Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/353

NAVIES.  prevail the vessels will soon become useless for lack of care. The Minister of Marine is an admiral appointed by the Sultan. The department is divided into four bureaus, viz.: (1) Personnel; (2) Material; (3) Construction; (4) Medicine and Hygiene. The only great dockyard is the arsenal of Constantinople; this is a large and very excellent establishment as regards plan and arrangements, but is not properly kept up, and much of the machinery and fittings cannot be used. The personnel of the fleet consists of 6 vice-admirals and 11 rear-admirals with the rank of pasha; 130 captains, 25 commanders of superior grade, 55 commanders of inferior grade, 300 lieutenant-commanders—all with the rank of bey; 250 lieutenants, and 200 sub-lieutenants—with the rank of effendi; 400 engineers, 60 surgeons, 100 commissary officers, 110 pay officers. The enlisted force on paper is about 15,000 men; in fact, it rarely exceeds 3000, and sometimes is considerably less. For many years the larger vessels of the navy swung around their buoys in the Golden Horn without moving and without sufficient men on board to move them. The fleet consisted in 1902 of 1 battleship of 10,650 tons, which has been under construction at the arsenal of Constantinople for nearly ten years, and in 1902 was still far from being ready to launch; 7 old battleships of 5600 to 9120 tons (launched 1864-74, and very thoroughly rebuilt, modernized, and rearmed 1895-1902), 5 old battleships of 2050 to 2720 tons (launched 1868-72, but in 1902 undergoing thorough reconstruction), 1 armored coast-defense gunboat of 330 tons (launched 1864), 3 protected cruisers of 3250 tons (building in 1902 at Philadelphia, Elswick, and Kiel), 2 protected cruisers of 4050 tons (building at arsenal in Constantinople—work practically suspended for many years), 6 small cruisers of 643 to 1815 tons (launched 1892-96), 3 torpedo gunboats of 450 to 900 tons (launched 1890-92), 4 torpedo-boat destroyers of 180 to 270 tons (launched 1894-1900), 22 torpedo boats of 42 to 150 tons (launched 1884-92), 6 gunboats of 200 tons (2 completed 1894—others building), about 25 special service vessels.

The head of the Navy Department is the Secretary of the Navy, a civil officer, and a member of the Cabinet; and the Assistant Secretary is also a civil officer. The department is divided into eight bureaus: Navigation, Ordnance, Equipment, Construction and Repair, Steam Engineering, Yards and Docks, Supplies and Accounts, and Medicine and Surgery; and there is in addition the office of the Judge Advocate-General. The Bureau of Navigation has charge of the personnel and the direction of the fleet; the duties of the other bureaus are indicated by their titles. Under the Bureau of Navigation are the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Naval Academy; under the Bureau of Equipment are the Hydrographic Office, the Compass Office, the Naval Observatory, and the Nautical Almanac Office. The Board of Construction, which passes on the general features of new ships, is made up of the chiefs of the Bureaus of Navigation, Ordnance, Equipment, Construction and Repair, and Steam Engineering. Strategical and tactical matters are controlled by the General Board, which is similar to the general staff of foreign services.

For further and detailed information, see Navy in the article on the.

The navy of Uruguay consists of 3 small gunboats of 270 to 400 tons (launched 1883-91), 1 dispatch boat of 400 tons (launched 1882), and 1 transport of 260 tons. The senior officer has the rank of rear-admiral.

The navy of Venezuela previous to the difficulty of 1902-03 with the European Powers consisted of 2 armed steamers of 500 to 832 tons, a torpedo gunboat of 571 tons (launched 1891; purchased from Spain 1899), and several river gunboats (built in England 1891-93).

See ;, where will be found a complete bibliography; .  NAVIGABLE RIVER. See .  NAVIGATION (Lat. navigatio, a sailing, from narigare, to sail, from navis, ship + agere, to lead). In a broad sense, all means whereby the ship is made to proceed from place to place, but in a more technical sense, only those means whereby the course of the vessel is directed or ascertained.

The early history of navigation is wrapped in obscurity. The Egyptians had vessels large enough to be called ships about 3000 years , and perhaps long before this. The Chinese also built ships at a very early date. The appliances for navigating these vessels must have been few and rude, and a voyage of a few hundred miles was regarded as a great undertaking. Considering the difficulties under which they labored, the voyages of the Phœnicians must be regarded as daring ventures. They spread their merchant fleets throughout the Mediterranean, navigated Solomon's squadrons to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, and planted colonies everywhere.

Principal among these colonies was Carthage. The Carthaginian fleets passed the Pillars of Hercules, and, with no better guide than the stars, are believed to have sailed northward to the British Isles, and southward for some distance along the west coast of Africa. In 611 a Phœnician expedition fitted out by Pharaoh Necho started to circumnavigate Africa, a feat which is said to have been actually accomplished. From the eighth to the fourth century the Greek States gradually developed the art of navigation, and at the time of the Peloponnesian War the Athenians appear to have been skillful tacticians, capable of concerted manœuvres. In the fourth century Alexander the Great destroyed the power of Tyre, transferring its commerce to Alexandria, which became the centre of trade for the ancient world. Rome wrested from Carthage its naval power, and took its vast trade into the hands of the Italian sailors.

During all this period the average size of the vessels had been continually increasing. Sails were known, and some knowledge was evinced even of beating up against a foul wind; but oars were the great motive power; speed was not thought of, a voyage from the Levant to Italy being the work of a season. During the time of the Roman Empire no great progress seems to have been made, except in the size of the vessels; but regular fleets were maintained, both in the