Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1883-03-29


/ more than her match In head sea; as for
| fighting she's manned by crew that would
swing double the number OF those red capped
varmin you tell me are on board the 'Gulnare. (;
now, stranger, II yer up to ready Pm spry."
| The Colonel thanked our new friend with
mach warmth of feeling, anu expressed his
anxiety TO depart at the earliest moment.
"Wa'al, then, let's liquor on II there, gar
con, cocktails. squiggle, you varmint, or I'll
| lift yer hair,," was the Lieutenant's reply.
we'll breakfast at daylight, and sail In an
hour after, and we can arrange our plans on
the way. III wire to Genoa, and have the
'Ariadne' ready for sea, and save day. Good
| night, Kurnal; jist you reckon there'll be no
fizzlin' In this biZniss; Wen knock yer friend
the Count into cooked hat In no time, II We
can only catch him; TO keep up yer pecker, for
l guess he'll be gone coon before he's done
with Zeth Bakhus."
CHAPTER VIII.
At an early hour next morning we embarked
on board a roomy and we-appointed boat,
manned by a crew of three men, including
Dennis, whom we asked permission to bring.
We sailed along the coast, merely touching
| at Civita Vecchia and Livorno for water; at
the latter place the Colonel disembarkcd and
visited his friend the consul but acquired from
him no further information.
"kurnal, said Lieutenant Bakhus, as we
sailed smoothly along on the morning OF our
embarkation, 'there's one thing j can't see
udynRnJ luIO NJ ull-Nny you DTltlsucrS are
| always spread-eagled one day about your
navy, and funking the next up gets one Of
your Parliament men and says, We've forty
ships in commission that's fit To lick creations;
and another gets up when he sits down, and
says, we haven't one fit to 90 to sea- The
papers follow suit, and yer always washing yer
dirty linen in public. Now, | know, for | see
your ships In every station that your talks all
liam. Yev good ships, and plenty OF them; and
yer officers and men are full of grit, know their
duty, anil do 1t; but yev lot OF buncombes in
yer Parliament House that are kinky and always
Cabling about things that are above their
heads; and there's as much tall talk in yer
House OF Commons as there Is at an Indian
Sachem Council; and much the same result,
for they both end in smoke"
"You are right, Lieutenant Bakhus,h said
the Colonel; 81 am often astonished and
ashamed at the tone of our naval debates; but
| fear this will always be the case so long as
unprofessional heads of departments are placed
over our naval administration; and this,
think, will continue until we have another
naval war, when some great sailor Will distin-
guish himself, and public opinion will demand
that professionally skilled administrators shall
have their proper place and due reward. We
are better off In the army; we have soldier at
the head of It,"
"Wa'al, all can say is, that for ships and
guns, and men To work them, yer navy can lick
creation, and good deal TO spare; but take
my advice, and have sailor at the head of
your naval council, for the commercial men
you sometimes appoint can't get the principle
of limited liability out of their heads; and, in
deed, it's but fair that their liability, or respon-
sibility, should be- tenderly considered when
their knowledge of naval matters must be so
limited"
THAT is very fair witticism and reproach,
Lieutenant" said the Colonel: 'but how do
you manage these matters in the states"
"Were worse off, by long chalk Kurnal,"
hsar .iffbt H,xzl
from top to bottom. We have department of
the navy, as you have; but, then, we build and
repair most of our ships by contract, and that's
an ALFRED bad way Of getting good war ship.
But look at your commercial navy-thats an
eye-opener; and your mail-carrying steamers
why, II you hadn't war ship at ALL and had
time to convert them into fighting ships, i re-
ally believe you would be match for any sim
gle navy in the world"
The Colonel expressed much surprise at this
statement but said he had not sufficiently
studied the subject to give confident opinion
on 1t.
"Waal sir, I've studied 1t, an say that your
Government, in commercial matters, Is the
longest headed, far-seeing government In the
world. They know that postal and passenger
facilities are needed by all classes, and that
the money they pay for them returns by a
thousand channels of trade to the Imperial
Treasury. Do you know, sir, that the British
mercantile marine of sea-going steamships
amounts to more than two thousand vessels, of
which over one hundred are subsidized as mail
boats, carrying passengers and letters 10 all
parts Of the globe-at charge toyour govern
ment Of a million ard a quarter annually, only
about a half of which is returned To the Post
Ofiicew
We expressed our ignorance of this fact, and
the Lieutenan continued
"Yes, sir, it's true; you Britishers hev got
nearly the whole postal communication Of the
world in your hands. Why letter from New
York TO Brazil, four thousand miles distant
must needs go by England, Portugal, the coast
of Africa, Madeira, and the Cape de Verdes,
eight thousand miles, in a British packet
Now what do we do! The American mail
steamers are about twenty-five in number some
of which have only nominal mail pay; our
mercantile steam-marine consists OF about sixty
ships, against your two thousand. This may
appear incredible, but il Is true ana further
more, If we had more ships, we haven't ecgi-
neers TO man them. When one OF our first
American mail steamers sailed Tor Europe, no
practiced marine engineer could be found to
work her engines; they took trst-class engi-
neer and corps of assistants from one of the
North River packets; but as soon as the ship
got to sea, and heavy weather came on, all the
engineers and firemen were taken sick, and for
three days IL was constantly expected that the
ship would be lost. No river engineer is fit for
sery zee at sea until he has had months OF expe-
rience and become accustomed TO sei sickness"
mo sir,n he continued, you must have
strength, power, and speed; full-manned crews,
and first-class officers. Your government have
got all these in the only way they are to be had
by paying large subsidies to the contracting
companies; mail steamers cannot live without
them, and keep up the required speed. Do
you know that vessel Of two thousand tons
displacement, steaming six nautical miles per
hour, will consume only seven and hair tons
Of Goals per day, while at twelve miles she will
consume sixty-one tons. This must be paid
for, and also the additional crew required to
work her, the additional wear and tear to hull,
boilers, and machinery, and the risk always &C
companying great speed. Your government
know all this, and are content 10 bear heavy
loss upon the postal receipts, for the sake OF the
commerce of the country, and the result is that
England has almost monopoly OF the main pas
senger and postal routes of the world"
"You have given me interesting information,
Lieutenant Bakhus,n the colonel observed;
but II your commercial navy Is not In a salts
factory state, you have at least very fine war
marine"
"We'vc nothing of the kind, Kurnal," he re-
piled; twelve navy on paper that we're al
ways spread-eagling and falutin' about, but
what is the fact! As regards our steam navy,
| II Is too small to afford adequate protection to
our commerce and citizens, much less to defend
the country in. time of war. We have not
steamers enough in the navy to place one at
| each of our important seaports, much less to
send them to foreign stations"
| On the afternoon of the second day we were
rapidly nearing Genoa and arrived alongside
| the ''Ariadne" early in the evening; having ar
ranged 10 meet on the following morning, we
separated for the night. On reassembling, we
found that she was quite ready for sea, aud
| had laid in water and seastock for fortnights
cruise. We paid visit to the commander of
the "Pocohontas," inspected that fine vessel,
| asked and obtained an extension OF leave for
Lieutenant Bakhus, which was graciously
granted by that gallant officer, and returned
| to our yacht. We set sail that evening for