504 



NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the construction of a double cupola, carrying 

 two guns. There were also built and afloat 

 before the close of the year, the following iron- 

 cased ships : 



There were also building the Achilles, of 6,100 

 tons, 36 guns, 1,250 horse power, and the Va- 

 liant, of 4,000 tons, 32 guns, 800 horse power. 

 Three others, of 60 guns each, were ordered, 

 and three more were soon to be built, cased 

 either with 44-inch iron on a teak wood back- 

 ing, or built of 6^-inch iron slabs without a 

 wooden backing, the choice to be determined 

 by the greater resistance to shot on trial made 

 at Shoeburyness. Besides these 13 ships of 

 iron, the construction of 5 wooden ships, ex- 

 pressly designed for being plated with iron, 

 was rapidly pushed forward. The armament 

 of each of these will consist of 40 guns of the 

 heaviest calibre. The estimated cost of these 

 18 vessels is 8,000,000, or $39,000,000. The 

 following is the general description of the 

 "Warrior, the first one completed of these ves- 

 sels. She is a screw-steamer, 380 feet long 

 between perpendiculars, (420 feet over all,) of 

 58 feet beam, 41| feet depth from spar-deck to 

 keel, 26 feet draught of water, and of 6,1Y7 tons 

 burden, builder's measurement. She is built 

 of iron throughout, and 205 feet of her length 

 are protected by 4^-inch plates of solid iron, 

 backed with two layers of teak timber, one of 

 10 inches next the iron, and the inner one of 8 

 inches. The protection extends 9 feet below 

 load- water line. At each end of this protected 

 portion, iron bulkheads, 4 inches thick, backed 

 with 18 inches of teak timber, complete the 

 protection for the centre of the ship, and inner 

 bulkheads extend all around this portion with- 

 in 34 feet of the sides. The enclosed space is 

 divided into 6 water-tight compartments, one 

 being devoted to each of the two boilers. Her 

 main-deck ports are about 8| feet above water 

 at load-water line, and are 15>i feet apart. She 

 is bark-rigged with the spars and sails of an 

 80-gun ship. Her guns are 68-pounders for the 

 main-deck, ten Armstrong *TO-pounders on the 

 spar-deck, and two pivot Armstrong 100-pound- 

 ers, one at each end, in all 48 guns, which 

 may be considerably added to. 



Mr. Donald McKay, the American ship- 

 builder, in calling the attention of our people 

 to these startling facts in a letter from London 

 of Dec. 3d, 1861, alludes to the inferiority of 

 our navy, which ranks hardly with that of 

 second-rate European powers, and to our un- 

 questioned ability to build and man a first-class 

 fleet. He remarks : " It would be easy for us 

 to build in one year, a fleet of 500 to 600 men- 

 of-war ships, from a gunboat to the largest 

 class of iron-cased frigates. It is a well-known 



fact that we built in one year, the astonishing 

 number of 2,034 vessels and steamers of all 

 classes, measuring together 583,450 tons. * * 

 '* * We would be able in our merchant yards 

 alone to turn out in one year 583 ships of 

 1,000 tons each. In our six navy yards, where 

 the choicest materials are stocked for building a 

 fleet of 100 ships, 60 more might be built in one 

 year, making a total of 643 men-of-war ships 

 of all classes, varying in their armament from 

 3 to 60 guns. More than a hundred of our 

 greatest engineering firms would complete all 

 the machinery necessary to be put in these 

 ships in less than a year. Our capabilities and 

 facilities of building ships have not in the least 

 suffered by the loss of the seceded States, which 

 have never built one per cent, of the sea-going 

 ships of the United States." As an evidence 

 of the entire change that is taking place in the 

 views of practical men as to the future charac- 

 ter of vessels of war, Mr. McKay recommends, 

 that in any great emergency our navy could 

 be rendered much more efficient for defence by 

 cutting down all our line-of-battle ships one or 

 two decks, casing them with 5-inch iron plates, 

 and arming them with 30 or 40 guns of the 

 heaviest calibre. Our heavy frigates might be 

 made shell-proof with iron plates, and the ar- 

 mament on the upper deck be dispensed with 

 on account of the additional weight. Our 

 merchant steamers and large clipper ships may 

 readily be transformed into frigates, sloops, 

 and gunboats of great efficiency and speed su- 

 perior to that of any men-of-war ships yet 

 built. A very large number of our barks and 

 brigs are well adapted for receiving an arma- 

 ment of from 8 to 20 guns, and more than a 

 thousand large coasting schooners of 28 to 30 

 feet breadth of beam, of a class unsurpassed 

 for speed by any sailing vessels, and having 

 great stability and strength, can soon be trans- 

 formed into men-of-war schooners, armed with 

 a pivot gun, or a mortar of the heaviest de- 

 scription placed amidships, and two to four 22- 

 pounders at the ends. The subject came be- 

 fore Congress in 1861, and on the 3d of August 

 an act was approved, directing the Secretary 

 of the Navy " to appoint a board of three skil- 

 ful naval officers to investigate the plans and 

 specifications that may be submitted for the 

 construction or completing iron-clad steam- 

 ships or steam-batteries, and on their report, 

 should it be favorable, the Secretary of the 

 Navy will cause one or more armored, or iron 

 or steel-clad steam-ships or floating steam-bat- 

 teries to be built ; and there is hereby appro- 

 priated, out of any money in the treasury not 

 otherwise appropriated, the sum of $1,500,000." 

 Commodores Joseph Smith and H. Pauldiug, 

 with Capt. C. H. Davis, were appointed this 

 board,' and their report was presented of the date 

 of Sept. 16. While considering iron-clad ships 

 as without doubt formidable adjuncts to coast 

 and harbor fortifications, the board questioned 

 their advantages and ultimate adoption as cruis- 

 ing vessels, chiefly on account of the enormous 



