The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-07
SPIRIT OF TIE PRESS.
EdItorial Opinions OF the Leading Journals
Upou Current Topics-Oompiied Rvory
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE NAVY AGAIN.


Portland harbor alongside the rickety hulks
which, as the most available of their class,
the Navy Department sent to greet her, we
were the first to call attention to the con-
trast and to the lesson which it taught
There is no use in Disgusting the fact that
as was the Miantonomah to the Monarch, so
is the navy of the United States to that of
Great Britain. The ratio may be the same
to other maritime powers of the Old World;
for there is now lying off the Battery an iron
clad vessel of war-the child of what is called
''decrepit Spain" which points the same
moral without the actual contrast. Since our
comments other papers less liable to a certain
political bias have taken up the theme in
kindred spirit; and finally Admiral Porter
and Secretary Robeson hanging their heads
in sorrow, if not in shame (for the fault is
hardly theirs), admit that no word we uttered
is too strong. At the same time we hear that
the British Admiralty does not conceal its
pride in what in the way of the invigoration
of the navy, it has done, and the desire,
which will not be frustrated, that Parliament
shall enable it to do still more All this
while our parliament, as in its assumed ON
impotence we may describe it, is engaged in
determining, if it can, how many stripes
there should be on paymasters sleeve, and
what, according to the carpet-baggers tariff,
is the actual price Of a cadetship at Anna
polls.
Then there comes to us a sad story from
the other side of the globe. The Oneida is
sunk by collision with a passenger steamer
within two hours after leaving port, in sight
of land-a midshipman being apparently in
charge of the deck-and nearly all hands are
lost. Far, very far, be it from us to say
word in disparagement of the vigilance or
seamanship Of the gallant men who perished.
We neither do this, nor, for the sake of
human nature-and especially that form
which never shows itself more nobly than in
rescues from the perils of the deep-do we
believe one word of the story that the Bom-
bay, knowing the catastrophe and hearing the
guns, hurried brutally away. No English
sailor does this; and, if he does, our Anglo
phobists hereabouts may be sure he will be
severely punished. We shall not believe it
till it be proved judicially. But still, even
with these clear disavowals, may we not put
the question to those who have nowin charge
our naval service-Is there not something
painfully significant and worthy of inquiry in
such catastrophe
- The kilograms tell us that the Oneida had,
in a recent typhoon lost all her boats chow
many the original number was is not stated
but three, one of which was destroyed by the
collision-leaving but two small boats to save
a hundred and seventy-nine men. But then
the frightful account goes on to say that, the
executive officer having reported the vessel
they were his last words:-'T know it; but
what can do? ] asked for more boats, and
they were not allowed me" Asked whom
Not the admiral on the station, who has no
reserve of boats or timber at his command.
In fact, as every one familiar with the Asiatic
coasts knows, there more than anywhere are
they deficient. To what quarter, then, was
Captain Williams solicitation for more boats
directed? 1t could have been nowhere but
fo tho Nayu Yard at phila
we believe, he sailed-or to the bureau at
Washington which is supposed to have charge
of equipment No doubt it was the latter.
heavy responsibility rests somewhere, and
we anxiously await the detailed report of the
survivors as to the original condition of this
ill-fated craft before we and the public de-
termine exactly what and where it is.
1t is, after all, the saving and the loss of
vessels and of lives which, far more than vic
tory or defeat in battle or blockade, reveal
the character and determine the merit or de-
merit of a naval service. This is clearly the
case with the commercial marine. The stupid
wholesale slaughter of 1854, when the little
Vesta crushed her own bows in the side of
the Arctic, and, while the diminutive assail-
ant-if we may so term her-was, by wonder
full seamanship, taken safely into port, her
huge victim, supposed to be we'll equipped
and Manned was allowed, in a perfectly calm
sea and with five hours for work, to sink to
the bottom, and not a woman or child
escaped-when this occurred, followed so
soon by the unaccountable loss of a consort
ship, the commercial steam marine of our
country received blow from which it never
entirely recovered. On the other hand stand
out in bold relief the heroic discipline of the
Birkenhead, where some were saved the
more wonderful and successful heroism OF
the Sarah Sands, where all were and the
proud boast of the Cunard line that, while
its ships have been wrecked, it never has lost
a single life.
Is our naval service--the question is asked
neither ungenerously nor unpatriotically--oi
even the military service as now organized
educated up to the standard which such emer
gencies require? We very much doubt it
while we do not doubt that none will encoun
ter inevitable death more heroically thai
our brave sailors. Captain Luce sank gal
lantly with the ship he was incompetent tC
save, and it was mere miracle by which h
was rescued. Nor, as we shall always con
tend, have the processes of such a war as w
have had improved the professional capabilit
that is, the seamanship proper-of tn
navy. Plotting iron tubs up the Tennessee
and Cumberland, and fighting forts or shell
ing back Beauregards advance at Pittsbur
Landing, was all very important and heroic
but it could have been done just as well b
any brave river navigator who knew how t
handle piece of artillery as by that sir
gularly expert and accomplished sailor-fo
such IN every sense he was-the lat
Admiral Foote. So, in a modified form
at New Orleans and Mobile and Vicksbure
So with the dull routine of steam blockade
As an exception to this, and as showing rea
practical seamanship-how to handle a shi