The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-26 00:00:00

TBE NAVY ESTIMATES.

The Secretary of the Admiralty has prepared the
way for the debates on the Navy Estimates by a
succinct but impressive account of the actin].
strength of the fleet at the present moment. A
single page of figures,, issued from the office of the
Controller of the Navy, and bearing date the 14th
of this months, informs us of the actual number
of vessels of all descriptions " afloat, building, or
converting," which our recent exertions have suf-
ficed to create. It is little more than two years
since the " reconstruction" of our Navy was com-
menced in earnest, and here are • the fruits of the
work. We had better, perhaps, give the simple
results first, and compare them with the prospectus
afterwards.
On the Ist of this present February, then, we
possessed very nearly 700 ships of war. This is a
tremendous array of vessels ; and, though the
figures receive some modification upon analysis, the
conclusions will still remain extraordinary. In the
first place, of course, we must deduct mere sailing
ships, which, even though returned as " effective,
are no longer deemed equal to the exigencies of
modern warfare. The abatement, however, on this
score will not be serious ; indeed, considering that
we were actually launching vessels of this class as
late as 1850, the item is smaller than might have
been anticipated. Ten ships of the line, 17 frigates,
18 sloops, and a few score of small craft constitute
now the whole sailing Navy of England, and leave
an aggregate balance of 562 vessels, all fitted for
propulsion by steam. Here, again, however,; occurs
a second discrimination. After stoutly resisting the
introduction of steam in any shape, our authorities
continued to resist it in the shape of the screw-pro-
peller, and stuck to the paddle long after its inferi-
ority had been demonstrated. So we must distin-
guish between screw and paddle vessels ; but even
this division will not much damage the results, for
the screws are as four to one-115 paddles only
against 117 screws. Finally, we must separate
ships in ease from ships in posse, awl ascertain the
number of vessels actually afloat, apart from those
wl_ich are only expected to be afloat by and by.
Yet this drawback, also, can be very well sustained.
Of the grand total of 562 steam ships of war,
upwards of 500—viz., 392 screw and 113 paddle,—
are afloat at this very moment, leaving only 57 in
the hands of the builders.
All those, however, who remember the discussions
of 1859 must be aware that in the comparison of
our Navy with that of France two classes of ships,
and two only, were regarded as of paramount im-
portance. 'that we were superior in gunboats and
small vessels was perfectly understood, but it was
urged that we were barely equal, if, indeed, we were
not inferior, in ships of the line and frigates. This
was the critical point of the case, and all our efforts
were devoted to an augmentation of the Navy in
ships of these descriptions. Not to drag the reader
through a mass of calculations, we may briefly state
that it was thought we could hardly reach a total
of 56 ships of the line afloat in the year 1861. That
would give the maximum of out power, and it was
thought probable, indeed, that we should not attain
the mark till the year 1863. We-now learn from
Lord C. Paget's return that 53 screw line-of-battle
ships were actually afloat on the Ist of this month,
and, as 14 more were in process either of construc-
tion or conversion, we may expect before the year
is over to see the maximum of our expectations
fairly exceeded. Again, with regard to frigates,
the famous report made under Lord Derby's Govern-
ment showed that we had but 26 of these vessels-
-17 screw and 9 paddle—afloat, two receiving their
engines, and none building. We have now, it ap-
pears, 31 screw frigates afloat and 12 building, be-
sides the t paddle frigates still in service ; so that we
have a good 40 afloat, to be promptly reinforced from
the dozen coming on. Of smaller vessels it will be
unnecessary to speak, as our force in that respect
was always considered satisfactory. The only other
point to be mentioned is that the " block ships"
are. not included in the above reckoning. Whether
they have been unduly disparaged or not we need
not inquire, but at any rate they arc not comprised
in the present recapitulation of line of battle ships
afloat.

There is, however, another question to be con-
sidered, and a grave one too. For all we know at
this moment, our line of battle ships and frigates
may be superseded as obsolete just at the minute
when we have contrived to reconstruct them. It
is at least not improbable that before the year is
out we may have found that what the screw was to
the paddle, and the paddle to the old sailing vessel,
the iron cased ship has now become to the screw.
We may have to put all our fine wooden fleet into
the non-effective column of our next return, and
estimate our actual strength by the number of iron
sides afloat. Even if things should not come quite
to such a pass, and distant service should still be
performed by wooden vessels, we may find that for
the line of battle and home defences we must rely
in future upon iron alone. So we turn with some
solicitude to this item of the account, and we find
the facts as follows :—One iron cased ship is re-
turned as actually afloat, while six more are build-
ing. Of these we may presume that three are
more or less advanced, and three but recently laid
down or bespoken. The ship afloat is the Warrior.
The Black Prince, a sister vessel, will be afloat in ar
few day; the Defence and the Resistance, smaller
Chips, will be launched, we suppose, before long.