The daily gazette., 1882-01-12
From the N. Y. Herald.
The New Navy.

From the N. Y. Herald.
The New Navy.
When we speak OF new navy we do
not mean an old navy patched mp or
made over.
In our present navy we have not q
ship that can be driven over fourteen
knots. In the new navy we ought not
TO have ship that which will 60 less
than fifteen knots.
In the old navy we have o lot OF
wooden ships 1T neither to fight nor
TO run away. In the new navy every
ship should be capable Of choosing her
own distance on meeting any vessel
a10at, and Fhculd have one gnn--no
more is needed of the most powerful
kind.
The new navy must not be of wood,
but Of iron or steel. The new ships
ehould be cruisers; hence they must be
fast--faster than anything now afoat.
they must have large coal carrying
capacity. They need no masts or spars,
except enough to lie TO under IN Q gale
of wind. One heavy rinsd gun, of the
most powerful kind for long range and
penetration of shot, Is all that such q
ship Deeds, for she is not going TO fight
except when she wants 10 aud at her
own distance. And for crew she conse-
qnently needs Only one guns crew.
That Is a sufficient description OF the
new navy this country requires. The
Naval Advisory Board has reported in
favor OF such navy In part; and so far
its report is excellent. But, as we have
often urged, we need no ten or twelve
knot ships 10 the new navy. The test
OF one OF our new naval vessels ought to
be that she should beat q Cunard or
White Star liner on a voyage across the
Atlantic. If she cannot do that she is
not ft for the only uses which will be
required Of our new navy.
We do not entirely agree with the
Advisory Boards report, either, in its
determination of the size of the new
ships. Some, they think, should be
Of five thousand tons, some of thirty
five hundred, and SO on. But why2
The vessels of the new navy should
be fast-the fastest on the ocean. If
to achieve this greatest speed and
combine with it great and sufficient
coal carrying copacity they must be
of five Thousand tons, then let them
all be of that size. But if ship of a
thousand tons can combine these two
qualities and carry the required heavy
gun, then there is no reason why one
ship in the navy should exceed a
thousand tons. We repeat, what is
required is floating gun carriage,
fast and with room for plenty of
fuel.
Such a ship needs but small crew;
forty men and ten officers can manage
the gun, and she should have no
more. The new navy is not intended
for feet fighting it is not intended
for hand to hand conflicts. 1t is in
tended to attack an enemy where he
is weakest--in his commerce and to
attack this, not on the broad ocean,
but by lowering about his ports and
destroying his ships as they near their
home with supplies. Twenty or thirty
of such ships as our new navy ought
to have would scour the British Chan
mel or the mouth of the Meditterra-
mean, and burn, sink and destroy in a
week fleets worth many millions. That
is the naval war OF the future, for the
United States at least, which are pro-
tected by the breadth of the Atlantic
from any attacks on our ports that
torpedoes and heavy floating batteries
cannot repel, and which have no
ocean commerce and are not likely to
have any while the present policy con-
tinues.
Where Is our new navy to be builtp
On that point the Advisory Board does
not enlighten the public. The ships are
to be of iron or steel. We have plenty
of navy yards, but net one of them has
the machinery or "plant" needed for
building steel cruiser. we are glad of
1t, for we do not believe that navy yard
would produce the kind of ship required.
They can be best built by contract, and
a. we want fifty Of them, and want them
soon, the expenditure is great enough
to tempt our own capitalists and skilled
mechanics aud engineers to establish the
requisite ship yards. We have already
at Chester and Wilmington yards which
can be easily made capable of the work.
Naval engineers and constructors are
the proper men to superintend construc-
tion and see TO it that the conditions oil
the contract are fulfilled, that speed and
coal capacity are in the new ships, 80
that II there is failure on the contrac-
tors part we shall not be saddled will
incapable ships. But the contractors
must be allowed TO plan, as theirs will
be the risk of failure.
That 10 the way to get new navy, ,ant
we have described the kind of ships II
should consist of. We would like t.
know what the Secretary of the Nav
thinks Of this what Mr.. Harris, chairman
of the Naval Committee, thinks of 1t
And we hope when Congress comes II
discuss the bill for a new navy--whicl
we understand is preparing 1t will
take care that we get new navy, an,
not merely new and monstrous lob.