Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-05-02

lioh the Lonuoh engineering.
THE ADMIRALTY.
The Admiralty is the Dismal otOanap of
our national establishments. There abuses
of every kind shoot up with rank luxuriance,
extravaganza, nepotism, ignorance and pre-
sumption; and yet there is no resting-place
for the sole of ones foot, no solid ground
upon which useful structure can be built
up. Our navy costs us about eleven millions
sterling year. And what have we TO show
for it at this present moment we have not
a single ship Of war which comes up to the
requirements of the times, or which there is
any reason to believe would not be captured
or sunk if an enterprising enemy were array
ed against us. 1t is not our function to ills
claim these defects. The Admiralty ought
to possess sufficient penetration to make such
discoveries, and sufficient confidence in their
own conclusions to induce them to take with
promptitude and effect whatever step they
have Judged to be right. But they have no
penetration, and not confidence; but are
waited hither and thither by every naval in
fiuence to which they may be exposed. The
Americans have vessels with 20-inch guns
and l4-inch armour. Why have we not yes
sells with as much or more? Why sh ,uld we
be inielior-and so much interior-both in
power OF offence and iii power of aggressi, n
to any ot er nation. Why do we go OH
building we vessels when the crying want
is for strong? Simply because we have con
tided the important problem of the maritime
defence of the country to bevy of old wo-
men, who are equally unable to learn and to
forget. Every one is conscious that the Ad-
miialty is an Ell, te and hopeless d apartment.
Sir John Pakington, Mr. Childers, and
others of ''my lords" past and present are
perfectly conscious of the default. And yet
no one has the courage and knowledge and
determination 10 supply a suitable remedy
| Like the Navy Board, the Board of Admi-
ralty must he swept away. 1t is now moi
merely a funnel of fruitless expense, but an
obstacle to useful progress; and to its STU
| pidity, or perversity, or supineness, or all
combined, we have to impute the enormous
fault that we are at the present moment
without any real naval defences. OF what
avail would be our thinly plated armour
clads against the impenetrablc monitors OF
the Americans? And what are we to say oi
the ludicrous pretext put forward by the Ad
miralty for the neglect TO provide such yes.
sels9 We know, in common with every
mechan clan in the kingdom, that it would
take u longer time to construct monitors ol
the strength we now require, than to con
,truct the duplicate of any broadside ship we
iavc got. And yet the Admiralty neglect to
| provide us with this most necessary instru-
ment Of defence, on the plea that such YES
sells could be constructed almost at mo
mehts notice, as if monitors were sold ready
| made in chambers shopsi Without moni-
tors, our broadside vessels will not be sait
against capture, and our coasts must remain
practically undetended; for monitors are
merely expedents for combining the thick
est possible armour with the heaviest posi-
ole gun, and strong armour and guns must
necessarily prevail over weak. We want
vessels that will be at once irresistible and
mpregnable. The rest is all but leather and
prunella.
But, in rccounting the shortcomings of the
| Admiralty, it is difficult to know where to
| begin. We may state, however, generally,
that what we want in the navy, and indeed
in the Amy also, is not large acting, but
arge potential power. We do not want to
keep fleets cruising about in search of moth
ing, at Il heavy and unavaling expense but
we wish to have an effective nucleus which,
on the shortest notice, may be expanded ei-
ficiently to any desired dimensions. The ex-
.stlng system Of half pay is wrong and bad,
rs it encumbers the nation with the mainten-
ince Of Il great number of idle persons, who
ought rather to be re-absorbed into the in
dustrial population by the prosecution OF
some ordinary trade or profession re-enlist-
ments, so far from being encouraged, should
be forbidden. Our standing army and navy
should be mainly used as schools in which
some general instruction in the art of war
would be given to the adult males of the ma
ton at large, to the end that reserves may be
| established which will in their extent com
prehend the whole male population Of the
country within certain ages, and which,
while embodying the whole strength which
the nation is able to put forth, shall be MAIN
tainable in ordinary times without much eX-
pense. The whole nautical population ofthe
country should be passed through the navy,
but none of it should be retained there.
Every ship, however, registered at the Gus
tom-house should be compelled to carry GER
iain apprentices, and these apprentices, after
naring served their time, should be compel
led to serve limited time in a ship of war,
so as to become conversant with the ordinary
routine Of naval duties. Not only would
this arrangement give assurance of an ade
quate force OF trained men being available for
the maritime defence of the country in any
emergency but the discipline il would pro-
vide, and the habits of order, neatness, and
subordnation which it would generate,
would constitute valuable part OF sea-
mans education, and would render him more
bit for the discharge of those duties devulv-
ing upon him in the mercantile marine TO
which his subsequent life would properly be
devoted. 1t is upon the mercantile navy
that the duty should devolve of supplying
the royal navy with men; and these men,
after they had returned to the mercantile ma
Wy, as they would all very soon do, should
be liable to be called upon to enter the navy
again in the event of any national emergency
arising, which was declared to be such by
Parliament. So also officers of the mercan-
Tile marine. who go up for their examination,
should be required, after they have passed,
to serve for a short time in the navy in ca
pacity corresponding to that which they have
attained in the mercantile marine; and all
| these seainen and officers should be rated as
| seamen and officers of the navy on the pas
sive list. BY this expedient the active force
of the navy might he reduced without iisk
| or injury, and its potential force enormously
augmented, not only without aggravation,
but with an immense reduction of the ex-
| pense.
| So much for the men. And now about the
ships. Our men-of-w war should consist main
| ly of two classes-unarmoure and swift ro-
vers, and impregnable monitors of high
speed, and carrying the most powerful guns
which can be constructed. The unarmour-
ed vessels would be the Cossacks of tine sea.
They would capture s.raggling vessels and
compel merchantmen to sail in fleets with
convoy of ships Of war to protect them; and
these ships of war, if broadside vessels, and
consequently capable of mounting only thin
armour, would be at once attacked and sunk
by the heavy monitors which would in such
| event be brought against them, and which
they would be wholly unable to resist. The
rovers would collect the prey; the monitors
would seize or destroy it. This the Ameri-
cans very well see, and they are acting upon
the perception. But our Admiralty sees
nothing, not even its own supineness and
incapacity, though these are patent to all the
| world beside. They anticipate no dangers,