The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-07-13
THE REPU BLIC.

o""oee 10 WedHS JW We WeSGOdttOH "
peace. That the steps necessary to render
such mercantile steamers available for the
purpose, and the remuneration to be given
by the public for fitting them and holding
them liable to be called into the public
service, must be matter of arrangement
between the owners and the government,
upon which your committee do not deem
1t necessary to offer an opinion"
In view of what is going on in other
countries, we look with confidence to our
Secretary of the Navy for the most active
and vigorous prosecution of the existing
arrangements for the increase of our naval
force, and the adoption in our naval SER
vice of the new improvements which are
daily adding to the efficiency and security
of steam navigation. 1t is to steamships
that we are to look in future for the main
tenance of maritime power. Ships of the
line, and frigates, and sloops of war with.
out steam, will soon be in the category of
fiat-boats and gun-boats, for all the pur-
poses of naval warfare. To this complex
ion we must come at last; for when we
see England casting about to place her
whole commercial steam marine in posi-
ton to be transferred at once to the naval
servce-a service already crowded with
two hundred steam vessels-we must be
blind not to see, and fools not to admit,
that the ssmistress of the seas" looks no
longer to her wooden walls for protection,
but to those "mute metallic giants" with
out whose propulsive arm those wooden
walls are but comparatively useless hulks
upon the waters. In spite of interested and
lprejudiced opposition-in spite of the
whims, fancies, and caprices of the men
who seem to have labored to keep our
navy doaOn for the last eight yearsby their
bigoted repugnance to steam, as if its
only quality was to scald-steam must
carry the day; and the idea Of ship of
war without steam power will be regarded
as the most forlorn and desolate of all OBJ
solete ideas. 1t will be a fish without
fins, or bird without wings.
With our mind somewhat infused with
these ideas, we visited the other morning
the magnificent ship now lying to receive
her machinery at the Brooklyn navy yard,
and styled the San Jacinto. She is fine
specimen of naval architecture She is
one of two steamships of 1,460 tons bur-
then, of precisely similar water-lines, and
with engines of equal power, now con-
structing by the Government of the United
States, the other of which is the Saranac,
building at Kittery. The San Jacinfo is
to be propelled on the screw principle; the
Smanac by the ordinary side paddle
wheels. When completed, the two ships
will be tried together in rough and smooth
water, and under variety Of circum-
stances, in order to test and determine
their comparative advantages forsea SER
vice. Screw propulsion is making such
rapid progress on the other side of the
Atlantic, and forms so controlling an ele-
ment in the preparations of the European
Ipowers for naval warfare, that it is quite
time that our Government should satisfy
itself by actual comparison of its relative
advantages. We have taken seven years
to look about us for this purpose, since
building the Princeton; and England and
France meanwhile have been fitting yes
sells by the score on the plan of the Prince
ton, to say nothing of the Pacha of Egypt,
the King of Sweden, and the Gar
The late Administration did more for
steam in the revenue and Quartermaster's
department than in the navy proper. Mr.
WALKER and General JEsUp, fortunately
we're not in the keeping of gallant old
commodores, and believed that thing or
two might be worth knowing in naval mat
tiers which they did not know forty years
ago. Hence both these gentlemen, act
i've, acute, and inquiring as they were
on all subjects that fell within their Official
province, were able to render no little col
lateral aid to Improvements in steam navi-
CATION. General JEsUP is entitled to
especial commentator for having been
instrumental in securing the only additions
that have been made to the steam navy
OF the United States during the last four
years. We allude to the steamships Mas
sachuSetts and Edith, which have been
transferred TO the Navy Department since
the close of the Mexican war, in state