The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-03-11


degree, lhLr ahy oite. hoiA Ut al, ali the Ell
mcnts Of modern skill, iaste, enterprise ar
power. And it was the acknowledged tiuTT
Of the CoLLIys s.eamers over the CUNArD, Al
of the yacht America, over her rivaIr, and
McCoRMlcKs reaper, that saved the credit {
, American civilization.
The lines of American ocean steamers hav
been completely successful in rescuing Amer
can postage, passage, and transportation iroi
British monopoly. But ever since these line
, commenced operation there has been contro
versy going on concerning the merits and poll
cy of the system 1t has been and il now Oh
, jected that such vessels are not adapted to nava
: warfare-lhat being built necessarily for speed
they cannot and do not have strength enough Il
carry the batteries or armament requisite to en-
counter ships of the line, or even the regula
war steamers of the navy, and hence are unf
for naval service. Now, we maintain that THU
objection would totally fail, even if its materia
allegations were true. If it were true that mai
steamers were of inadequate strength for heavy
armaments, and were too weak TO resist broad
sides, in consequence of being built and model
led mainly for speed, it must still be obvious
that this must be the case with the British mai
steamers us well az our own. And it is clear
therefore, that ours would be quite competent tt
contend with them. And as there are already
about twenty of the British mail steamers regu
| lar hat tbo tun cnniiuaDtS
the number, in case of war, might be largely in
creased from the other foreign lines of Great
Britain, there is a necessity for a similar force
on our part For without it the British steam
ers might traverse our seas and coasts mt plea
sure, might transport troops, supply fleets, re-
lieve posts and convey intelligence with ease,
and without interruption. They might carry on
trade itself in time of war with securty9if there
were no vessels of equal or superior speed to
overtake them. But even these important func-
tons are not the most important that can be exer-
cised by such vessels. There is the capture
of merchantmen and sailing packets. Now, it
will not be denied that one af our naval mail
steamers could, if armed with only a single gun,
capture more of our enemies shippir G, and de-
stroy more commerce, than any other kind Of
vessel inferior in speed. Here, then, is nm i'm
mense naval efficiency, which belongs to mail
steamers from their speed alone, which no other
class of vessels can claim. To condemn them,
therefore, and exclude them from naval opera
tons, because they cannot, or do not, carry
heavy ornaments, even if that were true, would
be about as wi e ms to- suppress the whole
cavalry force of an army, because each trooper
Founders in the holsters of his saddle.
Naval mail steamers are the cavalry of the sea.
And if it were true that, in their structure,
strength is sacrificed to speed, it would also re-
suit that if they could not attack seventy
four because they are too weak, she could not
attack them because she is too slow. For it
so happens that speed is as necessary to over
take, as strength is to overcome. And a mail
steamer can cross the Atlantic in contempt Of
all the ships of the line ahoat upon the sea.
But now we are satisfied that the whole i'm
putaton of inefficency from weakness, made
against the mail steamer is unfounded. There
is a necessity for strength in a mail steamer
| greater than in man-of .war-and accordingly
there is strength. A mail steamer in order to
have the speed necessary for the service, for
profit and for competition, must have engines
Of enormous power and weight-engines Of
more weight by fur, including the boilers, thar
tan of any armament occupying the same space
in any vessel And the motion of these engines
esT ecialy in storm, produces greater concus
sion of the vessel than the discharge of any
broadsde, and requires greater strength to resist
it. And it is necessity that the steamer shall
be almost absolutely infexible to any strain
or torsion. For if it were not, the engine
would be Immediately thrown out of line, and
either stopped or broken. Whereas a seventy
four can and does yield in her timbers from
stem to stern, in storm.
1t is admitted by all the navy that war steam
ers must be employed, and can be employed, to
meet the exigencies of modern warfare. But il
is said that they must be too powerful and
heavy for the speed required for mails and pas
sengers And accordingly several war steamer
have been constructed by this government for
naval service exclusively. We happened to ex
, anime one of them, the San Jacinto, built at New
| York. We measured the thickness of her sides
and found it inferior to those of the Georgia and
| Ohio, mail steamers on the New York and Cha
gres line. We examined aleo the French war
steamer Mogadore, as she lay in the dry dock at
Brooklyn, one of the finest vessels in the French
navy. Her sides also were not so thick as those
of the Georgia and Ohio, although she was
armed with some twelve or fourteen heavy guns,
a d measured about fifteen hundred tons. We
are satisfied, therefore. that the naval argument
against mail war steamers is utterly untenablc
We think it proceeds from the fogysm and i'm
mobility incident to all professions, even one SO
liberal as the navy. We know, however, that
manv of the most DISTINGUISHED officers of the