Sacramento daily record-union., 1889-09-14
THE ENGLISH NAVY.
They Have Not a War Vessel Equal in
Any Respect to the Charleston.


Any Respect to the Charleston.
WASHINGTON, September 18th. = The
naval officers here, and others who have
had to do with constructing the naval ves-
sells, find much to encourage their faith in
the American navy and console them for
what appeared to be bad failures in marine
architecture.
In the report of latest English naval
maneuvres which has Just reached the De-
partment, this report is entitled to weight,
as it was made by four admirals command
ing the squsdrons. First, as to the torpedo
boats, they find those boats are of great
value to blockaded, but i'll adapted to block
aiding work, their machinery is constantly
in need of repairs, and they require fre-
quent attention in matters of water and
coal, and the detonation of their machinery
soon took away from their speed, which
constituted their principal value.
Touching the larger vessels, the report
says from all sides during the maneuvers
came complaints of defective machinery.
The squadrons were constantly impeded in
their speed and movements by lame
ducks " needing repairs.
The failure to realize the speed at which
the ships were rated (trom 10 to II knots)
was one of the most disappointing features
of the maneuvers. The best speed the
Rupert could make at the very beginning
was eight knots, the Shannon kept up nine
knots with difficulty, and another ironclad
dropped astern making less.
The Infiexible also fell behind from a
break in her engine. The Agincourt, an
old ship, was steaming easily for time
| under two boilers.
The vessels that appeared to travel with
the greatest ease and least smoke were the
Black Prince, built in 1861, the Hercules,
1871. The Hotspur, Northampton and
Active (rated at 16 knots) had difficulty in
keeping up ten knots.
Almost every one of the fast cruisers
| failed to steam up to their nominal speed
or to maintain a maximum steam pres
sure when it was reached.
The Mersey, an 1S-knot ship, steamed at
144 knots but had to slow down for several
hours to clean the tubes.
J The Mercury was the only cruiser in the
| first squadron capable of making 16 knots
| for As hours. This ship was built TO COM
| pete with the Wampanoag and other fast
boats built by the United States at the close
| of the war. The Mohawk class failed in
| boilers, and Number and Raccoon prac-
| tically broke down. The Archer and
| Cossack had their boilers retubed before
! they had been three months in commits
sion.
These are the types for our new 1000
| ton vessels, but the machinery has been
| improved in design and durability. Ser
| pent was almost constantly under repairs
| while in port. An unusual effort was
made to introduce like machinery into the
new practice ships for Annapolis.
| The Rattlesnake class proved to be en-
| tirely too delicate for rough work. In
| point of fact" says correspondent, I'VE
are in this position the least maneuvers
may be rendered abortive in the ineffi-
| cheney of our steam power. Whatever else
the campaign brings out, it will demon.
strate this to certainty, that there is not
an officer of either of the four squadrons
that feels the least confidence in his ship
| to steam in an emergency"
| Winding up their criticism upon the ma
| chinery trials, the Admiral says that in
| view of the failure of the ordinary boilers
| at high steam pressures the experiences
| and experiments as to the practical en-
ployment of tubular or coil high pressure