NAVY OK THE I'XITKD sT.VTKS. 



thatof (ircat Britain, the first 10 naval power* 

 probably stand as follOW : 



This is far superior to the condition of affnirx 

 in 1882, when our navy was one of the wvak<--t 

 in the world. An account of the preliminary 

 efforts of rebuilding the navy to aiid including 

 1888 is given in the " Annual Cyclona'dia" for 

 that year (pages 787 to 798), to which frequent 

 reference will be made in this article. At that 

 time but three of the new vessels the ' Dolphin," 

 41 Atlanta," and " Boston " were completed, and 

 armor-clad construction had just begun. The 

 work has since been prosecuted unremittingly. 

 until at present there are ready for service, or in 

 course of construction, 13 armored vessels, 25 

 cruisers (unarmored) of various types, and 8 {or- 

 pedo boats. The details of these new vessels are 

 given in the accompanying tables. 



Notes on the Tables. The abbreviations 

 used are : A. C.. armored cruiser ; b., barbette : 

 bit., armor belt (on the water-line); B. S., battle 

 ship ; C., cruiser ; CL, class ; cr., cruiser ; C. T., 

 conning tower ; Disp., dispatch : ft., feet ; g. b.. 

 gunboat; in., inch or inches; mm., millimetres 

 (in diameter of bore); P. C., protected cruiser 

 (i. e., a cruiser with complete curved armor deck) : 

 P. P. C., partially protected cruiser (i. e., with 

 armor or protective deck covering boilers and 

 engines only, or extending over the entire length, 

 but simply bullet-proof, and intended chiefly for 

 ceUolar subdivision); P. P. g.b., partially protected 1 

 gunboat; R.C.,Hotchkiss revolving cannon ; R.F., 

 rapid-fire (guns); s., screw or screws ; T.. turret. 



The "Puritan," "Monadnock," " Amphitrite." 

 " Terror," and " Miantonomoh " have iron hulls : 

 all others are of steel. The " Boston." " Atlan- 

 ta," " Dolphin," and " Petrel " have single screws ; 

 the remainder have twin screws, except cruisers 

 12 and 13, in which three are fitted. The speeds 

 given for vessels that have had their trials are, 

 first, the maximum results obtained on the trial 

 at load draught for the best hour, and second, t lie 

 average speed for the whole run of four or six 

 hours,' continuous steaming ; in the case of 

 not yet completed, the higher speed is that which 

 is expected on trial for one to four hours, and 

 the second is the "sustained sea-s]>ml," which 

 it is believed the vessel will W able to maintain 

 under favorable conditions for several days. In 

 the recently designed ships the ability to pre- 

 serve high speed has IM.HMI aimed at. instead of 

 jiower to achieve high speeds for short [>eriods 

 1'V .xeessive forcing, and the weights assigned 

 to boilers and engines have been therefore more 

 liberal. In comparing the s|>eeds given in tlic-c 

 tallies with others iv|>rtcd from abroad, it must 

 be remembered that the latter are chiefly from 

 runs .,vcr a measured mile, and could not lv 

 maintained over the long courses on which our 

 vi-sseN are tried. 



