The Portland daily press., 1864-03-25
Friday Morning, March 25, 1864.
The American Navy.

The Committee on Naval Affairs OF the
House of Representatives, of which Mr.. Rice,
of Mass, is Chairman, recently visited the
Navy Yard at Charlestown, and while in Bos-
ton sat down to dinner at the Revere House
after-dinner speech we make the following
extract, which is in refreshing contrast with
that fault finding, carping, sneering tone, in
which it has become fashionable for semi-dis-
loyal papers and politicians TO refer to the
Navy Department:
The outbreak of the rebellion, however, found
our navy on peace establishments far b,low
the wants ofthe country even in time of peace,
many of the vessels old and useless-near-
ly all sailing ships-few war steamers-no
iron clads-the force greatly scattered-20I
seamen only IN all the navy yards of the Uni
ted States, TO protect the government prop
erty;-and ordnance and ordnance stores in
sad proportion to-the number and quality of
the vessels. With these wretchedly inadequate
means, Herculean task was to be performed.
Active naval cooperation was to be afforded
to the army, wherever the localities permitted /;
strong iortresses were to be battered down I;
the Mississippi opened and kept open, and a
sea-coast oil vast extent held in strict block
ade. The line of sea-coast blockaded, accor-
ding to the measurements of the Coast Sur
vey, is 3549 statute miles; the number ofports
and harbors to be watched, lS9, with much of
the Coast double: 36l5 miles on the Missis-
sippi and its tributaries and 1000 miles fsound,
inlet, bay and river in the Atlantic States
were to be guarded by our gunbosts. This
was the work to be done,-thiS is the work
that has been done. The force afloat has ris-
en- from AZ vessels In commission in March,
1861, to 5SS vessels; the number of seamen
from 1000 TO $4,000; while the Ordnance has
been augmented from less than 5000 pieces of
all patterns, many of them antiquated and in
the present state of warfare useless 10 near
ly twice that number, mostly Of the recent
improved constructions, many of portentous
calbre and range. Every ship-yard, public
and private, has been tasked TO its utmost ca
pacty: every furnace in the country has been
kept at white heat night and day. and an
amount of work has been performed on the
Coast and rivers, and a series of results
achieved without parallel, as believe, when
the disadvantages are considered under which
the Navy labored at the commencement, in
Naval History. Let Norfolk, Hatteras, Roam
oke Island, Port Royal, Pensacola, the Rio
Grande, Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, Is
land No. 10, Memphis, Vicksburg, Port Hud-
son, the shattered fragments of Sumter, Fort
Jackson and Fort St. Philip, the city of
New Orleans; the "Atlantao demolished by
five shot from the Weehawken; 1915 vessels
captured from the enemy up to the lst of No
yember, and from 20 TO 80 since added the
closure of every port save one, and that guar
ded by 20 vessels. on this immense line of
Coast, bear witness to the activity aud efiicien-
cy of this arm of the service. ! need not of
course disclaim any thought of undertaking.
what has been done by our noble armies and
their gallant commanders, who have borne
their full share in many of these achievements,
but | am sure that they, one and all, will do
Justice to the efficient cooperation of the Ma
Wy.
And then that marvellous creation of the
genius and skill of Ericsson, the wonder of the
age, the turreted monitor II there is an in
cident in the history OF the war, which more
than any other deserves to be referred to a
direct interposition of an overruling Provi-
dence, il is the arrival of the heaYen-direcled
little vessel at Fortress Monroe, after her
rough, uncomfortable voyage from New York,
on the evening of the Sth of March, 1862,
at the close Of a day Of havoc, / had almost
said of terror. The mind recoils from the
contemplation Of the state of things which
would have existed, had the ravages of the
Merrimac been renewed on the morning of
the 9th. But the ayenger was at hand; after
an all but sleepless voyage from New York
of So hours, ia vessel whose construction
whose strange enginery,-whose armament,
whose capacity for offensive or defensive
service were all untried, the gallant Worden,
at sunrise the next morning, bore calmly
down to the encounter with his gigantic ad-
versary, amidst the wrecks of his yesterdays
deYastations, lthe topmasts Of the sunken
Cumberland peerlng mournfully above the
waters, the Congress burned to the waters
edge, the Minnesota, marked out as the next
victim, helpIessly aground), went round and
round him, to use the graphic language of an
eve witness, as cooper goes round cask,"
and drove him crippled and discomftted back
to his harbor, never more to leave 1t till he
went up self-destroyed in fragments to the
sky. IGreat Applause When the noble
Young commander of the Monitor dropped
upon the floor OF his pilot-house, stunned,
laeerated, blackened, and bleeding, with
scarce vestige of humanity in his manly
countenance, he had inaugurated a new era
In naval warfare! When the iron -clads and
Monitors ROw in course OF construction are
completed, we shall have, upon our coasts
and in our harbors, a defensive force which
will relieve us from all possibility of foreign
aggression.
But this torpid, inefficient, fosi navy don't
catca the Alabama. No nor did torpid, int-
cient, lazy Nelson, in command of the feet
with which he fought the battle of the Nile,
catch Napoleon, with force in ships of war
and transports OF more than 400 vessels shad-
owing the sea for miles, though he chased
him, or rather thought he chased bin, around
the Mediterranean, from the 10Th of May till
the last OF August as the cat chases her tail
Napoean stopping by way ofepisod to cap.
ture Malta on the way and on the 22d of June
actually crossing the track of Nelson few
hours before. Neither was he caught by the
English, Russian and Turkish feet the
English still commanded by Nelson,-when
the following year he returned by voyage o
six or seven weeks from Egypt TO France
passed week with his relations Ajaccio by
the way. Neither was he caught in 1915 oil
his passage from Elba, though French cruis
ers hailed him on the way, and hearing hi
corvette was from Elba inquired how the
Emperor was, who answered in person tha
he awas perfectly we'll" The Mediterranean
is but mill-pond compared with the sea owe
which the Alabama roams, and whenever th
pirate is hard pressed, he slips into neatra