LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIP OP THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
they would, have given a good account of themselves. In the civil war, however, the enemy had no ordinary vessels of war to he met and conquered in ocean duels, and the waters upon his coast at points vulnerable to naval attack were too shallow to admit the frigates. Hence none of them performed any service at all proportionate to their size and cost of maintenance, except in two or three isolated cases of bombardment, as at Hat-teras Inlet, Port Royal, and Port Fisher.
Of a much more useful type for general service were the twelve screw sloops-of-war built in 1858. There were five of these of the first class, among them the Hartford, Brooklyn, and Richmond, which gave and took so many heavy blows while fighting in Farragut’s West Gulf Squadron. Hardly less important were the sloops of the second class, of which the Iroquois and Daeotah were the largest and most typical examples. To the same group belonged the Pawnee, a vessel of peculiar construction, whose constant service was hardly surpassed in efficiency and importance by any other ship of her size on the Atlantic coast. Besides the sloops, there were a few other steamers of miscellaneous dimensions and character, some of which had been purchased and altered for naval use; and these comprised all that the Government had secured toward the creation of a modern steam fleet.
The normal strength of the United States navy, if it is to be a navy at all, cannot be figured at much less than from 80 to 100 vessels, and this was the number in 1861. But of the actual total of 90, as shown by the navy list, 50 were sailing ships,— line-of-battle ships, frigates, sloops, and brigs,— which, splendid vessels as they had been in their day, were now as obsolete as the galleys of Themis-toeles. It was in placing a false reliance upon these vessels that the Government was at fault: it should have recognized in the course of twenty years that their day was gone forever, that they were of no more use than if they did not exist, that they would only be the slaughter-houses of their gallant crews in an encounter with a modern
Note.—In the summerof 1861 and the winter of 1861-62 several engagements took place on the coast of the Carolinas, including operations at Hatteras Island, Roanoke Island, New Berne, Port Royal, and elsewhere. The above illustration shows the Union fleet, under Flag-Officer Du Pont engaging the Confederate forts off Port Royal. The forts were captured; the harbor came into the possession of the Federáis, and afforded an admirable base for subsequent operations on the Atlantic seaboard.
THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE NAVIES.
BY JAMES RUSSELL SOLEY, PROFESSOR, U. S. N.
finally breech-loaders came into use. Following closely upon the improvements in guns, came the idea of protecting the sides of vessels with a light armor, at first of bar iron or of two-inch plates, developed by experiment after experiment into masses of solid steel, twenty-two inches in thickness. Last of all came the torpedo, of which a slight and tentative use had been made as early as 1776, but which only made its way into successful and general employment in the war of 1861.
There were signs of the dawn of this revolution before 1840, and its culmination was only reached during the war. But the twenty years between 1840 and 1860 were those in which the movement was really accomplished. During this period the naval administration had endeavored to follow the changes that were taking place, but it had not fully caught up with them. It had. begun by building heavy side-wheelers, first the Mississippi and Missouri and next the Powhatan and Susquehanna. Efficient as these latter vessels were considered in 1847, when they were begun, and even in 1850, when they were launched, their model was promptly dropped when the submarine screw was introduced in place of the vulnerable paddle-wheel. The six screw-frigates were accordingly built in 1855, and they were regarded with admiration by naval men abroad as well as at home. The Niagara, the largest of these, was a ship of 4500 tons. The other five, the Roanoke, Colorado, Merrimae, Minnesota, and Wabash, had a tonnage somewhat over 3000. All of them were heavily armed, and they formed, or were supposed to form, the chief element of naval strength of the United States. This reliance of the Government upon its large frigates would seem to have been well grounded, and if a war had arisen with a maritime enemy supplied with vessels of the same general type,
been the principal engine of naval warfare in the Greek and Roman galleys, had disappeared in the Middle Ages when galleys were superseded by sailing-ships. The latter, being dependent upon the wind for their motive power and direction, could not attack an enemy end-on, and hence the ram became useless. Soon after the introduction of steam a few men of inquiring and fertile minds, among them Commodore Matthew Perry and Mr. Charles Ellet, a distinguished civil engineer, perceived that the steam-engine placed a ship-of-war in the same situation as the galleys of the classical period, and that the ram might be employed on the modern vessel to much greater advantage than in ancient times. Presently, the whole system of naval tactics underwent a change, due to the same cause. The close-hauled line ahead, the order of battle for two hundred years and more, gave place to the direct attack in line abreast. To utilize the guns in this new order of battle, they must no longer be mounted in broadside, but upon elevated citadels, giving them a wider sweep around the horizon. Meantime the guns had undergone a change, and were becoming vastly more powerful. First they were adapted to fire shells, which had hitherto been confined to mortars; next the calibers were increased, then rifling was adopted, giving greater range, accuracy, and penetration, and
IN order to understand the condition of the United States navy in 1861, it is necessary to glance at the state of affairs during the twenty years before the war. Until the year 1840, naval science during a long period had made but little progress. The various improvements in construction, in equipment, and in ordnance that had been introduced before this date had come about very slowly and gradually, and though numerous small mechanical devices had been adopted from time to time, and old ones had been rendered more efficient, no marked changes had taken place in the art of naval war. Ships were essentially what they had been for two hundred years, and they were rigged, propelled, armed, and fought upon essentially the same principles. But toward the year 1840, the introduction of steam as a motive power marked the beginning of a new era,— an era of developments so rapid and of changes so radical that only the most progressive and elastic minds could follow them. The sailing-vessel was about to be laid aside, except for purposes of training. In the next few years it was replaced, first by the paddle-wheel steamer, then by the screw, then by the twin-screw. The rig of the ship was next altered, and her spars and sail-spread reduced until they were merely auxiliary. Gradually it was realized that the danger from falling spars in an engagement was a disadvantage often out of all proportion to the benefits of auxiliary sail-power, and vessels were built with no spars above the deck but a signal-pole forward and aft. Steam brought with it also a new weapon. The ram, which had
THE UNION FLEET IN THE PORT ROYAL EXPEDITION.
65