Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/218

204 The James River torpedoes, when planted, were daily tested. This can never be done with mechanical torpedoes.

After his arrival in England, Maury made this new method of defence the subject of patient investigation and special study. With means and appliances which the resources of that country enabled him to bring into play, a power has been placed in the hands of military men which has since assumed the proportions that he predicted.

During the first and second years of the war, Maury wrote a series of papers, published in the Richmond Enquirer, over the signature of "Ben Bow," urging upon the Executive the necessity of building a navy without delay, and especially of protecting our bays and rivers with small floating batteries. In the first of these articles he says:—

"At the commencement of our independence we not only find ourselves without a navy, but in the midst of war; with ports blockaded, we are shut out from the marine resources of the world. Nevertheless, we have caught up such watercraft as we could lay hands on, we have strengthened some of them as best we could, and, placing one or more guns upon each, have commissioned them into service.

"These, however, are mere makeshifts. For the most part they are fit only to contend against harmless merchantmen, and they are few in number. If we are to have a navy, surely no statesman would attempt to build it of such material.

". . . . The sums appropriated by the Government for 'building and increase' will indicate its policy touching a navy, and show what, for the present, is proposed to be done.

"Two Navy Bills have passed since Virginia seceded and joined the Confederacy. One was passed in May at Montgomery, and the other in Richmond in August.

"In the Montgomery Bill there is not one dime for construction or increase. The whole appropriation is $278,500,