The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-12-28
The United States Navy.

The report of Secretary Robson of the
United States navy says that the num-
bcr Of vessels Of every class and descrip-
tion now borne on the navy register is
147. These carry, all told, l,195 guns,
aud are of 152,492 tons measurement
OF these, twenty.six, carrying nominally
266 guns, are sailing vessels without
steam power, of which number four arc
in use as training and practice ships !:
two are assigned to states as school ships;
three are in use as hospital ships, or as
quarters six are used as COAL store, and
supply ships at the various stations and
for the several squsdrons six are in
commission as receiving ships; two arc
laid up in ordinary as useless for present
purpose, and one, the old New Orleans,
remaining as has been 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 purposes to
which they are assigned, and to some ex-
tent a necessary part of the naval ser.
vice, are in fact mere representatives Of
the navy of the past, still remaining on
the register to be utilized as may best be-
but OF little or no value as part of an
efficient force tor either the cruising or
fighting purposes of the present day
The steam vessels OF the navy, as dis
tinguished from ironcllds and torpedo
ships, number in the whole ninety five,
OF which, however, twenty-five arc tugs
employed as towing, ferry, or torpedo
boats at the various navy yards. Twen-
ty-ninc of all classes are in ordinary at
the yards on the Atlantic or at Marc
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, Enter
prise, Alliance, Alert, Huron and Rang.
er, being the eight new sloops built under
special appropriations; and ten others,
the Monongahela, Tennessee, Mohican,
Swatara, Vandalia, Marion, Quinnebaug,
Galena, Nipsic, and Tallaposa, have been
rebuilt with live oak timber and supplied
with substantially new machinery during
the two or thrco years past. Besides
such Of these new ships as are in commits
sion, thirty.two others, including the larg-
est and most efficient ships of the navy,
are in actual service as cruisers or train
ing ships, and twelve of the remainder,
though requiring more or less repairs to
their boilers and machinery, could, il
needed, be put into condition for service
as soon as sailors could be enlisted to man
them.
Our ironclad feet consists of twenty.
six vessels cassed as follows Three
the Massachusetts, Oregon and Colossu.
which arc Of class and in condition
to be of no service whatever, having been
designed during the war as large sea.go-
ing ironclads, but never launched, and
though their names still appear on Tho
navy list, they consist only of their wood
en- frames, with single exception, much
deteriorated by time, and their unfnished d
armor and machinery stored in the navy
yards The remaining twenty. three, COL
sisting OF twenty.one vessels of the mol
itor type and two iron torpedo ships, are
all efficient vessels of their class, and
very powerful in both defensive and often.
sive operations near our shores Five OF
them, namely, the double turreted mont
ors Amphitrite, Monadock, Miantonomah
Puritan and Terror are in process of com,
plete repair, requiring from four to six
months to finish if pushed. while the re.
naming eighteen consisting of the Ro.
anoke, the two torpedo ships Alarm and
Intrepid, and fifteen single turreted mon.
itors, namely, the Ajax, Canonicus, Co.
manche, Catskil, Dictator, Jason. lie.
high, Mahopac Manhattan, Nahantc,
Nantucket, Passaic, Saugus and Wyan.
dottc, are all in good condition, and roa.
du for any service at any time. This
makes eighty available chips, including
sixteen ironclads apd two torpedo boats