Year: 1864

SHIPS TO BUILD.


Ont Of all the eager and somewhat heated
discussion that is going on as to the character OF
the vessels that compose, and OF those that
ought to compose, our navy. we suppose one
proposition that nobody will controvert may be
eliminated, viz that the principles of naval
architecture are in a transitional state. We
have a navy of about seventy iron-clad and iye
hundred wooden vessels. 1t is navy Of great
power and effectiveness, superior IN some re-
spects to any European force, yet among all its
ships there il not one which can be selected as
the model for o class Of vessels OF which 1t
would be deemed wise to construct any very
large number. 1t is not certain that some new
invention may not at any moment reyolutionize
all existing theories aud practice of naval con-
struction.


Yet We cannot stop building. II is inevitable
that we should add to our force as rapidly as
possible, and, for the time, we must simply build
the best vessels that circumstances permit
We can neither, on the one hand wait till IRON
clads are brought TO perfection, nor on the other
Is il wise TO commit ourselves TO any particular
theory or model by constructing great proper
ton of vessels Of one kind 1t is scarcely less
evident that whatever experiments on grand
scale may be undertaken, we need to build for
approaching necessities reasonable number OF
ships that can be completed within a reasonable
time.


1t being admitted that iron-clads of one form
or another are stronger than wooden ships yet
that the latter possess great advantages by
reason Of their superior speed and seaworthiness,
it seems strange that no successful effort has
been made TO combine in degree the good
qualities Of both classes. If we must build IRON
clads, il is not necessary to build them Of such
unwieldy proportions that they can't make
headway against an ordinary tide; and again. it
is equally unnecessary to sacrifice all
defensive qualities for the sake Of
a few knots an hour Of speed. We
bclicyeit quite possible to construct ships of mod
crate tunnage, that shall be strongly enough clad
with iron to protect them against the ordinary
armament of wooden ships, and that shall new
erthcless be seaworthy, capable Of carrying a
powerful battery, and good for eleven or twelve
knots an hour. And if we bad a dozen such
vessels that could be sent TO sea in fortnight,
we should possess force against which neither
France nor Great Britain has fleet adequate to
contend.


Ships Of this class could probably be built in
ten mopths, and for about 500, 600 each. The
enormous floating batteriesof 1000 tuns, to cost
81, 900 coo each, cannot be finished in less than
three years. We say nothing against the policy
Of trying such experimentsi We do say that We
cannot afford to wait that length Of time with
out getting a better iron-clad navy ahoat than
We yet possess. The great ships could not enter
nor approach the most important harbors; while
ships of the kind we propose can go all over the
world. Such vessels as the sloop-oi-war Hart
ford have been at least rs seryceable as any we
had in the old navy. Plate them with iron, and
they would still be well adapted to all ordinary
service. Englandhas two such ships on the stocks
already, and France three. Those Powers do
not mean TO trust wholly to their Warriors and
Magcntas, Of which no man can yet say whether
they will ever cross the Atlantic. 1t would be
equally unwise for us TO put exclusive faith in
the Monitors, the Puritan or the New Ironsides.


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