Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/441

 ARMY AND NAVY.

405

breadth, the erection of Sir John Rennie — under the supervision of English engineers. The Numancia is built entirely of iron, with tin- exception of the teak backing for the armour plating, and is 316 feet long, and 57 feet broad at the beam, with a draught of water of 27 feet 4 inches. The Numancia is completely encased by 5-in. armour of 1,500 tons weight, and pierced for forty 68-pounders. The port cills, with provisions for GOO men and 100 tons of coal on board, are 7 ft. 6 in. out of water ; her full speed is 13 knots, and her engines are of 1,000 nominal horse power. Next in rank after the Numancia is the Arapiles, oldest of Spanish iron-clads, built at Blackwall, and launched October 17, 1864. The Arapiles, con- structed after French models, is of wood, covered with plates 4^ inches thick, and carries 34 guns in broadside battery, with engine's of 800 horse-power. The other four iron-clads are smaller vessels, carrying six and ten guns, with engines of 500 horse-power.

For the defence of the colonies, and mainly of Cuba and Porto Rico, Spain maintains a small fleet of gun-boats, constructed in the United States during the year 1870. The gunboats, thirty in number, are all of the same size, 107ft. long, 22-lft. beam, 8ft. depth of hold, and draw about 5ft. water. They are screw steamers, and each one carries a 100-pounder pivot gun at the bow.

The navy of Spain was manned, in 1870, by 7,354 sailors, and 5,800 marines, and commanded by one ' captain -general of the fleet,' and 1,100 officers of various grades. The navy, like the army, is recruited by conscription, naval districts for this purpose being formed along the coast, among the seafaring population. The num- ber inscribed on these naval conscription lists in the year 1870 amounted to 66,000 men between 18 and 30 years of age.

Population.

The last general census, taken at the end of May 1860, stated the area and total population of the kingdom as follows : —

Area

Population

Continent of Spain. Balearic Islands Canary Islands

English sq. miles 177,781 1,757 3,220

15,807,753 266,952 227,146

Total

182,758

16,301,851

An enumeration of the people on the continent of Spain was made on the 31st of December, 1866, and showed that the total population had risen to 16,336,699.