The true Democrat., 1854-11-15
Navy Yard-Letter from Lieut..
 Maurv.
NATIONAL OBSERVATORY,

phis navy yard came upon me like the cry of . fire in the dead of night. Twas i'll at the time in the mountains of Virginia, whither had lied seeking to escape the annual visitation of the pestilence which makes the Observatory the most unhealthy of places. But the dis ease had taken root, and my absence was pro- longed until yesterday, when I returned and found your letter of the 18th ultimo on my table
 went down to the navy department, and there learned that the edict had gone forth. 1 was told that your city fathers had agreed 10 accept, and that the necessary orders were then Tn the course of preparation.
 IUam ftnt! We must console ourselves.
 Iwish Memphis could have had hearing in Congress and before the people, before that act was passed. l think she could have shown to the satisfaction of the whole country that, so far as the navy is concerned, the Gulf of Mex lCo Is entirely defenseless; and surely, in pro- vlding for the common defense, we do not mean, m pursuing our system of naval policy, to stop shor. of that state of preparation which IS necessary to secure us the supremacy at least in our own waters. The Gulf of Mexico is our Mediterranean. It is but the expansion of the great commercial artery of the country, through which the produce of our empire aye, more, for the Mississippi valley is greater than any empire-fnds its way out upon the high seas.
 In war, what navy shall float triumphant up- on the Gulf of Mexico? The people with one voice would say, the American. Then where, let me ask, are the dock yards for build ing aud equipping that navy. At Pensacola?
 Why, Pensacola has been called navy yard for nearly forty years, and the first ship has yet to be built, or repaired, or even equipped there. l do not think that even so much as a jollyboat has ever been built at that yard.
 Does any one point to the navy yards at Nor folk and the North? Why, England overlooks them from the Bermudas, and actually blocks their way to the Gulf at the Bahamas. As you come out of the Gulf, and after passing Key West, those islands actually divide the Gulf stream so that, in a war with England, men-of- war from Norfolk and the North must actually pass under the very mouth of British cannon before they can reach the Gulf. Our cruisers would have to fight their way into it.
 Shall they go on the south side of Cuba and attempt their way in through the Yucatan Pass? Why, that would be worse for them; they must pass right by Jamaica another powerful naval station of Great Britain
 Would it not be much better to have navy yard somewhere on the banks of the Mssissip- p river, whence we could build, equip and send down without the fear of molesation by the way, fleet that would have no limit to its power, save the boundless resources of the great valley?
 But the Memphis navy yard, we are told, won't do for building up such navy, because it is 700 miles from the Gulf! And yet we are, in the same breath, pointed to New York and Boston, and away to Kittery in Maine, that are three times that distance, and from which fleet would have to fight every inch of its way before it could succor the Gulf.
 If Memphis could have obtained hearing. it could have been shown that navy yard in that valley Is more important, more essential, to proper system of naval defense, especially when taken in connection with Pensacola, than any other single navy yard in the country. The great changes which science and the improve ments of the age call for make it so.
 grant you, that neither the navy of this country nor that of England and France, is full ly up to the times. But the elements of these improvements surely exist; they stare us in the face, and when properly appreciated in the right quarters, there will be remodeling of all the navies throughout the world. l allude now to the effect which this new and terrible kind of heavy ordnance, of which you have heard me speak before, will produce.
 That it is practicable to arm ship excu- sively with this heavy ordnance is no longer an open question; and that one shot from single piece is enough when properly aimed to sink the largest ship, is matter offact
 These great guns carry father and shoot truer than the old BPS and 42's They send a ball weighing 15O lbs. or more, and their introduce ton as a naval armament is destined to have the same effect in sea fights, where ships are the combatants that the invention of fire arms had in single combat between warriors on the land The pistols taking the place of the battle-axe, the cross-bo and the broad sword, placed the strong man and the weak, the large man and the small upon the same footing, with this ex- ception, that the small man with a fire-arm has the advantage of size in his favor; the smaller the target the harder to hit. So, too, with lit. tie ships armed with these big guns. The ex- perments here at Washington, and at other places, leave no doubt as to the destructive powers of these big guns;" and we have but to look into the Black Sea and the Baltic to see practical acknowledg gment of it by the com bned fleets All that has been done by these powerful fleets, has been done by the little ships with the big guns; while the big ships with the little guns (32's and 42's) have been keptin the back ground, mere lockers on.
 That terrible waltz that was danced by the English steamers as they whirled round in their circle of maneuvre at the bombardment of Odessa, was to the tune of big guns in little ships.
 Before Bomarsund could be attacked, the English, my correspondent informs me, had to send home for little ships with big guns, and now, we are told, that further operations in the Baltic are delayed till the next season, and un- til fleet of little ships with these big guns can be got ready.
 Now it was not necessary for the French and English to send off to the Baltic and the Black sea such tremendous 76s as the Duke of Well lington and the Agamemnon, the Napoleon and the Charlemagne, to learn the power of these little ships with their big guns That had been proved and established in a more conclusive and convincing way by actual experiment and practice at Marseilles, Portsmouth and Wash ington. And for years have been endeavor- ing by proof and argument to satisfy the public mind upon this subject.
 It cost, perhaps, million of dollars to build and equip such a ship as the Duke of Well l;noton with hor 100 uunS Now iS nOt that