Page:Unarmoured ships.djvu/29

 riddance upon any terms that would requite the value of her convertible materials.' The Americans finally decided on making considerable reductions in the engine power of this class, and abandoned completely the intention of giving them the extraordinary speed originally contemplated. Four boilers were removed, and these vessels can now steam at the rate of 10 knots an hour.

Officers who, in the excess of their zeal for the efficiency of their own service seem disposed to require that every ship built for the British Navy should be without a rival in every quality, which can contribute to the efficiency of a ship of war, should carefully consider this short history of the 'Wampanoag' scare.

We have seen how the House of Commons was state of alarmed at the threatened superiority of the American cruisers, and how they accepted without question the proposal to build the extravagant ships of the 'Inconstant' class. Let us turn once more to America, and see what were the opinions entertained by the Americans themselves as to the state of their Navy. The Board of Steam Machinery Afloat carefully reviewed the condition of their fleet, and with a candour only to be equalled by the self-condemnation so habitual in this country, they, in their report of 1870, observed that 'it was mortifying and humiliating to witness the amount of naval trash that had been turned out, and of which the Navy, as to vessels, was to a large extent composed.'