Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/139

Rh course of being built, the one nearest completion, in the summer of 1870, was the ironclad 'Hansa,' on the stocks in the newly-founded royal dockyard of Danzig. The 'Hansa,' first ironclad constructed in Germany, was designed to carry 8 heavy rifled guns, and will have 450 horse-power.

The German navy was manned, in the summer of 1870, according to the report of the Minister of War and Marine, by 3,283 seamen and boys, and officered by 1 admiral, 1 vice-admiral, 1 rear-admiral, 27 captains, and 217 lieutenants. There were, besides, five companies of marines, four of infantry, and three of artillery, numbering 2,760 men. The sailors of the fleet and marines are raised by conscription from among the seafaring population, which is exempt on this account from service in the army. Great inducements are held out for able seamen to volunteer in the navy, and the number of these in recent years has been very large. The total seafaring population of North Germany is estimated at 80,000, of whom 48,000 are serving in the merchant navy at home, and about 6,000 in foreign navies.

The expenditure for the navy was settled as follows for the year 1870:—

Ordinary Expenditure: —

Ministry of Marine Administration of the Navy Pay of seamen and marines Repairs of ships Marine hospitals War material. Miscellaneous disbursements

Total ordinary expenditure Extraordinary expenditure

Total expenditure.

Thaler

81,250

65,557

1,086,990

890,000

71,820

1,221,317

179,796

3,596,730 4,403,460

8,000,190 £1,201,028

The extraordinary expenditure for the year 1870 was devoted entirely to the building of new ships, and the construction of docks.

Germany has four ports of war, at Kiel, Danzig, and Stralsund on the Baltic, and Wilhelmshaven in the Bay of Jade, on the North Sea. The last-named, most important of harbours for the newly-founded German navy, was opened by the King of Prussia on the 17th June, 1869. The port of Wilhelmshaven is a vast artificial construction of granite, and comprises five separate harbours, with canals, sluices to regulate the tide, and an array of dry docks for ordinary and iron-clad vessels. The first harbour is an artificial basin, flanked by granite moles, respectively 4,000 and 9,600 feet long. This basin, called 'the entrance,' is 700 feet long and 350 wide, and leads to the first sluice, 132 feet long and 66 wide. The next basin, or outer