NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



619 



NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. This 

 important arm of the national service excited 

 public attention to a large extent in 1881. For 

 several years the navy had been much neglect- 

 ed. It had become weak and inefficient. It 

 was poorly and meanly supplied ; and it was 

 held to be quite unworthy of a great nation. 

 The Secretary, in his annual report, urged 

 warmly its claims upon the gratitude of the 

 country, and pleaded earnestly for prompt and 

 efficient action in its behalf. He is clearly of 

 opinion that, " while the navy should not be 

 large, it should at all times afford a nucleus for 

 its enlargement upon an emergency. Its power 

 of prompt and extended expansion should be 

 established." And he further says: " Upon the 

 whole, whether it be as a means of self-protec- 

 tion to the long line of cities and harbors upon 

 our coasts, or to guard our commerce on the 

 high seas, or to insure our citizens sojourning 

 in foreign lands and their property and persons 

 against outrage ; or to take and keep our proper 

 place among nations ; or to maintain the senti- 

 ment of patriotism connected with our navy, 

 and with the memory of its departed heroes ; 

 or to reap the advantages of the researches 

 and labors of its officers in the further progress 

 of advanced science, it becomes the duty of 

 Congress to see to it that the navy of the 

 United States should not be left to perish 

 through inanition, but should be restored to a 

 condition of usefulness, in which it may, upon 

 occasion, be so expanded as to become the 

 ready means of protection at home, or of ac- 

 tive and aggressive warfare in the ports and 

 waters of an enemy." 



In order to be able to come before the na- 

 tional legislature with some definite, matured 

 plans and recommendations for increasing the 

 efficiency of the navy, a naval advisory board, 

 consisting of able and experienced officers, was 

 appointed early in the year. It prosecuted its 

 work and reported toward the close of 1881. 

 It strongly recommends proper and effective 

 vessels, combining sufficient speed, facility of 

 manoeuvre, and a power of resistance deemed 

 abundantly available for practical purposes. 

 These vessels thus recommended are adapted 

 to the depth of water in our ports and harbors ; 

 and, while requiring no fine work, extravagant 

 and useless, it is believed they will adequately 

 supply the pressing wants of this arm of de- 

 fense. The number and types of vessels that 

 will be available for service in the navy at the 

 expiration of eight years, in case the programme 

 set forth by the advisory board be adopted, 

 are : twenty-one ironclads (" such vessels," 

 they emphatically declare, '* are absolutely 

 needed for the defense of the country in time of 

 war "), seventy unarmored cruisers, five rams, 

 five torpedo gunboats, twenty torpedo-boats. 

 Cost of the vessels recommended to be built, 

 nearly $30,000,000. 



At this date there are one hundred and forty 

 vessels on the navy list, twenty-five of which 

 are mere tugs, with a very large number of 



others entirely useless, and which could not, 

 without a great expenditure of money, be made 

 fit for service. There are, it appears, four 

 double-turreted monitors belonging to the Gov- 

 ernment and remaining unfinished, one at Phil- 

 adelphia, one at Wilmington, Delaware, one at 

 Chester, Pennsylvania, and one at Mare Island, 

 California. It is not clear what is best to be done 

 with these, whether to continue work on them 

 or to abandon them. It is recommended that 

 they be removed to a navy-yard, be carefully 

 examined, and, if thought advisable, finished 

 in a manner to confer some benefit on the Gov- 

 ernment, in spite of their irregularly designed 

 plans. At present these monitors are only bad 

 copies of old models built in an emergency, 

 worthless for the defense of the coasts, and en- 

 tailing considerable expense for their preserva- 

 tion. The Government can not afford to throw 

 away these vessels, after spending so much 

 money on them, without first finding out 

 whether they may be converted into useful 

 ships. 



The United States maintains squadrons, of 

 some five or six vessels each, on the North 

 Atlantic Station, the South Atlantic Station, 

 the European Station, the Pacific Station, and 

 the Atlantic Station. Besides these there is a 

 training-practice squadron, consisting of five 

 vessels; seven ships are employed on special 

 service, and one is used by the State of New 

 York as a marine school-ship. 



During 1881 a portion of the navy was oc- 

 cupied in works of utility to the country at 

 large, as well as in the interests of science. 

 The longitudes of Yokohama, Nagasaki, Vladi- 

 Yostok, Shanghai, Amoy, and Hong-Kong have 

 been established by means of the electric tele- 

 graph, and it is expected that the electric light 

 will be found of great value for various pur- 

 poses in the naval service. Two United States 

 steamers have been detailed for the purpose of 

 surveying the waters and shoals of the Gulf of 

 Samana, in the Island of San Domingo, which, 

 from its geographical position and extent, seems 

 destined to become of great importance com- 

 mercially, and for similar service on the Spanish 

 Main. It is recommended that systematic sur- 

 veys be made of parts of the West Indies, the 

 coasts of Mexico and Central America, and of 

 the Marshall and Caroline groups of islands. The 

 Naval Observatory reports astronomical work 

 performed during the year, consisting of obser- 

 vations of stars, satellites, and comets ; their 

 reduction and partial publication ; the discus- 

 sion and publication of the result of the transit- 

 of- Venus expeditions of 1874; the reduction 

 of the photographic observations of the transit 

 of Mercury of 1878 ; and the prosecution of 

 experiments on astronomical photography. In 

 this connection, mention is made of the selec- 

 tion and purchase of a site for a new Naval 

 Observatory on Georgetown Heights. It is 

 estimated that the cost of the new structure 

 will be about $600,000. Under authorization 

 of Congress, the Secretary of the Navy had a 



