STEAM NAVIGATION. 



which, in the existing state of the art of steam-navigation, are 

 most likely to extend the benefits of that agent of transport to 

 general commerce. 



20. If the form and structure of paddle-wheel steam-vessels be 

 obnoxious to these many serious objections, when considered with 

 reference to the purposes of general commerce, they are still more 

 objectionable when considered with reference to the purposes of 

 national defence. It is undoubtedly a great power with which to 

 invest a vessel of war, ^;o be able to proceed at will, in spite of 

 the opposition of wind or tide, in any direction which may seem 

 most fit to its commander. Such a power would have surpassed 

 the wildest dreams of the most romantic and imaginative naval 

 commander of the last century. To confer upon the vessels of a 

 fleet the power immediately, at the bidding of the commander, to 

 take any position that may be assigned to them relatively to the 

 enemy, or to run in and out of a hostile port at pleasure, or fly 

 with the rapidity of the wind past the guns of formidable forts, 

 before giving them time to take effect upon them are capabilities 

 which must totally revolutionise all the established principles of 

 naval tactics. But these powers at present are not conferred upon 

 steam-ships, without important qualifications and serious draw- 

 backs. The instruments and machinery from which they are 

 immediately derived are, unfortunately, exposed in such a manner 

 as to render the exercise of the powers themselves hazardous in 

 the extreme. It needs no profound engineering knowledge to 

 perceive that the paddle-wheels are eminently exposed to shot, 

 which, taking effect, would altogether disable the vessel, and 

 leave her at the mercy of the enemy ; and the chimney is even 

 more exposed, the destruction of which would render the vessel a 

 prey to the enemy within itself in the shape of fire. But besides 

 these most obvious sources of exposure in vessels of the present 

 form intended as a national defence, the engines and boilers 

 themselves, being more or less above the water line, are exposed 

 so as to be liable to be disabled by shot. 



A war steamer, to be free from these objections, should be pro- 

 pelled by subaqueous apparatus. Her engines, boilers, and all 

 other parts of her machinery should be below the water-line. Her 

 fuel should be hard coal, burning without visible smoke, so that 

 her approach may not be discoverable from a distance. Her fur- 

 naces might be worked by blowers, so that the chimney might be 

 dispensed with, and thus its liability to be carried away by shot 

 removed. 



21. The policy of the British government has been to rely on the 

 commercial steam navy as a means of national defence, in the 

 event of the sudden outbreak of war. By the evidence given 



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