitiehinNgies
copied from the Times of the same day, in
assertedour"
Cliisterran can to cope ssi
'se, of
France, on account of the inferiority, in point of s' se,
our line-of-battle ships themselves, and of the snle
naval officer
number of their crews, I am induced,es as a
the unfitness of r
engaged in two of the severest general actions &lig:
the last war, besides sundry other minor affair!, to ° o
a few observations upon the subject, and though by, II:.
means of opinion that our present or former naval Ali.
n.strations since the peace have been faultless, I ain.ne.tge
unnotice.k.
ling to permit exaggerated statements to pass
For a century at least, if not for a longer period, In:,
French marine has exceeded that of Britain in bola:
'th that of
respeCts alluded to by the Tinics, and, moreovertha
had the advantage in number of ship' emplorou
:
in very many general engagements, and r.et
how few of these occasions has it not been slga4
defeated ? I will content myself with instancing t'L,
most decisive battle fought during the last war, thilitZ
the Nile, when, with the single exception of gh°,7o
notaur (if even she were so), there was not 13r,1"0„,
ship of the line present of equal size to the 13ri°,0
which the Times selects as being ca/unazious/y cabe"-i:
all the rest being seventy-fours' of their smallest eras,
These were
on the model of the old Arrogant.
posed to L'Orient, of 120 guns, Le Tonnant,
Tell, and Franklin (which, long after their cap
tinued tinued the largest two-deckers in our service)' T;00
other ships of 80 guns, and the remainder seventrlee,
of the largest class, and yet did any British two-deco/os,
even including the pigmy Leander, of 50 mere P°lool
shrank from encountering such superior, SUCH: ?
opponents, or was ever victory more net"-ereesher
would not willingly or unnecessarily expose MY' brother
tars to combat against fearful odds ; "hut Ylaiiio
from past experience, and believing that the,' :-44,
neither deteriorated in bravery nor skill, 1 :of'
dently anticipate an equally glorious result,' s"
-10
i our Gallic neighbours venture u.lon entl"9lel
ttrieesesaartnearqou. Butarter, constituted
nsteitxiustteicilgasditstplearrittvy in
altidest:::7oo,ol:*
p
vessels of the two nations was in a great mauve
avoidableoldahle for so complete had been the annibilatict' g
the French navy during the late war, that its 13.7h0s
one is comparatively of new creation, ds ;40-
f already observed, the French have long, given
o war superior dimensions to curs, and it is 1„-eisa
the. present Surveyor-General of the Navyt shas hcee.
ofn?e, that we have equalled, if not exceeded,
nations in this respect (for this the Times, and °t-ol
Opposition Journals have not failed to charge the °gilt'
administration with profusion and extravaguace),; the
the conclusion of the late war, on the other Ivo" aila
navy of Britain outnumbered all others collectivelhoo
was composed of a heterogenous assemblage c'f, Lee
of all nations, dimensions, and descriptions, and It 4111
wise policy, if not a matter of necessity, to wear out
such as were sea-worthy, whilst a navy better calanaa
to compete with the constantly increasing dinle,tin,si°,llo4
the vessels of rival nations was gradually foot"' IVO,
this system having been followed since the Pean,e.'„-,0 of
are at present few old Benbows or under-size° 7.-old
war of any rate in the British navy and the race -0-url
or seventy twos (as they ;
have been speedily extinct had not a few seventr fti
gates, constructed of that very durable materiel, to be
bcen built in India, or sent in frame from theoee bolt.
set up in this country. The possibility of a yin able,
are now designated) g) teak,
ever, having rendered a change of system ales, pill
00
the Howe, Britannia, and Adelaide, first
speedily reinforce the Mediterranean fleet, anal/4001-
such powerful two-deckers as the Vanguard anal 00
cutta shall have relieved such peace-estillishmectli do
as the Benbow and Hastings, the French fleet
010°10
well to consult its safety by seeking a refuge IP ci to .a
if a war should ensue, lest they should be subjecfe with
repetition of the battle of the Nile. Iso far egree„,eo.
the Times as to be of opinion that the crews
or-war should be increased with their dimensons's;
that the present peace establidiment is inadegoSteoue.
war complement : indeed, had the finances of the to
try admitted thereof, I think it would have been•svistl 0
have kept all our war-going ships fully manned, anaapt.
practised by the Americans, tat their number af ,
missioned officers should have been considerahl
creased. But still, ships may be over- manned, eye shiptbst
the French ones are ; and firmly bel"
a" tied
the necessarily increased slaughter. in over-er.o6
decks has the effect of dispiriting their I'o4
viving companions, and in disposing them to postageresistance. With respect to the present conll3°%,'
itjf
of our crews, however, I am decidedly at issue" Jae
the Times ; they are infinitely more efficient thapelf
ring the war, when a large proportion of then, o
composed of landsmen, many of them the sweeping°
our jails ; and the boys, though less numerous then,be
present, were chiefly mere children, supplied by
the
Marine Society ; whereas, at present, many of thenl
older and stouter then numbers who were rated W
lanar
men during the war ; whilst, till very recently, i a
men were invariably refused to be received on boar° %,
men. ot-war, so that the great majority of their eetuPio
(Tient of blue jackets are actually seamen, and thwl'itt•
case of need, each ship has a sufficiency of that "job
ablel class to form the nucleus of two crews. The flibt so
a so, are much better instructed in gunnery -,eso
during. former wars, when little. attention
00,
paid thereto, and yet they could alweYsh„cugh
quer French ships of superior force, alt"-,100
poris-ck
numbering amongst their crews a considerabl
of well-trained gunners. There is, moreover, c°„Eitl
of seamen in the country, and whenever the nee"„- els,
of a considerable increase to our naval force c°glirdiett
as' it inevitably will, the Admiralty to offer to sca-00.
what it has never hitherto done, a bounty mgr
„r, ,er, 0
mensurate with what was paid during the late s;:lee
the merest ploughboys enlisting in the army, fall
no fears of a fleet, sufficient to cope with those
our maritime rivals collectively, being speedily nte?„4,o..
without the smallest necessity of resorting to the
nical and unconstitutional system of impressment, w •
must, on all bands, be depd.
VETERAN OFrecate THE LAST grAg'

Sept. 28, 1840.
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN PLY.

MOUTH DOCKYARD.

1110 ;red

(From the Plymoulle Journal of yester,-. • t
in reto ten o'clock lait night, nothing bud
ference to the cans', of th:s lamentable a of
Si: iel investigation has :wen going. on in the cou"- ett
the day, as well as on the previous one, in the Pr,e,se-neo
of the Solicitor for the Crown, and two gentlem—ubtieY
here by the Admiralty. What the result of this scrutiny
will be, a few days possibl d
y etermine. coo
We ar c less disposed, however to ittrihute the c,
of the fire to the act of an incendiary,' from then nc'th' e
trausPi;.ar!ir,
ledge of the following fact, and which bears 1113 b-o-possibility
possibility of its Icing produced by spontaneous Clioreir
t:on. A kw years since, the sweepings of the s,,onic
which were placed in a cart, to be conveyed fo;con.
distant part of the yard, took fire spontaneously,4"
sumed a considerable pile of timber.
The last. fire in the Dockyard, of any
en tirourti
curred in 1812, when the rope-house was
stroyQd ; and was supposed to have originated ir
spontaneous ignition. importanc!' oiee: