Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/312

Rh 300 NAVY selves from lot drawing by enlisting as volunteers. In the naval forces the ordinary term of service is ten years, namely, seven with the fleet and three in the reserve. The total number of young men who had attained the age of twenty years in 1880 was 794,000. The contingent to join on the 1st (13th) January 1881 was fixed at 235,000, and of this number 231,961 were enrolled. According to the statutes the number of sailors in the navy should be about 50,000. Of these in time of peace there are serving afloat 28,000, and employed ashore 12,000, the remaining 10,000 being on un limited furlough. In 1879 the appropriation of the conscripts actu ally enrolled in the navy was 4504 for the Baltic fleet, 446 for the Black Sea fleet, 72 for the Caspian flotilla, and 418 for the Siberian flotilla. The effective was on January 1, 1880, 2303 below the establishment. Austria- Hungary* The duty of military service is general, and must be fulfilled personally by every citizen capable of bearing arms. The term lasts for twelve years, of which three are spent in the standing army, seven in the reserve, and two in the landwehr; men who are incorporated in the landwehr at once serve in it for twelve years. In the navy the period of service is for ten years, of which three years are active and seven years reserve service. The conscription is confined to Dalmatia and the coast districts. One- third of the whole complement of officers and men required to man the fleet in time of war is kept continuously afloat in peace ; the war complement is 8079 of all ranks, of whom 2700 are actively employed ; the war complement comprises (besides rear-admiral and staff of the squadron) officers, &c., 571; sailors and gunners, 5428; navigating personnel, 362; naval police, 158; engine-room artificers, stokers, &c., 781; sanitary personnel, 53; tradesmen, 202; stewards, cooks, officers servants, &c., 524, total, 8079. The peace effective of the corps of seamen is 6152, inclusive of the 400 boys in the training-ship &quot; Schwartzenberg. &quot; The total force on the war establishment is 11,532. To show briefly the general result of all this organiza tion of mate riel and personnel, it is perhaps sufficient to state the number of ships in commission at a given date in the present year (1883), and the numbers of their crews. Including stationary and harbour ships, tenders, training and drill ships, troop and surveying ships, there are from 230 to 240 ships and vessels in commission in the British navy, mounting about 1400 guns, and having a personnel, all told, of about 34,000 officers, men, and boys. Exclud ing the vessels specially referred to above, and taking only those which may be regarded as fighting vessels, the number in commission falls to about 100, with about 800 guns, and 22,000 officers, men, and boys in the crews. Comparing this with foreign navies, the proportions may be fairly stated as follows : No. of Ships. No. of Guns. Complement. England 100 800 22 000 France. . 100 500 15 000 Spain 80 320 8 500 Russia 60 260 8 300 Germany 30 230 6 300 United States 30 250 5 400 Holland 40 280 4 800 Turkey 30 220 4 500 Italy 24 100 4 00 Portugal 20 100 2 500 Of works on British naval history, the following, among others, may be consulted : Nicolas, History of the Navy from the Earliest Times to 1422, 2 vols., 1847; Campbell, Lives of the Admirals to 1727, 4 vols., 1750, and afterwards continued by Berkenhout and Yorke down to 1816 in 8 vols., the last edition being that of 1870; Southey, Lives of the British Admirals, 5 vols., 1833 (from the Restoration); Lediard, Naval History of England to 1734, 1735; Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain from 1727 to 1783, 1st edition, 3 vols., 1790 ; Brenton, Naval History from 1783 to 1836, 2 vols., 1837 ; James, Naval History from 1793 to 1827, 6 vols., many editions; Schomberg, Naval Chronology to 1802, 5 vols., 1802; Naval Chronicle from 1799 to 1818, 40 vols.; Allen, Battles of the British Navy from 1190 to 1840, 2 vols., 1852 ; Yonge, History of British Navy from 700 to 1862, 2 vols., 1863. The following deal almost exclusively with the materiel of the navy: Charnock, History of Naval Architecture, 3 vols., 1801; Derrick, Memoirs of the Navy, 1806 ; Perigal, Chart of Naval History from Hie Earliest Period to 1859, 1860. (N. B.) 1 See The Armed Strength of Austria, published (1874) under the authority of H.M. Stationery Office. NAVY or THE UNITED STATES. The American navy came into existence shortly after the Declara tion of Independence. As early as October 1775 Congress author ized the construction of two national cruisers, and, at the same time, appointed a marine committee to administer naval affairs. The first force, consisting of purchased vessels, badly fitted arid built, and insufficiently equipped and manned, embraced two ships of 24 guns each, six brigs carrying from 10 to 12 guns, two schooners each with 8 guns, and four sloops, three of 10 guns and one of 4 guns. On December 22d a personnel of officers was selected, one of the lieutenants being the well-known Paul Jones. Ezekiel Hopkins was made commander-in-chief, but, having incurred the censure of Congress, he was dismissed early in 1777, and since then the title has never been revived except in the person of the president. In November 1776 the grades of admiral, vice-admiral, rear-admiral, and commodore were assimilated in rank and precedence to relative army titles, but they were never created by law until 1862. During the war a number of spirited engagements occurred, but there was a great lack of efficient material at home, and agents abroad were not able to enlist the active sympathies of nations or rulers. Benjamin Franklin did manage to equip one good squadron, but this was rendered almost useless by internal dissensions, and it required the victory of Paul Jones in the &quot; Bon Homme Eichard &quot; over the &quot; Serapis &quot; to bring about any tangible result for the risk taken. During the war 800 vessels of all classes were made prizes, but the navy lost by capture 11 vessels of war and a little squadron of gun boats on the lakes ; and, with 13 ships destroyed to avoid capture by the British, 5 condemned, and 3 wrecked at sea, the country was practically without a naval force between 1780 and 1785. Owing to the depredations upon commerce of the Barbary powers, Congress in 1794 ordered the construction of six frigates, prescribing that four of them should be armed with 44 guns and two with 36 guns ; but, the Berbers having made peace, the number of vessels was reduced one half, and no additions were made until 1797, when the &quot;Constitution,&quot; &quot;United States, &quot;and &quot;Constella tion&quot; were built. Trouble with France from 1798 to 1801 resulted in the formation of four squadrons operating in the West Indies ; these numbered 21 vessels in all, and, besides capturing nearly one hundred prizes, they gained experience and prestige by many short and decisive single actions. No further increase was made until 1802, when the war with Tripoli was declared ; up to this time the navy had cost the country, including sites for navy yards, only 2,000,000. In 1803 the &quot;gunboat policy&quot; was revived, but, though 188 vessels of this class were built, their service was un important and their usefulness questionable. At the breaking out of hostilities with Great Britain in June 1812, the naval force of the United States consisted of a number of gunboats fitted for the protection of rivers and inlets, and of 17 sea-going ships, 9 of which were below the frigate class. From the close of the war in 1815 until the beginning of hostilities with Mexico in 1846, the American navy was engaged in the suppression of the slave-trade and of piracy, and in voyages of exploration and discovery. In 1846 California, after being once relinquished, was seized, and during the war the United States vessels were employed in blockading or capturing the ports upon both seaboards of Mexico, and in co-operating with the army, all hostilities ceasing in 1847 with the occupation of the city of Mexico. In 1848 Lieutenant Lynch commanded an expedition engaged on the exploration of the Dead Sea and the river Jordan ; in 1856 the Advance &quot; and &quot; Rescue &quot; searched for Sir John Franklin, followed later by the expeditions of Kane and of Hartstene; in 1854 Strain made a partial survey of the Isthmus of Panama ; and in 1855 Rear- Admiral John Rodgers, in the &quot; Vincennes,&quot; went farther into the Arctic Ocean through Behring s Strait than any previous navigator. In 1858 the Paraguay expedition successfully finished its work ; and for many years, earnestly aided by Great Britain, a squadron was employed on the coast of Africa and in the West Indies for the suppression of the slave-trade. The civil war broke out in April 1861, and its naval character was marked by two leading features : the first was that, while one side had a small force of naval vessels, which were generally good of their kind, the other entered the contest with absolutely nothing that could be called a man-of-war ; the second was that, though certain developments in the character and construction of ships and weapons had been foreshadowed before the war, and had even been partially realized, it was during the progress of the struggle that those changes took place in marine warfare which amounted to a revolution. The effect of rifle and shell-fire, the employment of the ram, the destructive energy of torpedoes, the application of armour to the sides of vessels, and the superiority of iron-armoured ships all taught in practice what theory had in vain asserted. At the commencement of hostilities the number of vessels of all kinds in commission was 76 ; 136 were purchased in 1861, making the total 26-1, while the roll of enlisted men increased from 7500 to 22,000. At the close of the war there were 51,500 seamen and 7000