New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-12-27
THE GREAT NANlES.
>-,,,,prP 1v-GREAr BRITAIN.

So. the notification of the preceding arlCies VI
s'n0o ~ fully eorroborated the views therein
d 90 90 .be relative strength and efficiency
- ;os of Russia. Prussia, and France, as wei
- - Immediate and remote bearing upon the
Deace of Europe and the progress of the war; Inc
roodar who has done me tho honor of following me
in the criticisms above referred TO- VIII perhaps
recollect that basing my deductions upon the actua
fighting strength of navies according 10 mouern
tests made necessary by the introduction OF sean'
armor-plating, and heavy ordnance, rather "iAl.
mere tunnage, predicted that neither France no'
Prussia was likely to mako much display Oh .in'
arm of national strength; that the "u00i''n
navy would be found stronger ana Inoro
2o,Ia than that of either of those
Powers: that whenever she saw ner opp,
tupitv she would launch the monitor heet' WHICH
she had secretly prepared, on the Black sea; anu
tha, tbere was more than probability that some
oot disasters would befal the iron-clads which the
Fngl;sb constructors had built as ON Improvement
~ on the American fighting ships. The inactivity OF
the souadrons of the belligerents, the sudden I'M
making of Russian designs, and the catastrophe
which overlook the Captain, bear witness TO the &C
curacy of my representations D..
II has been so much the fashion to admit without
question the claim of England TO the command OF
the seas that plain statement of unpaatable facts
must of necessity be received by her admirers with
impotence and incredulity.
ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE BRITISH NAVY.
The insular position of the United Kingdom and
Che exposure of her remote colonies nccessitated an
earlier and moro careful attention to the develop
ment of her naval force than the with other
Powers More than q thousand years ago the Britons
got their first lesson in this direction from the Danes,
and, at the same time, their first model of war
ship. In the year s1O with the assistance Of the
Gauls they captured marauding Danish war boat
which had grounded on their coast, and in short
time, taking her as a model, they launched several
vessels Of this class. Improvement was very slow,
however for it was not until about the sixteenth
century that much progress may fairly be said to
have been made. There is strong vein of oonser-
vatism in English character which makes them
rather initiate the successes of Others in the hope of
avoiding failures than launch out in origi-
nal fields Of exploration. The national trait
is nowhere more exemplifed than in the
department of naval construction, and it must have
occurred TO every impartial observer that whenever
they have attempted to devate from what they have
themselves previously done, or what Others have
done and succeeded ill., disastrous result has gen
orally followed The building of the Royal George,
the leyathan Of its day, is case in point From the
first attempt to launch her to her final disappearance
beneath the waves, she was attended by mishaps,
which all went to show that her constructor, Pepn
had improperly relied upon his ability to apply on
larger scale the principles he had learned in smaller
vessels. and that he lacked the first essentials of
naval architect of original ideas and breadth Of
mind. The loss of the Royal George, however hap
pened at fortunate time. for it spared the nation
from a recurrence of similar disasters and the
penditure of a vast amount of money that had been
- Il L Lii
The English are largely indebted to the Norwegian
Stalkart and the Swede Snodgrass. AS Peter the
Great employed the naval constructors and ship
wrghts of Venice to build up the Russian Navy. so
the English avaed themselves of the services of the
mechanics of Norway and Sweden to accomplish o
like end for themselves; and thus they laid broad
and deep the foundations Of that vast British En-
pre whose territorial possessions scattered around
the circumference of the globe. and increased the
number of British subjects from the 600 900 who
live in the British Isles to the 900 of all colors
races, and religions who now wear, more or less
easily the British yoke in distant and wideysepar
ated lands. From the solitary war-boat of A. ID.
$40 the English Navy has grown to the fleet of 1874
chips of all classes which appear the Naval Regis
4er of the present year. There was time between
these periods when she more completely ruled the
waves than from 100 to 1900. Steam had not then
been introduced, and ships Of war had more capa-
city to carry what their peculiar service demanded
than ever before OF since. Their proportional dimen
sions were better for insurng sea-going qualities
than are given to ships now. Those "hne-of-battle
ships" as they were called, had the necessary
breadth of beam TO support their length the latter
being as a rule less than four times the former The
largest ship in the English Navy in 1880 was 2lO feet
in length, with breadth of beam of Sc feet 10
inches the Royal Sovereign, ne-ofbattle ship. or
seventy -four" was of these exact dimensions, or
snly about three and half times as long as broad
The frigate Hussar, which sunk in Hell Gate New
York HarbOr about this time, with immense
treasures and stores on board, was 50 feet
inches BEAM and only 206 feet in length. How
different from the dimensions of the English ships OF
-oday-the Minotaur, for instance, whose length is
900 feet aud breadth SO feet 81 inches -Four
lines her breadth would give a length Of only 237
feet inches which would be quite as much as
he great architects of the last century would have
Sentured upon. If the ships of their time may be
considered models of good proportion for rough
weather at sea, which their comparative immunity
from disaster would seem to IMPLY then those
which are launched from the modern ship
cards are unsafe, as class for whatever
improvements the introduction of steam, plat
ing, and ordnance may have made IN the fighting
qualities of the vessels, the ocean storms blow as
,ard, and ocean waves run as high, as they did
century ago, The application of steam machinery
II necesstates some addition to the length,
out the relative increase of beam which should have
been kept in view has been lost sight of, and as a
consequence, there is deficient for the stowage
IF coal, and the men find no space for berthing. /
mention these facts to illustrate my position that in
attempting to improve upon what his predecessors
accomplished the modern English constructor ex-
hibits fatal tendency to failure and risk. The
dreadful fate of the Captain off Cape Finisterre,
aud the fact that the Sultan has still more recently
oeen found top-heavy, to such degree that she had
10 take in 800 tuns of ballast to make her compare
lively safe give nnint 10 the above criticism