Thomas Brassey

“ As trade and commerce enrich, so they fortify our country. The sea is our barrier, ships are our fortresses, and the mariners that trade and commerce alone can furnish are the garrisons to defend them. Like other amphibious animals, we must come occasionally on shore; but the water is more properly our element, and on it, like them, as we find our greatest security, so we exert our greatest force.' ”

“ The classes of ships best adopted for the protection commerce. Assuming, therefore, that in the event of war our commerce would be the principal object of attack, it is important to consider what types or classes of ships are the best adapted to protect our commerce, to keep open our communications with our foreign settlements, and to convoy the supplies of food from abroad, which are indispensably necessary to the sustenance of our population. ”

“ Whatever be the rate attained on the measured mile, in cruising in search of an enemy, the speed of unarmoured vessels will seldom be allowed to exceed 10 knots. The great consumption of coal at higher speeds will make it impossible to exert the full power of the engines, except when giving chase to an enemy. So again, if a fleet were despatched on the outbreak of war to take up a position at sea, for the purpose of intercepting the commerce of an enemy, or if ships were sent across the ocean to blockade an enemy's coast, the speed would not be allowed on the voyage to exceed 10 knots. ”

“ It depends upon the resources of the enemy in vessels possessing that quality, which it is always most expensive to secure. In the actual state of naval power abroad, the most serviceable vessel for the protection of commerce would seem to be a ship not exceeding in any case the dimensions of the 'Volage;' though some vessels of that class might possibly be made more efficient for service in European waters, or even in the North Atlantic, if their spars were reduced, and their steam power and coal-carrying capacity, and perhaps their armament, were proportionately increased. ”

“ The experience of the war against the Confederates in America is enough to show that, when a blockade is to be maintained on a long line of coast, or, where the Navy is called upon to furnish ships to go in pursuit of privateers or cruisers, few perhaps in number, but roaming at large over the ocean, individual power will not compensate for insufficiency of numbers. ”

“ The duties and services, which vessels of war are required to perform, are so various in their nature that it is altogether impossible that the same classes of ships can be advantageously employed, both in line of battle and for the police of the seas. It will accordingly be more convenient, in discussing the shipbuilding policy of the Navy, to divide the armoured from the unarmoured classes. ”

“ Large tonnage not essential for high speed. Assuming, however, that extreme speed is required, it by no means follows that large tonnage is a necessity, The fastest vessel in the navy, the yacht 'Osborne,' is a comparatively small ship. The fastest ships in the merchant service are the steamers carrying the mails between Holyhead and Kingstown, and the blockade-runners which, during the war of the secession, escaped the United States cruisers by their superior speed. ”

“ It is admitted that the smaller cruisers must succumb to larger vessels in an engagement; but it does not follow that the smaller classes are incapable of doing effective service. The prospect of meeting a 'Raleigh' or 'Inconstant' is remote.
Vastum maris aequor arandum.
A ship of small size may have fully repaid her cost by the destruction inflicted on an enemy's commerce, before she meets with an adversary of overwhelming power; and, even then, in an engagement between unarmoured steamers, the chances of firing a fatal shot into the engine-room are about equal for either ship. ”

“ Armament A few observations may here be made on the subject of guns. Ever since the introduction of steam, armament has been sacrificed more and more to speed, reliance being placed on the superior calibre of the guns, as a compensation for the reduction in their number. The increase of calibre is, however, attended of necessity with many serious disadvantages. The fire is slower, the number of guns is much reduced, perfect accuracy of aim cannot be insured ”

“ They declared that no wooden vessel of war of such great length and small proportionate depth, however well put together, could endure rough seas without evincing a palpable want of longitudinal rigidity. ”

“ The estimated speed of the French ships is 16 knots. It should, however, be stated that the estimates of speed and the reported results of actual trials in the French Navy must not be unreservedly accepted. In armament the French ships are decidedly inferior to our own. The armament of the 'Duquay Trouin' is intended to consist of one 16 c/m., or 64-pounder, and eight 14 c/m. guns, while our own ships will carry sixteen 64-pounders and two 7-inch guns. ”

“ Privateers would not be of large tonnage. It is not probable that privateering would be undertaken by men of large capital, who would be disposed to spend considerable sums on individual ships. The more reasonable presumption is that the privateers would be of moderate size, of high but not extreme speed, rarely exceeding 12 to 13 knots, and that they would be formidable, not so much from their numbers or their individual power, as from the exceeding difficulty of intercepting and pursuing them. ”

“ It would be more correct to say that the power is directly proportionate to the weight of metal which can be fired in a given period of time. For these reasons the Commissioners condemned very heavy guns for cruisers. At the present day the unarmoured cruiser does not require guns of a sufficient calibre to penetrate armour-plating. For such a purpose 12-inch guns would be necessary; whereas, for the special work of a cruiser, the 64-pounder is sufficiently powerful, and, at short distances, will even penetrate the armour of all but the most strongly-protected ironclads. ”

“ The best type of cruiser, according to Admiral Touchard, should be a wooden ship, of greater speed than the majority of the foreign ironclads, more handy under canvas, and costing one- third or one-fourth of the price of the larger ship. ”

“ Our ironclads are only suitable for harbour defence. In case of war with Great Britain or France, our powers would be exerted in cutting up their commerce. Great Britain could not stand a war six months with the fleet of ships we could send out after her vessels. ”

“ The merchant navy of North Germany, in 1872, comprised a total of 5,082 ships, of 1,308,988 tons, of which 2,090, of 165,178 tons, and 29,139 horse-power, were steamers.
The Russian merchant service was composed of 2,514 ships, of 259,773 tons, including 189 steamers, of 13,152 horse-power.
If we were engaged in war, and the resources of our shipbuilding yards were applied exclusively to the construction of fighting vessels, we should in twelve months be able to create an overwhelming fleet. At the Elswick Works, 1,500 men are employed in making guns for every foreign government. ”

“ Why some larger ships required. For certain important services, and especially for the purpose of securing the means of escape from a more formidable iron clad by superior speed, a larger class of ships may be required; but if the same qualities of speed can be obtained in the smaller ships, even though they mount fewer guns, there is much to be said in their favour. The 'Inconstant' is necessarily an expensive ship for the service she is intended to perform. The original cost was 214,000l., with subsequent expenditure of 20,000l. ”

“ Hundreds of thousands of pounds may have been sunk in some Colossus of the deep; but the waste of the public money on ships not capable of rendering services to the country proportionate to their cost, is forgotten or ignored, while the widest publicity will certainly be given to any successful trial of speed at the measured mile.
'Rover' and Bacchante,' cost. The 'Rover,' having a displacement of 3,494 tons and 700 nominal horse-power, and the 'Bacchante,' of 3,910 tons and the same horse-power, were designed in 1872 to have a measured mile speed of 15 knots. ”

“ The engines and coal represented 84 per cent, of all the weight the hull could accommodate below the water line, and thus but 16 per cent, was left for masts, sails, cables, ordnance, and provisions. They said 'that the "Wampanoag" had undoubtedly proved very fast. For twenty-four consecutive hours her average speed was 16·95 knots, while her maximum speed was 173⁄4 knots; but at this extreme rate her consumption of coal was 175 tons a day; and she could only carry fuel enough to steam 950 miles. ”

“ The policy laid down in the report of the French Commission of 1824 is as true to-day as it was fifty years ago. The power of a ship cannot be determined by the weight of metal discharged in a single broadside. ”

“ Barnaby; because there is a natural tendency, from a naval architects point of view, to exaggerate the importance attaching to speed. Of the many qualities which a man-of-war ought to possess, speed under steam is the first in order of time, which can be distinctly ascertained. ”