THE WAR-SHIPS OF EUROPE.*
WE often hear it said, in these days of great armies and of con- tinuous improvements in military organisation, that Europe has been turned into a vast camp. From a perusal of this book, it would appear that the sea-coasts of our quarter of the globe have no less been turned into great arsenals and building- yards. A short paragraph in it puts before us with great plainness the startling results of the labours of ship-builders during the past few years. " As a resume of interesting facts relating to armoured fleets, it may be stated that the grand total of all the European armoured ships that have been built down to the present time amounts in the aggregate to 1,014,500 tons," an amount, we may observe, equal to more than two-thirds of the whole tonnage of the vast fleet of British steamers engaged in the foreign trade in 1876 ; yet it includes only the ironclads of various European navies, omitting Brazil, Chili, Peru, and Japan, which have all been pretty good cus- tomers of this country for that favourite article of commerce,—a man-of-war. " The grand total of all the armoured ships built and building for the British Navy up to January, 1876, amounts in the aggregate, to 317,000 tons, and the cost thereof, in round numbers, to eighteen million pounds sterling." No European Power that has the smallest pretensions to the possession of a navy is entirely without ironclad vessels, Portugal even having one, and Greece two, whilst the Argentine Confederation has the latter number, Japan three, if not four—one having recently been lost—and China at least one armour-plated gunboat, showing that the desire to possess these costly structures is not confined to Europe only.
Any person who wishes to see what has come of all the expendi- ture of money and skill devoted during so many years to the turning-out of fighting-ships of previously unheard-of powers will find a vast deal of information, perhaps all that he may be seeking, in this volume. It is in reality the official report to the Secretary of the United States Navy of a naval constructor, Mr. King, who was sent to Europe by the Minister in 1875, to inquire concerning and report upon the ships composing European navies, and the appliances for building them and keeping them in repair. Mr. King was occu- pied in this duty just a year, and his report was published about twelve months ago. The present edition has been prepared by an English naval architect, who does not reveal his name, but who evidently possesses excellent and perhaps exceptional means of verifying the original author's statements, and of bring- ing the information which the book is intended to convey down • The War-Ships of Europe. Being the Substance of a Work recently published in America, by Chief Engineer King, U.S.N. Revised and Corrected throughout, with Additional Notes, by an English Naval Architect. Portsmouth: Griffin and Co. 1878.
to a very recent date. There could probably be no better tribute to its value than to state the fact that it is an official com- munication to a foreign Government, annotated and corrected by a professional expert, of evident skill and knowledge of his subject.
Written originally by a foreigner, and one belonging to a country whose fleet is not included in the survey which the book contains,
we are more likely to get a really accurate estimate of the effi-. ciency of any given Navy, than if we had to depend upon the
work of a native of any one of the countries noticed. A recent French writer on the same subject has complained that foreign critics have attributed to him, in his appreciation of their country's ships, a " national error " in computing efficiency, similar to that " personal error " which has to be guarded against in the case of astronomical observations. This source of incorrectness, if it exist in Mr. King's report, has been eliminated by his English editor. It would be diffi- cult to make such a book other than interesting at such a time as the present, when the work of reconstruction has been going on all over Europe and, as Mr. King says, considering " there has never been a time during peace in which such large expenditures for naval purposes were made as at present, and such radical changes effected in the construction of ships-of-war." Its interest is not confined to its containing detailed and clear descriptions of the vessels which compose our own squadrons, it is extended con- siderably by these being accompanied by almost equally explicit accounts of the vessels which sail under foreign flags. We know what is doing at Wilhelmshaven, at Pola, and at Spezzia, equally with Portsmouth and Chatham. Nearly half the book is occu- pied by the author's report upon our own Navy, its ships, dockyards, and educational machinery. "England," as he says, "is in the fore-front, as the leader and model to all European Naval Powers." And it is not surprising that, holding this opinion, he should devote whole chapters to the consideration of individual British ships. Naval architect of the present epoch though he is, he can still lament over the decay of the beautiful in Naval design which is so commonly attri- buted to the introduction of ironclads. Though not disposed to deny that recent shipbuilding has done much to abolish the poetry of the sailor's occupation, or that the beauties of the trim and saucy frigates of the past have been ill-replaced by the con- structions of the present, we still think that, even from a sailor's point of view, the evil has been much exaggerated. An ironclad is not necessarily a hideous monster. Some of Mr. Reed's creations have a stately beauty of their own, not surpassed by that belonging to the old three-deckers. The latter, indeed, themselves looked clumsy to the eye that had lighted, during long cruises in the Pacific for instance, upon no ships-of-war but light frigates and corvettes. The ' Bellerophon,' notwithstanding her iron hull and plated sides, has always been universally hailed in the Service as a ship of unusual grace, whilst the Hercules' and the Sultan' convey an idea of power which in itself is a manifestation of beauty of a high order. Still the new turret-ships certainly do present an ungainly appearance, which all sailors naturally deplore.
Mr. King is singular in one respect. He has a good word to say of the British Admiralty. This alone perhaps would stamp him as a foreigner. That any one owning allegiance to her Most Gracious Majesty could find anything to say in favour of the authorities at Whitehall is of course too much to expect. If we want to hear " the Board " commended, we must go across the Atlantic or the Channel. He says, " The British Admiralty has long been noted for its careful investigation of untried plans pro- posed for ships of the Royal Navy. As a rule, it only adopts use- ful inventions, after they have been successfully worked in the Mercantile Marine." He contrasts the policy, as regards the designs of our own authorities, very favourably with that pursued in France, where old forms, even when found imper- fect, have been pertinaciously adhered to. " The English Admiralty have pursued a different and a wiser course. Instead of spending their great resources on the construction of ships which were fac-similes of each other, they have, with rare excep- tions in successive designs, made onward steps in offensive and defensive powers." That this should be the case is to be attributed in some measure to the keen interest taken by the public in naval matters, an interest which not unnaturally seems astonishing to an American :-
" In oontemplating the power of England [says the author]. 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 is in power. No censure is ever passed upon the large expendi- tures for maintenance and addition 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 condi- tion proposed in a design is not realised in a completed ship, the fact is certain to be exposed by the Press and severely commented upon. This influence, together with the watchfulness on the progress made elsewhere, has not been without effect."
It is certainly consoling to find this eminent foreign authority giving it as his opinion that " the British Navy has never since the introduction of steam been so strong as it is at the present time." The pages of this book give a striking picture of the wonderfully complicated nature of the first-class fighting-ship Of the present. The ' Thunderer,' with her twenty-eight dif- ferent steam-engines, must be a sort of floating Birmingham. When we add to this multiplicity of machines the appliances for the hydraulic loading of the guns, the electric apparatus for firing the ship's ordnance and for exploding torpedoes, and the hand- power arrangements for pumping and other purposes, we seem to be almost lost in a labyrinth of enginery. Perhaps almost as startling as the complexity of the ships is the largeness of the sums which they have cost. The 'Inflexible,' the 'Dreadnought,' and the 'Alexandra' all go beyond half-a-million. This makes it none the less pleasant to find out that in the newer vessels " every conceivable precaution has been taken to provide against destruction by rams and torpedoes." Mr. King's opinion of the small gunboats carrying a single very heavy gun is not so favour- able as that usually expressed in this country. They certainly have the merit of comparative cheapness, costing, as they do, under fourteen thousand pounds.
The book under review deals in detail with the navies of the chief European Powers, and brings very distinctly before us the progress which has been made in naval matters by our Continen- tal neighbours. It is a valuable and opportune production. Its merit is increased by many very well-executed illustrations, and we can see at a glance the peculiar features of nearly every im- portant class of ship ; whilst the tables in the appendix afford a ready means of estimating the power of foreign fleets, as well as of our own.
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