Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-05-03
In the last number of the North Ameri-
can RevieU Commander Gorringe has q

armed to fight one. One OF the fastest OF
them can make less than thirteen knots an
hour, and the slowest cannot make more
than five and half knots. They carry
gus which would not make dent in the
armor Of a modern irorclad, and their
storage capacity is so email that, according
to Mr.. Gorringe, " A feet Of them could
mot keep the sea long enough to steam
"at full speed 900 miles" As to the
monitors, they are if possible still more
defective. They cannot make over four
knots sn hour, and their guns are SO anti
quated that they could not make the least
impression on an European ironclad, while
their krmor is 80 weak that the modern
naval artillery would send shot right
through it as though it were of paste.
board. To say that these vessels are
available for war is therefore absurd.
They are not available even for coast de-
fsnse. They could not keep an enemy out
of our harbors. They could not take the
sea at all. and as for fighting an enemy in
European waters, the thing is out of the
question.
Mr.. GOrringe points out that in the last
FIVE years We have spent more than twice
as much as Italy upon these useless yes.
sells, yet Italy now ranks third among
4" the naval powers in effective fighting
vessels :" and we rank nowhere. We
have spent more than four times more
than Austria, yet the latter in the same
period has created an effective force of
fourteen heavily armored vessels" and at
the same time maintained feet of un.
armored vessels superior to ours" Mr..
Gorringe submits that there must be some.
thing radically wrong" in our system,
in view Of these facts, and most Ameri-
cans will concur in that opinion. How SO
much money is wasted, however, is in
COMPREHENSIVE, even when we learn that
the building and fitting out of vessels is
done by number of departments, each of
which acts independently of the other.
OF course this method is at once the most
irrational and extravagant that could be
instituted, but it does not for all that
explain why it is that when several hun
dred thousand dollars have been spent
upon vessel, it at once becomes necessary
to spend several hundred thousand dollars
more in repairing her. Thus for instance
S764. 900 was expended in furnishing the
Tennessee with machinery, and shortly
after it had been put in it had to be re.
paired at further cost OF SAP, 600. Here
waa an outlay Of 81, 100, 600 upon mach;n-
cry for single vessel, and even then she
was of no use for war purposes.
Nowhere else in the world, urless per-
haps in Turkey, is such state of things
possible. After expending 5000, 900, 600 in
ten years upon the navy. we find that we
have nothing to show for it but a number
OF crazy, rotten, obsolete vessels, which
can neither fight nor run. In fact the
5000, 900, 900 has produced the country
nothing more valuable than the political
machinery which the various navy yards
and which is employed to pre-.
vent naval reform, and to perpetuate the
system which has had these results.
"How not to do It, was never in the
palmiest days OF the Circumlocution Office
carried to such an extent as it has been in
our Navy Department. 1t would almost
seem that the whole system had been ex.
pressly devised for the purpose of prevent
ing any useful results, and that the work
had been SO distributed as to render intel
ligent or economical progress completely
Conceive a private firm
arranging its business in this way. Fancy
q great manufacturing company taking a
contract to build an ironclad, and then out
ting the work up into dozen portions
and distributing them to departments,
each of which should proceed without the
least regard to any concerted plans or to
what the others were doing. This is the
way the American Navy is treated, and
this is how it comes to pass that though
We have spent money enough to have
really efficient feet Of fighting ships, we
actually possess none at all.
Mr.. Gorringe. however. believes that in
the Navy Department it is not
necessary to throw away any more money
upon ironclads or rams. He would simply
build number Of steel unarmored cruisers,
Of great speed and coal stowage, and armed
with one or two heavy guns. With these
ne thinks We could at any time devastate
she commerce of an enemy, while for coast
lefense we should depend upon forts. float
ing batteries, and torpedoes. Other naval
critics have expressed preference for un-
armed rams, of great power, and for har-
Dor defense these would probably be very
,ervioeable. The light unarmorsd cruisers,
however, would unquestionably be most
effective. They. would not need to do
much fighting. In fact they would de-
pend upon their heels. They could always
Keep out of the way of tine heavy iron.
lads, and could sweep the seas of mer.
,hantmen always provided that they
we're not encountered at the outset by a
Iimilar class OF vessels. Mr.. Gorringe's
plan, however, has the merit of being
economical, and as such vessels as he pro-
POSES could be built at private ship-yards,
t would be possible to abolish the navy
Yards altogether. or late years they have
Ierved only as sink. holes for taxes, and
IS mischievous political agencies, and there
eems to be no reason why the majorityof
# them, at least, should not be closed.