The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-12-16
rhe Secretary of the Navy's Report,

The report of Secretary Robeson OF
the United States navy says that the
number of vessels of every class and
description now borne on the navy regis
ter is 147. These carry, all told,
1,195 guns, and are of 152, 492 tons
measurement. OF these twenty-six,
carrying nomipally 266 guns, are sail
ing vessels without steam power, of
which number four are in use as train
ing and practice ships two are assigned
to States as school slips; three are in
use as hospital ships, or as quarters I;
six are used rs coal, store, and supply
ships at the various stations and for the
several squadrons six are in commits
sion as receiving ships two are laid up
pose, and one, the old New Orleans, re-
naming as has been the the case for the
last half century on the stocks at Sack
ett's Harbor. These ships, though
most of them are useful for the pur-
pose to which they are assigned, and to
some extent q necessary part of the
naval service, are in fact mere repre-
sentatives of the navy Of the past, still
remaining on the register to be utilized
as best may be, but of little or no value
as part Of an efficient force for either
the cruising or fighting purposes of the
present day.
The steam vessels Of the navy, as dis
tinguished from ironclads and torpedo
ships, number in the whole ninety five,
of which, however, twenty-five are tugs,
employed as towing, ferry, or torpedo
boats at the various navy yards. Twen-
ty-nine of all classes are in ordinary at
4 l.. -
island. Three are used as freight and
dispatch vessels. Three more are in
commission as training and receiving
ships, at all times ready for service, and
the remainder are in commission, on the
several stations or at the various navy
yards, ready for use when required. OF
these wooden ships eighteen are, in fact,
new-the Trenton, Adams, Essex, En-
terprise, Alliance, Alert, Huron, and
Ranger, being the eight new sloops built
under special appropriation; and ten
others, the Monongahela, Tennessee,
Mohican, Swatara, Vandalia, Marion,
Quinnebaug, Galena, Nipsic, and Talla-
posa, have been rebuilt with live oak
timber and supplied with substantially
new machinery during the two or three
years past. Besides such of these new
ships as are in commission thirty two
Others, including the largest and most
efficient ships of the navy are in actual
service as cruisers or training ships, and
twelve of the remainder, though requir
ing more or less repairs to their boilers
and machinery, could, if needed, be put
into condition for service as soon as sail
ors could be enlisted to man them.
| to Of txy
six vessels, classed as follows Three
the Massachusetts, Oregon, and Colus
slls-which are of class and in con
dition to be of no service whatever
having been designed during the war a
large sea-going ironclads but never
launched, and though their names still
appear on the navy list, they consis
only of their wooden francs, with {
single exception, much deteriorated b,
time, and their unfinished armor ant
machinery stored in the navy yards
The remaining twentythree, consisting
of twenty one els of the monito
type and two iron torpedo ships, ar
all efficient vessels of their class, ant
very powerful in both defensive and of
fensive operations near our shores
Five of them, namely, the double tur
reted monitors Amphitrite, Monadnock
Miantonomoh, Puritan and Terror ar
in process of complete repair, requirin
from four to six months to finish
pushed, while the remaining eighteen
consisting of the Roanoke, the tw
torpedo ships Alarm and Intrepid, an
fifteen single turretea monitors, namely
the Ajax, Canonicus, Comanche, Cats
kill, Dictator, Jason, Lehigh, Mahopac
Manhattan, Nahante, Nantucket, Passai'
Saugus and Wyandotte, are all in goo
condition, and ready for any service {
any time. This makes eighty availabl
ships, including sixteen ironclads an
two torpedo boats.