The Weston Democrat. [volume] (Weston, W. Va.) 1875-current, 1875-12-20
The Secretary OF the Nays Report.

The report OF Secretary Robeson Of
the United States navy says that the
number of vessels OF every class nnd
description now borne onthe navy regis
ter is 147. These carry. all told,
1,195 guns, and are Of 152, ,492 tons
measurement. OF these twenty-six,
carrying nominally 266 guns, are sail.
ing vessels without steam power, oi
which number four are in use rs train.
ing and practice ships !; two are assigned
to States US school SLIPS; three rre in
use as hospital ships, or us quarters
six are used as coal, store, md supply
ships at the various stations and for the
several sQuadrons six are in commits
sion as receiving ships two are laid up
in ordinary Us useless for present pur-
pose, and ono, 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 necessary part Of the
naval service, are in fact mere repro
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 m 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 tho whole ninety-fve,
OF which, however, twenty-five are tugs,
employed as towing, ferry, or torpedo
boats at the various navy yards. Twen-
ty-nino OF all classes are in ordinary ut
tho yards on the Atlantic or Mt Mare
island. Three are used as freight and
dispatch vessels. Three more arc in
commission MS training and receiving
ships, at all times ready for service, aud
the remainder are in commission, on the
several stations or at tho various navy
yards, ready for use when required. OF
these wooden ships eighteen are, in iact,
ncw-tho Trenton, Adams, Essex, En-
terprise, Alliance, Alert, Huron, aud
Ranger, being the eight new sloopsbuilt
under special appropriations. =. and ten
others, the Monongahela. Tennessee,
Mohican, Swatara, Vandalia, Marion,
Quinnebaug, Galena, NipAc, and Talla-
posa, have been rebuilt with live oak
timber and supplied with substantially
new machinery during tho 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, aud
twelve Of the remainder, though requir-
ing more or less repairs to their boilers
and machinery. could, il needed, be put
into condition for service as soon as sail
ors could be enlisted to mau them.
Our ironclad fleet consists of twenty.
six vessels, classed as follows: Three
the Massachusetts, Oregon, and Colus.
sus-which are OF class and in con-
dition TO bo OF no service whatever,
having been designed during the war rs
large sea-going ironclads but never
launched, and though their names still
appear on the navy list, they consist
only OF their wooden france, with q
single exception, much deteriorated by
time, and their unfinished armor and
machinery stored in the navy yards.
The remaining twenty.three. consisting
OF twenty one vessels OF the monitor
type and two iron torpedo ships, are
all efficient vessels OF their class, and
very powerful in both defensive aud Of
fensive operations near our shores.
Five OF them, namely, the double tur-
reted monitors Amphitrite, Monadnosk,
Miantonomoh, Puritan and Terror are
III process Of complete repair, requiring
from four to six months to finish il
pushed, while tho remaining eighteen,
consisting OF tho Roanoke, tho two
torpedo ships Aar,u and Intrepid, mud
fifteen single turreted monitors, namely,
the Ajax, Canonicus, Comauche, Cats
kill, Dictator, Jason, Lehigh, Mahopac,
Manhattan, Nahante, Nantucket, Passaic,
Saugus and Wyandotte, arc all in good
condition, mud ready for any service Mt
any time. This makes eighty available
ships, including sixteen ironclads and
two torpedo bouts.