Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/296

Rh 284 NAVY Since the conclusion of the war with France, it would appear that at least one-half of the ships had been sold or broken up as unfit for service ; and as, by the list of the navy at the beginning of the year 1821, the number of ships and vessels of every description, in commission, in ordinary, building, repairing, and ordered to be built, had been reduced to 609 sail, we may take the greatest extent of the tonnage at 500,000 tons; but the greater part, if not the whole, of this tonnage was efficient, and in a state of progressive efficiency. According to the printed list of the 1st January 1821, the 609 sail of ships and vessels appear to be as under: 1st rates, from 120 to 100 guns 23 2d 3d 4th 5th 6th Sloops 78 74 60 50 48 22 34 24 22 10 16 90 20 107 40 136 making a total of 432; to which have to be added 177 gun-brigs, cutters, schooners, tenders, bombs, troop-ships, store-ships, yachts, &c. In the year 1836 the total number of ships of war, including every description mentioned in the above list, amounted to about 560 sail ; of which 95 were ships of the line in a state of efficiency for any service, or capable of being speedily put into a fit state for sea ; and many of them were of a very superior class to any employed in the war. In 1846 there were 671 ships, including every description; and in 1857 there were on the list of the royal navy 735 ships, exclusive of those appropriated to harbour service, and of the coastguard cruisers, making a grand total of 888 ships and vessels of all classes. earn Soon after the commencement of Queen Victoria s reign steam ips of began to assert its superiority over sail-power for the propulsion of ir. ships of war. It has now to a great extent usurped the place of manual labour also in ships, and it has been the main cause of the revolution which has been effected in their type. The paddle-wheel was first adopted as the means of utilizing the power of steam for propulsion. The first ship of war of any importance fitted with the paddle was the 46-gun frigate &quot; Pene lope. &quot; In 1843 she was cut in two, lengthened, and furnished with engines of 650 horse-power. A number of ships were also built expressly for the paddle, of which class the &quot;Terrible,&quot; a powerful, frigate -built ship of 21 guns and 800 horse-power, may be taken as a type. The &quot; Valorous &quot; is almost the only remaining example of it in 1883, and she has been relegated to dockyard service. The success of the screw, however, as a means of propulsion soon made it evident that this must be the system of the future for war ships. By its use the whole motive power could be protected In- being placed below the water-line. It interfered much less than the paddle with the efficiency and handiness of the vessel under sail alone, and it enabled ships to be kept generally under sail. Great importance was attached to this, as the handling of a ship under sail was justly thought an invaluable means of training both officers and men in ready resource, prompt action, and self-reliance. For this reason masts and sails have been retained long after they were admitted to be detrimental to the fighting qualities of battle ships. The screw was therefore eagerly adopted, and rapid progress was made in the conversion of ships into screw steamers, some being cut in two and lengthened, others being razeed or having decks removed, while new ships were building, so that the Russian war, which broke out in 1854, found Great Britain in possession of a powerful steam fleet. Of this fleet the three-decker &quot;Duke of Wellington,&quot; of 700 horse-power (nominal) and 131 guns, the two- decker &quot;Agamemnon,&quot; of 600 horse-power (nominal) and 91 guns, and the frigate &quot;Shannon,&quot; of 600 horse-power (nominal) and 51 guns, may be taken as the finest examples ; a powerful flotilla of steam gunboats was built for the occasion. Henceforth ships propelled only by sail were obsolete for war purposes. In this war mechanical mines or torpedoes were used by the Russians for the defence of their harbours, but with not much effect. The advance of gunnery, and the disastrous effect of explosive shells, which were new weapons since the great naval wars of forty years before, operated to the disadvantage of ships with wooden walls. The fleets were unable to do much more than blockade, and it became necessary to furnish means by which they might also attack. m- The French were the first to apply in a practical shape the idea ds. (which appears to have originated in the United States) of reviving the use of armour, and placing it on the sides of ships. They con structed five floating batteries clad with 4| inches of iron, on an oak backing 8 inches thick. Of these the first was the &quot; Ton- nan te,&quot; mounting 16 guns. She was launched at Brest in March 1855, and was quickly followed by the others. Three of them took part in the bombardment of Kinburn in the Black Sea on the 17th October following. The British Admiralty at once put in hand similar vessels, and with such diligence that the &quot;Erebus&quot; and &quot;Terror&quot; arrived at Kinburn on the 24th October. They were hastily constructed for work in shallow water, and were difficult to manage ; but the results were sufficiently satisfactory to induce the French to convert a wooden line-of-battle ship on the stocks into a frigate armoured all over with 4| inches of iron. She was launched at Toulon under the name of &quot;La Gloire &quot; in November 1859, and was of 5600 tons displacement and 800 horse-power (nominal). In December 1858 a committee was appointed under the ad ministration of Lord Derby, because the attention of the cabinet had been drawn to the very serious increase which had taken place of late years in the navy estimates, while, at the same time, it was represented that the naval force of the country was far inferior to what it ought to be with reference to that of other powers, and especially of France, and that increased efforts and increased expenditure were imperatively called for to place it on a proper footing. One of the main causes assigned for a prospective increase was the comparative state of preparation of France, in respect of powerful screw steamers, and the expenditure which had taken place and was still going on in her dockyards. The committee, in its report, January 6, 1859, directed its remarks principally to the increase in the estimates of 1858 as compared with those of 1852, and omitted the disturbed period between those dates. They say that in 1852 the navy estimates were revised and increased, and measures taken to supply what were supposed to be deficiencies in former years, and to adapt the navy to the altered state of things occasioned by the application of the screw to ships of war. They remark that no one probably in the year 1852 could have anticipated the wonderful progress which a few years had exhibited, superseding practically the use of sailing vessels in the navy, and introducing the use of screw steamers of immense size and power, and involving a more than commensurate additional expense. The total amounts voted were in 1852, 5,835,588, and in 1858, 8,851,371. They say, at the outbreak of the French revolutionary war England possessed 145 sail of the line, France 77. These comparative numbers were reduced in 1850 to England 86, and France 45. &quot;At this latter period the effective strength of the two navies in line-of-battle ships exclu sively, and almost exclusively in frigates, consisted of sailing vessels ; but, the French having subsequently decided on, and nearly carried out, the conversion of all their sailing ships that were fit for it into steamships, as sailing vessels could not be opposed to steamships with any chance of success, the latter must now be considered as the only ships really effective for the purposes of war, and the following is at present the relative strength of the two navies in steam line-of-battle ships and frigates, including ships building and converting&quot;: December 1858. Line-of-battle Ships. Frigates. English. Krench. 29 2 4 5 40 4 English. French. Complete, hull and ma- ) 29 4 7 10 Screw, 17 ) 9fi Paddle, 9p b 2

6 Screw, 15 ) ,. Paddle,19 ) d * 3 1 8 Receiving engines Iron-plated ships building.. CO 34 4G It is curious to observe what happened as a consequence of this report and the circumstances of the time. The committee did not recommend building an iron-plated line-of-battle ship or frigate, although the &quot;Warrior&quot; was commenced a few months later. They recommended converting 19 sailing ships of the line into steamships of the line and steam frigates. Two years later there were 67 wooden steamships of war building and converting for the royal navy, and navy estimates had gone up to twelve millions and a half; unhappily all these wooden line-of-battle ships and frigates were soon found to be no real addition to the force of the navy, and many of them were not completed. The four iron-plated ships appearing so ominously at the foot of the French list had com pletely changed the situation. At this date iron had been gradually encroaching on wood as a material for the hulls of British merchant ships. It was thought at one time to be unsuitable for war-ships on account of the irregular holes made by shot passing through it, and the difficulty of plugging them, but the use of armour tended to prevent shot, or at least shell, from passing through. Iron presented also the advantage of permitting the use of water-tight bulkheads. (The