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Appendix No. 9.
UNITED STATES.
"Service Journal," February 25, 1882.
Proposed mail con- tract.
"Engineer Report," 1880, p. 16.
"Service Review,” August 1882, p. 202.
Confer also "Encyclo. pædia," pp. 550 to 590. "Naval Engagements,"
P. 573.
*Service Journal,” July 1882.
552
The actual state of affairs having been sketched, it appears desirable to say a few words with regard to the capabilities of the States. The depression of the mercantile marine is well known, and a subject of constant complaint and proposals for remedy in the States' press. There is also a movement in the direction of making sea-going steamers suitable for conversion into war cruizers. Neither of these questions have taken any very definite shape, but they require watching, the United States not having adhered to the Declaration of Paris relative to privateering.
Although about 7,500 men only compose the present navy, and a proposed increase of 500 was recently rejected by Congress, on the cynical ground that there were no ships to put them in, the Census (1870) shows:--Boatmen and watermen, 20,000; canalmen, 8,000; pilots, 4,000; sailors, 56,000; steam-boatmen and women, 8,000; boat-makers, 2,000; fishermen and oystermen, 27,000; lumbermen and raftsmen, 18,000; mast-spar makers, 600; rope and cordage makers, 3,000; sail makers, 2,500; ship carpenters, 36,000; ship smiths, 400; ship caulkers, 3,000; ship riggers, 1,000. These numbers are, no doubt, largely increased in the last ten years, and represent great maritime
resources.
On the subject of iron it appears advisable to say a few words here. On this subject the 1880 Census has published its Report. Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York are the chief iron States; but twelve produce 100,000 tons annually. The greatest establishment is at Pittsburg, capable of turning out in one month 16,000 tons of iron ingots, 13,000 tons of steel rails. But the Report says:- "We conspicuously fall behind many other nations in the use of iron and steel for military purposes. Our rolling-mill practice is fully equal to the best in Europe, except the rolling of heavy armour-plates, for which there has been little demand, and in the production of which we have consequently had but little experience." This all coincides with the criticism and discontent expressed in the American papers when, some time ago, the iron plates for completing the Miantonomah were imported from England. Then, at least, there was not in the United States any machinery for rolling the heaviest plates. It would now, however, appear that the machinery necessary has been introduced, or the Chief of Engineers must be seriously misinformed. "We have the assurance that iron plates can be manufactured in this country equal in magnitude, and not inferior in quality, to those twenty years of experience have enabled the English rolling-mills to turn out." The States have, in fact, got the timber, the iron, the coals, and the men to make a navy. question is, How far could it be improvised under adverse circumstances?
C
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The
The history of the rapid formation of the Northern, and still more of the Confederate navy, furnishes an example of what can be done. To give one instance :-After due consultation "it was decided the safest place was Selma, Alabama. No time was lost in dispatching full authority to employ the necessary labour to procure from the adjacent pine forests the timber to be used, while orders were sent to the rolling-mills at Atlanta, Georgia, to prepare the iron plates with which the vessel was to be covered. Meanwhile, the machinery of a high-pressure Mississippi steam-boat was purchased at Vicksburg, and transported to Mobile by rail, there to be so altered as to adapt it to a screw-propeller.” On the other hand, a writer in the "Encyclopædia treats the fleet of the Confederates as a "trumpery fleet," and says efficient fleets cannot be impro- vised from steam-boats, steam-tugs, and canal and ferry-boats.
17
Wherever the truth lies, there can be no doubt that the assailant of the States will not only have to consider the existing fleet, but the fleet plus what can be produced (1) if the dockyards, or some of them, are retained; (2) if the fleet such as is left has to retire to inland waters. Even in the latter case the assailant must be prepared for an enormous development of low-draught ships and boats more or less efficiently armoured and armed; but whether a new "Merrimac" will appear on the scene is a question which no one can decide.
The United States Army.
The peace effective of the United States' army is 25,000 men. In spite of the universal complaint in the military press of its inadequacy, even for peace requirements, the proposal of General Sherman to raise it to 30,000 has been recently rejected by Congress.
There are 25 regiments of infantry of 10 companies each; 10 regiments of cavalry. They are scattered over an enormous area, no part of which could be neglected without serious danger. With the exception of San Francisco, where there are 6 companies, there is not a single infantry or cavalry soldier of the regulars in any American port.
The artillery consisted, a short time ago, of 5 regiments in 6 companies a total of 2,600 men, included in above 25,000. Out of the 60, 44 companies were at places on the coast:-
1 at Fort Preble, Portland.
2 at Fort Warren, Boston Harbour.
4 at Fort Adams, Newport.
2 at Fort Trumbull, New London.
5 at Fort Hamilton, New York.
2 at Fort Columbus,
2 at Fort Schuyler,
3 at Fort McHenry, Baltimore.
5 at Fort Monroe, Norfolk, Virginia.
2 at Fort St. Augustine, Norfolk, Virginia.
3 at Fort Barrancas, Pensacola.
8 at forts near San Francisco.
5 at Washington.
Total
44
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