158 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



which we most require is for smooth water and shallow 

 places. Such a one, consisting of small vessels, can be 

 quickly and cheaply built. We want at once a navy for 

 our rivers and creeks and bays and sounds; a navy 

 consisting chiefly of vessels that, for the most part, will 

 only be required to keep the sea for a few days at a time." 

 These ships would be so small as to present little more 

 than a feather-edge as a target to the enemy, and there- 

 fore be more invulnerable than the best shot-proof 

 men-of-war. They would be not more than twenty or 

 twenty-five feet broad, and with coal, crew, and guns 

 aboard would float only two or three feet above the 

 surface of the water. They were, in fact, to be really 

 nothing but floating gun carriages, propelled by steam, 

 and each was to carry two rifled cannon of the largest 

 caliber. Such a ship would be able to engage, at long 

 range, one of the largest ships of the Union navy, the 

 Minnesota, for example; and in attacking head on, she 

 would present a target of but forty square feet as com- 

 pared with one of six thousand square feet of the Minne- 

 sota. This, at a distance of two or three miles, would 

 be a great advantage to the smaller vessel. Maury 

 claimed for this type of ship facility of construction, 

 rapidity in equipment, economy in outfit, and efficiency 

 in battle. The cost of one hundred of these small 

 vessels, including armament, engine, and machinery, he 

 estimated, would be $10,000 each. 



This dogma of "big guns and Httle ships" made a very 

 favorable impression on Governor Letcher and other 

 prominent Virginians, and so Maury decided to bring 

 the matter of their construction before the state govern- 

 ment. But beyond his expectation, his plan met with 

 favor in the Confederate Congress, which took over from 



