The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-06-30

And vet we are so far behind some
other nations that we can only wonder
at their recklessness or sympathize with
them in their necessities. The British
parliament has but lately appropriated
for the fiscal year 1895 little over $780,
000. 900, and 10 first class battieships and
AZ cruisers are now in process of con-
struction in the English navy yards.
Italy is in such financial straits that she
is on the verge of revolution, bus her
minister of marine has recently ordered
3 first class battleships, 3 cruisers, 12 tor
pedO boats and 4 immense transports,
the battleships to have from II 900 to
IL, 900 tons displacement and speed OF
10 knots. France now las II -armOred
battleships in construction and IS unar-
nrored but protected cruisers, besides
armored cruisers of the second class and
various torpedo, dispatch and coast de-
Tense vessels. In Germany the naval
budget is still under discussion, but the
lowest estimate is for 8 armored battle
ships, 9 coast defense vessels, 8 torpedo
boats and unarmored vessels OF various
grades.
At this point bit of history is in or
der illustrating the strange fluctuations
in American shipping. The first vessel
worthy of the name constructed in North
America was made by the Spaniards on
the west coast of Mexico, where they
established d shipyard in 1924, and not
many years later they had very fine
ship for those times, in which Don Juan
Cabrillo sailed up the coast and entered
the bay of San Francisco. On the gulf
of Mexico they soon had large vessels
constructed, in one of which De Leon
surveyed the coast of Texas in 1865.
New England began with such small
boats that no exact date can be set, but
the first American decked vessel was
built by Adrian Block near the mouth
of the Hudson in 1914. In 1929 Massa-
chusetts had five ships, but it is not GER
tain which of them were built on that
coast. Her shipping increased so rapidly
that in 1859 the fisheries were an i1npor-
tant source of her revenue, and in 1871
Hugh Peters built vessel of 800 tons
burden at Salem.
Our Colonial Navy.
In 1901, says The British Record, the
American colonies had 2, 700 men, with
121 vessels, aggregating 8 Zoo tons, in the
Newfoundland fisheries. In the wars
with the French the American sailors
bore an honorable part. 1t was in 1915
that the first American SLAYER sailed for
the coast of Guinea. and when she re-
turned to Boston her officers were pun
ished and the captives were returned to
their native country at the public ex-
pense. In 1871 Massachusetts had 38, OC0
tons of shipping and the other colonies
smaller amounts each. When the pop
ulation of the colonies was only 1000, 900,
the entries and clearances at Boston in
single year were $50.
The first naval exploit, IL such it may
be called, il the resistance to Great
Britain was the capture of the Gaspee.
in 1872. As to that war and its naval
heroes, especially Paul Jones, are not
the details known to every Yankee
schoolboy? During the entire war there
were regularly commissioned in our
own navy Sc vessels, of which 20 were
captured by the British or burned to
prevent capture. The first vessel to
carry the American flag to China
was the Empress, Captain Greene,
which sailed from New York Feb. %,
1854. The troubles with Tripoli and
Algiers began the next year, and the
heroes of that war are well known. It
was in 1898 that the Constitution was
first put in commission as an American
vessel, and after a long and glorious
service she IS now laid up as the receiv-
ing ship at Portsmouth, n. II. The loss
of the Kearsarge leaves the Hartford,
Admiral Farragut's flagship, our only
vessel afloat around which historic men,
=
has made liberal appropriation for her
preservation and improvement and for
reftring her with a modern battery,
rather in obedience to public sentiment
than for her value.
Short Naval Combats.
In 1911 the naval appropriation was
only 81, 1855, $3.50. When war was declared,
but single ship, the Wasp, of IS guns,
was on foreign service, though many
American vessels suitable but not yet
fitted for war were adoat. AS the great
est land victory of that war, at New Or
leans, was won three weeks after the
treaty of peace was signed. so several
sharp naval cornbats took place during
the six months after the peace the last
being that between the Peacock and the
East India company's cruiser Nautilus
in the strais of Sunda, June 80. The
Peacock fired but one broadside, killing
and wounding IA of the British, when
the Nautilus surrendered, and the next
day. the American captain having learn
ed of the peace, she was given up. There
was not time for the navy to degenerate
much before the second Bar barry war be-
gan. After that IT, navy was main
tanned in tolerable efficiency, and Amer
lean merchant shipping increased with a
rapidity never before known in history.
We We're doing three fourths of our
ocean carrying when the transition from
wooden to iron vessels began, since
which our decline in that respect has
been as rapid as our previous rise.
1t began in 1856 and amounted to 10
per cent before South Carolina seeded.
Thence to the close of the war the de-