The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-07-12
English and American ships aud Ship
builders.


commerce of the world the question forces
itself upon every American mind, why is it
| that English shipbuilders can afford to build
vessels cheaper than our own? In an anthem
tic statement of the British navy now before
US we observe that all the engines and no
small proportion of iron-clad frigates are built
by private parties. In one column OF the
tabular exhibit we find the names of the great
firms of Penn & Sons, Maudsay d Fields,
Lairds and other eminent engine and ship
builders constantly occurring. In fact these
individual establishments constitute material
function of Englands strength.
We have already alluded to the langulshing
state of some of our marine workshops, and
we know that the same stagnation prevails
more or less in Providence, Boston, &c. AS
with England, so in great measure it is with
us. One leading element of our strength lies
in these extensive iron works and the ship
and engine building firms which conduct them,
and so completely are they indices of material
power that with their deterioration there is
corresponding depression of national vitality.
With fourishing lines of steamships come
wealth and the promotion of our iron and
shipbuilding interests in all their varied
branches and with these comes likewise the
ability to construct an iron-clad navy on better
terms than is possible at the government
works, which are costly affairs and do not
yield commensurate returns.
1t has been very satisfactorily demonstrated
in Great Britain that private enterprise is fully
equal to supply the wants Of their great naval
service, and has far outstripped the public
workshops in every essential condition. OF
the magnitude of these gigantic concerns some
idea may be formed when we state that the
Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Com
pany at Blackwell has an annual capability
of twenty thousand tons of iron-cad ships.
The irigates Warrior and Mhotaur-the latter
of six thousand eight hundred and twelve
tons-were built there. This company alone
had on their stocks at one and the same time
the ron-clad Minotaur the Valiant four
thousand one hundred tons; the Perventz
(for the Russian government, of two thousand
eight hundred tons; the Victory (for the Span
ish navy, four thousand eight hundred and
sixty tons, and an iron-cad frigate of four
thousand two hundred tons, built for the Sultan
of Turkey, but subsequently sold to Prussia
and christened the King William, forming an
aggregate of twenty-five thousand seven hun
dred and seventy-twO tons-a trife over one
third Of our whole navy now in commission
all at single private establishment. With the
ALA Al IN -
which to launch their ships and the powerful
engine building firms of Maudslay Sons and
Fields and Messrs. Penn X Sons near by, the
facilities of this company for building vessels
of war of whatever type are unrivalled in Eu-
rope and almost entirely unknown in the
Shipbuding Company Works, where the iron
troop ship Himalaya, the Northumberland.
| six thousand six hundred and twenty -one
tons, the Great Eastern and other famous
metal ships of leviatian dimensions were con-
structed. To these enormous shpyards we
may add the Mersey Steel and Iron Works,
with their stupendous steam hammers and roll
| ing mills the Lairds, whose name became
familiar to us during tae war and who
built the Agincourt, of six thousand six
hundred and twenty tons the Napiers,
of Glasgow, celebrated for their iron clippers,
and many others of more or less note Con-
lining themselves to well established princi-
Piles and employing none but the best work
men, these leading firms produce ships and
engines which may be deemed almost perfect
One thing is certain-there are no works in the
world that will bear comparison with them
There are constructed for England her huge
iron clads, cheaper, better and far more expe-
ditiously than they could be in the government
dockyards; and as these and many similar es-
adjustments the pride and boast of all
Englishmen, 80 are they great element of the
wealth and power of the British nation Let
no one wonder, therefore, that England, with
such vast facilities, should be able to furnish
the whole world with cheap and magnificent
ships.
1t Is just such individual enterprise that we
need to have developed and encouraged here.
Our country has a superabundance of re-
sources and our people have the genius, but
We require complete revision of our steam
ship laws as regards the outfit, management
and discipline of vessels and the repeal Of all
acts which exclude shipbuilding material from
the country or add to its cost. Besides this,
we should follow the example of England by
throwing into tho private shipyards of our
citizens all future contracts for vessels Of war.
Certain it is that shere Is no branch of me-
chancal industry which has shed so much glory
upon the nation or contributed SO vastly to ad-
vance the hopes Of mankind. In modelling it
is not presumptuous to say that we excel all
nations in the essentials Of safety, capacity and
speed but the equipment and outfit Of our
steamers do not compare with those Of the
Erc1;.h ~ Eroroh nrr wo..~I. $50 q,