The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1870-12-10
LE'rom the London Quarterly Review
The British Navy.

In all parts of the world their services
are required for the protection of our !
countrymcn and our commerce; but !
with so small an army rs we possess, /
our iron-clad fleet ought not only to be
equal to, but superior, both i'll numbers
and in quality, to the iron-clad fleet OF
any other Power. At the commence /
ment of this year, the French navy con- .
sisted of SiXty-tWO irOn-clad ships in
commission, or ready fOrSea, and of two !
vessels building. From this, however,
| must be deducted eleven ruis$e,t,Gc de- !
nto,,tabIes for navigating inland waters.
This leaves fifty-one ships, the whole
| of which arc now in commission. or
these it may be said that two are two
decked armour-clad ships, the 'Solfc- !
rino' and Magenta eighteen are
| iron-cIad frigatcs, of the 'Gloire' and
sSurveill;,ntc' class; and fifteen are
| irOn-clad corVettcS. The other sixteen
| vessels comprise the ROchambetu,' Il
vessel ola most formidable character,
and fifteen cOast-guard ships, or rUiS-
| seu,.c bcIie1%, which would act with con-
! siderable effect in any fight in the mar
row seas. Here it may be remarked
| that the number of guns on board these
ships can by no means now be taken as
Il measure Of their power. The action
of Liss;, has shown that the power of Il
vessel is in its prov, and the sinking
of the Re dItalia' by the bow Of Adj
niral Tegethoff's flagship has shown
how powerlcss is the heaviest broadside
against the well-tlirccted efforts of the
ram. Against these fifty-one ships of
| France we possess tifty-two; but of
these we only have thirty in commits
| sion. In China we have the Ocean;
| in the Pacific, the 'Zetlous'; in the
West Indian and North American sta
l \ 1D,,1 f<>i
| the Mediterranean station we have
seven ships, the sC;le,lonia,' the DE
| fence the Lord Wardcn,' the Prince
| ConsOrt,' the Royal Oak the Belle
rophon,' and the Enterprise In the
Channel fleet we have also six ships,
the 'Minotaur,' the Agincourt,' the
| Hercules the NOrthumberland,' the
WARRIOR and the Monarch In the
coast guard we have nine irOn-clad
ships, the Achilles BLACK Prince
Hector 'Pallas,' 'Penelope,' 'Rc-
pulse Resistance sNaliant,' and
Wyvern.' In the first division of the
Reserve, Lord Clyde sAudacious,'
| sInvincible,' Vanguard ,; four ships
| which it is believed it is intended to
commission; and the Royal Sover-
eign,' the 'Favourite,' the Prince Al
! bert, the Research, the sWaterWitch.'
| In the third division of the Reserve we
| have four ships, the Iron Duke 'Sul- !
| TAM Triumph and sSwiftsure.' In
| the fourth division of the Reserve we
| have three ships, the 'Thunder,' the |
sThunderbolt,' the Erebus,' none of
which are tit for service. For the SER
vice of the Colony of Victoria We have
the tCerberus; and for the protection
OF tie harbour of Bombay, the '-Abys- |
sinia,' and sMagdala.' At Bermuda
r.{, {1,n q
Viper and the Vixen and we are
building six ships, the Glatton,' 'Hot-
spur,' Rupert Thundcrer,' Devas
tation,' and Fury But the Dev;,s-
! tation' has only just been ordered to
be expedited, and the Fury it is be-
lievcd, is not yet begun.
| OF this list of ships three effective
ships are on distant stations three are
harbour ships for the defence OF our
colonies and dependencies, and siN-thc
| sWyvern,' sScorpiOn,' VIPER s\iN-
en- sResc;,rch,' and sWatcrwitch, =
are not fit to be included in the linc-of-
battle. If we add together, therefore,
the three ships on distant stations, the
| three ships for harbour defence, the
| three in the 18th division of the Reserve
, which are unfit for sea service, and the
six building, VIC must deduct II ships
from our 81, which leaves us only BIB,
| were they all i'll commission, for Eu-
ropcan service, and of these some are
not ready. Although the 'Monarch,'
the .IIerculcS,' and the 'Sultan,' arc
probably more powerful ships than
those possessed by any other navy, yet
it is Il mistake to suppose that the
whole Of our ships are, as 4 rule, supc-
riOr to those of other Powers. 1t seems
| to us, therefore, to be matter Of grave
apprehension that the present Govern
ment, with so small Il number of IRON
clad ships at their disposal, should have
hcsitatcd to build others i'll order TO
give us superiority at sea. In the two
years they have only proposed to build
| four, and of these one, the Fury Is
not yet commenced.
| The safety ofthc British Navy is now
| entrusted, alas! to- Mr.. ChildorS and
his colleagues men who possess the
confidence Of neither the profession nor
the public.
We have thought it right to call at
tention to the decay Of our naval
strength under the present administra-
ton.
We have too few ships, because the
present Admiralty have stopped ship
building.
/ We have too few Scancn, because the
Admiralty have discharged them.
/ We have too few guns, because the
Admiralty have ceased to demand
them from the War Office, who have,
on their part, ceased to manufacture
what the country requires.