INTRODUCTION.

For the study of naval construction and marine engineering, the most important field of observation is Great Britain. England is in the fore-front as the leader and model to all European naval powers. In addition to their magnificently equipped public dock-yards, the patronage of the government has sufficed to keep in existence and to increase the supplemental resources which relieve and aid the national establishments, in time of peace, and which in time of war would be to them of priceless value. It is owing to this patronage, and to foreign orders for ships of war, in no small measure, that on the Thames, the Mersey, the Clyde, and the Tyne are found unrivaled establishments fully equipped, with expanded and developed resources, requisite for modern war-ship construction. Besides the numerous ships designed and built yearly for the British flag, English ship-yards have produced, and are still producing, war-ships for other nations. Nearly every considerable naval power, except the United States and France, has employed English designers, English ship-builders, engineers, and gunmanufacturers. It was here that the König Wilhelm, Kaiser, Deutschland, and other ships for the German navy were built. Turkey obtained from the Clyde and the Thames a large proportion of her armored fleet, including all the most powerful vessels. Russia, Spain, Holland, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Brazil, Chili, Peru, and Japan all come to England to have armored ships of war constructed. The Sheffield works not only supply armor-plates for these ships, but also plates and materials for war-vessels built in continental countries. The Elswick works and Whitworth manufacture guns solely for foreign orders. Besides this, all the nations above named are customers of the English ship-yards and engineering works to supply vessels for their mercantile marine. In London may be found naval attachés of nearly all important nations, observing the progress and changes in naval construction. In Consequence of these facts, and for the additional reason that comparatively little of value, new or novel, originating with continental naval architects or engineers, was found on the continent, the larger portion of my time abroad was employed in Great Britain.

THE BRITISH NAVY.

In contemplating the power of England the navy is always regarded as her bulwark. On her navy England depends for security at home and respect abroad. Everything concerning it excites eager interest, and it never fails to receive support, whatever party may be in power. No censure is ever passed upon the large expenditures for maintenance and additions to the fleets; but the criticisms of the press and the people are constantly directed at the administration of the admiralty, and the types of vessels constructed. If any condition proposed in a design be not realized in the completed ship, the fact is certain to be exposed by the press, and severely commented upon. This influence, together with the watchfulness over the progress made elsewhere, has not been without effect. In the House of Commons, at the last session of Parliament, the first lord of the admiralty said, "It is our policy to keep pace with the inventions of the day, and ahead of all maritime powers.", The most able constructive ability and engineering talent in the kingdom is employed in producing designs for new types of vessels, for machinery, and for appliances of offense and defense. It may be confidently asserted that never since the application of steam propulsion to ships of war, has the British navy been relatively so strong as at the present time, and yet the complaints are that it is not more powerful. The fleets of former beautiful wooden screw-ships, like their predecessors of the old sailing line-of-battle ship period, and the subsequent paddle-wheel steamers, are fast disappearing from the navy-list for either fighting or cruising purposes. Numbers of wooden line-of-battle ships and frigates provided with auxiliary steam-power, but whose days were passed mainly under canvas; and others that never made a cruise-indeed, antiquated before completed-vessels in whose outlines the beauty of naval architecture may be said to have culminated, are in the same category. In fact, whole squadrons may be seen in the harbors of Portsmouth, Devonport, and other dock-yards, some bearing famous names, and "pierced for" from fifty to one hundred and one guns, but now as useless for purposes of modern warfare as the old paddle-wheel frigates or the fifty-nine sailing-vessels borne on the British navy-list.

The effective force of the British navy may now be divided into ships for great naval battles, ships for coast-defense, and unarmored cruising Vessels. There are so many different types that it is quite impossible to classify them according to any former standard. The present collective fleet as presented in the navy-list consists of nearly four hundred vessels of all kinds. This includes those building, but does not include one hundred and thirty-four laid up or employed in permanent harbor-service, and not ever likely to be sent to sea. The total tonnage of these four hundred vessels is about 900,000.

From published returns it appears that during the eight years from 1866 to 1874, ten and a half millions of pounds sterling was expended in the construction of new ships, six millions of which was for armored

ships, and four and a half millions for unarmored vessels. During the same period, one and one-third million pounds were expended on the repairs of armored ships, and nearly four millions on the repairsof ves sels of all other kinds, and it is now estimated that about a million pounds sterling is expended annually on new armored ships, and threequarters of a million on all other new vessels.

ARMORED SHIPS.

It is to the production of the most powerful sea-going fighting-ships that the resources of the navy are first directed; ships sufficiently armored to resist projectiles of any ordinary kind, sufficiently armed to silence forts or to meet the enemy under any conditions proffered; suf ficiently fast to choose the time and place to fight, and sufficiently buoy ant to carry coal and stores into any ocean. Of this class, according to official statement in the House of Commons, there will be, when those now under construction shall have been completed, eighteen, placed in the order following, according to their power, the Inflexible ranking first.*

TURRET SHIPS.

Inflexible, building at Portsmouth, to be completed April, 1878.
Dreadnought, building at Pembroke, nearly completed.
Thunderer, just completed and in commission.
Devastation, in commission, in Mediterranean.

Agamemnon, building at Chatham, date of completion uncertain.
Ajax, building at Pembroke, date of completion uncertain.
Monarch, in commission, Channel squadron.

BROADSIDE SHIPS.

Alexandra, completed at Chatham, but not tried at sea. Téméraire, building at Chatham, to be completed January, 1878. Sultan, in commission in the Mediterranean.

Hercules, flag-ship, Mediterranean.

Bellerophon, flag-ship, West Indies.

Swiftsure, in commission in the Mediterranean.

Triumph, in commission, Channel squadron.

Audacious, flag-ship, China squadron.

Invincible, in commission in the Mediterranean.

Iron Duke, coast-guard service, Kingstown.

Penelope, coast guard service, Harwich.

OCEAN-CRUISING SHIPS OF THE ARMOR-BELTED TYPE.

Shannon, built at Pembroke, not yet commissioned.

Nelson, building at Glasgow, to be completed September, 1877. Northampton, building at Glasgow, to be completed September, 1877.

VESSELS FOR COAST DEFENSE.

These are for the most part turret vessels, built on the breast work system, and are named Glatton, Hotspur, (a ram,) Rupert, (a ram,) Prince

* When wooden vessels were first plated with armor, they were known as "ironclads; " now that all hulls are built of iron and plated with heavy armor upon a wooden backing, the term "armored ships" is used, as being more proper than "ironclads."

Albert, Cyclops, Gorgon, Hecate, Hydra, Scorpion, Wivern; also the broadside gunboats Viper and Vixen. Besides these, for home defense, there are the Abyssinia and Magdala, stationed at Bombay, and the Cerberus, in one of the Australian harbors. Any of these monitors are capable of going to sea, but they are unfit for cruising; all are low freeboard vessels, each provided with a single revolving turret rising above the breast work, the Hotspur and Rupert excepted. The former of these was built to be used as a powerful ram solely, and the latter has a fixed turret in which the gun revolves on platform. This vessel is also

fitted especially for ramming.

SHIPS OF THE ORIGINAL ARMORED TYPE.

These vessels are built of iron, and are of the broadside variety. They have become antiquated, and are not now regarded as competent to meet in line of battle the armored ships of the present period. They consist of the Agincourt, Northumberland, Achilles, Black Prince, Warrior, Hector, Valiant, Resistance, and Defence.

WOODEN ARMORED SHIPS.

Most of these ships were under construction as line-of-battle ships or frigates at the time of the battle between the little Monitor and Merrimac in Hampton Roads; they were subsequently altered and converted into sea-going iron clads. Many of them are decayed and relegated to harbor service, and it is not probable that any of them will be much longer continued as cruisers, or extensively repaired. They are as follows: Prince Consort, Royal Oak, Caledonia, (which has an iron upper deck,) Research, Zealous, (which has an iron upper deck,) Lord Clyde, (which has had her machinery removed, and is fitted for a drill-ship,) Royal Alfred, (which has an iron deck,) Royal Sovereign, (a turret-ship with an iron apper deck,) Favorite, Enterprise, (with iron top-sides,) Lord Warden, with iron inner skin,) Pallas, and Repulse. The Pallas was built for an iron-clad in 1865, and the Repulse in 1868; they were the last armored Wood-built ships for the royal navy, and are still cruising, the former in the Mediterranean and the latter in the Pacific.

S. Ex. 27-2