American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-08-07
ship-Yards, American and Engnsh.
Correspondence of the Portsmouth, Va, Transcript
PORTSMOUTH, (EEG,, July r. 1851,

I'll
PORTSMOUTH, (ENG,,) July II, 1851.
Dear Transcript: Your own Portsmouth and
Gosport, in Virginia, are in appearance as in
name singularly like unto this Portsmouth and
Gosport in England, from which / send you
this epistle. We arrived here at two o'clock
TO, day, and our first impulse was to visit the
dock yard, England's great naval depot. On
presenting ourself at the gate we encountered
three policemen, who nonplussed us by stating
that foreigner could not be admitted without
an order from the Admiralty at London. We
had provided ourself with no such order, and
had no friend in Portsmouth to whom we could
refer. The policemen were inexorable. But
we determined not to leave without seeing this
English navy yard; and so demanded that our
card should be presented to .sRear Admiral
Prescott, G. b., Superintendent of the Dock
Yard. II was Immediately answered with an
order of admission, and an officer to conduct us
through the workshops The first p)Nce INTO
which we were shown wrs the sail-oft, and we
were disappointed L is only about half as large
as the splendid loft at your own Gosport, and
not as systematic and clean as Col Cassel can
boast. The journeymen receive between SIS and
$6 per week. Next came the blacksmith shops
four in. number. Without prejudice, we can
say truly that they are not to compare in per-
fection, order, and fine appearance with the
same description of shops in charge of Mr..
Charles ,Grice at your yard. The wages of the
men here are about ST per week, for ten hours
day. Shipwrights get from So to 50 per
week. All the other trades about $5-and
laborers from So so to $4. After twenty years
g faithful service" workman may, by the re-
commendation of the Rear Admiral, be placed
on the superannuated list with pension of e25
| a year. The highest wages paid to foun-
ders, who do such work as is executed at Me-
hafey's Iron Works. They receive between
two and three guineas week. Two thousand
five hundred men are employed here; and how
do you suppose their g time" is checked? So
entirely different from our own that must de-
scribe it. Every man has his number, which is
stamped on piece of metal, the size of half
dollar. They are spread out by clerk on
curious tables arranged for the purpose, and as
each man passes through the clerks office or
shed, of which there are several on the way out
near the gate, he picks up his metal ticket, or
number, carries it to his workshop and depos-
ties it in box in the master workmans pres
ence. When the bell rings for the dinner hour,
each man takes his ticket back to the clerks
Office, and replaces it in the spot from whence
he took it in the morning. On reentering the
yard, from dinner, he again lifts his number,
takes it to his shop, leaves it with the master
workman, and at the evening bell-ring again re-
places it in the clerks office. And the same
thing every day. GG
You see, the operation is very plain, very
quiet, and very effective. All the numbers re-
naming on the table show the absentees /;
WHILE of course, the number taken up show
the men at work. If man neglect to lift his
number, or to replace il, he is not allowed
.ftime" although he may prove that he has
| been at work. With some exceptions all these
men may be considered under arms" They
are drilled twice week inside the walls. There
are five thousand regular troops and eleven
hundred marines in the fortfcations around
Portsmouth and Gosport. A couple of new
forts are in progress of erection the immense
expenditures on which are justified on the score
of protection for the almost incalculable value
Of the property at this great naval station. The
extent of the yard exceeded all my expectation
and the number of ships in ordinary and on the
stocks utterly amazed Think of four miles of
ships ready for almost immediate commission
Lord Nelson's ship Victory, on board which he
was killed at Trafalgar, lies off the yard as the
flag ship of the port captain, Admiral the Hon.
Sir Bladen Capel, X. c. B., commander chief
of Portsmouth. j. S. G.