The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-26 00:00:00

because it would have been too great a compliment, forsooth,
to the enemy which his presumptuous incapacity affected to
despise, to build in imitation of their models? The disastrous
issue of so many encounters in which we were worsted by
far superior force, the ships of the enemy being equal always
to higher rates than those to which they nominally belonged,
and far outdoing us in the calibre and weight of their metal
and their manning ; this disastrous issue might have taught
the present Board of Admiralty, msuredly, the wisdom cf.
our not being left, in the event of a war, to commence opera-
tions with the most essential arm of our Naval force re-
duced in strength and magnitude far below those of the
same arm belonging to our antagonist. We cannot
believe that Lord HADDLNGTON or Sir GEORGE COCKBURN
would willingly countenance any feeling of rivalry so low-
spirited and paltry as that which we firmly believe to have
been mainly instrumental to the war with America of 1812,
Yet, why is it—and the fact cannot be too often impressed on
our readers--that when the formidable superiority of large
steamers has been so signally tested in the enterprises of
commerce, and the extension of all intercourse and corre-
spondence between the remotest points of the globe, by
the noble vessels such as the " Great Western" -
and the " Great Britain," produced by our pri-
vate builders, the Royal Navy should be altogether
deficient of steam-ships capable of competing with
thoze which America has built or Russia possesses? Not a
moment should be lost, we venture to insist, in getting afloat
at least one such gigantic thunderer, to serve as a nucleus for a
fleet of worthy consorts. If the requisite tonnage and arma-
ment cannot be readily combined, for the present, at least, let
the armament be associated with steam power. An example
suggests itself to us as an apt-one for showing how this sort of
compromised power could be made in a moment available.
There is, if we mistake not, now lying at Blackwall, in dock,
the " Great Northern " steam-ship. She was' built,
very lately indeed—(within a twelvemonth or to)—
on the most useful and important principle of combining
all the sailing power and properties adapted to
her enormous length and great . capacity, with the
motive power of the screw-propeller. When the wind and
weather serve she is to be sailed without working the latter,
So as to economise her fuel and machinery. These are to be
employed, on the other hand, when tempestuous weather and
adverse winds render it more expedient to apply steam to
the screw. Her trials have manifested her perfect achieve-
ment of these objects, than which we can imagine none
more admirable or valuable. She is built to carry forty
18-pounders. Her great height and her length render her a
most formidable floating battery, and her facilities of
sailing, steaming, and changing rapidly her position,
are probably unsurpassed. Whether, being docked,
this noble craft is for sale we have no means of knowing. If
she be, might it not be well worth while for the Admiralty
to become her purchasers ? If not, can there be any objec-
tion to use her lines with any required extensions or improve-
ments in the construction of still superior steam frigates ?
Sir GEORGE COCKBURN, we remember, frankly admitted, as
well he might do, the great obligations the navy of this
country was under to the builders for the Yacht Club, in re-
spect of signal improvements introduced in the art of ship
building, equipment, &c., in turning out some of these beau-
tiful pleasure vessels; which are the admiration of foreigners,
and are justly the 'pride of the British public,
as well as of their private owners. Why should
the Admiralty hesitate to introduce similar

or analogous improvements into steam-ship building after
the models supplied by the builders of Bristol and Liver-

pool, Greenock and Londonderry? If we are not mistaken,
so strong has hitherto been the prejudice against adopting
a foreign model, that the old Canopus, captured at Aboukir,
ever since she was incorporated into ouinavy, retained among
all candid or qualified judges the same credit her hull has
. _ _

acquired in the recent experimental cruise, of being one of
the most perfect specimens that even the French builders

had ever produCed. But not a single ship has
ever been 'Mid down on her model, renowned as
it is for symmetry and strength. Can the illiberality cf
the 1812 to. 1814 administration of the Admiralty be still
alive at its Board, or in some of its subordinate bureaux?

-- •
We know not how to bring ourselves to believe it; yet the
matters to which we have alluded raise a strong inference
that such is the 'fact. And the miserable parsimony with
which the Board has pretended to test the merits of so im-
portant an invention as Captain TAYLOR'S floating break-
water (by laying down small sections of fifty or sixty feet
long only, moored as slackly as possible off the Hove Coast-