NAVY 



413 



of which six were Venetian galeasses, which were 

 larger and carried a heavier weight of metal than 

 had yet been known in Mediterranean warfare. 

 The ordinary galleys were about 160 feet long, 32 

 feet wide, and were propelled by some sixty oars ; 

 they generally carried a 24- pounder forward and two 

 8-poundere on the poop. In the galeasses the rowers 

 were covered by a narrow deck on which small guns 

 were mounted. The Turkish fleet consisted of 240 

 galleys, but they were completely defeated, losing 

 over '224 of their ships, of which 94 were sunk or 

 run aground, and the remainder were captured ; 

 30,000 Turks were slain, and 15,000 Christians 

 serving as galley-slaves in the Ottoman fleet were 

 rescued from captivity. The confederates lost 15 

 galleys and 8000 men. The Venetian and Maltese 

 fleets subsequently l>ecame the great naval powers, 

 although sharing the sovereignty of the Mediter- 

 ranean with the Turks ; but during the close of 

 the 16th and 17th centuries the naval power 

 gradually fell into the hands of the English, French, 

 Dutch, and Spaniards. 



Modern A'avies. Dating the modern navies of 

 the world from the 16th century, we find the British 

 navy rising from insignificance by the destruction 

 of the Spanish Armada in 1588, a blow from which 

 Spain only partially recovered, and the weight of 

 which the Dutch, whose naval force had acquired 

 tremendous strength in their straggle for inde- 

 pendence, increased by their triumph in 1607, in 

 the Bay of Gibraltar. At this time there was no 

 decisive superiority of the fleet of England over 

 that of France ; hut each was inferior to the Dutch 

 navy. The Commonwealth and reign of Charles 

 II. were signalised by the struggle for mastery 

 between the English and Dutch, when victory, 

 after many alternations, finally sided with the 

 former. Through the 18th century the English 

 and French were the principal fleets ; bat Louis 

 XVI. gave a decided superiority to the navy of 

 France, and at the period of the American war the 

 naval power of England was seriously threatened. 

 Spain, Holland, ami Itussia (now for the first time 

 a naval power) had meanwhile acquired consider- 

 able fleets; and the 'armed neutrality' to which the 

 northern powers gave their adherence rendered the 

 British position most critical. However, the slowly 

 roused energy of her government, the invincible 

 courage of Tier seamen, and the genius of her 

 admirals brought Britain through all her trials. 

 Camperdown broke the Dutch power; many battles 

 weakened the French navy ; and at Trafalgar in 

 1805 it, with the Spanish power, was swept tem- 

 porarily from the ocean. 



The resources of France, however, were so great 

 that in a few years after the signing of peace 

 in 1815 her fleet had again been brought up to 

 its old strength, and it still continues to occupy 

 the second place among the navies of the world*! 

 To Napoleon III. belongs the credit of first pro- 

 tecting ships with iron, and La Gloire, launched 

 at Toulon in 1859, was the first armoured battle- 

 ship to be put afloat. Much more uniformity 

 in armament and design is found in the French 

 armoured fleet of the present day than exists in the 

 English. The armour-belt round the water-line of 

 many of their ships is of greater thickness than in 

 corresponding English ships. All the armour is 

 well distributed, the guns are carried high out of 

 the water, and the ships themselves steam well. 

 Many distinguished English naval officers are of 

 opinion that, ship for ship, many of the latest 

 trench ships are more than a match for ships 

 of a similar tonnage in the British navy. During 

 the Franco-German war of 1870-71 the French 

 fleet had no opportunities of proving its effective- 

 MM. 



Of navies which have sprung recently into exist- 



ence two deserve special notice, the German and 

 the Italian. The first named may he said to date 

 its birth from the acquisition of Kiel by Prussia 

 after the war with Denmark in 1864 ; and, al- 

 though too weak to make any head in the war 

 with France in 1870 against the French fleet, yet 

 since that date so rapidly has the young fleet grown 

 that the German navy will most certainly play 

 an important part in any future European compli- 

 cations. The ships are good, and the officers and 

 men are probably among the most highly trained 

 of any navy in the world. 



The Italian navy dates from the absorption of 

 the kingdom of Naples bv Sardinia in I860. Since 

 the disastrous battle of Lissa (1866), each succes- 

 sive Italian government has devoted large sums 

 and much energy towards building up a powerful 

 navy, and Italy may fairly claim now to rank as a 

 first-class naval power, occupying a position next 

 to France (see ITALY). Among the Italian iron- 

 clads may be numbered ten of the largest and 

 most powerful battle-ships afloat viz. the Dandolo 

 and Duilio and the Italia and her seven sisters. 

 All these ships carry four 110-ton guns in their 

 turrets or barbettes, besides a powerful auxiliary 

 armament, while the engines or the five latest of 

 these ships are far more powerful than those of 

 even the most newly-designed English battle-ships, 

 and are calculated to drive them at a speed of 18 

 knots an hour. 



The Austrian?, the victors at Lissa, have since 

 1840 possessed a small, but probably for its size 

 one of the most efficient of tlie European navies, 

 officers and men being most carefully and thor- 

 oughly trained. 



The Turkish navy, once the terror of the whole 

 Mediterranean, has now sunk to a low ebb. In 

 1827 it sustained at the battle of Navarino a crush- 

 ing defeat, from which it never recovered. At the 

 outbreak of the war with Russia in 1833 a division 

 of the Turkish fleet wus completely destroyed by a 

 superior Russian force at Sinope ; but as a result 

 of the restrictions imposed on Itussia after the 

 Crimean war, and of the energy infused once more 

 into Turkish naval administration by Admiral 

 Hobart Pasha, when war broke out again between 

 Russia and Turkey in 1877 the Russian fleet was 

 effectually paralysed by the superior Turkish forces, 

 which retained command of the Blaek Sea during 

 the war. Since then, however, no new ships 

 have been built, and in the present state of the 

 finances of the country it is unlikely that the 

 Turkish navy will play any important r6le again 

 in the future. 



The Russian navy -was founded by Peter the 

 Great, but, although it soon became a formidable 

 one, it has never as yet distinguished itself or become 

 an important factor in the numerous wars in which 

 Russia has been encaged. After the battle of 

 Sinope in 1853 the bulk of the Black Sea fleet was 

 sunk by order of Prince Menschikofl', governor of 

 Sebastopol, to block the entrance to the harbour, 

 and the remaining ships were burned when the 

 Russians retreated in September 1855. By the 

 abrogation of the Black Sea portion of the treaty 

 of Vienna in 1871 Russia regained a free hand once 

 more in the Black Sea, and she has for some years 

 been making strenuous efforts to resume her place 

 as a naval power. Several formidable ironclads 

 have been built, while others are in course of con- 

 struction, as well as several cruisers of the most 

 modern type, and she in her turn is once more 

 mistress of the Black Sea. 



NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. Simultaneously 

 with the war of Independence, the Americans 

 began to build ships, nnd during that war and 

 the war of 1812 and 1814 their fleet maintained a 

 glorious although unequal straggle with Great 



