Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/dockyardeconomynOObarr ARMOUR-PLATE ROLLING MILL. MERSEY IRONWORKS, LIVERPOOL. DOCKYARD ECONOMY AND NAVAL POWER. BY P. BARRY, AUTHOR OF “ DIRECT WESTERN TRANSATLANTIC TRADE “ THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE OF THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND ENGLAND “ AMERICAN AND INDIAN TRANSIT “ SCHEME OF COSTLESS LANCASHIRE EMIGRATION “ THE DOCKYARDS AND SHIPYARDS OF THE KINGDOM,” ETC. LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND CO., 47, LUDGATE-HILL. 1863. \Tlie Author reserves the right of Translation .] LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM ODHAMS, BURLEIGH- STREET, STRAND, W.C. §ebuatton TO RICHARD COBDEN, ESQ., M.P.; M. MICHEL CHEVALIER, MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, ETC.; AND M. SUCH^TE, MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FOR TOULON; MY BEST THANKS ARE DUE, FOR THE KIND FACILITIES AFFORDED ME IN PURSUING MY INQUIRIES INTO THE DOCKYARD ECONOMY AND NAVAL POWER OF FRANCE. . . PREFACE. Difficulties of News- Members of the London daily press paper Writers. J 1 seldom write books, and for the very good reason that they do not have the time. The week, Sunday included, is too short for them, and although it were enlarged to eight or ten days for their accommodation, they would be no better off, because the same inexorable demands would continue to be made on them. At the close of the last Parlia- mentary Session, two or three newspaper writers in the prime of life died from overwork. So it is always, and so probably it will be always. The older members of the London press could not, if they tried, reckon up the number of fellow-workers who have fallen at their side, young, and seemingly robust, but physically shattered by the ceaseless strain upon their faculties. Serving the public too well, they killed themselves, and be it said to their honour and the public shame, they were never once remem- VI PREFACE. bered. The Editor lives in an atmosphere of care. His assistant, or sub, begins the day at nine o’clock at night, and closes it about the time that early-rising Londoners betake themselves to Co vent Garden, the Borough Market, or Billingsgate. Refreshing sleep he enjoys only during his four weeks’ annual holiday at Southend, Brighton, or elsewhere. The leader-writer is little better off. At nine or ten o’clock at night the Conti- nental telegrams are received ; by eleven o’clock at night he knows what the Commons and the Lords have been saying in Session time ; and late on Sunday night important American news is brought by the Persia or the Scotia. He then has to write his article ; and when he has finished at one or two o’clock in the morning, it remains for him to find his way home as best he can. If he does not write on the latest news, he may be required to write against time — that is, to send in his leader by seven, eight, nine, or ten o’clock. Failure is a crime, and the article not being up to the mark is a crime. Last of all, the reporter comes here and goes there, and is a lucky fellow if possessed of suf- ficient leisure to read the morning papers regularly, or catch a glimpse of “ Temple Bar” or “Cornhill.” Many members of the London daily press, and the writer among the number, have not yet enjoyed the leisure to read either “Cornhill” or “ Temple Bar,” although both these popular magazines have now a standing of some years. For such men, therefore, to write books is barely possible. Their beginnings and resumptions are constantly interrupted, and if a dozen or more PREFACE. Yll sides of manuscript happen to be got through at any single sitting, it is always on the understanding that when the matter is in type it will be gone through care- fully. Alas ! when the proofs are received, the unfor- tunate newspaper writer happens to have more to do than usual, and all the time and attention that can be bestowed on them is to read them, pencil in hand, in the train or omnibus, on the road to the printer’s. No wonder that from such a task most newspaper writers shrink, and that some of the most talented have lived and died without ever once writing anything that bore their name. My reasons for doing My reasons for doing what usually what usually is left J ° J undone - is left undone may be stated in a few words, and it is for the reader to judge whether they justify the hastily written pages that are before him. First, I think the time has come when there should be plain speaking about naval matters; and second, that not a few of those interested in naval matters will like to hear a newspaper writer making a clean breast of it. Such are my reasons. During the past three years I have tilled, and still fill, the position of naval writer on the staff of a morning paper, writing on the manning of the Navy, ordnance, fortifications, the construction and equipment of ships of war, the claims of the officers and seamen of the mercantile marine, the position of the officers of the Royal Navy, the Dockyards, the Admiralty, &c. ; and to that position I was recommended by the highest authority on shipping yin PREFACE. matters in this country.* In the course of these three years more especially, I have contracted many friend- ships among dockyard officials and naval officers of great scientific attainment as well as of high rank, and those friendships are far from being exclusively English. It has been, and continues, my good fortune to know American, French, and Russian officers and gentlemen to whom naval matters are a constant study. Then the great private establishments of the country have been always open to me, and the privilege freely made use of has necessarily brought me into contact with practical men of all classes. With the humblest as well as with the highest I have long enjoyed the advantage of comparing notes; and if Mr. Fairbairn will recall the circumstance to his recollection, the talking individual who lay beside him in the bottom of a ditch at Shoeburyness while the 300-pounder was fired at the rigid target, was the writer. Familiar, therefore, with my subject in all its aspects and bearings, and accustomed to think closely and carefully of it, I am much mistaken if opinions so formed will * Mr. Mitchell will, I am sure, excuse the publication of the following letter, because it will be seen presently that one of the difficulties inseparable from attacking our corrupt navy system is the inability of doing so with authority : — M Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, 54, Gracechurch- street, London, 4th January, 1860. “ My dear — w Mr. Barry, the bearer of this note, is the gentleman I recommended to you as likely to serve you in the matter of maritime articles. He has written a great deal on the various shipping questions, and I think his productions will give you satisfaction. u Believe me, u Very faithfully yours, u William Mitchell. ” PREFACE. IX not be welcomed at this juncture, although not con- nected and expressed in the polished periods which, under other circumstances, their importance justly claims for them. Of right, I think a hard-working man of letters, whose faculties are his sole estate, and whose daily bread does not come to him, and those depending on him, by writing books, may write books on his own terms, just as a hard-working member of Parliament may or may not entertain his constituents with speeches in the recess, or in the free and easy manner in which a Cabinet Minister expresses himself after whitebait at Greenwich. The origin of the Book The book in the reader’s hands and its further defence. * is a mere sequel to a pamphlet published by me some months ago,f in which was embodied the substance of my reports on the condition * I publish the following letter, in order that the non-appearance of the fine photo- graph frontispiece of the Minotaur frigate, 11^ by 4|, and the five other views of the Thames Shipbuilding Company’s Works, may be explained: — “The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company (Limited), Orchard-yard, Blackwall, E., October 9th, 1863. “Dear Sir, “We have read over the first 100 pages of your proposed publication, and we regret to find that there is so much personal abuse of the dockyard officers, which we consider entirely undeserved, and charges brought against individuals which we believe to be entirely false ; in fact, the style of the whole is so scurrilous, that we must decline having anything to do with the work, and request that under these circumstances no reference whatever may be made to us in it. “ When you first named to us your intention to publish such a work, we especially stipulated that, while attacking the system which we regard as open to many grave objections, there should be no personal abuse of a body of men whom we know to be both thoroughly skilled in their profession, and gentlemen besides ; and we are very much disappointed to find that you have so entirely disregarded this understanding. “ I remain, dear Sir, “ Yours truly, “ John Ford, for Self and Company, Directors.” t The Dockyards and Shipyards of the Kingdom. X PREFACE. of the Dockyards. I had witnessed the deplorable condition of the Dockyards and the Navy, and Admiral Robinson having, in an unguarded moment, most wrongfully attacked the Shipyards and the principle of private enterprise, I, fresh from the Dockyards, came to their aid. So little, however, was it then possible for me to do in the total absence of leisure, that I mentally resolved on following the matter up. And, necessarily, an undertaking so nearly affecting the interests of one of the great branches of national industry led not only to frequent conversations with those among whom I am always moving, but to inquiries as to the extent to which the effort was likely to receive support.* This is the truth, the whole truth, — there being nothing to conceal; for to the independent spirit in which the book is written, and the fairness that is maintained as between the great private interests, is the hostility of the Thames Shipbuilding Company wholly owing. Until Captain Ford saw the proof of what I had said about the Millwall Company all was well, and it was a pleasure to him, in occasionally sipping wine after luncheon, to recount to me his doings in Turkey when he and Sir Baldwin Walker were in the service together, and his Majesty the Sultan stood something like £500 for a first-rate joke. But the moment it was seen that the Millwall Company were to have justice done themf an unexpected storm burst. The Thames * The cost of the photographs for the edition, inclusive of those of the Thames Works, is a matter of no less than £400. f It is due to myself and the Millwall Company to state that the Millwall Com- pany are perfectly indifferent as to what is said about them or other people, and that they distinctly told me so. PREFACE. XI Company would not take a single copy of the book if Harrison was to be praised in that way, or if rolled armour-plates were to be pronounced superior to hammered plates ; and so on.* This was on the 7th October, four days after the first six sheets of the book were handed to Captain Ford at luncheon, in the presence of the captain of the Spanish ironclad now building in the Thames Company’s yard, — we all at the time enjoying ourselves. The captain of the Spanish frigate will very well remember Captain Ford’s question if the six sheets (ninety-six pages) then handed to him were the whole book, and my statement that as many as two hundred pages had been worked off and would be sent to him as soon as the drying and pressing processes had been undergone at the binder’s.f From the 7th to the 9th October I did not meet Captain Ford, and on the evening of the last-named day I received the extraordinary letter that has just been read. But turning from this unpleasant topic, — neither in the first 100 pages nor in the second 100 pages will the reader find any personal abuse of the dockyard officers ; indeed, on more than one occasion it is expressly stated that the system, and not the officers, is to be under- stood as to blame. The charge of scurrility is met as easily. No man, I affirm, can know the dockyard * In the vain hope of conciliating Captain Ford I actually, among other passages, struck out a deserved compliment to Mr. Charles Henwood, the Millwall Company’s Naval Architect, that gentleman having sent in a design for the Warrior , of which the Admiralty had spoken highly. I have requested the printer, Mr. Odhams, to preserve the ineffectually altered proof. t The Admiralty are to understand that the substance of these pages was at the time known to Captain Ford ; a fact, indeed, that is confessed in Captain Ford’s letter. Xll PKEFACE. and naval system of this country without being at a loss for words sufficiently scurrilous to convey a proper sense of his indignation. It is a system of fraud and robbery; and I have yet to learn the necessity of speaking of these in dignified or polished terms. Let Parliament appoint a dockyard and Admiralty corrup- tion committee, and there is abundant reason to believe that, whether such committee is appointed by the Lords or Commons, the crimes of the Dockyards will be censured in even stronger terms than any that I have used. I could myself speak of the construction of one ironclad frigate by reason of the friendship of one high retired official. of The g U o ^ ct " matter The first chapter acquaints the reader with the appearance and condition of the Dockyards, discusses the question of defended and undefended dockyards, traces the growth of the dock- yard towns, discloses the administrative iniquities that prevail, and institutes comparisons between the English, French, and American dockyards. The second chapter deals with the question of the organisation of masses of labourers, points out the conditions on which success depends, and shows that one and all of the conditions are absent from the dockyard system. In that chapter are also traced the fluctuations of dock- yard labour, and the progress that is making towards the general adoption of labouring contracts, which originally were peculiar to America, but since the adop- tion of iron shipbuilding have been transplanted here. PREFACE. Xlll The third chapter is devoted to the question and details of dockyard manufactures. The fourth chapter takes up the hitherto forbidding problem of shipbuilding, and conclusively establishes the fact that the subject is over- laid with an all but incredible amount of error. Suffi- cient prominence is given to the wrong-doing both of the theorists and the practicals, and to the imperfections of the practice of the dockyards. The fifth chapter lays down the only sound principles of naval power, and com- bats the well-known popular fallacies. The sixth chapter is devoted to the position of the Powers, and shows that with moderate forethought England has nothing to fear from France, but possesses a dangerous rival in the United States. The remaining chapters give promi- nence to a few of the great iron and iron shipbuilding firms, so that the most timid may be assured that the maintenance of the navy may safely be committed to private hands. For one ship of war that the dockyards could build or repair, the private firms could build or repair a hundred, if not more. The conclusions of the Book. The conclusions of the book admit almost of expression in a single sen- tence. Substantially they are nothing more than this : Remodel the whole Dockyard system, and maintain the Navy on an effective war footing by at all times ren- dering the private enterprise of the country available for its support. At present the great resources of the country are practically unavailable for naval war, and the danger is that before they could become available XIV PREFACE. during war, the prestige and honour of our flag would temporarily be destroyed. For naval war the country was never more unprepared than it is at present, and experienced naval officers tremble at the prospect. Some of them go so far as to assert that we are fifty years behind the United States, but this is exaggeration. That, however, we are shamefully weak admits of no dispute, and that we cannot ever possibly be strong under the existing system of naval administration, is as true as any axiom in mathematics. Since the time of Henry VIII. the axe has not been once fairly laid to the dockyard tree, and trunk and branches are knotted, blasted, and unsightly. On the lifeless dockyards the treasure of this great country is poured out in vain. And yet we are a com- mercial people. Half a dozen of our business men will successfully manage dealings of an aggregate of as many millions as are voted annually for the Navy by the House of Commons. Half a dozen of our great capitalists will even take in hand the pro- perty of an amalgamated line of railway representing a value equal to the receipts of Mr. Gladstone, and make it answer every intended purpose. But still such men and the public tolerate the grossest jobbery and incom- petency every year in Whitehall. As far as the Navy is concerned, we might as well be sunk in the lowest depths of ignorance, and practically there might as well be no Parliament; for the £250,000 a week, the £1,000,000 a month, and the £12,000,000 a year are disbursed with neither decency nor guarantee. This PREFACE. XV book seeks the complete overthrow of the whole system and its reorganisation on sound fighting and business principles. It is scarcely necessary to add that those whose private establishments are named are in no way respon- sible for the book nor for the accuracy of the published statements ; and that were I by name to thank naval officers, dockyard officers, and the naval architects and others of the private yards to whom I am indebted for my more important facts, I should be doing them a grievous injury. If it is thought that I have given undue prominence to what the reader may regard as a squabble between Captain Ford and myself, my answer is that I have been left without choice, Captain Ford I believe having, with the first ninety -six pages in hand, made an active canvass of the shipyards, &c., against the book. London , l.s£ December , 1863. CONTENTS. Chapter I. THE DOCKYARDS. Their present Appearance, 1. Their present State, 3. The Building Slips, 4. The Storekeepers’ Sheds, 6. The Workshops, 8. The first Intention of the Dockyards, 9. Consequence of this first Intention, 11. One Source of Mystification, 12. Con- firmation of the Yalue of the Undefended Dockyards, 13. The Defended Dockyard Theory, 14. Dangerous tendency of the Theory, 15. The cognate Trades, 16. The growth of the Dockyard Towns, 17. The position of the Dockyard Towns, 18. No hardship in this Judgment, 19. The Dockyards not wholly unproductive, 20. Dockyard Administration, 23. The Testi- mony before the last Commissioners, 24. Administrative Cobbling, 26. The Board Inspections, 28. Co-operation Morning Meetings, 30. Piety and Uncharitableness, 32. Pious Master Shipwrights, 35. The French Dockyards, 36. Our System in comparison, 37. French and English Work- men, 39. The American Dockyards, 40. What the American Secretary does not do, 42. American and English Workmen, 43. Notes: Summary of Dockyard Work in progress, 4. Store- keepers, 6. Workshops, 8. Recommendation against the Right toYote, 20. Extraordinary state of the Accounts, 23. Morning Meetings, 30. Sunday Labour, 32. Duties of the American Secretary, 41. xvm CONTENTS. Chapter II. DOCKYARD LABOUR. The Difficulty of Organising Labour, 45. The Experience of Con- tractors, 46. The Dockyard Labour Problem, 48. Objections met: the Case of Russia, 50. Admiralty Conciliation, 51. Admiralty Force and Intimidation, 54. Admiralty Super- vision and Common Sense, 55. The existing Labour System, 56. Task and Job Work in the Dockyards, 58. Day Work and Day Pay in the Dockyards, 59. What these Failures prove, 60. Limited Earnings, 62. Additional Abuses, 64. Superannuation, 66. Originally a Bribe, 68. Its gross In- justice, 70. Admiralty Disposition to effect a Change, 71. English Shipyard Labour, 72. The Proximate Cause of Change, 73. The Labour Revolution, 76. The American Shipyards, 78. The New York Experience of an English Dockyard Officer, 80. Work on the American Lakes and Mississippi, 82. The Harmony of Contract Interests, 83. Applicability of the System to the Dockyards, 85. Notes: Task and Job Report, 58. Day Work and Day Pay Report, 59. Limited Earnings Report, 62. Superannuation Report, 66. Wood and Iron, 73. Chapter III. DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES. Sir George Lewis’s Principle of Manufactures, 87. The application to the Army, 88. Enfield, 89. Elswick, 94. The Dockyards governed by no Rule, 95. One of the Dockyard Objections to Contract Supplies, 96. One of the Dockyard Objections to Contract Shipbuilding, 97. The Mast-houses, 98. The Boat- houses, 100. The Capstan-houses, 101. The Joiners’ Shops, 101. The Plumbers’ Shops, 102. The Wheel- wrights’ Shops, 103. The Millwrights’ Shops, 104. The CONTENTS. XIX Roperies, 105. The Sail-lofts, 107. The Colour-lofts, 108. The Rigging-houses, 108. The Lead-mill, 109. The Paint-mill, 109. The Metal-mills and Foundry, 109. The Blockmakers’ Shops, 110. The Trenail-houses, 110. The Oarmakers’ Shops, 111. Caulkers* and Pitch-heaters’ Shops, 111. The Turners’ Shops, 112. Locksmiths’ Shops, 112. The Foundries, 112. Hosemakers’ Shops, 113. The Painters’ Shops, 113. The Condensors’ Shop, 114. The Pump- house, 114. The Fire-engine Shops, 114. The Smitheries, 115. The Steam-hammer Shops, 115. Conclusions, 116. Notes: Admiral Robinson’s Charges, 91. The Contract Gunboat Report, 98. Joiners’ Shops Report, 101. Wheel- wrights’ Shops Report, 103. Millwrights’ Shops Report, 104. Roperies Report, 105. Estimate of Excess Stores, 107. Lead-mill Report, 109. Metal-mills Report, 109. Block- makers’ Shop Report, 110. Oarmakers’ Shop Report, 111. Painters’ Shops Report, 113. Smitheries Report, 115. Chapter IV. DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. Scientific Uncertainty, 117. The Problem of Shipbuilding, 119. The Method of Solution followed, 120. What might be done, 121. The Dockyards in the main to blame, 123. Effects of such a State of Things, 126. Shipbuilding under the Practical Regime, 128. Discovery of the 1859 Committee, 130. Shipbuilding under the Theorists, 131. Serious Defects in the Contract Iron- clads, 135. The want of Small Ships, 136. The Case of the Dalhousie, 137. The System Practically, 138. The Power vested in the Controller, 140. The Peculiar Duty of the Con- structor, 142. The Little that the Superintendent has to do, 142. The Red Tape Routine before anything is done, 143. The unwieldy Gangs, 145. Shoaling: the Farce, 145. The Usage of Precedents, 146. The Unpractical Officers, 147. The Jack - of-all-trades Character of the Shipwrights, 148. The Admission of Inefficiency, 149. Shipyard Shipbuilding, 150. Designing Merchant Ships, 150. Contracts with Workmen, 151. Anta- gonism between Employer and Employed, 152. Notes: Extracts b 2 XX CONTENTS. from Sir William Symonds’ Memoirs, 117. The Enterprise and Naughty Child , 119. Extracts from Sir William Symonds’ Memoirs, 122. Discrepancy in the Cost of Dockyard Ships, 130. Charges of a Mechanic against the Achilles , 131. Contrary View : the Delhi , 132. Times Statement about the Dock of the Achilles , 134. Pliability of Dockyard Surgeons, 145. Chapter V. NAVAL POWER. The generally assumed Elements, 154. The Superior Claims of Ships, 156. The surpassing Claims of Dockyards, 157. The obvious Inadequacy in Dockyards, 158. Comparison with France in Dockyards, 159. The obvious Muddle about Ships, 160. Com- parison with France in Ships, 162. The obvious Error about Seamen, 163. Comparison with France in Seamen, 165. The real Elements of Naval Power : Readiness, 165. Effective Readiness, 167. Organised Readiness, 169. The second real Element of Naval Power : Resource, 172. Resource in Stores, Docks, and Seamen, 174. Immaterial whence Resource is derived, 177. The third real Element of Naval Power: En- durance, 178. Colonies neither a Strength nor Weakness, 179. Probable Immunity of Colonies in Modern War, 181. Con- ditions of Privateering, 183. Prizes and their Crews, 184. Notes : Disabilities of Navy Seamen, 163. Sir John Hay’s Promotion and Retirement Scheme, 171. Chapter YI. POSITION OF THE POWERS. England’s Dockyards, 186. The inexpensive means of placing the Dockyards on a War footing, 187. What French for cats can do English convicts may do, 189. English Ordinaries, 191. What the Ordinaries are, 192. Where established, 192. Admiralty CONTENTS. XXI Regulations respecting them, 193. Ordinaries partake of the Character of Duplication, 194. Objections to the System: Waste, 196. Our Neighbour’s System, 197. England’s Ship- yards and Workshops, 198. Fallacy to be guarded against, 199. French Dockyards, 200. French Strength and Weak- ness, 202. Algeria, 205. The French Shipyards, 206. America the Dangerous Rival of England, 207. Chapter VII. THE THAMES IRONWORKS AND SHIPBUILDING COMPANY (LIMITED), BLACKWALL. Annual Capability, 209. Locality and Plan of the Works: Mid- dlesex, 209. The Essex side, 210. Railway and other Facilities of the Works, 213. No such Facilities possessed by the Dockyards, 213. The Capabilities in excess of those of all the Dockyards, 215. Peculiarity of the Work, 216. The Works chiefly designed for Shipbuilding, 217. The Work- ing System, 218. The Machinery of the Works, 220. Chapter YIII. THE MILLWALL IRONWORKS AND SHIPBUILDING COMPANY (LIMITED). Annual Capability, 221. The Direction of the Company, 221. Employer and Employed, 223. Peculiarity of the Works, 224. The Model Room, 225. The Building Yard, 225. The Forge, 227. Rolling-mills and Rolling, 228. The Armour-plate and Battery Mills, 229. Imperfection of this Outline, 230. Chapter IX. THE MERSEY STEEL AND IRON WORKS, LIVERPOOL Position and Extent of the Works, 232. Puddle Steel and Furnaces, 234. Furnaces and Machinery, 234. The Forge XXII CONTENTS. Department, 235. Wrought-iron Cannon Manufacture, 236. The Forge Appliances, 238. Stupendous Hammer, 238. The Engineering Shop, 240. The Rolling and Armour-plate Mills, 242. The Heating Furnace, 243. Employer and Employed, 245. Chapter X. THE ATLAS WORKS, SHEFFIELD. Origin and Progress of the Works, 247. The Old Planin Shop, &c., 249. The New Rolling-mill, 252. The Planin and Slotting i Shop, &c., 253. What the Admiralty over- look, 254. Chapter XI. THE PARKGATE IRONWORKS, SHEFFIELD. Origin and Progress of the Works, 256. Extent and Facilities, 257. The Lesson taught by the Works, 259. Chapter XII. THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. Maudslay, Sons, and Field, 261. Messrs. John Penn and Son, 267. The Works, 269. The Albion Ironworks, 271. Rennie’s History, and Progress of the Firm, 272. The Floating Docks, 275. The Phoenix Foundry, Liverpool, 276. Progress of the Establishment : Guns, 277. Land and Marine Engines, &c., 278. Contract Steamers, 279. The Blackwall Ironworks : Stewart, 280. Engine and Boiler Works, 281. to to CONTENTS. xxiii Chapter XIII. SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. The National Company for Boatbuilding by Machinery (Limited), 283. Machine Boatbuilding, 285. Advantages of Machine-made Boats, 286. Utility in the Navy, 287. Success predicted, 288. Machinery Employed, 289. Tripod Masts, 290. Submarine Batteries, 291. The Connector Experimental Ship, 292. Chapter XIV. THE THAMES SHIPPING INTERESTS. Deptford-green Dockyard, 294. The Capabilities of Mr. Lungley’s Yard, 296. Messrs. Samuda’s Yard, Millwall, 297. Messrs. James Asli and Co.’s Yard, Cubitt Town, 299. Notes : Mode of Interior Fitting known as Unsinkable Shipbuilding, 294. “The Dockyards and Shipyards of the Kingdom,” 297. Vessels Built from the Designs of Mr. James Ash, 299. Chapter XV. THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. The Birkenhead Ironworks, 301. The Lesson of the Messrs. Laird’s . Works, 302. Messrs. Jones, Quiggin, and Co., Shipbuilding Yard, Liverpool, 302. Messrs. Thomas Vernon and Son’s Iron Shipbuilding Yard, Liverpool, 304. W. C. Miller’s Shipbuild- ing Yard, Toxteth Dock, Liverpool, 306. The Britannia Engine Works, Birkenhead, 307. Woodside Graving Dock Company (Limited), Birkenhead, 308. G. R. Clover and Co., Liverpool, and Private Graving Docks and Building Yard, Birkenhead, 310, Messrs. W. II. Potter and Co.’s Shipbuilding Yard, Baffin-street, Queen’s Dock, and Blackstone-street, near Sandon Graving Docks, Liverpool, 311. Cato, Miller, and Co., Brunswick Forge and Ironworks, 312. PHOTOGRAPHIC PREFACE. Photography is to blame for the bad views, and to be praised for the good views that appear in this volume. The perfection and the imperfection of the art are given side by side. True, the fogs of November obscure or deny the light that is the chief condition of the artist’s success, but even in the worst of all the English months there are occasional blinks of sunshine, and something like same- ness of result might for that reason have been looked for. But no, it has been impossible. They who want uniformly good photographic views, particularly of dark or overlighted work- shops, must wait patiently in the hope of accident according that which the best chemicals and the most skilful handling cannot yet command. The time, no doubt, will come when it wdll be otherwise. It is, however, still apparently remote. Illustrating a book with photographs is as emblematical of patience as reading an American President’s Message on a cold grindstone. Your thin- skinned “operator” is constantly being offended, your thick-skinned “operator” is as constantly offending, and your bungling “operator” has been tripped by an angle-iron, and his instrument is broken. Then there is the early awkward hour at which alone the sun will light some place sufficiently to allow the view to be taken ; and the time, the long time that everything is said to be in shade. Next comes the trouble with the photographic printer, who hesitates to invest money in extra frames for the job, and has always an 11 excuse ready for his neglect or shortcoming. To-day he will tell you that there has been no light for a whole week, and to-morrow his story is that the prints will lose colour and become worthless unless they lie eight-and-forty hours in water. What are you to do ? for after you have get rid of operator and photo-printer, there still remains the photo-mounter of the prints to be endured ! A week, a fortnight, and a month pass, and you are exactly where you were. Meanwhile your publisher meets you in the street and reminds you that your book has been announced six weeks since in a half-page advertisement in the bi-monthly Circular, as well as entered in all the lists. Moreover, he adds there are inquiries for the book from Germany and other foreign parts, and that the questions of Dockyard Economy and Naval Power are at the moment before the public. The appeal is irresistible, and you yield to it, conscious that you have done your best, and that photography is not to be despised, although its results in November are occasionally less satisfactory than could be wished. A y m/\n ^T> l.a£a ^ IMiLL jO^xi More successful views of the Millwall Company’s Works have fortunately been obtained, and appear in all but the few early copies, of which this is one. PHOTOGRAPHS. Frontispiece . — Mersey Ironworks. — Armour-plate Mill. Millwall Company's Wo r rks, Millwall. page Armour-plate Mill 221 Interior View ......... 224 Interior View . . 226 Mersey Ironworks , Liverpool. Exterior View 232 Exterior View . . . . . . . . . 240 Messrs. Maudslay , Son, and Field's Works , Lambeth. The Foundry 261 Engines of her Majesty’s Ironclad Ship Agincourt , 1,350-horse power 261 Erecting Shop 262 Copenhagen Dock Engines 263 Erecting Shop 264 Erecting Shop 265 Messrs. Penn and Son's Works, Greenwich and Deptford. The Foundry 267 Engines in Erecting Shop 267 The Smiths’ Shop 268 The Scrap Forge 269 The Heavy Turnery ........ 270 Deptford Pier Boiler Shop 270 Messrs. Rennie's Works , Deptford and Blackfriars. River View of Works ....... 272 Interior View .......... 274 Mr. John Stewart's Black-wall Ironworks , Millwall. Exterior View ......... 280 Exterior View . . . . . . . . .281 Exterior View ......... 282 The National Boat-Building Company. Company’s W orks, East Greenwich ...... 283 Interior View ......... 284 Mr. Charles Langley's Deptford-green Dockyard. Interior View ......... 294 Interior View ......... 295 Messrs. Samuda's Yard , Millwall. Interior View .......... 296 Messrs. James Ash and Co.'s Yard , Cubitt Town , Millwall. Exterior View ......... 299 Interior View ......... 299 Interior View 300 DOCKYARD ECONOMY AND NAVAL POWER. Chapter I. THE DOCKYARDS. Their present a p - The present appearance of one and all pearance. L # A L of the English dockyards is much the same. Deptford is from the Portsmouth pattern, and, in the main, between Keyham and Pembroke there is a close resemblance. When one is seen all are seen. Nor is this remarkable. The same heads conceived, the same money paid, and the same hands fashioned all the seven : Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Ports- mouth, Devonport and Keyham, and Pembroke. All have building slips, although Sheerness has only one. All have docks, although Portsmouth and Keyham are the best provided. All are fortified, although the guns covering the sea and land approaches to Deptford and Woolwich are in store in the latter ; although the Chat- ham lines are as ancient as 1710 and 1806; and Sheer- ness and Pembroke, as regards defensive works, are spectres by the side of Portsmouth and Devonport. The same London-Dock walls surround all, not that a foe may be kept out, but that common thieves may not break through and steal. The same London-Dock chief entrance has in all cases to be sought, before admission is obtained, and Avhen it has been reached, the London Peeler uniforms occupy the wicket-stalls of the liveried officials of the establishment in Lower East Smithfield. Inside the chief dockyard entrance, the look of things B 2 THE DOCKYARDS. is not more impressive than a glance into any barrack- yard where there are no soldiers. In front, or to the right or left, one or more infantry battalions might be drilled, if not officially inspected and reviewed. Hot sailors, but military gentlemen, who are generally sup- posed to know nothing of the wants of sailors, laid out the great naval establishments which are the pride of so many Englishmen. Is it possible that they were actuated by ill-feeling to the navy, and had a leaning to their own sister arm, or that they participated in the dreamy notions of perpetual peace which took possession of so many people after Waterloo, and resolved on making the dockyards appear as dull, inoffensive, and picturesque as possible. Whatever the motive of those charged with the duty of laying out the dockyards, the judgment to be passed on them in their present form is, that they are better suited for ornament than use. They no more resemble the busy private shipyards (in one of which there is often more work done than in all the seven dockyards) than chalk resembles cheese.^ A private shipyard is a hive of industry, with every foot of frontage occupied in building ships, and every foot of depth and breadth filled with shops, sheds, furnaces, and working places, so that at all times it is with difficulty, and occasionally with danger, that the visitor moves about. A dockyard, on the contrary, presents a tout ensemble of open ground and building, shrubs,, trees, and official residences in which peers of the realm might spend their leisure. Everything unsightly, the vulgar outfit of the fleet, the hideous sawpits, and stacks o£ * Of late the Thames Shipbuilding Company have been doing more new work than all the seven dockyards. The Millwall Shipbuilding Company will soon also be doing more. THE DOCKYARDS. 3 timber, fill the water’s edge, where it is no doubt pre- sumed they remain unnoticed, and where of course an enemy would never think of harming them. Where it is necessary to carry on vulgar work, costly buildings have been erected, in which wretched labourers wear out soul and body for 13s. weekly and contingent superannuation. Where ships are to be seen in dock or basin there is the same straining at outside show ; docks and basins too often containing showy rotten ships, which a single well-directed broadside would consign, with every one on board, to Davy’s locker. The appearance of an English dockyard is therefore fine, and to some extent imposing, when set out with ships on which the paint-brush has been freely used. The money of a great country appears to have been spent to some purpose. Along the clean well-paved promenades, where starched Admirals, dim Commo- dores, pious Superintendents, sprightly young officers and others receive salutations and display their clothes or uniforms, a holiday hue adorns everything, as much as if the dockyards were established and main- tained for the same reason as the fountains behind Nelson’s monument in Trafalgar-square. Their present state. The present state of the dockyards is in a certain sense implied in the appearance, but the dis- tinction is apparent when appearance is supposed to mean no more than the outward aspect, while state is regarded as the uses to which the dockyards are applied. In the state of the dockyards there is the same identity as in the outward aspect. Deptford, Woolwich, Chat- ham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, Devonport and Keyham, and Pembroke are alike internally, unless in one or two respects of no importance. Keyham and Devonport, b 2 4 THE DOCKYARDS. although joined by a short tunnel, are each possessed of dockyard and factory shops, in which skilled and unskilled men and boys are employed. Each of the other dockyards is similarly provided. In one and all of the seven, men and boys are at work from week to week and year to year storing masts and repairing masts, storing boats and repairing boats, making capstans and storing capstans, making sails and storing sails, making rope and rigging and storing rope and rigging, making oars, trenails, blocks, and storing them, mixing paints, repairing locks, hose, pumps, and other things; but Chatham Dockyard is alone graced with a lead- mill, a paint-mill, and a cement-mill. Pembroke, too, differs from all the others in being regarded as a mere building dockyard; and Sheerness also differs in being regarded as a mere fitting and repairing dockyard. Differences such as these are immaterial, but they deserve notice, inasmuch as they show the tendency to change that has from time to time agitated the official mind. When Sheerness was designated a mere fitting dockyard, and only provided with the means of building one ship at a time, it may be presumed that the thought of permanent ship-of-war construction in the private shipyards was seriously in contemplation; and on the other hand, when Pembroke was designated a mere building dockyard, it may be presumed that in the councils of the nation the reactionary party were again in power. The Building Slips.* Step j n £ 0 one 0 f building slips in * The following is the summary of the entire dockyard work in progress in the undermentioned dockyards at the time of my visit some months ago ; reprinted from my reports in the Morning Herald and the Standard : — Deptford . — Deptford is constructing the Enterprise , iron-cased sloop of 990 tons. THE DOCKYARDS. 5 any of the seven dockyards, whether or no there are men at work, and a fair sample of the dockyard system in that one particular is obtained. The slip is covered On the adjoining slip there is the Favourite , iron-cased corvette of 2,186 tons. In dock there is the Salamander , paddle sloop of 818 tons. On the Enterprise there are a few gangs of shipwrights ; on the Favourite there is not a single shipwright ; and the Salamander , an effete and rotten tub, has so many shipwrights at work that, even were they willing, they could not perform a fair day’s work. Such is the whole present utility of Deptford Dockyard to the public, and the extent of the supervision of the officials. Woolwich . — Woolwich is constructing the Caledonia , iron-cased ship of 4,125 tons. That is all the new work going on. In the docks there are the Archer, screw corvette of 973 tons, undergoing thorough repair ; th eAlecto, paddle sloop of 800 tons, undergoing thorough repair; the Caradoc , paddle vessel of 676 tons, undergoing thorough repair; and last of all the Dee, paddle store vessel of 704 tons, undergoing thorough repair. On No. 1 slip there is the Dartmouth , 36, screw frigate of 2,478 tons, in frame; on No. 2 slip there is the Sylvia , screw gun vessel of 695 tons, planked ; No. 3 slip is full of timber ; No. 4 slip is empty ; on No. 5 slip there is the Repulse , 89, screw ship of 3,716 tons, with the outer skin; on No. 6 slip there is the Wolverine , 21, screw corvette of 1,702 tons. On not one of these slips is there a single shipwright at work, so that the extent of the ship construction and repairing of Woolwich Dockyard is the construction of the Caledonia and the repair of four small wooden craft, which it would have been wise economy to burn. Chatham . — Chatham is constructing the Achilles , 30, iron screw vessel of 6,079 tons, and th e Royal Oak , 34, iron cased-ship of 4, 056 tons. This is all the new work going on, and there is no old work in progress. On No. 1 slip there is the Salamis , paddle despatch vessel of 835 tons; on No. 2 slip there is the Reindeer , 6, screw sloop of 950 tons, no deck ; on No. 3 slip there is the Myrmidon , 4, screw gun vessel of 695 tons, advanced; on No. 4 slip there is the Beloidera , 51, screw frigate of 3,027 tons, in frame; on No. 5 slip there is the Bulwark , 89, screw ship of 3,716 tons, four-eighths; and on No. 6 slip there is the Menai , 21, screw corvette of 1,857 tons, in frame. On. not one of these slips is there a single shipwright at work, so that the extent of the ship construction in Chatham Dockyard is the Achilles and the Royal Oak; the repairing nil. Sheemess . — Sheerness is not constructing a single ship; and has one ship, the North Star, 22, screw corvette of 1,857 tons, in frame, with no work doing. In No. 1 dock, there is the rotten Cossack, 20, screw corvette of 1,296 tons, undergoing thorough repair; in No. 2, there is the rotten Terrible, 21, paddle frigate, undergoing thorough repair ; in No. 4 dock, the gunboat Cochin, from the first division of the steam reserve, is undergoing examination; and in No. 5 dock, the rot ton Locust, 1, paddle tug, is undergoing thorough repair. In No. 1 basin, the rotten Erne , gunboat, is undergoing thorough repair; in No. 2 basin, the rotten Scylla, 21, screw corvette,., is undergoing thorough repair ; and in No. 3 dock, the rotten Vigilant , 4, gun vessel, is undergoing thorough repair. Portsmouth . — Portsmouth is constructing the Royal Sovereign , 3, iron-cased cupola, ship, of 3,963 tons; and the Royal Alfred, 34, iron-cased ship, of 4,045 tons. This- 6 THE DOCKYARDS. in and capacious, and alike extravagant in its details and air of permanency. It is a structure for all time, based on the assumption that building slips will be always wanted in the dockyards, and that the form and capacity of ships of war are, and must always be, invariable. If there are men employed, they perform their task leisurely. If there are not men at work, it will be observed that the tool-chests, moulds, and materials are disposed of in faultless order; an essential part of the duty of a dockyard workman manifestly being, to give his first care to the tidiness of the place about him, that perhaps the sensibility of swell clerks, officials, and illustrious visitors may not be ruffled or their continuations ripped or soiled. Sheets* Storekeeper8 ’ Step again into one of the store- keepers’ sheds. This, let us say, is the reception-room for returned stores. Here all the is the whole new work in progress. On No. 2 slip there is the Dryad , 51, screw frigate; on No. 3 slip, the Harlequin, 6, screw sloop of 950 tons; and on No. 4 slip, the Helicon , paddle despatch vessel ; all in various stages of advancement, but with no work doing. In No. 1 dock there is the rotten EsJc, 21, screw corvette, of 1,169 tons, undergoing thorough repair; and in No. 2 dock, the rotten Curaqoa , 31, screw frigate, of 1,571 tons, undergoing thorough repair. Devonport. — Devonport is converting the Ocean, 34, screw, iron -cased ship, of 4,045 tons ; and that is all the new work going forward. On No. 1 slip there is the Bittern , 4, screw sloop, of 669 tons, keel laid; No. 2 slip is empty; the next slip has been converted into a storehouse; on No. 4 slip there is the Robust, 89, screw ship, of 3,716 tons, partly planked; and on No. 5 slip there is the Ister, 36, screw frigate, of 1,321 tons, in frame ; no work doing on any of the slips. In No. 2 dock, there is the rotten Alert, 17, screw sloop, of 751 tons, undergoing thorough repair; and in No. 4 dock, the Minx , water-tank vessel, and the Tortoise, lighter, are repairing. Keyharn. — In the North basin, the Constance, new, 51, screwfrigate, is finishing; and the Princess Royal is changing boilers. In No. 2 dock, the rotten Valorous , 16, paddle frigate of 1,257 tons, is receiving thorough repair; and in No. 1 dock the rotten Gladiator waits the decision of the Admiralty, the dockyard officials being of opinion that the ship should be broken up. * The storekeepers give bond for the proper fulfilment of their duties ; but, being necessarily permitted to delegate some portion of their duties as regards the issuing of stores to their clerks and storehousemen, are not wholly responsible for the safe THE DOCKYARDS. 7 moveables of all the ships paid off at this particular dock- yard are thrown down violently on the floor and some- times smashed. Let us pause a moment as the crowded lighters are approaching, and the use of the reception- room will receive demonstration. The two lighters are at length made fast and the crowd of sailors and marines jump ashore and reach the quay. To all appearance the sailors and marines have not washed for some time, nor have their clothes been brushed. Inquiry, however, sets the mind right on these points, for the crew were as clean as pins some hours ago. Since then, to use their own expressive words, they have been tearing the guts out of the old brute. They have been in the inside of lockers, store-rooms, and what are familiarly termed bunks, in which there is neither light nor wholesome air, but by some unaccountable means plenty of dust, waste, and mildew. The consequence is that the prim sailor and marine becomes as clammy as a viewer of City sewers, or as dusty as those whose occupation is to knock down aged buildings within the precincts of the Middle Temple. The discharge of the two lighters now begins. Several sailors and marines take armfuls of old rope, others shoulder rope yarns, some carry blocks, half a dozen drag out chain, a few stagger with the weight of ponderous tackles, but the great majority frisk about with not very exemplary loads of old iron, wrenched by sheer strength from the interior of the paid-off ship. Into the reception-room the crowd presses, down they cast their burdens, and back they turn to the lighters. custody of the property under charge. — Page 590, Appendix to Report of Com- missioners; 1861. The committee recommend greater control to be exercised over the stock of stores in the factory storehouses by the storekeeper of the yard, and over the cash payments of ■wages of the factories by the accountant of the yard. — Page 92, Report of the 1859 Committee. 8 THE DOCKYARDS. The work is devilish, and because it is devilish it seems to be enjoyed. When the sailors and marines with the lighters have finally disappeared in the offing, the. dockyard labourers begin to amuse themselves, sorting the ruinous heap of everything and carrying the different articles to near or distant stores, from which they will again* be carried and abused when the next ship is com* missioned in the dockyard. The workshops.* Step last of all into one of the work- shops. The sight is a strange one after a previous visit to a shipyard workshop. A shipyard workshop is as well stuffed as a common lodging-house in St. Giles’s. Planing, drilling, slotting, punching, clipping, and other machines take the place of shake-downs and bedsteads, and greasy horny-handed mechanics the place of tramps, illegitimate shoeblacks, and Covent-garden sneaks. In summer the air is close and balmy with the odour of the crudest oil. In winter a red-hot stove heats to ex- cess the immediate neighbourhood, but leaves unwarmed the distant parts ; or space cannot possibly be found for a stove, however willing the firm may be to supply one and provide the coal. In a word, a private shipyard work- shop is always too small by half, and when an enlarge- ment takes place it is soon usually found to be as much wanting in length and breadth as before. In a dock- yard workshop, on the contrary, one is less likely to be * There is an old custom in working the copper and brass mills to limit the men to a given stint of work; while the conductor recently appointed from private trade considers that the men ought to do about one-fifth more than this for their present day’s wages. — Page 61, Report of the 1859 Committee. The committee found the arrangements for the supervision of the men while at w r ork in the various workshops to be generally objectionable. The offices of the foremen, inspectors, and leading men were not such as the men could be seen lrom, being in many cases detached from the workshops, and in others without any window looking into the workshops. THE DOCKYARDS. 9 inconvenienced by hamper or lost among machines than to be lost in space and worn out by walking over ten times — nay, in Keyham a thousand times — the house room that is required for all the work and workmen. Magnificence as regards space, and, as far as decency will permit, as regards structure, is the great idea of the dockyard workshops. Bigger workshops than those of the private shipyards, or than those of France, and, if possible, than those of all foreign countries together, has always been a weakness of the Admiralty. Surely more contemptible illiberality cannot be conceived. A dockyard workshop resembles nothing so much as W est- minster Hall with a dining-table and a dozen chairs in the centre at which half a dozen Queen’s Bench witnesses are taking things comfortably. Straggling machines fill out the walls of the dockyard workshop, and the centre is available for a lecture or a dance. The great Keyham factory workshop covers as much ground as would form a moderate Alexandra Park, and here and there a half or whole acre is partitioned off for shops of some kind, while the major portion of the factory lies fallow. All the wasteful factory votes of many years have not suf- ficed to make much more impression on the great estab- lishment at Keyham than all the shiploads of starved cotton-spinners and other emigrants in the colonisation of Queensland and Victoria. Such is the state and ap- pearance of the English dockyards ; a state and appear- ance disgraceful to the Admiralty and Parliament, and unjust to the taxpayers of a heavily burdened country. of The i)T r C k y ards ntion Having now conveyed a pretty accurate impression of the present economy of the dockyards, let us next turn briefly to the past. The dockyards were originally established for what were 10 THE DOCKYARDS. deemed good reasons of State policy. Without going as far back as the time of Henry VIII., it will suffice to state that when British cruisers appeared off Toulon, Copenhagen, or New England, or when French cruisers appeared off Portsmouth, the means were to be at hand for repelling them ; when British, French, American, or Russian cruisers returned to port disabled, facilities were to exist for refit or repair ; and in peace and war the dockyards were to furnish the new additions to the fleet. Such was the first intention of the dockyards. They had their origin in the necessities of naval war and in the poverty of the industry of the time. They were intended to provide that which could not be con- veniently or so well provided elsewhere. At that period England, Continental Europe, and America present a striking contrast to their state just now. The mecha- nical and manufacturing arts may be said to have been since created. Since the establishment of the dockyards, modern shipbuilding takes its rise. The shipbuilding that then and that long subsequently existed was of unsightly small craft, rude, ill-finished copies of the old school that had long preceded, and it was in the hands of quaint old fellows who were particular as to the season when keels were laid, timbers set up, and the first strake of planking fastened. However, to do them justice, shipbuilding was not encouraged greatly, and they were not behind their neighbours in general intelli- gence and skill. Commerce then flowed within narrow bounds. The impression then existed that it was ruinous to receive commodities from other nations, and only profitable to bestow them. Only between a country and its colonies was trade unshackled, and such a trade could at the best furnish an intermittent and feeble im- pulse to the building of sea-going ships from year to THE DOCKYARDS. 11 year. So when it became necessary to possess cruisers, squadrons, and fleets, Lord High Admirals had no choice but that of building for themselves. Contracts they could not give, because there were no private firms to take them. Left, therefore, to determine between building ships and not possessing ships, they necessarily adopted the former course. Consequence of this There is an obvious consequence of first intention. # x some importance arising out of this first intention. It is that as the dockyards had their origin in the necessities of naval war, and in the absence of great private establishments in which ships of war could be built, there is not another word to be said in support of the continuance of the dock- yards than that they exist, or, what is the same thing, that we possess them. Manifestly, if up to the present time war had been unknown, and all at once its ghastly forms presented themselves to men’s minds as something with which at last they must become familiar, no sane man would have thought of providing ships in any other way for the public service than ships are provided for private persons, because if it were impossible to supply the public service properly, the question would arise whether it would not be as much the duty of the Government to save private persons from what we shall call the rapacity and incompetency of the shipbuilders as to save the public. From this conclusion there is no logical escape. Some may answer that the dockyard work is better and more to be depended on than ship- yard work ; but surely it must be apparent that this is only saying the dockyard officials are incapable of super- intending shipyard work, and that workmen cannot perform their task in so satisfactory a manner outside of 12 THE DOCKYARDS. the dockyards as they can within. The objection, it will be shown hereafter, is altogether groundless. The first intention of the dockyards was to provide that which could not be conveniently or so well provided elsewhere ; therefore all that the warmest friends of the dockyards can rationally say in support of them is that we have them, and for that reason we ought to use and cherish them. But exactly the same logic would lead us to use and cherish the coats of mail in the Tower of London, because we have them; and the battle-axes, broad- swords, and unmelted cannon of the last century that still encumber our great arsenals. One source of mys- Why this consequence of the first in- tention of the dockyards is lost sight of in all the discussions on the dockyards admits of being explained. From long-formed habits of association with forts and lines of defence, the fact has come to be over- looked that any coast harbour in which ships of war may be built, fitted, refitted or overhauled, is to all intents and purposes as much a dockyard as Portsmouth or Toulon, although the only ditches in the neighbourhood are those for draining land, and the only guns the farmers’ fowling-pieces and the rifles of the Volunteers. We have come to invest dockyards with great defensive attributes. They are regarded as the sole refuge for our ships of war 4 when great expeditions are being planned, or when our ships of war cannot keep the sea in the presence of an enemy. Sometimes we are even told that the dockyards are the backbone of all naval power. But what in reality are the advantages of defended dockyards ? If they might repel an audacious enemy, would they not constantly invite attack? If they might provide shelter for our ships, and afford THE DOCKYARDS. 13 facilities for combinations into squadrons and fleets, would not all the facilities and shelter ever likely to be required be found without outlay or preparation else- where? We may be well assured that the issue of a war between two naval Powers must depend less on the strength of a few points of coast than on the multiplicity of undefended points of coast wdiere the construction and repair of ships of war might be carried on. Eng- land may have its Chatham, its Portsmouth, and Key- ham, and France its Cherbourg, Brest, and Toulon, but, manifestly, the power of naval resistance and aggression extends far beyond these strongholds. The strength of England in well-defended dockyards is really con- temptible by the side of the strength of England in undefended shipyards. From the Pentland Frith south- ward round the English coast to the Caledonian Canal, and from Belfast Loch southward round the Irish coast to Belfast Loch again, there is, irrespective of the dock- yards, as much available shipyard resource in the three kingdoms as there is in all Continental Europe. Confirmation of the The American war of 1812 furnishes value of undefended Dockyards. abundant proof of the value of undefended dockyards. The supposed naval weakness of the United States was the chief occasion of that war, and yet there is no naval war on which England ever entered that reflects less honour on its arms. The Americans built and sent ships to sea in spite of us, and many of those ships overpowered ours. Every considerable commercial harbour in the United States became a dockyard, from which ships of war issued, and towards those harbours disabled American ships bore up indifferently, with the assurance that repair and refit could always be obtained. And when our ships followed them, or appeared before 14 . THE DOCKYARDS. one of those commercial harbours, there was nothin sr practically to destroy. In none of them were there great accumulations of public stores, and consequently no effective blow could be ever struck at our enemy. England could only fret at the unexpected and bitter check; and the invention was a happy although trans- parent one, that America had stolen a march on us in the construction of more heavily armed ships of the same classes. The acknowledgment of the truth would not have answered, that why America succeeded and England failed was solely owing to the fact that Eng- land had formed its estimate of naval strength by the possession of great dockyards, while America attached no importance to great dockyards, but made the most of its rude harbours, its forests, and our own seamen. It is not yet too late for England to profit by the dearly bought experience of the last war with the United States. The defended Dock- The defended dockyard theory is, as yard theory. . J J just observed, that as long as a nation possesses strong dockyards it can do pretty much as it pleases. This is a short but fair statement of the theory, and obviously its weak point is that now-a-days there are in reality no strong dockyards. Improvements in gunnery and the iron-casing of ships divest the strongest dockyards of more than half their once boasted power. Frenchmen now smile at Spithead, and at the new covering works in progress, and Englishmen in turn smile at Toulon. The science of attack always has and always will keep pace with the science of defence, because practically that which is good for one is so for both. Naval architects and engineers may now be found who will engage to build ships that would carry granite THE DOCKYARDS. 15 fortresses on their decks, and mount guns in such fortresses of larger calibre than artillerists would dare to fire — unless from the security of the splinter-proofs at Shoeburyness. Then if Portsmouth by any chance could not be destroyed by bombardment from the sea, an army establishing itself in force in its rear would very soon enforce submission. So with Toulon, and so with all the great dockyards. Repeated failures at reduction by bombardment at Vicksburg and Charleston prove no more than that ironclads of the Federal pattern were long unequal to the work. They leave untouched the question of the power of the ironclads of Europe in such enterprises, and the equally important question of the invincibility of European armies in the field when supporting such attacks. Thus the dockyard theory does not hold water. It is a theory the basis of which is an impossibility, and yet, strange to say, possibility is boldly assumed in its support. It is assumed that Ports- mouth, Toulon, and Cronstadt would keep out an enemy however powerful, and the assumption granted, it follows that a nation possessing defended dockyards has the means of constructing, fitting, refitting, overhauling, victualling, and concentrating fleets at pleasure. c i* an s erous tendency The theory of defended dockyards of the theory. J J has one most dangerous tendency. It fosters a strong dependence in mere outlays, although those outlays may be of no real value. Money is ex- pended in enormous sums, and people as a consequence come to think much the same thing of the defended dockyards as the Austrians thought of their pampered and overbearing legions before Solferino, and the demo- ralisation that followed the overthrow of the hollow Austrian system is to be feared, even in this country, 16 THE DOCKYARDS. were our defended dockyards to be demolished by an enemy at the beginning or in the course of a great naval war. Austria hoped everything of its soldiery, with a liberal hand spent its means on them, and when they failed the country was broken in spirit and without resource. True, Englishmen possess qualities the absence of which has often, and may many times again, render Germans contemptible in the eyes of Europe; but nevertheless, were Englishmen to find that they had been trusting to a reed in the matter of defence, the effort would not be an easy one to forget the defended dockyards which had before been lauded, and confide in the shipyards, the harbours, and the open roadsteads of the kingdom, which before had been lightly thought of. England suffered deep humiliation from the relatively unimportant break-down of the Horse Guards’ pipeclay and leather stocks in the Crimea. God forbid that too great dependence should now be placed in the defended dockyards ! The cognate Trades. But returning to the subject. With shipbuilding set a-going in the dockyards, the establish- ment of the cognate trades followed. Ships of war could not be built in a given time nor at even a remote approach to a certain sum, unless everything entering into the construction was at hand. At that period the outlying districts on the coast communicated at best with the centres of industry , and population by bullock- cart and team. There were no telegraphs, and no canals nor steamboats. Carrying coal from Newcastle was unheard of, and unthouglit of. Land transit in those days from Newcastle to Portsmouth or Plymouth would have invested coal and other bulky articles with a value THE DOCKYARDS. 17 that would have restrained even dockyard buyers.* So England, after taking to the building of ships of Avar in the dockyards, Avas from necessity obliged to advance a step further and as far as practicable produce on the spot all that the construction of ships of Avar required. Shops and sheds were erected, that masts, boats, sails, rope, rigging, and other things might be procured, and it is a suggestive and startling fact that those long-since superfluous adjuncts should still survive. That AA r hat Avas requisite in the construction of ships of war in Henry VIII. ’s days should still be kept alive by annual Parliamentary votes in the year of grace 1863-4, is perhaps creditable to our respect for old things, but eminently discreditable to our common sense. That the cognate shipbuilding trades should still exist in the dockyards is a proof, Avere one Avanting, that since the establishment of the dockyards they have not yet been brought into anything like harmony Avith the times. The growth of the Contemporaneous Avith the growth of Dockyard Towns. A ° the dockyards has been that of the towns clustering round them. The history of these toAAms is still unAvritten. With the French dockyard toA\ms it has been much the same as Avith those of England, Avhile with those of Russia and the United States A\ r hat is true of the French and English is true of them in only a small degree. From the first Russia has been a despotism, and corruption in the dockyard towns has not been necessary. In America the ballot-box and the other safeguards of an advanced state of freedom — often abused, no doubt — ha\ r e been sufficient to preserve the * I do not think it necessary to repeat what I have said elsewhere on the subject of transit. — See American and Indian Transit: Triibner and Co., 1859. 18 THE DOCKYARDS. dockyard towns at elections from sale and purchase; but proof is not wanting that both in America and Russia jobbery and intimidation have always to some extent prevailed. A Russian Admiral and an American senior naval officer are persons worth pleasing, and that they are pleased goes to some extent to show that dockyards and corruption are inseparable. Between the corrup- tion of the French and English dockyard towns there is not much to choose, but the latter no doubt bear the palm. The position of the The dependence of the dockyard Dockyard Towns. A towns, as long as dockyards are main- tained, is, however, in a certain sense necessary. Round the most faultlessly conducted dockyards towns of more or less dependence must in course of time be formed, and if the Government of the day were not to turn the dockyard towns to some account they would be wrong. Still, linked as the dockyard towns are with the dockyards, the consideration to be kept in view stands out clear enough. Up to the point that the connection between the towns and dockyards operates beneficially to the public it is harmless, but when the not at all difficult to be defined limit has been passed it of course becomes an evil. For example, in justification of the construction of Mr. E. J. Reed’s sloops of war in Deptford Dockyard, it has been said, although not by Mr. Reed, that the shipwrights who otherwise would have been idle are employed, to the great benefit, of Deptford. Obviously here is a glaring disregard of sound principle. Then again, when it is said, in justification of the continued construction of ships of war with wooden bodies or wooden bottoms, that the excessive stock of timber at the present time on hand will be consumed, the trans- THE DOCKYARDS. 19 gression is alike apparent. And to take an instance of another kind, when in the dockyards an old-fashioned shipwright, a man with Vulgar prejudices in favour of timber and against iron, is raised by favouritism or improperly in any other way to a high position, and in that high position is called on to express a professional opinion which shall guide the Admiralty either in the construction of wood or iron ships, the abuse is not less patent. Whenever, therefore, dockyards come to be regarded as a means of providing employment to a resi- dent population, as a means of working up material that happens to be on hand, or as means of employing improper persons, the dockyards are at once degraded to the condition of establishments for the relief of trades- men and able-bodied workpeople. No hardship in this J n tliis judgment there is no implied judgment. ° ° # hardship to any class. Let it be assumed the rule were laid down that unless the construction and maintenance of ships of war could be obtained on as advantageous terms in the dockyards as out of them, construction and maintenance in the dockyards should cease. What, then, would be the position of the dock- yard operatives, and others in the dockyard towns? The services of the operatives and the capital of the trades- people would cease to be required, but, as a set-off, the services of the one and the capital of the other would be wanted wherever the construction and maintenance of ships of war were transferred. Shipwrights, caulkers, and others would cease to be in request at Deptford,. Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth, Devon- port, and Keyham and Pembroke, but they would be wanted on the Thames, the Mersey, the Clyde, and the Tyne. So it would be, too, with the tradespeople of the c 2 20 THE DOCKYARDS. dockyard towns. . The only necessary sacrifice would be the very acceptable one of change. For the public good, labour and capital would undergo a transfer — nothing more. But, it will be urged, the owners of property would be ruined by the exodus of operatives and trades- people. There is force in the objection, but when the Corn Laws were repealed the British farmer was not only laughed at but very properly abused for robbing society during many years. Who, again, sympathised with the shipowners in their sore bereavement when the British carrying trade was thrown open to the world for the benefit of the British public ? Is there, then, any wrong implied in dealing with the paltry, corrupt dock- yard towns* as we have dealt before with great national interests? Why should society be taxed for the benefit of a handful of landlords in the dockyard towns, who, in too many cases, have only provided wretched hovels for the shelter of the labourer and mechanic? The dockyard towns in the main are the filthiest towns in England. Built with the possibility of bombardment staring land- lords in the face, and continued to the present time with that risk counted on by the landlords and paid for by the tenants, their complete extinction should occasion no regret; the returns for vested capital and the comfort of the working classes both considered. The Dockyards not That the dockyards have not, how- vrholly unproductive. J ever, been wholly unproductive is not for a moment to be doubted. They have given the tax- payer something for his money, although it must be confessed they have given him very little. With them * 12th. That the officers and men in the dockyards should be placed under the same restrictions as to voting at elections as the officers of the Post-office, the Customs, and the Inland Revenue. Page 7, Report of the Commissioners ; 1861. THE DOCKYARDS. 21 as they are, glorious naval actions have been fought that more than compensated for the relative weakness of the army, and gave to our arms the prestige that they still retain. With the ships of war that our dockyards turned out, a long line of naval heroes conquered. This is a proof that the treasure spent from first to last has not been altogether thrown away. But it leaves the ques- tion where it was, whether a dockyard system suited for one period is suited to all others ? It is long since a Nelson fell on the deck of the Victory , and every year bears witness to economic changes as well as develop- ments and applications of. science, directly and indi- rectly bearing on the construction and equipment of ships of war. To the dockyards, however, we owe at least one grudge. When dockyards were first established an attempt at divided labour would have been unwise, if not futile. No country then possessed a supply of men trained in the minute details of industry so that all the parts of a ship of war might be fashioned and put to- gether at the minimum of cost, and consequently no choice remained but the simple and costly one of filling the dockyards with a ready class of workmen who were to put their hands to everything. And the creation of separate classes of workmen would at the period have proved no great boon to the State or the workmen. For, think as we may of the fits and starts of naval armament of which the public have of late years so much complained, our fathers were prone on all occa- sions when the toil of war ceased to lay aside the trap- pings and the arms with which they and the State had become encumbered. They were willing to support the dockyards when national existence might have seemed to depend on them, or when advantages more or less solid were in anticipation; but when the maintenance of 22 THE DOCKYARDS. the dockyards could only be justified on the plea that to prevent war people must be ready to engage in it, their choice as a rule was to enjoy without diminution the blessings that peace conferred, and leave the future with its hypothetical fighting to itself. Peace, therefore, implied the discharge of dockyard workmen, and mani- festly if those workmen had been trained to one branch only of their occupation they would have suffered less or more from the circumstance. Obviously, also, the State, then relatively weak and poor, would not have gained by a course that terminated in such a manner. Hence a vicious working system was early fostered in the dockyards. The principle of the system is that the division of labour is inimical to the privileges of the dockyard workmen, whcr on all occasions give their votes o boats built or fitted. And in Devonport Dockyard, in addition to the boats building, there were 123 boats fir ted for store, 55 boats refitted for store, 53 boats repairing for store, 109 boats repairing for harbour ser- m« o, and 4 other boats in hand. The dockyard boat- houses were therefore well employed in 1860-61, and as "ut building and repairing have also been proceeding without intermission tor more than half a century, it DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES. 101 would not be a useless question for young debaters to. discuss whether or no there are at present in the dock- yards as many boats as would form a belt or bridge round the Hobe. One hundred and twenty-five launches placed stem and stern form as near as can be a line a statute mile in length. The Capstan-houses. Third in order stand the capstan- houses. These are the houses in which capstans, anchor stocks, pump boxes, &c., are manufactured, repaired, and stored, and during the year 1860-61 the expendi- ture in these houses amounted to £10,857 Os. 10^d. At Woolwich there was a total expenditure of £2,138 4s. 5d.; at Chatham of 3,782 6s. 8§d. ; at Sheerness of £757 2s. 3^d.; at Portsmouth of £572 11s. 5d. ; and at Devonport of £3,084 18s. 7d. Here manifestly in these capstan-houses is the maintenance of five small, manufacturing establishments, with all their costly ad- juncts. Here are capstan-houses because there were capstan-houses in the days of Blake and Nelson, and because there is a crop of people young and old attached to them, who in turn will be entitled to superannuation _ The joiners’ Shops.* Fourth in order stand the joiners’ shops. During 1860-61 there was a total expenditure at Deptford under this head of £897 4s. 5d. ; at WooL wich of £1,560 4s. 8d. ; at Chatham of £2,677 4s. lOd.;, at Sheerness of £3,639 10s. 8d.; at Portsmouth of £3,545 4s. 3d.; at Devonport of £3-, 976 4s. 7^d. ; and * The Committee are of opinion that sufficient appreciation has not been given to- the advantage of introducing machinery generally in the joiners’ department. In- some shops steam-power to drive the machines has not yet been introduced, and to this subject the Committee consider that immediate attention ought to be given in every instance in which arrangements to do so have not been already made. — Page 49^ Report of the 1859 Committee. dockyard manufactures. 102 at Pembroke of £1,295 12s. Id. Aggregate, £17,591 i; M. Turning to the credit side of the Portsmouth arrount. an insight is obtained into the kind of work performed by the dockyard joiners. The items in the account, the numbers of which exceed 100, are the following: — Boxes, cartouche, fitted for seamen, 213; boxes, fir, for seamen’s kit, 187; cot frames, 251 ; roller blinds, complete, 197; tables, mahogany, hanging, 378; tables, mahogany, telescope, dining, No. 4, 321 feet; ditto, iron legs, No. 9, 974 feet; ditto, ledged, No. 7, 273 feet, and bed frames, iron, repairs, 119. The chief em- ployment of the dockyard joiners is making dining-tables, and their annual production of that very useful article measures very nearly threequarters of a mile. Plow many miles of dining-tables are at the present time in store in the dockyards ? That dining-tables, roller blinds, cot frames, and boxes would be much better manufactured out of the dockyards than in them, few will doubt, and it will astonish most people that a class of workmen who were supposed to have a great deal at stake in the continuance of wooden shipbuilding, have in reality nothing to do with the hulls or spars of ships, whether these are of wood or iron. Fifth in order stand the plumbers’ shops. the total expenditure for the year 1860-61 under that head was £4,765 18s. 8Jd. Woolwich ex- pended li)4 12s. 3d., inclusive of £46 10s. 2d. for man-rial, and £12’ 5s. lOd. for labour. Chatham ex- 1 " ^'d'-d -3,976 15s. 1 If d., inclusive of £3,058 18s. 5fd. * nI ln,ltcT ia1, and £467 14s. Id. for labour. Sheerness expended £103 14s. IOJcL, inclusive of £51 7s. Ifd. for ni.itui.il, and £51 7s. Ifd. for labour. Portsmouth expended £53 6s. lid., inclusive of £40 3s. 7d. for DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES. 103 material, and £6 11s. lOd. for labour. Devonport ex- pended £567 8s. 8d., inclusive of £207 Is. 3|d. for ma- terial, and £290 2s. 9d. for labour. Turning to the credit side of the Portsmouth account, there were during the year 50 lead inkstands manufactured, 200 fishing leads, 400 hand leads, 9 lead scuppers, and 4 lead soles for boots. These are the whole items for the year. Lead ink- stands no doubt for the convict warders, lead sinkers for dockyard gentlemen fond of ground fishing, and two pairs of lead soles for some one’s boots. Than the plumbers’ shops the,re is surely not a greater conceivable abuse. An establishment in Woolwich Dockyard paying £12 5s. lOd. per annum in wages, and a similar establish- ment in Portsmouth Dockyard paying £6 11s. lOd. per annum, are inscrutable. The only probable conjecture is that the accounts are purposely kept low. o T he * Wheelwrights ’ Sixth in order stand the wheelwrights’ Shops. * ° shops. The charge for these for the year was £1,827 5s. 10|d. Deptford expended £82 6s. lid., inclusive of £22 17s. lOd. for material, and £12 Is. 7d. for labour; Woolwich, £97 13s. lid., in- clusive of £57 14s. for material, and £25 19s. 7d. for labour; Chatham, £198 14s. 6|-d., inclusive of £118 14s. lOd. for material, and £61 0s. 7d. for labour; Sheerness, £608 3s. llfd., inclusive of £396 0s. 8d. for material, and £145 10s. lid. for labour; Portsmouth, £715 16s. 7d., inclusive of £380 0s. 2d. for material, and £195 17s. 9d. for labour; and Devonport, £124 * With reference to the wheelwrights’ shops, the Committee found that in all the yards wheels had not received that amount of attention that was desirable. Cabinet- makers and joiners seem hitherto to have been placed upon wheel work indiscrimi- nately with the work for the bodies of the carts and waggons, which is objectionable, as leading to the production of inferior wheels, and should be discontinued. — Page 50, Report of the 1859 Committee. dockyard manufactures. 104 11 [ 59 Committee. DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES. 105 another capstan -ho use, in fact. Few will find fault with this sum, for it is much less than all might expect. However, by millwrights’ shops one usually understands something quite different from another dockyard capstan- house, and shops in which blocks are made, although there are blockmakers’ shops in the dockyards, and shops in which rings, chains, nuts, plates, &c., are manufac- tured, although there are smitheries and engineers’ shops in the dockyards. The dockyard millwright shops, like the wheelwrights’ shops, the plumbers’ shops, the joiners* shops, and the capstan-houses, should be at once gutted and demolished. No doubt there were good reasons for establishing these shops; now there are equally good reasons for their being forthwith rooted out. The Roperies.* Eighth in order stand the roperies, although they are first in importance by rather more than £100,000. The expenditure in the roperies for the year 1860-61 was no less than £371,671 5s. 0|d. At Chatham 1,142 tons 13cwt. 3qr. 201b. hemp were spun in the spinning-loft, at a cost of £45,056 4s. 7f d. ; 342 tons 7cwt. 2qrs. 141b. hemp were spun at the spin- ning-machines, at a cost of £11,084 8s. 8d. ; and the tarring-house returns were 1,452 tons 7cwt. 3qr. 2 lib., at a cost of £52,610 8s. Then at Chatham there is a charge of £2,672 7s. 6d. for the preparation and cutting of hide thongs; £2,727 11s. 9^d. for making strands and closing hide tiller ropes; £3,425 13s. 6^d. for unlaying worn cordage; and£75,187 13s. 4^ d., is the charge for the laying- houses. The total expenditure at Chatham for material * Notwithstanding the complaints of the master ropemakers in the several dock- yards that the supervision is inefficient, the Committee are of opinion that by proper distribution of officers the work may be sufficiently supervised without an additional foreman as proposed by them. The Committee further recommend the employment of women in place of boys, as in the private trade. — Page 63, Report 1859 Committee. dockyard manufactures. was £110,318 10s. 0§d., and labour £17,562 4s. 9r|cl. \\h\i the usual extras added the total reached *2142,320 Os. lOd. At Sheerness the charge for mate- rial was £1,270 2s. lid., and for labour £77 17s. With the usual charges in addition the total Sheerness expen- diture was £1,421 2s. 3|d. At Portsmouth in the >j)inning-lofts the charge for material was £35,809 8s., and for labour £8,748 8s. 3d. ; in the tarring-houses the charge for material was £1,126 0s. 2d., and for labour £1,749 13s. 7d. ; in the yarn selected from worn cordage the charge for material was £1,642 13s. 10d., and for labour £127 10s. 7d. ; in the laying-houses the charge for material was £646 7s. 10d., and for labour £1,282 1 ( )s. Od. ; in laying white yarns into cordage the charge for material was £44 10s. 2d., and for labour £55 18s. 3d.; and in relaying manufactured cordage the charge for material was £136 18s., and the charge for labour £232 14s. 5d. In none of these sums are the usual charges for the share of general expenditure and percentage on the cost of produce included. The Devon- port roperies are on the Chatham scale of magnitude, and it will suffice to say that at Devonport the expendi- ture for the year was no less than £169,281 3s. 0|d. \\ h ether rope should be manufactured in the dockyard is a question on which considerable difference of opinion will prevail, although it admits of the application of Sir 1 K*orge Lewis’s test, both as regards quantity and quality. I hat, however, such gigantic establishments as the Chat- ham and Devonport roperies require close Parliament- • u\ watching and scrutiny admits of no question; neither i j n i j ^ e were to be at war with "the whole world.* brin^inj; the shipyards and dockyards into dependence and harmony, DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES. 107 The Saii-iofts. Ninth in order stand the sail-lofts. The charge for these for the year was the considerable sum of £69,657 11s. 2§d. At Deptford the expenditure was £9,523 7s. lid., inclusive of £6,548 19s. 5d. for material, and £1,335 14s. 4d. for labour. At Wool- wich the expenditure was £6,576 3s., inclusive of £4,727 15s. Id. for material, and £982 8s. 8d. for labour. At Chatham the expenditure was £9,666 2s. 4d., inclusive of £6,983 2s. lOfd. for material, and £1,498 18s> 9^d for labour. At Sheerness the expen- diture was £10,432 Is. 2d., inclusive of £7,393 16s. 7d. for material, and £1,388 19s. 8fd. for labour. At Portsmouth the expenditure was £17,260 16s. 9d., in- clusive of £12,179 11s. 3d. for material, and £2,411 6s. Id. for labour. At Devonport the expenditure was £16,132 5s. 10fd., inclusive of £11,665 10s. lfd. for material, and £2,592 4s. 7d. for labour. At Pem- broke the expenditure was £66 14s. 2d., inclusive of £38 15s. 9d. for material, and £19 17s. 2d. for labour. Sails, like rope, admit of the perfect application of Sir comes the question of the useless and excess stores. I do not alone refer to timber. In all the dockyards there are enormous storehouses in urgent need of gutting. In the one dockyard at Devonport, 400 men, aided by a powerful engine and fine machinery, spin and twist rope continually ; as many probably are employed doing the same thing at Portsmouth and in each of the other dockyards. I am persuaded, from what I learned, that these men spin and twist more rope in one year than the navy requires in five years. So, also, in the manufacture of various other articles. Accumulation for war proceeds without reflection or control. Putting together all the guesses I could form in all the dockyards, from all the information 1 could gather, I arrived at the following sum total, which would be realised in the market by clearing out the excess accumulations in the dockyards : — 1. Timber excess .£2,500,000 2. Cordage, sail, and mast excess 1,500,000 3. Returned stores excess 1,000,000 4. Dockyard stores excess 500,000 5. Contract stores excess 500,000 Inconvenient excess of Sundries, * — The Dockyards and Shipyards of the Kingdom. £6,000,000 dockyard manufactures. 108 (ioorire Lewis’s tests, and the silly unreasoning accu- mulation of them in the dockyards calls loudly for restraint. The Coiour-iofts. Tenth in order stand the colour or bunting lofts. The charge for these for the year was £2,299 14s. 2fd. At Woolwich the expenditure for material was £228 11s. 8d., and labour £95 Is. 7d.; total, £359 1 Is. 5d. At Chatham the expenditure for material was £lf)4 11s. l^d., and labour £156 15s. 3d.; total, £371 6s. lfd. At Sheerness the expenditure for material was £124 15s. 3d., and labour £122 10s. 6d.; total, £285 12s. 5^d. At Portsmouth the expenditure for material was £297 18s. 9d., and labour £97 14s.; total, £467 8s. 6d. At Devonport the expenditure for material was £521 2s. 2|d., and labour £172 2s. 3d.; total, £815 15s. 8fd. That bunting might be advan- tageously supplied by contract is true, and that £2,299 4 s. 2|d. for flags annually is excessive, is also true. tih* Rigging-houses. Eleventh in order stand the rigging- OO o houses. I he expenditure for these for the year was the large sum of £72,270 17s. Ofd. At Woolwich the charge !<>r material was £7,991 2s. 3d., and labour £1,578 15s. 4d. ; total, £10,822 19s. 5d. At Chatham the ' barge for material was £11,838 16s. Ofd., and labour -ijo, 3s. 3jd. ; total, £15,556 8s. 10^d. At Sheerness the charge for material was £12,077 17s. 7d., and labour " - s * -d. ; total, £16,131 5s. lOd. At Portsmouth the charge for material was £9,293 13s. 7d., and labour -2,_so On. lid. ; total, £14,572 8s. Id. At Devonport the ‘ barge for material was £11,245 7s., and labour £2,043 • ( “b, total, £15,587 14s. 10^d. Rigging-houses are e * ss.ii ics at least for storage if not for preparation, but DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES. 109 £72,270 17s. Ofd. of rigging annually is absurd. The quantity of rigging in store in the dockyards is so great that it is not likely to be ascertained until the store- houses have been pulled to pieces and cleared away, and further additions to the immensely overgrown stock cannot be justified even on the ground of timid prudence. The Lead-mill. 5 " Chatham has a monopoly of the dockyard lead manufacture. During the year the lead-mill turned out 21,852cwt. lqr. 211b., at an expenditure in all of £26,533 5s. 8£d. The Paint-miii. Chatham has also a monopoly of the dockyard paint manufacture. During the year the paint-mill worked up material to the extent of £15,373 16s. lid., and £230 7s. 9d. was paid for labour. Inclusive of the extra charges the total expenditure was £17,385 15s. 9£d. The Metai-miiis and Chatham has also the only metal- Foundrv.f # # J mills. These mills produce — in copper, sheets, and sheets for braziers, bolts for targets, bolt- staves, half-rounds, flats and square; in iron, bolt-staves, fiats, angle, mast-hoop, squares; in metal, sheathing nails, castings, rings, deck-nails, bolt-nails, plate-nails ; and brass sheets. The quantity of metal used was 51,035cwt. 3qr. lib., and the total expenditure for the year £264,567 9s. 9^d. * The Committee are of opinion that a machine for making lead pipes by pressure •would be preferable to the present mode of drawing, as it would produce better pipe, in longer lengths, and at less cost. t The Committee found, on their late inspection of these mills, that they were not worked to their full advantage in comparison with similar mills in private trade. At present the mills are worked with two gangs during the day, and only one gang at night, by which arrangement some of the furnaces are thrown out of work during the night, causing injury to the furnaces by cooling and re-heating, besides great waste of fuel. — Page 61, Report 1859 Committee. 110 dockyard manufactures. The Omcnt-miii. Last of all, Chatham possesses the onl\ dockyard cement-mill. For the year 160 tons and iso tons of Harwich stone were “ converted,” at a cost of £376 2s. 8fd. The Biockmakers’ Sixteenth in order stand the block- makers’ shops. During the year 1860-61 tlu* expenditure in these shops was the very large sum ot £28,246 3s. 3|d. At Portsmouth there was an expenditure of £17,466 4s. 6d.for material, and £2,547 ils. (Id. for labour; total, £27,689 10s. 4d. At Devon- j,ort there was an expenditure of £156 14s. 2d. for material, and £278 13s. lOd. for labour; total, £736 12s. 1 1 id. At Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheer- ni'S, and Pembroke, “no separate accounts.” Whether by the non-existence of separate accounts it is to be understood that five out of the seven dockyards keep their biockmakers’ accounts together, or do not keep accounts at all, is, of course, for the Secretary of the Admiralty to say. So large an expenditure for an article that might be supplied when wanted by contract, i> an anomaly that should be seen to. . The Trenaii-honsea. Seventeenth in order stand the tre- luiil-liouses. For the year the expenditure in these Ii'uises was ~4,4 1 1 11s. lOfd. At Deptford there was •in expenditure of £9 2s. 6d. for material, and £19 : ''d. for labour; total, £32 12s. At Woolwich there was an expenditure of £544 2s. Id. for material, n ;“ 1 y fi 0s - 1,J d. for labour; total, £704 17s. 6d. At " there was an expenditure of £1,114 5s. 9|d. c cons ‘ ( ier that the men at present employed In the block-mills are r arran ged with reference to their pay and the work on which they are employed. Page 5G, Report 1859 Committee. DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES. Ill for material, and £286 13s. 2fd. for labour; total, £1,648 14s. 8d. At Sheerness there was an expendi- ture of £14 10s. Id. for material, and £34 19s. for labour; total, £56 9s. Ofd. At Devonport there was an expenditure of £87 19s. 8^d. for material, and £30 12s. 4fd. for labour; total, £144 6s. 6d. At Pembroke there was an expenditure of £1,401 8s. lOd. for mate- rial, and £188 12s. lid. for labour; total, £1,824 12s. 2d. The Oarmakers’ Eighteenth in order stand the oar- Shops.* o makers’ shops. For the year the. ex- penditure in these shops was £6,243 9s. 6^d. At Chat- ham there was an expenditure of £4,162 6s. 5^d. for material, and £563 7s. 2|d. for labour ; total, £5,455 7s. 4d. At Portsmouth there was an expenditure of £39 4s. 8d. for material, and £,52 10s. for labour; total, £100 8s. Id. At Devonport there was an expenditure of £391 0s. 3d. for material, and £211 7s. 4d. for labour; total, £687 4s. l|d. Caulkers and Pitch- Nineteenth in order stand the caulkers heaters Shops. and pitch-heater’s shops. For the year the expenditure in these shops was £11,379 12s. 4d. At Chatham there was an expenditure of £1,256 Is. for material, and £84 10s. lJ>d. for labour. At Portsmouth there was an expenditure of £4,583 13s. 3d. for mate- rial, and £755 11s. 8d. for labour. At Devonport there was an expenditure of £2,222 18s. lid. for material, and £175 17s. for labour. At Pembroke there was an expenditure of £1,075 14s. lid. for material, and £93 19s. 3d. for labour. * The oar-making machine at Chatham being capable of manufacturing sufficient oars to meet the wants of the whole service, no further machinery for this purpose i3 necessary ; consequently the making of oars by hand should be discontinued generally. — Page 56, Report 1859 Committee. 112 DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES. The Turners’ shops. Twentieth in order stand the turners’ vhops. For the year the expenditure in these shops wu- £2,340 6s. "l 1 id. At Deptford there was an expenditure of £413 _ 15s. lOd. for material, and £67 in*. 7d. for labour; total, £481 6s. 5d. At Woolwich there was an expenditure of £6 7s. 9d. for material, and £12 7s. 2d. for labour. At Chatham there was an expenditure of £262 16s. 6|d. for material, and £63 Is. ] 1 [d. for labour. At Sheerness there was an expenditure of £633 4s. 5|d. for material, and £118 Ills. 2jd. for labour; total, £1,475 15s. 6d. At Devon- port tliere was an expenditure of £171 3s. 8|d. for material, and £101 17s. 4d. for labour; total, £2,647 14s. 2d. Locksmiths', &c., Twenty-first in order stand the lock- Shops. ^ smiths, &c., shops, h or the year the expenditure in these shops was £2,119 5s. 7d. At "Woolwich there was an expenditure of £574 17s. for material, and £318 3s. 5§d. for labour. At Sheerness there was an expenditure of £177 2s. 0|d. for material, and £130 10s. 8d. for labour. At Portsmouth there was an expenditure of £221 14s. Id. for material, and 1-31 9s. 4d. for labour. At Devonport there was an expenditure of £9 17s. 9|d. for material, and £84 13s. 7.^d. for labour. Twenty-second in order are the foun- dries. l or the year the expenditure in the foundries A\a.s t.yS(>2 4s. 9§d. At Chatham there was an expen- diture of £2,114 Is. lfd., inclusive of £953 5s. 4d. for material, and £885 11s. 2d. for labour. At Devonport there was an expenditure of £1,311 18s. lid., inclusive ot £880 9s. lid. for material, and £252 9s. 4id. for DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES 113 labour. At Pembroke (metal castings) there was an expenditure of £1,723 11s. 10d., inclusive of £1,266 Os. 9d. for material, and £207 8s. 2d. for labour; and at Pembroke (iron castings) there was an expenditure of £712 12s. lid., inclusive of £221 5s. 2d. for material, and £316 13s. Id. for labour. Hosemakers’ Shops. Twenty -third in order stand the hose- makers’ shops. F or the year the expenditure in these shops was £6,837 15s. 7^d. At Deptford there was an expen- diture of £1,160 7s. 3d. for material, and £74 9s. 4d. for labour. At Woolwich there was an expenditure of £642 5s. 2fd. for material, and £86 14s. 6fd. for labour. At Chatham there was an expenditure of £573 16s. 0|d. for material, and £37 10s. 8|d. for labour. At Sheerness there was an expenditure of £596 19s. 3|d. for material, and £61 7s. 7d. for labour. At Portsmouth there was an expenditure of £1,156 18$. 5d. for material, and £105 16s. 6d. for labour. At Devonport there was an expenditure of £1,258 19s. for material, and £296 12s. 7d. for labour. The Painters’ Shops.* Twenty-fourth in order stand the painters’ shops. For the year the expenditure in these shops was £5,170 3s. 7fd. At Deptford there was an expenditure of £140 18s. for material, and £12 14s. lid. for labour. At Woolwich there was an expenditure of £230 9s. 4d. for material, and £31 2s. 6d. for labour. At Chatham there was an expenditure of £51 10s. 10^d. for material, and £24 17s. 7d. for labour. At Sheerness * The present practice of employing labourers to do painting to so great an extent is expensive in material and productive of inferior work. The Committee could not but notice the small supervision over this class of men compared with the large amount in all other cases, and the variety of pay among the leading men of painters at the different yards.— -Page 51, Report 1859 Committee. I 114 dockyard manufactures. there was an expenditure of £027 5s. 3|d. for material, £2x3 12s. 9§d. for labour. At Portsmouth there was an expenditure of £1,077 9s. 8d. for material, and £523 2s. 2d. for labour. At Devonport there was an expenditure of £880 19s. 5|d. for material, and £409 (K Old. for labour. At Pembroke there was an expen- diture of £316 13s. for material, and £ 9 - labour. j 6s. 5d. for The Condensor's Shop. There is only one condensor’s shop, and that is at Portsmouth. For the year the expenditure was £15,831 18s. 8d. Among the manufactures were 2,000 metal screw bolts, 1,910 copper ditto, 1 galvanised iron bucket, 1 bath, 6 hammers, 4 coupling irons, 1 pair steel shears, 1 copper ventilator. The condensor’s shop is evidently a job of some con- siderable proportions. Who ordered the bath? Who required the steel shears ? Who fancied a copper ven- tilator? For what purpose was one galvanised iron bucket intended ? It is worth repeating, the condensor’s shop is an annual charge of £15,831 18s. 8d. The Pump-house. Portsmouth also has a pump -house, and no other dockyard has one. The Portsmouth pump- house, in return for £840 10s. Ofd., supplied 1,236 feet hand pumps, and performed an inconsiderable amount of repairing. F,re ‘ eng,ne Devonport alone furnishes an account of its fire-engine shop, the other dock- } ai ds no doubt being ashamed to do so. The Devon- port shop was a charge of £145 6s. 4cL, and that Mim several leather cups, a number of leather u a ^ K 1 ;U1( ^ three leather valves. Why Bermondsey was 1K,t a PP^ C( l to, and why the fire-engine shops of the DOCKYARD MANUFACTURES. 1 15 other dockyards can be omitted from a statement, are of course for the Secretary of the Admiralty to explain. The Smitheries.* Twenty-eighth in order stand the smitheries. For the year the expenditure in the smitheries was the large sum of £211,606 18s. 5^d. At Deptford there was an expenditure of £14,511 3s. 4d., inclusive of £4,526 19s. 2d. for material, and £5,331 17s. 9d. for labour. At Woolwich there was an expenditure of £27,743 15s. 8d., inclusive of £14,191 Is. for material, and £9,101 16s. l^d. for labour. At Chatham there was an expenditure of £32,884 7s. 6Jd. y inclusive of £12,887 10s. 0|d. for material, and £14,062 9s. 6d. for labour. At Sheerness there was an expenditure of £18,167 16s. 2d., inclusive of £6,842 11s. 4d. for material, and £8,532 15s. 6fd. for labour.. At Portsmouth there was an expenditure of £55,063 4s. 4d., inclusive of £18,171 6s. 9d. for material, and £25,082 15s. 6d. for labour. At the Devonport South Smith ery there was an expenditure of £34,580 16s. 3d.,, and at the Devonport North Smith ery there was an expenditure of £14,955 Is. 8d. At Pembroke there was an expenditure of £13,700 13s. 6d. Shops* Steam ‘ hammer Twenty-ninth and last in order stand the steam-hammer shops. For the year the expenditure in these shops was £50,537 9s. llfd. At Deptford there was an expenditure of £3,102 9s. 7d., inclusive of £1,296 9s. 3d. for material, and £384 for labour. At Woolwich there was an * The Committee are of opinion that the smitheries generally are not in such a stato of efficiency as the Admiralty have a right to expect. The Committee found that iron beams for ships are being manufactured at some of the yards from blooms at a great and unnecessary expense, as iron of a form capable of producing a stronger beam at a less cost is procurable under the contract. — Page 58, Report of the 18591 Committee. i 2 dockyard manufactures. exiKmditure of £7,073 15s. 4jd., inclusive of material 973 2 s. Gd., and labour £1,901 Is. 6 d. At Chatham there was an expenditure of £7,327 15s. 8 |d., inclusive of £5,320 7 s. 7 |d. for material, and £1,317 2s. 8 d. for labour. At Portsmouth there was an expenditure of £13 302 lGs. Id., inclusive of £6,097 3s. 3d. for material, and £ 2,210 6 s. Id. for labour. At Devonport there was an expenditure of £11,089 12 s. 7d. At Pembroke there was an expenditure of £4,243 9s. 9d. Conclusions. Such is the long and tedious catalogue of the manufactures of the dockyards. By their own showing the Admiralty carry on no fewer than twenty- nine trades, all of which no doubt were at some time or other ancillary to shipbuilding, but most of which have not now-a-days anything to do with shipbuilding. Seeing that in private enterprise the more concentrated super- vision and effort are, in other words, the fewer the irons in the tire the better, this multiplicity of occupations is a mistake. It is incompatible with a good working system. Nay, it is worse, for it represents the dockyards in the ridiculous light of national repositories or museums, where all the occupations that have been ever followed are studiously conserved. When, therefore, the reform axe comes to be laid to the dockyard tree, all the super- fluous occupations must be weeded out. The plant must be sold, the brick and mortar walls demolished, and the superseded men discharged ; no doubt in the existing and most improper manner. In the vacant spaces left by the removal of useless and costly buildings the Junior Lord of the Admiralty may excavate docks oi’ basins, and if these are not wanted let him offer free- hold land for sale, or make gifts of land for widening the s rects and otherwise improving our very filthy and very ugly dockyard towns. 117 Chapter iV. DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. Scientific uncertainty.* Shipbuilding, although based on scientific principles, has so insecure and indefinite a hold on them, that it may be regarded as occupying one of the least satisfactory positions among the arts. In a certain sense there is still contention as to the purely elementary principles of shipbuilding, so that it might be said to have no claim to be numbered among the arts at * No branch of art is so overlaid with traditional prejudices as shipbuilding; and it is to the operation of these prejudices through several generations, to the influence of absurd and restrictive laws, to the continual and systematic impediments thrown in the way of improvement by a bigoted and obstructive Navy Board, that we must ascribe the indifferent progress made in our royal and mercantile navies for more than a century after the time of James II., from whose reign, curiously enough, we can trace a direct line of Surveyors of the Navy. While the French encouraged improve- ments from every quarter, the Navy Board officially censured ingenious officers who, through honest zeal, pressed their claims too warmly. Instances of this are on record. — Pages 100 and 101, Memoirs of Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds, Sur- veyor of the Navy from 1832 to 1847. In Committee on the Navy Estimates, 15th April, 1836, Mr. G. F. Young objected to the vote for stores, because he believed there was no responsibility that they would be properly applied. He complained, too, of the lavish expenditure of stores occa- sioned by the experiments in naval architecture now being made by Captain Symonds — not then Rear-Admiral. He had a great respect for that officer, but he thought that gentlemen brought up to the business of shipbuilding were more likely to build ships well than a naval officer with whom every ship he constructed was an experiment. Captain Symonds claimed to have discovered a new principle of ship- building; for his part he did not believe in its efficacy; but all the old ships would be pulled to pieces to build new ships on Captain Symonds’ plan. — Pages 182 and 183 of the same Memoirs. 118 DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. all; and in another sense shipbuilding may be consi- dnvd us having attained a development and perfection to which no other art can aspire. Look, for example, at the Great Eastern — a perfect prodigy in its way. When* is there another monument of genius in the wide w« >rld that may fitly be compared with it ? * The Thames Tunnel, the Menai Bridge, our railways, mines, foun- dries, and mills are prosaic and unworthy by its side ; f>r, superadded to the wonders of calculation, combina- tion, and contrivance, is the purpose to which the great .ship is applied : — “ Her inarch is o'er the mountain wave, Her home is on the deep.” And in not a much less degree the same is to be said of the ocean steamers built for the Cunard, the Peninsular and Oriental, the West India Mail Company, and many others. Look at the lines of those noble vessels, observe their entrance and departure from a wave, watch their motions in troubled water, and say where they are im- perfect! Criticism is dumb. The world has never seen such ships, and we cannot bring ourselves honestly to think that the world will ever see much better. Is not this, then, the perfection of art? Think as we may of troubled water, steadiness, and buoyancy, if we cannot suggest improvement, and if to us the forms of these superb vessels seem final, where can science possibly be in error ? Still these questions may be answered. Proud ns we well may be of the various types of merchant >liij>N at the present time afloat, it is known to all who think ot such things that too often science in a strict > i Ij >e has no considerable share in these results. Our raiue I found that Mr. Scott Russell is held in very high estimation, arul th8t lhe Great Ea *^ there will always be deemed a marvel. DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 119 best ships are in the main the creation of instinct rather than of rule, as regards their better qualities. Of ship- building, as it exists at present, it is not less true than too often it is of writing, that he who slavishly adheres to rule displays pedantry at every turn, and in all like- lihood produces that which neither meets his own expec- tations nor the desires of others. Such a state of things is unsatisfactory ; and the best of all proofs that it in reality exists is to be found in the fact that four years ago an Institute of Is aval Architects was founded, which as yet has not succeeded in grappling with, much less overcoming, the acknowledged evil. O' O buUd?ng r ° blem ° f Sh ' P ~ The P r °kl em of shipbuilding is a plain one, and it may perhaps be best stated in connection with the construction of ironclads* Which is the best structure for steadiness, speed, and carrying capacity, on a small or great draught of water ? * But the problem may be stated without reference to ironclads, inasmuch as it was present to men’s minds before ironclads were thought of. It then took the form of speed under sail or steam, and capacity for coal or cargo, or both together. Manifestly, were the problem solved, there would be no further occa- sion for rule-of-thumb shipbuilding, and in the case of ironclad construction there would be all the certainty that there now is in building bridges or steam-engines. Any one might then build a ship, just as any tailor makes a pair of trousers. In a word, all doubt and * The recent very interesting and instructive debate at the Institute of Naval Architects left in doubt whether Mr. E. J. Reed’s Enterprise , a ship with a belt of armour round and round, and a square armoured fighting-box on the Warrior plan, with broadside ports in the centre, was a preferable ship to Captain Coles’s Naughty •Child, armoured round and round and with its armament within revolving turrets. 120 DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. mystery would he removed, and ships provided to answer in perfection their intended purposes. The method of soiu- The method of solution followed with unvarying uniformity and astonishing complacency has only to be hinted at to be at once familiar to those even superficially acquainted with the philosophy of science. The higher mathematics is the first and almost the sole study of those who would discourse acceptably at the highly interesting meetings of the Society of Naval Architects. Those with only an imperfect knowledge of mathematics will do well to keep their seats, because, if they presume to rise, they will convince no one, and there is some danger of their being listened to by a visibly impatient audience, if not positively by empty benches. The members of the Society of Naval Architects adore mathematics and they adore nothing else. Mathematics, therefore, is their method of solution. He who would shed light on the great problem of shipbuilding must soar high above the common herd in the regions of abstraction. Is not this the philosophy of the Greek schools, which failed so lamentably? When Thales was asked, “What is the greatest thing?” he replied, “ Place; for all other things are m the world, but the world is in it.” Aristotle, again, when inquiring what Place is, observes, “ If about a body there be another body including it, it is in place; am! if not, not.” WTiether this nonsense was or was not intelligible to those to whom it was addressed is unimportant, the point being that it accomplished nothing. It was hitching up a dead horse. The ideas <»t the Greeks, as Whewell expresses it, were not dis- unct and appropriate to the facts. Facts were not disregarded, but instead of being employed as bricks and DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 121 mortar in the hands of a bricklayer, the Greek philosophers sat on their stools chewing the facts in much the same fashion as heifers chew their grass. If, when Herodotus, in attempting to account for the floods of the Nile, got hold of the notion of the attraction of the sun, he had extended his observation, the discovery would have been made that the hypothesis was unsound. So with his other conjectures, and, following the course of conjec- ture and verification, he would no doubt have arrived eventually at some satisfactory explanation. Now, mathematics is a proper study for shipbuilders as it is for most classes, although some of the best ships afloat have been built by those who know nothing and care nothing for mathematics. But mathematics is an inap- propriate idea to the undetermined facts of shipbuilding. A lecturer on astronomy might as well confine his observations to the telescope, or a lecturer on anatomy to the character of the subject stretched on the dis- secting table, and which probably was brought from Newgate. Mathematics is to the shipbuilder less than the yard measure to the draper ; and certainly a draper who, instead of serving customers, spent his time writing and reading papers on the yard measure, would be thought a silly fellow. What shipbuilding really stands in need of is complete and perpetual emancipation from mathematics. To accomplish this, that which Herodotus needed to enable him to account for the floods of the Nile — namely, observation — is alone required. To nothing else but learned trifling is it the case that the best of all treatises on floating bodies yet published in in this year of grace 1863, is that of Archimedes. donI hat might be What might be done to give certainty to shipbuilding has been suggested by an ex_ dockyard shipbuilding. (•client although unassuming treatise.* Mr. Bland, in writ in" on the form of ships and boats, mtioduces us to experiments, any one of which is practically of more value than a cartload of papers in the muddled and generally unknown tongue of the higher mathematics. Experi- ment, or its observation, is the royal road to excellence and simplicity in shipbuilding, and if it is objected that Mr. Bland’s experiments were on smooth water, then let this be remedied by experiments on troubled water. Such experiments are no doubt as much within the means of the Institute of Naval Architects, as they ought to be within its scope. Mr. Froude and others, accomplished mathematicians no doubt, superseding the necessity of practical experiment when water, wood, and iron are the simple elements, is as monstrous as a moun- tebank telling fortunes.f But for their extraordinary pretensions, it is likely that men of a more philosophical turn would, even in the few years that have elapsed since what may be called the revival of science in ship- building, have struck out in that true direction in which * Hints on the Principles which should regulate the Form of Ships and Boats, derived from original experiments. By W. Bland, Esq. John Weale, 59, High Hoiborn. Price Is. 4 Uiree “ native artists,” who had gained the highest prizes in mathematics and written the best essays, were sent to Chatham to meet, and examine the building of •" njn and propose the proper lines for each class. They handed in (the year before 5 * ‘ '■’) 11 ver y elaborate statement u giving reasons why every ship had faults , and perjechon had not been obtained .” These gentlemen were now to build a ship tluiiHt-Ues in order to show whether they could not produce the best ship in the ' ■ • There is really a touch of humour in this declaration which makes one oii.t, especially when the rather exalted pretensions of the Scientific Committee are i urr l their actual performances; The Espiegle , their most finished piece of »ii I stood third in the trial of experimented brigs at the end of this year; and tis, which they afterwards built, was, considering all things, a most egregious allure.— Page 315, Memoirs of Sir William Symonds. Mr. lvdve, in his evidence before the Committee on Naval Estimates, 1847-8, says iiik parties, In two or three cases they may have given a theoretical report ’ tut 1 am not aware of any benefit that has yet been derived or any •nencc that has been displayed by them .” DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 123 -every step is progress, and a permanent addition to the stock of human knowledge. Such philosophical in- quiries might by this time have given us all the possible calculations of all the possible forms of ships, in a ready reckoner to which every shipbuilder might have referred when necessary. Nor need they have stopped there. To the ready reckoner there might have, been appended the certain behaviour of all possible forms of ships under all possible circumstances, both in smooth and troubled water. But such men — and among the intelligent ship- builders of the kingdom there must be many such — have been restrained, nay, put down, by the Greek sages who impudently have elbowed their way among them. This is why the anomaly exists of ships of all classes being built half-way by science and half-way by instinct. Shipbuilders use science just as a prudent sea-side bather uses deep water, that is, — to the extent he safely can ; and then they have recourse to the rough but ready expe- rience of the performances of other ships, which they have casually, and perhaps imperfectly, gathered from conver- sations or reports. That this should be so, that the experience of all men, and that which all men have still to learn experimentally, as regards certain forms of ships, should to this day remain unsystematised and unprovided, can be regarded as nothing less than strange. Until it has been supplied, the less we hear of naval architecture and of schools of naval architecture, the more will it be to our credit. The Dockyards in That the dockyards are in the main the main to blame. J to blame will naturally occur to many. The anticipation is too true. Until the other day the master shipwrights of the dockyards were the great authorities on shipbuilding. What these gentlemen con- 124 dockyard shipbuilding. sidered proper was orthodox, and what they had under consideration, or what they had condemned, was hete- rodox. For any private shipbuilding firm to be deemed worth v to supply a broomstick to the navy, it had to be in full dockyard communion. The master shipwrights were the bishops and apostles of the profession, furnish- ing the elementary and advanced text-books, and con- secrating private shipyards for public jobs. Their day has now o-one bv. Even the Admiralty are alive to the professional unworthiness of their own long-tried and extraordinarily overrated advisers in all that relates to shipbuilding matters. The private shipyards are now admittedly the great depositories of shipbuilding know- ledge, and Mr. E. J. Reed is the first draft on the healthy and abundant shipyard stock.* As each master ship- wright, and assistant master shipwright, falls back in mortification and disgust on his unearned and iniquitous superannuation of £300 to £600 per annum, let his place be filled in the same manner from the shipyards, keeping back the hungry dockyard tide of incompetent servility and superannuation that insolently claims each opening as its own. As long as dockyard genius was in the ascendant and had everything its own way, ship- 1 milding science made no headway. Independent inquiry and speculation were under a rigorous ban. Theory within the dockyards was proscribed as sternly as with- out. The Surveyor of the Navy, and the dockyard underlings dancing attendance on him, while compla- cently asserting their great superiority and pre-eminence, claimed to be merely practical. Long service afloat had polished and matured the Surveyor’s judgment on the lr. Reed is no doubt of the dockyard stock, but had he remained in the dock- yard* he never would have filled the high position that he does. His training has been *mong the shipyards and in his own chamber. DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 125 qualities of seagoing ships, and what the Admiralty had to sanction, and the constructors of the navy to carry out, was these sapient views. The system was the very antithesis of that which the Institute of Is aval Architects is doing its best at the present time to perpetuate. And it was a system very nearly as inimical to real progress. It was substantially this. An old sailor thought that ships should be long or short, broad or narrow, deep or shallow, at the ends square or tapering, at the sides straight, full or cut away, and on the bottom flat slightly rounded, middling rounded, fully rounded, slightly wedge-shaped, middling wedge-shaped, largely wedge-shaped, &c. He was usually a man of one idea, or at most of two ideas, and the one or the two ideas were practical, — that is, the one idea might be full bows or tapering stems, and the two ideas one or other of these previous qualities, while the other might be wedge bottoms or flat bottoms. So ships were built to embody the one or the two ideas as it happened, and the ships being years in construction, and afterwards years in being tried, the scientific value of the one or of the two ideas was really nothing. And yet this wretchedly unphilosophical system was lauded in Parliament and out of Parliament, and its wretched authors had honours, pay, and pensions heaped upon them. No wonder that inquiry was stifled, and that there has been a revulsion of feeling even at the Admiralty. But it is discreditable to the Admiralty, and another conclusive proof of unfitness for the duties to be performed, that the narrow-minded practical men have been thrown overboard, only to embrace imprac- ticable and misleading theorists. Making a show of caution and deliberation, the happy mean is, however, passed, and one extreme is exchanged for another. 126 dockyard shipbuilding. E^ct* of such a There are various palpable effects of such a state of things, some of which mnv he referred to in a few words with profit. As long as the generality of men in the dockyards and out of them recognised in Surveyors of the Navy and in master shipwrights men of surpassing genius, it really was not worth the while of any one to think of dockyard or ordinary shipbuilding matters. The practical motto was, “ Let well alone.” Everything was thought of unofficially, just as everything was thought of officially. Therefore it will he found that in very plain matters, such as all are presumed to know accurately about in other things, public opinion is still vague and inert as regards shipbuilding. As regards shipbuilding, the off-hand logic of men who might understand the subject properly with scarcely any effort, is slipshod and inconclusive. The ground they are treading on is still felt to be sacred. Take an instance. L T p to this time men of all classes who speak and write* of the dockyards are in the habit of citing France and America, as if England ought to do likewise on all occasions. France, it may be said, is building wooden-bottomed ships, therefore England ought to build wooden-bottomed ships. Or the Ameri- cans are building enormous ironclads, therefore Eng- land ought to build enormous ironclads. Here it is assumed that what France and America are doing is right. But, very oddly, the truth is that France and America are at the same time reasoning about ourselves in the same manner. America has constructed, and is s [iH ( * ons tnicting, ships of war of preposterous tonnage, dniph because England is constructing ships of war of ] po?>toi ous tonnage; and France adheres to a combi- nation of wood and iron because England adheres to it. < ‘pinion, as regards these things, is thus moving in a DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 127 circle. Then, again, it seems generally to be overlooked that England is an iron-producing and iron-manufac- turing country, and that America and France are neither. America, therefore, has an interest in using wood, although its use may be to some extent a disad- vantage; and who knows but that France, from the nature of its American commerce, exporting silks, wines, and the like, and standing in little or no need of flour, butter, or provisions in exchange, may not also have a similar motive to the use of wood, although under different circumstances it might have given an un- qualified adhesion to iron ? It may thus be wisdom on the part of timber-importing France and of timber- growing America to continue the construction of timber or of timber-bottomed ships, while it may be equally the part of iron-producing, iron-manufacturing England to give up timber shipbuilding altogether. Take another instance. Why Russia builds ships of war in the Im- perial dockyards arises solely from the fact that there are no great private shipbuilding yards in the country. Why France builds its ships of war in the dock- yards of the Empire is owing to the inadequacy of the great private shipbuilding yards ; and why, on the other hand, America builds its ships of war in the private shipbuilding yards, is because the public dockyards are inadequate. Further, why Italy builds its ships of war in France, England, and America, is to be accounted for by the want both of dockyards and shipyards. Still, let any one say a word against our dockyards, and he is at once met by the statement that all the great naval Powers possess great dockyards, which is untrue; or by the statement that without dockyards there can be no naval power, which the case of Italy — soon to be a most formidable naval Power — at once satisfactorily disproves. 128 DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. But it is needless to pursue the subject. People have vet to learn to judge of all that appertains to shipbuild- ing. as they have learned to judge of almost every other thing. When they have done so they will think only of the merits of each separate case, perfectly regardless what France, America, Russia, or Italy are doing. Does a City shopkeeper care about the Paris or the New York modes of making money? No. He wisely adapts him- self to the circumstances in which he is. Why, then, should the British navy be provided for in any other manner ? shipbuilding under Under the practical regime dockyard the practical regime. n -1 1 Tk shipbuilding never nourished. there were abortions of all kinds turned out, ships that would neither steam nor sail, and as some approached comple- tion it was not uncommon to discover that there was a screw loose somewhere; in other words, that the ship would not carry the intended weights, or positively would not swim. Nor are errors of this kind at all old dated, for almost one of the last official acts of one of the last highly honoured great dockyard men was to propose to the present Board of Admiralty the construc- tion of an ironclad frigate possessing no greater floating properties than a cannon-ball. But to return. When the discovery happened to be made that a ship on the stocks would not swim, two courses presented themselves to the professional advisers of the Admiralty. The first wjls to cut the ship in two and increase the length suffi- ciently; the second to allow the unlaunched ship to lemain and rot, although rotting is a very tedious pro- COsS ’ a * w hen prayed for. But it did not always follov that a spoiled heavy frigate would make a good line-of-battle ship by twenty or thirty feet being added DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 129 to the length: sometimes such frigates would only cut up into bad corvettes. In this last case these bad cor- vettes literally cost the country, if the truth were told, or could be told, their weight in gold. In the first place, they might have represented the whole palpable produce of the labour of the dockyard, and within the walls there would in no case be fewer than 2,000 men, and possibly there might be rather more than twice as many. Fancy, then, the spoiled ship in hand a single year, and the first cost is a heavy one. Then comes the conversion; and that, as things went and still go in the dockyards, might once more be the one visible effort of all hands during as long a period as before. Thus the construction of one such ship represented the use and waste of a perfect mine of wealth; the amount probably exceeding the yearly value of the produce of some rural parishes. The introduction of steam, and afterwards the supersession of the paddle by the screw, were great occasions for the practicals. Both were god- sends in their way, inasmuch as they were changes from the old routine, and in addition to filling the hands of all with work, were exceedingly beneficial to the shop- keepers, landlords, and others of the dockyard towns. Admiral, Commodore, and Captain-Superintendents felt as eagles do when age is renewed to them. Surveyors of the Navy were equally elated. The introduction of machinery of course led to one and all of those mishaps that may readily be surmised. Between the heads of departments in Whitehall and Somerset House, and the heads of departments in the dockyards, there was the same sweet harmony as is got out of a fiddle without the first and second strings, or out of a hurdy-gurdy on a rainy day. The engines were occasionally too large or too small for the boilers, and not unfrequently too DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 130 lar-e or too small for the ships for which they were designed. The Select Committee appointed to inquire intothe expenditure of the Army, Navy, and Ordnance, indeed discovered that so powerful in some cases was the machinery ordered for weak and rotten ships, that had it been fitted the ships would have been torn to pieces, while in other cases so little motive power was ordered for some ships that propulsion against wind or tide would have been impossible. These blunders apply, however, more particularly to the first conversion to paddle ships. The introduction of the screw extracted the same discord from the official hurdy-gurdy. The sterns of ships had now to be torn out, and doing this was generally much the same thing as putting new legs to a pair of trousers, or new tails to a dress coat that has seen service. The old and new work could not be o'ot to stick well together, and among nautical men it was long expected that the sterns of some of the so- called crack line-of-battle ships would fall away. The whole “ guts” of the ships had besides to be torn out for the passage of the shaft, and when that was done the wrong engines, the wrong boilers, or unsuitable engines and boilers, were almost sure to be sent for fitting. Discovery of the 1859 Committee.* The 1859 Committee made a remark- able and still unaccounted-for discovery as regards the relative price of ships built in the different dockyards during the practical regime . It was sub- * The Shannon, a frigate of 51 guns and 2,651 tons, built at Portsmouth, cost £14.033 for shipwrights’ labour, or at the rate of £5 5s. lOd. per ton, while the Chesa- r ' ake ' al3 ° a fri 6 ate of 51 guns, but of 2,355 tons, built at Chatham, cost £9,372, or at the rate of £3 19s. 7d. per ton. The Mersey , 40 guns, built at Chatham and !:tte.l at Portsmouth, cost for shipwrights’ work £14,842, or £3 19s. 7£d. per ton, n.i.l the OilandOj of 50 guns, built at Pembroke and fitted at Devonport, cost i r shipwrights work £19,505, or £5 4s. 8d. per ton, though both ships are of the same tonnage, form, and dimensions.— Pages 18 and 19, Report 1859 Committee. DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 131 stantially this. In all the dockyards there were the same raw material, the same timber, tools, smiths’ fires, &c., and the same classes of skilled and unskilled work- men engaged on ships, as like each other as peas or sheep. These skilled and unskilled workmen in addi- tion received the same wao’es for the same tasks and O jobs. But it was found that notwithstanding the identity of the conditions, the same ships cost twice as much in some of the dockyards as in the others. How this happened no one knew, and no one yet knows. If one baker charges sixpence for a four-pound loaf, and another charges two or three pence more, it is intelligible that quality, a credit business, or a higher rate of profit explains the difference. But what are w r e to think of two servants going at the same time into the same market, and the one giving us salmon at a shilling a pound, while the other charges twice that price ? We would be disposed to put the severe construction on the case of the dear salmon — robbery. But the defaulting dock- yards meet us with chapter and verse for all their out- lays. So also have defaulters outside the dockyards until found out. The fraudulent clerk, secretary, ma- nager, broker, banker, has always put a good face on things and made them pleasant. the theorist * S under With the practical regime let us now contrast that of the theorists. At the * During the last session of Parliament a circular was distributed among members, by a mechanic, from which the following is an extract : — “By the employment of wooden shipwrights to work on the iron war-ship Achilles, a great deal of money is uselessly squandered. I contend that the work can be more I efficiently performed for one-third less than it now costs. Here is an instance of what I I assert : — Where the wooden shipbuilders have been cutting holes for coal-shoots in i the deck-plates, the same being three-eighths of an inch in thickness, size of hole 18j I inches in diameter, the time taken by them to cut one of these holes was six days and I a half, when it would be done by men acquainted with iron shipbuilding in five or six K 2 DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. moment the Admiralty sweat and strain over tlie iron car- case of the Achilles. They are showing the public what the dockyards can do when they care to do anything. But the trick is too stale to deceive any one. A display of energy is inopportune when the fate both of the dockyards and the Admiralty trembles in the balance. It is a kind of death-bed conversion, which no one w r ill regard as of much account. The effort is that of a shaky firm seeking an exchange of cheques, an exchange of signatures, or the purchase of anything on which money can be hours at most. It is the same with the wooden shipwrights putting in rivets ; it being well known that 41f rivets have cost £3 3s. 6d., when for 6s. or 7s. they could be well put in by practical iron-men. Now, as there will be a great number of rivets in the Achilles , if the officials will persist in carrying the ivories on in the manner they do at present, there will be as much money squandered, besides material spoiled, as would build two such ships as the Achilles .” In reference to the manner in which the armour-plated ship Caledonia, is now build- ing at Woolwich, the mechanic adds that an iron shipbuilder says — “ Her iron weather-deck is constructed of ^-inch plates in thickness, riveted to iron girders, but owing to the unskilled manner the work is done by incompetent workmen, the plates not being properly levelled and riveted, the iron deck, when completed, pre- sented one mass of buckles ; so much so, that when they came to lay the wooden deck on the iron one, after shoring and wedging, they were compelled to reduce the 4-inch planks to 24, in various places, before they could lay them down. For all this blun- dering the real iron-men are blamed, when perhaps not one is employed, the wooden- men, because they happen to be at work on the vessel, being styled iron shipwrights, which is not the case,— and the public mind should be disabused of this.” On the other side, the Morning Herald and the Standard report of the launch of the /'Shi from the Blackwall lard of Messrs. Money Wigram and Sons, on the 16th of September, 1863, may be given: — In the construction there is no peculiarity beyond the somewhat important one that the iron Delhi has been built by wooden shipwrights, and that hereafter the firm of Messrs. Money Wigram and Sons are to be counted among the iron shipbuilders of the country. Messrs. Wigram’s wooden shipwrights, appreciating the change that had taken place in their occupation, waited on the firm, and asked to be allowed to try their hands in the place of the boiler-makers, who are the usual builders of iron ships. The request was considerately complied with, first in the construction of a beacon for the Trinity Corporation, next in the construction of the Diligente for Brazils, an iron vessel for the Ganges, and the fine Dover passage-boats Breeze and Wave for the < hatham and Dover Railway; and, last of all, in the construction of the Delhi. With the result, owners, surveyors, builders, and workmen are all satisfied. The 1 hi is pronounced a faultless piece of workmanship, and yet the work of wooden shipwrights. ” DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 133 raised through the friendly offices of the trade pawn- brokers, whose place of call should be a pillory in Threadneedle-street. The Duke of Somerset, Lord Clarence Paget, Admiral Robinson, and the others, must smile occasionally at their own hardihood. Rig- ging the market for the sale of Confederate cotton bonds is nothing to it. The Morning Herald reporter who supplied, for the second edition, an account of the execution of a notorious fellow who was favoured with a reprieve after his neck was in the fatal noose, was not a whit smarter. In the hurry of building the Achilles it is not surprising that one of the sides is said to be six inches out of truth. Nor is it to be wondered at if the workman- ship compares as favourably with that of the great iron shipyards as the tin-kettle workmanship of Barnes Common compares with that of Lower East Smitlifield. Providence, it is to be hoped, will, for the credit of the Admiralty, suspend those usually inexorable laws of nature which damn badly built and badly fastened ships, whether of wood or iron, when on the strand, or subjected to the rough usage of a whole gale of wind. Why the construction of the Achilles has pro- voked so little criticism arises from the building taking place in a dock barely large enough to hold the ship. Few care to undertake the descent to the bottom of the dock, and of that few not many are disposed to pursue knowledge under circumstances so embarrassing and filthy. Going down in a diving-bell to the foundations of Blackfriars Bridge is on the whole a more inviting undertaking than going down to the lower part of the Achilles among the blocks, props, smiths’ fires, ashes, and other things below. It is, therefore, pretty clear why very little has been said of the workmanship of the Achilles. But it has been examined, and by practical ]34 DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. men. who from disinterested motives pronounce it alike discreditable to the dockyards and the country. On t] ie bottom, the unseen bottom of the Achilles , wooden shipwrights have been transformed into iron ship- wrights. They knew nothing of iron work. They might as well have begun making shoes, making brick, or mixing mortar. And they laboured also under the trying disadvantage of having few learners, and these learners not being worth their salt as workmen. For some time before the iron Achilles was fairly taken in hand by the wooden shipwrights, gangs of them, as already stated, were sent for a week’s, a fortnight’s, or a month’s instruction in the Thames Iron Shipbuilding Works, Orchard-street, Blackwall. This short apprenticeship in an entirely new branch of trade finished the training of the dockyard iron shipwrights, who are and were the instructors of their less favoured fellow- workmen. Such is the simple truth. By such hands has the iron Achilles been put together. By such hands two more iron ships are to be begun and carried on. True, they may now be thought fair workmen, but they certainly have had no claim to that title on the Achilles. The Achilles is as near an approach in workmanship to the other iron ships of the fleet as the letters gracing the doors and walls in an ordinary paint shop — the result of apprentices trying their hands — are an approach to the finished and fault- less City signboards. But it may be that the Admiralty deny this, and indignantly scout the idea of the Achilles being six inches out of truth. Then the answer is, that tlu*. ship ought to be allowed to speak for itself.^ A number of workmen are now busily employed at Chatham Dockyard in cutting away the solid granite sides at the entrance to No. 2 dock in which the iron ^ * 3 un der construction, in readiness for that vessel being floated out. nidi as . feet 8 inches, or 1G inches on each side, will have to be cut away from DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 135 Serious defects in the j n the cons traction of the Valiant class contract ironclads. # # . of ironclads there is one Admiralty de- fect that Mr. Scott Russell has condemned with great force and truth. There is a belt of armour round the gun deck of these ships fore and aft, and two more breadths of the belt extend along the whole length of the ship between perpendiculars lower down than the gun deck. The consequence must be that a shell lodged forward or aft of the two extra breadths of armour will blow those above in the protected gun deck into the air. At the expense of relieving the extremities of a great load, but in a downright stupid manner, a com- plete trap has been contrived, which in actfbn pro- mises to be destructive to our own sailors and spread dismay among the whole ship’s crew. Another defect, and it is one that applies to all our ironclads, is insuf- ficient ventilation. An ordinarily tall man cannot walk on the gun deck without stooping, and yet those decks are thronged with guns of large calibre. The moment, therefore, these ships go into action the crews will be oppressed with smoke, and it is conceivable that after a few rounds the firing must cease until the smoke clears away. Nay, it is impossible that firing can proceed for any length of time, so that, other things being equal, our ironclads in action will fall an easy prey to an enter- prising enemy who merely enjoys more room and air. But this is only one form and evil of the deficient ven- tilation. In these ships no improvement whatever has been attempted in the interior fittings so as to guard against diseases of a contagious type. As in the old- fashioned man-of-war, so in the new, all on board the the entire length of the solid wall on both sides the dock in order to admit of the ! Achilles being floated out without touching the sides. — Times' “ Naval and Military Intelligence,” 27th August, 1863. 136 dockyard shipbuilding. ship breathe the same atmosphere, whether that is pure or impure, wholesome or diseased. Smallpox, yellow fever, etc., may, therefore, spread at will throughout our ironclads, although it must he an easy matter to devise means of isolation — means that would carry off impure air, and supply a healthy separate atmosphere at all times to sick and well. In an excellent pamphlet pub- lished some short time ago* the facility of fitting ships in such a way was pointed out, and it may be well to state that Mr. Lungley has for years been extensively employed adapting merchant ships for the transport of troops, emigrants, convicts, &c., in the usual manner. On such a subject he, therefore, speaks with authority, and it is surprising that his suggestions have not been acted on by the Admiralty. But Mr. Lungley ’s sugges- tions do not stop with thorough ventilation ; his mode of ventilation is also calculated to keep a ship afloat when otherwise it would sink. To each deck he not only furnishes a watertight trunkway, but he does so to each separate compartment of each deck, so that a ship is formed of many parts perfectly detached from each other ; and if to each compartment there are two such watertight trunkways, it is manifest that a constant and separate current of pure air must always be maintained. I hat not one improvement of any practical value should have been adopted in our ironclad fleet cannot fail to excite indignation and surprise. Ships* " ant ° f sma11 The want of small ironclads is another sm. With ample warning and sufficient lime to produce a brood of sloops of small tonnage and h.clit di aught of water, no more than three are yet in .. ‘ A '*] 'building in its Applications to Iron and Wooden Ships of War , and Gree’i' Dockyard ^ Alerc ^ ant Vesse ^ s ' By Charles Lungley, Deptford DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 137 hand — namely, the Enterprise and Favourite at Deptford, and the Research at Pembroke. The consequence must be, were war to arise, that the same state of things would be repeated as when Sir Charles Napier went to the Baltic. Against no Power whatever could we operate successfully on the coast with our Minotaur s, our Valiants , or our Warriors , and were war at any time to be forced on us by America, we would be lamentably weak. For the American lakes and rivers, as will appear here- after, a smaller class of ships than even the Enterprise or the Research would be required, and should they have to be waited for after war were declared, Canada would inevitably be overrun, if not absolutely wrested from the Crown. And, strange to say, ten ships of the Enterprise class may be constructed for one Minotaur . Expense is, therefore, no excuse, and the omission or neglect can be explained only by the Admiralty and their advisers being strangers to common sense. The case of the Dai- Shortcoming is crowned by the case of the Dalhousie , the ship constructed to commemorate the services of an Indian statesman during a trying period. The frigate Dalhousie was ordered in the usual manner; the Indian dockyard authorities set to work converting timber, setting up the frame and planking it, while Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field, the Lambeth engineers, took in hand the engines and the boilers. In course of time the engines, boilers, &c., were received in store at Woolwich, and sent to India on board a large merchant ship, which had almost to be taken to pieces before the engines, boilers, &c., could be put on board. A few months’ * This case is given from the pamphlet on “the Dockyards and Shipyards of the Kingdom,” page 16. dockyard shipbuilding. 138 sailing carried the transport to its destination. The engines, boilers, &c., were landed, and the dockyard au- thorities looked forward to havingthe Dalhousie soon afloat and on the trial in the Indian Stokes Bay. They were doomed to disappointment. The Indian Office wrote to the Admiralty, and the Admiralty wrote to the Indian dockyard authorities to pull the ship to pieces, and send the pieces, machinery and all, to Woolwich. So the Dalhousie arrived at Woolwich last June (1862), and may be seen any day in timber and machinery stacks in Woolwich Dockyard. The system practi- The writer is indebted to a dockyard calljr. . " officer for tlie following statement of the dockyard shipbuilding system as it is practically : — u The designs for building are all got out by the Controller’s department at the Admiralty, and the form is the mere whim or fancy of the Controller, &c. The dimensions, proportions, and volume of displacement are arranged by the constructor and his assistants to suit the require- ments of the vessel. Thus the proper function of the constructor is merely to get afloat the whims of the Controller, &c. The constructor and his assistants are generally men well qualified for their station, although there have been constructors who knew nothing at all of the scientific principles of shipbuilding, and made sad havoc with material. When the design by drafts and specifications is ready, it is signed by the constructor and Controller, and sent by the Admiralty to one of the )aid>, with an order for the vessel to be commenced. Hi'’ Superintendent delivers the order, with the diatts and specifications, to the master shipwright, "ith a\ hom they remain till the vessel is completed, " ^ Kn ^ c y are sometimes sent back to the Admiralty, and DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 139 sometimes not. The only thing then done by the master shipwright is to send the drafts, with a copy of part of the specifications, called the ‘scheme of scantling/ to the single station day-pay shipwright, called chief drafts- man of the mould-loft, who is under the direct orders of the master shipwright, but subject to the supervision of the foreman of shipwrights, who has charge of the new work. The chief draftsman and his assistants ‘lay off/ or draw all the lines on the mould-loft floor, to the full size, and get all the section lines and measurements necessary for making the moulds, to cut the frames and erect them in accordance with the design. The moulds are now made by the joiners, who send them to the con- verters, and these draw timber by a demand note from the storekeeper, under the authority of a timber inspector. The frame timbers are then cut by the sawyers to the slope required by the moulds, and taken by the labourers to the side of the ship-way where the ship is to be built. The shipwright foreman of new work next sends the shipwrights in gangs to put up the frames. Every inspector of shipwrights has three gangs of men ; each gang has a leading man, fifteen or more men, and two or three apprentices. The first man in each gang is considered the ‘ best man, and aft hand ; the second in the gang the next best man, and fore hand; the next the second from aft, the next the second from forward, the next the third from aft, and so on. The after end of the ship takes precedence in all things: the senior inspector, for instance, takes the starboard side aft, the next the port side aft, the next the starboard side for- ward, &c. By this system every man knows the station on the ship where his work should be without any other appointment ; but the folly of unpractical and ignorant officers to a great extent confuses the work by taking 140 DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. men from their proper station to work on jobs which should be done by other workmen. If the men are allowed to do the work that falls to their station it is generally done well and quickly, as those who choose, or, as it is called, shoal the men, take it in turns for the choice of the best men, till the good men are all chosen. Then the rest of the names are put into a bag or hat, and as the names are taken out so they have to stand until another shoaling the following year. All the men are supposed to be efficient shipwrights — that is, men who know how to do any kind of work required about the hull of the ship, even to the fixing or fastening, plumbers’, smiths’, and blockmakers’ work, and work on framing, planking, rudder-making, stern and head finishing, store-room fitting, or anything whatever. The shipwrights do nearly all the work, even simple labouring, for the labourers are seldom employed on board a ship after the frames are up. Shipwrights’ apprentices, and sometimes the shipwrights, fetch stores, and are often employed to clear their own chips out of the ship. They bore their own holes, drive their own fastening, as well as chip, rivet, and cut iron work for knees, bolts, &c.; sometimes they do the caulking and painting, always do the metal sheathing whatever it may be, with iron, copper, brass, lead, or sheet tin, and i hey always make their own staging, as well as the Paging of all others working on the ship. In fact, a great number of the shipwrights are masters of their « 1 atr, and as workmen are practical, though on the whole not very efficient men at doing any kind of work which can be required on a ship from truck to keel.” tie Controller. power vested m the Controller f or the indulgence of whims in the con- DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 141 struction of ships has been spoken of before, but the terms in which the functions of that official are named in the remarks of the dockyard officer are sufficiently suggestive, and the evil sufficiently serious to justify recurrence to the subject. In the Controller the whole construction of the navy is virtually vested, and for the office no professional qualification is required. If aval Lords of the Admiralty with the wildest notions of ship- building have only to talk him over, and he is the- ser- vant of those Naval Lords ; he is himself a naval officer, and there are few naval officers whose heads are not full of fleas ; those about him may influence him ; and those not about him may approach him by Court or other channels. The office is not only an anomaly, but it is one that is a scandal. It is a sinecure, for a man’s coat and boots may fill it; it is a position in which a man may fortify himself by concessions and sanctions the most venal ; it is an opportunity that a bad man may turn to great personal account. A Controller of the Navy, if there should be such a man, ought to be one of great attainment, less a sailor than a man of business, and more accustomed to direct skilled and unskilled labour than to theorise about ships. Shipbuilding is the least important, and always will be the least important, of his duties, while the wise expenditure of the large sums voted annually by Parliament should be his con- stant and untiring care. Of influence he should know and recognise none but that of trusty councillors, who should be about him, and by whose judgment, particu- larly as regards ships, he should alone be guided. Those gentlemen in and out of Parliament who have asked for the establishment of schools of naval architecture must- first remove the Controller of the Navy, or reconstruct the office, if ever any good is to come of such schools ; 142 dockyard shipbuilding. for, as things are at present, the Controller hears, sees, and knows only what he likes or his superiors fancy. The peculiar duty of the Constructor. If the office of the Controller is a sinecure, that of the constructor is the contrary. The Controller orders ; the constructor executes, on paper. It is the case of the country tailor and the country customer. Asuitof clothes of a particular make is wanted, and here is the corduroy. The con- structor looks first at the corduroy, then at the Controller, all the while scratching his head thoughtfully. He sees his way to a coat and trousers, or to trousers and waistcoat, but beyond that he is at a loss. The Con- troller asks him to bethink himself, as he is sure the corduroy is ample for all his wants. No, it is impossible ; and the constructor succeeds in time in showing that it is. The Controller then withdraws to think the matter over. He will now confer with the Naval Lords whose instrument he is; or if the crotchet is his own, he will put it in another and more likely shape ; and so on. With the constructor he in time seeks another interview. A particular form and class is wanted, and the constructor is at liberty to use all the cloth he pleases. Is this a system to advance the science or the art of shipbuilding ? Is this a practice to promote the interests of the British navy or to maintain the influence of British power in Lurope J I he constructor of the navy should be a man to direct and counsel. The country should look to him i<>r the rescue of shipbuilding from the state of scientific degradation into which corruption and incompetency have suffered it to fall. Superintendent haa to The Admiral, Commodore, or Captain- Superintendent receives the order for a DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 143 ship, together with the drafts and specifications, from the Admiralty, and delivers them to the master ship- wright. The duty reads like a joke. Why not send direct to the master shipwright ? . To do so would be to supersede a great functionary. Were the Admiralty to communicate direct with their heads of departments, a wanton and irreparable injury would be inflicted on a meritorious and important class ; in other words, a very considerable back-stairs prop would be withdrawn from our naval system. The command of a dockyard is an employment to which all distinguished naval officers of rank have a well-established and proper claim. Change, therefore, would be injustice. And are not the Superin- tendents most deserving ? Do they not supervise every- thing and see to everything ? Step into the dockyard of a morning, or of an afternoon, and is the Superinten- dent not about, watching the public interest? When he approaches, are not the idle diligent, the careless attentive, and the well-behaved sure to be encouraged? The answer must be that the Superintendents are a nuisance. In the dockyards the most willing and con- scientious can do no good, because they know nothing of dockyard matters, and the meddlesome, conceited, and whimsical are always doing mischief. If the Superintendent represents the Admiralty and is a check on every one, he is himself unchecked, and all experience proves that he stands in more need of watching and restraint than all the thousands that may be under him. The red-tape routine The amount of red-tape routine before before anything is done. # x anything is done seems almost incredible, but nevertheless is true. Form is carried to such a length that it stops short only at workmen not being required to get the written permission of some official or other before 144 DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. attending to the calls of nature. Men may walk, stand, sit, chev” and the like, without the formal sanction of those in authority over them, but they can venture on nothin more. Everything must be done according to strict rule or it must remain undone. Take a case. A party of shipwrights can do nothing until a handful of ton penny nails are driven. In a private shipyard, one of the party would at once put on his jacket and be off to the office in a twinkling for them. Not so in the dockyards. The foreman has gone to the other side of the dockyard about some timber, and although the whole party of shipwrights were, to go in search of him the chances are that he would not be found. Well, until the foreman turns up no nails can be got; he being the proper person to apply for them to his superior officer. But suppose the foreman is at hand and as anxious about the tenpenny nails as the men. Then it may happen that the proper officer to apply to the storekeeper is out of the way: it may be for an hour or for the afternoon. This is the too frequent operation of the routine of the dockyards. Those who framed the red-tape code were not men of business, nor even can it be said of them that they were men of the world, because a very slight acquaintance with human nature would have sufficed to teach them that working men are, as a rule, more upright and trustworthy than those above them. All experience proves that no obstacle whatever should interpose between workmen and the tools and material of their labour. No doubt instances of petty pilfering will occur sometimes, where there is no restraint, and no other supervision than that exercised by the time-keeper at the gate ; but the dock- )..k 1 M.stoni has not yet stopped pilfering, and apart altogethei from the delay and inconvenience and conse- DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 145 quent loss routine' occasions, it has the bad effect of making honest workmen feel that they are thought untrustworthy. The unwieldy Gangs. The unwieldy dockyard gangs are the original of the unwieldy convict gangs, which have been so much and justly censured. A small job which in a private shipyard would not keep more than half a dozen men going is in the dockyards usually graced with a gang eighteen or twenty strong, because it does not answer to break the gangs. The half-dozen men who might do the work would be without that supervision which the strict letter of the instructions of the Admi- ralty peremptorily demands, and no doubt would take advantage of the chance presented to them of either doing little work if on day pay, or of charging twice if on task and job. So the whole gang go to perform the work of six men; and to prevent the men from robbing in a small way, the public are robbed wholesale by what in effect is the compulsory idleness of twelve or fourteen men for a day, week, or month, as it happens. Visit St. Mary’s Island, Chatham or Portsmouth Dock- yard, where the convicts are at work, and a score of able- bodied men are drawing along an empty hand-cart; doing the work of one of their number only, because where one goes the whole gang must follow. Precisely so is it in the dockyards among the dockyard workmen, although there are no hand-carts in use to admit of the unwieldy gang system appearing in its true colours. shoaling; the farce.* Shoaling the dockyard shipwrights * It may be well to state that skulking fellows in the dockyards get surgeons’ notes for easy work, which enable them to get into easy places. Doctors render the same kindness among the convicts. L DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 14f> is a farce. After all the best working places have been filled recourse is had to the ballot. The names of the unfortunates are written on slips of paper, and the work on which they are to be employed throughout the year is fixed by lot. Qualification is ignored. The best workmen may get the roughest work, and the con- verse, but what matters it ? Whose loss is it ? The loss is that of a long-suffering'public, who, it is said, would complain if the system did not suit them. Among the workmen it is a common saying that the loss, if any, comes off a broad board : the meaning being that it hurts no one in particular very seriously. And yet Parliament is frequently assured from the front benches, on the warm side of Mr. Speaker, that the workmanship of the dock- yards surpasses that of the shipyards. It might as well be told that the savoury atmosphere of the Thames in July is more grateful than the breezes on the coast ; or that the boot-making, the smithing, and the carpentering of London thieves on St. Mary’s Island, Chatham, is better than the honest workmanship of the honest tradesman. Then the ballot sanctioned by the Admi- ralty is indeed a winkle for the society in Guildhall Chambers and the advanced Liberals. Who ever thought that under the antique rule of the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral there lay con- cealed this choice morsel of genuine Yankeeism ? But, after all, are not the Commissioners themselves merely shoaled into office? no fitness for their position being recognised, although the slips of paper and the hat or bag are not visible, unless in the chamber of the suc- cessful party leader. dence. 1 oC ~ f prcce ' ^ hat shall be said of precedence and grey hairs taking the post of honour aft DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 147 among the dockyard shipwrights ? The usage is a monstrous one. What would become of a private firm if the old fellows, instead of taking hold with the other workmen, were privileged to stand next the counting- house or to single out easy tasks for themselves ? The firm might as well frame a pension-list. It would be supporting what are known as deadheads. It would be running the hard race of competition with so many mill- stones round its neck. But there are no such private firms to be found, nor are there any such old fellows outside the dockyards claiming the current rate of wages. Go into any private workshop where old men are earning as much as young men, and you will find that they are earning it. They are visibly at war with age, resolutely and successfully contending with it. In- stead of being a drag and bad example, they are posi- tively a good example and benefit. Young fellows never see withered arms exerted vigorously, nor withered forms bending under heavy loads, without being fired with emulation and exerting themselves in a worthy manner ; and if this activity of the old exercises an influence so potent, what is to be looked for in the dock- yards, where every old fellow is allowed to skulk ? Either old men should be turned out of the dockyards, or they should work as young men. In business there is said to be no friendship, and in trade there should be no favour, for labour is practically as much a commodity as the product on the creation of which it is employed. Pre- cedence among dockyard shipwrights is a quiet way of robbing the Exchequer. Officers un P ractical The unpractical officers who remove men engaged in shoal work do some- o o thing more than break the gang rules. They often l 2 148 dockyard shipbuilding. leave the men’s work undone. Strict rule requiring the men of a gang to stick to their individual tasks, the absent men’s tasks remain untouched while the adjoining work proceeds. Take an illustration from the building of a house. There are twenty men on the front, with three feet each to raise and finish, and the four centre men are withdrawn to re-floor the Superin- tendent’s garret or pack his furniture for the moors or Brighton. The consequence is that the ends of the front of the house are built up while the front door and the immediately adjoining parts remain untouched until the absent men return. So with the planking or other work on a ship. A third or fourth of the gang are taken off and the work of those men lags behind, to, it may be, the serious detriment of the ship and to the certain injury of the gang if they are on task and job. Should the gang be on day wages, the ship, of course, is the only sufferer, because the men can take things easy until their mates return. With the unpractical officers no one, of course, dare remonstrate, and the men suffer silently the wrong too frequently inflicted on them. The . i ack-of- aii-trades The Jack-of-all-trades character of character of the Skip- wri s ht *- the shipwrights may to some extent have fitted them for the change from wood to iron. Before accustomed to various kinds of metal work, the tools are not altogether new to them; but between wood and iron shipbuilding there is practically as much difference as between the railway and the stage-coach. Men could handle timber at their leisure, and drive trenails home as lazily as they pleased; but to rivet the bottom ot an iron ship, and fasten the plates on an iron ships sides, men must strike with the iron hot or DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 149 there is no use striking. They must wake up to iron ship work, and that is what stiff-jointed old wooden shipwrights never can and never will do. And it is the case that men who have all their lives changed employ- ments, as the dockyard shipwrights have done, cannot contentedly apply themselves to one pursuit. They cannot fall willingly or well into the ranks as furnace men, frame binders, angle-iron smiths, platers, riveters, drillers, clippers, caulkers, &c., and nothing else. The Admiralty may say they do ; if so, the proof is wanting at Chatham. There the old wooden shipwrights are worse than raw clodhoppers in uniform. The blacks are obnoxious to them, they are not quick enough, and the endurance essential to good iron shipbuilding is too plainly wanting. The admission of Last of all, the admission of ineffi- lnemciency. # ' ciency reflects credit on one wearing the dockyard livery. How could it be otherwise ? What is there in the entire dockyard system to place dockyard shipbuilding on a level with that of any foreign country, still less on a level with the private shipbuilding of this country ? The Controller ties down all to his iron will, and the constructor, who should be his master, is his lacquey. The Superintendent too often is a fool; the master shipwright’s sole occupation is to sign his name, and any one dressed in authority may interfere with work and workmen at their pleasure. To look for effi- cient workmen under such conditions would be to look for calms round Cape Horn. The system renders good workmanship impossible. It is also calculated to ruin the best-inclined and competent among the shipwrights, who are enticed into the service in the hope of being superannuated in their declining years, whether they dockyard shipbuilding. 150 have been provident or improvident with their weekly wages. shipyard ship- The Admiralty, so far worsted in argument, may, however, take refuge in the assumed defects of shipyard shipbuilding. They may take to throwing dirt at the private shipbuilders, in the hope of making out their case for a continuance of dockyard shipbuilding in the form in which it is carried on at present. To defeat this, let us glance for a moment at the salient points of shipyard shipbuilding. Designing Merchant With regard to the designing of mer- Ships. ° ° ° chant ships, it may be said that in nine cases out of ten British shipowners and their nautical advisers, by whim or fancy, determine both the form of ships and the disposition of the masts and sails; that they systematically reject the counsel of those trained to know and apply the truths of science in such matters, and that the great merchant shipowners usually have no two ships alike either in hull or spars. Let us admit the general truth of these statements, for there is more or less of truth in them, and what conclusion do taey logically suggest? Certainly not that, because these things are so, dockyard shipbuilding is all that can be wished? And as certainly not that the designing of merchant ships is for these reasons in the least objectionable. Why should not the owners of merchant ships experiment in forms and in the dispo- sition of masts and sails, even although by so doing they should be open to the charge of not being held in lead- in i: strings by those who have made shipbuilding their piofe>sion? If they reject professional advice, it must «‘t least be said on their behalf that they have much DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 151 more at stake in the course adopted than the profes- sionals. They have ships as an investment for their capital; naval architects do no more than design ships to illustrate shipbuilding science. So this objection falls to the ground. Irregular as the conduct of the ship- owners may appear, it nevertheless is proper, although it is not unworthy of their consideration whether, as a rule, it would not be better to confide in a greater measure the design and construction of merchant ships, spars and sails included, to those in whom the trust may properly be confided. Workmen^ 3 ™ th ^ ma y charged against the ship- builders that there is no uniformity in the hiring of workmen, for whereas in some yards the men work by a price-book, or stated price for stated work, in others all are paid by the day; and in addition, that in several yards “ an agreement is drawn up by the master or employer, and signed by the man or men to be employed and the employer — this agree- ment being retained by the employer — who seldom gives a copy to the man or men engaged, so that the men are bound or not bound just as it suits the purpose of the employer.” While all this may be true, the charge, however, does not represent the whole truth. The fact is that in all the great shipyards of the country there is absolute uniformity — the uniformity of contract pure and simple — the workmen earning just as much as they can, and that as the minor shipyards assume larger pro- portions, no choice is left to them but that of falling into the custom of the great shipyards. Then as regards the breach of contract and the overreaching of the workmen spoken of, the truth is that such a practice is positively unknown, and positively repudiated by every 152 dockyard shipbuilding. firm with the least pretension to respectability. Nine in every ten of the shipyards never heard of such a thing ; but "let it be assumed that the tenth is a guilty party. Well, what can this prove ? Why, nothing more than that there are tricks and dishonest people in all trades. By no rational stretch of imagination can it justify dockyard officials, or Lords of the Admiralty, depre- cating the terms of employing shipyard labour, and praising the terms of employing dockyard labour. AmagonUm between Qr it may be charged that while per- Employer and Em- J A ployed. petual harmony exists between the dockyard authorities and the dockyard workmen, frequent jars and strikes take place in the shipyards. Let us again admit the truth of this. Is it, then, to be said that because the dockyard people pull the horse well together that no fault is to be found with the dock- yards ? It might just as well be said that because good- will existed between the directors- and clerks of the Royal British Bank, or between Messrs. Strachan, Paul, and Bates and their clerks, these establishments were models of propriety. Or we might say that because the convicts and warders in Milbank Prison enjoy the fat of the land in peace and contentment, that convicts are not a bad set of people after all, and that leather medals might be bestowed on the warders. The jars and strikes that take place in the private shipbuilding )arters because they can get employment elsewhere on vliat they conceive to be better terms — that is, less muaous. Workmen also strike because they conceive masters ought to yield certain things. In the antagonism binuui employer and employed there is consequently DOCKYARD SHIPBUILDING. 153 nothing that is unreasonable or improper, although it has often been impossible to help deploring the loss arising from strikes, and the sufferings of wives and children. But jars and strikes are certainly reduced to a minimum under the honest, encouraging, and profit- able contract system. Here is a certain amount of work ; what will you do it for ? If the workmen are not thoroughly incompetent, they will have nothing to complain of when their own terms are acceded to, or when they accede to the terms of their employer. Mis- understanding ought to be impossible, and the workmen must be sensible of the dignity of their position and the advantages of maintaining it. Jars and strikes in shipbuilding are, however, inseparable from the day work and day wages system, particularly when the employer is of that antique pattern which adorns the dockyards. Such a man is never pleased, but always growling. His motto is not “ Live and let live,” but waste soul and body unprofit ably in his ungracious ser- vice. This type of shipbuilder may still flourish in unimportant country towns, but he is seldom met with in the great seats of British shipyard shipbuilding. 154 Chapter Y. NAVAL POWER. The generally assumed The generally assumed elements of elements. Seamen. ° * / , . , , . i naval power are dockyards, ships, and seamen ; dockyards first, next ships, and last seamen. It was only the other day that the first attempt to orga- nise reserves of seamen was really tried, and inasmuch as only 18,000 of the 40,000 which 'it was proposed to enroll have yet been embodied, the experiment is a failure. It is a failure, and a very melancholy one, when viewed apart from the crowd represented by 18,000 fine young sailors. Eighteen thousand from forty thousand is in commercial slang something like seven-and-six in the pound, and no one will say that at any time the figure is much to boast of. Why the enroll- ment has failed is because the Admiralty, always generous to profusion to unworthy people, and for unworthy purposes, is shabby to the sailor. £600 per annum to a master shipwright, with house, coal, and candle, is regarded as so much below the mark that when the master shipwright thinks proper to retire he an ill have £300, £400, or £600 per annum, and an equivalent for house, coal, and candle, all his days. And all that a master shipwright does is to sign his name, llic sailor who is to defend our firesides is offered the inducement of £6 per annum. Nothing but patriotism -ul (l a single man of spirit to accept the NAVAL POWER. 155 terms. £10 should have been the minimum gratuity to able seamen, and £15 to mates and masters irrespec- tive of the pay and allowances during the annual train- ing. This is the opinion of a great number of the men, and the all but universal opinion of the unenrolled. As it is desirable that the men should speak out and the force be raised to 40,000 as a minimum, the best thing that they can do is to memorialise the Queen, and if their demand is not acceded to, to lay aside their caps and blue shirts. Englishmen do not want their reserve sailors to be underpaid, and will support them in their just demands. To take a place in the marine reserve should be as much worth the while of the men as it is of the country, and there is surely sufficient administrative genius among us to provide 40,000 seamen with ten- pound notes each out of the £250,000 weekly, the £1,000,000 monthly, and the £12,000,000 annually voted and spent for the navy. The easy way in which the Admiralty take the indifference of the mercantile marine is in perfect keeping with the narrow views entertained by My Lords on the subject of naval power. The Admiralty are, and always have been, pestered with a superabundance of seamen, unless during the Russian war, when the supply was so much short of the demand that Sir Charles Napier was expected to take Cronstadt with a fleet contemptible in numbers and equipment, and half, if not three-fourths, manned by young offenders from reformatories, street pickpockets, and assistants and servants out at elbows and out of place. Just now, Portsmouth, Plymouth, &c., are positively running over with unemployed navy seamen, and why should the Duke of Somerset and his colleagues care a straw whether the seamen of the mercantile marine are pleased or not pleased ? Have not their lordships quite NAVAL POWER. 156 enough to do bolstering up the system of good Henry VIII.’s time, with its sinecures and great dockyard almshouses ? Tho superior claims Ships have always had superior claims to seamen with the Admiralty. With ships there was the genial flow of patronage, while with seamen there was nothing of the kind. What scion of a noble house, what partisan, what constituent could be propitiated by the nomination of a second-class boy, the appointment of a coalheaver or stoker, or the entry of an ordinary or able seaman ? Seamen, therefore, are and always have been beneath the notice of My Lords. Nothing could be made of them, so seamen in the British Navy have really and truly from first to] last been deemed a nuisance and kept down. Not so with ships. They have always yielded an official harvest. They have always been a bribe to the dockyard towns, a means of obliging no end of people, and of weakening the ranks of the Opposition when the Administration felt its hold on office feeble or insecure. Constructing ships of war has been as much the hobby of aged Captains and Admirals, as amalgamations, extensions, and oppositions are of railway directors now-a-days,]or breeding stock of modern agriculturists. A whipper-in could always, and will always, buy over an Opposition Admiral by offering him, directly or indirectly, a finger in the shipbuilding pie. Then in connection with ships, either in construction or commission, there were always dr.drable appointments turning up, which all might ask, and none blush to take. And last of all, ordering the construction, the fitting or commission of ships at par- ti* ular dockyard towns, has been an act as definite and intelligible as the ordering of a Christmas dinner in a NAVAL POWER. 157 workhouse, or an extra distribution of quartern loaves on Sunday in famished Lancashire. The building of the Achilles is a bribe to Chatham, and so will be the building of the Lord Warden and the Bellerophon . The surpassing claims But if ships have had superior claims of Dockyards. 1 Till i to seamen, dockyards have had, and still possess, superior claims to ships. Seamen are the menials, ships the emblems, and dockyards the reposi- tories of the greatness of the Admiralty. My Lords, careless about seamen and undecided about ships, would guard the dockyards with a flaming sword. Their minds are perfectly made up about dockyards, knowing as they do where and on what side their bread is buttered. Sooner may their right hands forget their cunning, and their tongues cleave to the roof of their mouths, than that the dockyards should fall a prey to the French. The construction of Keyham was an enormous bribe to Devonport, the construction of the superfluous and costly tunnel from Devonport to Keyham was a second enor- mous bribe to Devonport, and the extension of Keyham and the filling of the factory with machinery is a third enormous bribe to Devonport at this very moment in serious contemplation. The reclamation of St. Mary’s Island, Chatham, from the Medway, for the purpose of erecting iron-foundries, rolling-mills for armour-plates, and boiler and engine shops, is an enormous present bribe to Chatham, and the extensive defensive works recommended by the Defence Commissioners on Chat- ham Heights is an enormous bribe for a later period. The defences at Spithead and Portsmouth can be viewed in no other light as regards Portsmouth. In fine, the dockyards are the first and chief care of the Admiralty, and you will be told that we have only to fill and fortify NAVAL POWER. 158 them to bid defiance to the world. While ships and sailors pass away, the dockyards remain and are eternal. The obvious inade- The inadequacy of the Admiralty quacym Dockyards * no tion of naval power admits of being established in very few words. As regards the dock- yards, it never has been pretended that Sheerness, Chatham, and Woolwich and Deptford would do more than repair the casualties of a hard-fought action in the North Sea; or that Portsmouth, Devonport, and Keyham would do more than render a like service in the Channel. Pembroke, as is well known, is a mere build- ing-yard. The dockyards, therefore, in their most imperfect way, would provide for casualties round the coast, from the Nore to the Land’s End. Is that a suffi- cient provision for a great country ? Is that an adequate insurance, as it is called, that our shores should remain inviolate? No man in his senses will assert that it is. If dockyards are the good things they are said to be, one at least is required on every headland. Suppose the enemy’s fleet overtaken in the Frith of Forth, in the Pentland Firth, or off Holyhead, and an action fought ; of what use would Portsmouth and Co., and Sheerness and Co., be to the disabled ships in such a case ? Why, they might as well be at the Antipodes if modern gunnery is only half as destructive as we are led to suppose it will be. Or take another case: if the enemy were chased into the Atlantic, and an action fought with steam supplied by stores and woodwork, what would be the use of Portsmouth and Co., and Sheerness and Co., if the disabled ships were compelled to make the land on the north coast of Ireland, or at the Orkneys? Surely there might as well be no Ports- mouth and Co., and Sheerness and Co., as far as such NAVAL POWER. 159 ships were concerned. These ships would require to put into the first roadstead, and get into fighting trim without fuss or loss of time, if the officer commanding were to discharge his duty in a manner that his country- men would approve. These are considerations that appeal to the common sense of all: if dockyards are necessary for the overhaul and refit of a disabled fleet, the miserable handful of dockyards that we possess is inadequate ; and if dockyards would in most cases be utterly useless because unavailable, so they may be dis- pensed with in all cases. Logically the dockyards should be numberless, or there should be none. But softly it will be answered, why not to a moderate extent avail ourselves of dockyards? There certainly can be no objection to making the most of the existing dockyards for the overhaul and repair of disabled ships, but in the name of reason let it not be pretended that the existing dockyards will be any great reliance during war. A good shipyard in the Pentland Firth might on a pinch render as acceptable and good service as Portsmouth and Co., or Sheerness and Co. ‘ Com P ar |s° n with a numerous class accustomed to Jb ranee in Dockyards. accept opinion on trust in such matters there will, of course, remain the very great consolation that, be the state of things what it may, England, if any, is not far behind France in the number and great- ness of its dockyards. Those to whom this reflection yields comfort are rejoicing in a fool’s paradise. A comparison of the number and resources of the dock- yards of both countries suggests nothing, teaches nothing, and ought to frighten no one on either side of the Channel. Commercial men, looking forward to a great financial crash, such as those which swept over 1 GO NAVAL POWER. America and Europe in 1837 and 1857, might as well attempt to reckon, in advance, the stability of Paris by the returns of the Bank of France, or the stability of London by the returns of the Bank of England. The Bank of France is not Paris, neither is the Bank of England London; and so the dockyards of France or England, be their number, extent, or resources what they may, are not a proper standard by which the building, repairing, and fitting capacity of France and England, as regards- ships of Avar, should be measured. We might just as Avell take the coats on people’s backs as the criterion of character, position, or of means. The building, repairing, and fitting resources of France are immeasurably in excess of its mere dockyard capabilities, and the same is true of England. Is it not, then, an insult to intelligence for England to taunt France, or for France to taunt England, on the subject of dockyards? Is it not an unpardonable Aveakness for any French or English Government to lend itself to rivalry in such a matter ? Thus it is a small and Avorth- less crumb of consolation for any one to reflect that after all England, if any, is not far behind France in the number and greatness of its dockyards. aboutVhips 0118 muddle re g ards s hip s > the Admiralty are, and ahvays have been, in a muddle. I he prevalent opinion among Lords of the Admiralty mid Admiralty officials is, and always has been, that ships are ships. Up to this point they all see their Avay clearly. This is the Constance , a noble frigate. This is rhe Enterprise , a gallant little ironclad. This is the Minotaur, a magnificent ironclad. Such is the fustian <'t official circles. Give us ships and Ave will fight the Uvil. Build, reconstruct, establish schools of naval NAVAL POWER. 161 architecture, and afterwards damn Frenchmen and the Yankees. What on earth is to be made of this ; — these high-sounding expressions and idle boasts? Suppose Americans and Frenchmen to indulge in the same strain, and the vanity and absurdity of the proceeding will at once appear. Neither boasting nor personal congratu- lation ever won a battle. Boast as we may, and praise our ships as we like, the race is not always to the swift, and unless the construction of ships of war proceeds on some sure principle, it is probable — nay, certain — that when the day of battle comes we shall, as before, miss the mark. Before the outbreak of the Russian war we had been building and accumulating ships in various ways for half a century, and it turned out that we had plenty of ships that were not needed, and not one of the class that was urgently required. For years members of the Board of Admiralty had been puffing the navy at Lord Mayors’ dinners and other exhibitions : Englishmen of all classes were labouring under the delusion that we held the sceptre of the sea; and yet, let the honest truth be told, the navy was only getting into a condition to do its work when the Russian war was over. The Admiralty were muddled, and the service was muddled. Both are muddled still. Were we to become again in- volved in war with Russia, the ships are not on the Navy List, nor in the public or private yards, nor even in the heads of officials, that the occasion would de- mand, and our bunting would be again disgraced before Cronstadt and Sebastopol. So it would be in a war with the United States. For the requirements of such a war, not a single angle iron has yet been rolled, nor a single log of teak sawed. The Duke of Somerset can only talk to you about the activity of the Chatham M NAVAL POWER. workmen on the Achilles , and of some mare’s nest or other that Admiral Robinson has just discovered. France is the only nation that we have to fear at sea, and we are on the point of enormously outstripping that country in ironclads. Indeed, it will be added, our Warrior is as good as any two French ships; while our Minotaur , our Northumberland , and our Agincourt will be more than a match for the ironclads of France and Italy, should both ever pull the horse together. This, a moment’s reflection shows, is the logic of the dockyards. An incomplete and therefore erroneous value is set on the ships of France, and ourown ships are overrated. From such premises the conclusion follows that the French ships would be swept from the Channel and the sea. All with the least pretension to scholarship will at once concede that this is the reasoning of the kitchen, the nursery, or the madhouse. Yet it is substantially the stuff that Lord Clarence Paget is in the habit of serving up to the House of Commons with the Navy Estimates. He runs over the list of the French ships and the list of our ships, and timorous gentlemen mentally thank God that the country is better off than they imagined. Now, is it conceivable that France and England will eve rengage in naval war, or rather, will ever fight naval actions in the same way as people play cricket, or as Oxford and Cambridge row matches at Mortlake? It is incredible that they ever will. Half a dozen well-coaled French slllDS Or half a dozen f/ist P TOTl oTnrvo mnTT Comparison ■with France in Ships. But it will be said, in the complacent way that is so persuasive to weak minds, NAVAL POWER. 163 ironclads may dash up the Thames, the Mersey, the Clyde, or Tyne, while a dozen English ironclads are busy looking out for them in the middle of the North or South Atlantic. Or, last of all — for it is needless to multiply illustrations to the same effect - half a dozen French ironclads might temporarily draw off the whole of ours to protect Gibraltar, Malta, &c., or in the expectation of fighting a great and decisive action on some historic battle-ground, while another half-dozen, let us say, covered the landing of a force in Ireland. Thus comparisons with France in ships may alarm nursery-maids, but they should not alarm others. Strong- minded men should be above the weakness. Not the number of ships that may be possessed or that may be brought into action is to be feared, but the skilful manner in which they may be fought and the readiness with which they may be sent to sea again after being disabled. The obvious error The Admiralty error as to seamen is about Seamen. # # *> sufficiently obvious almost to be passed over without further notice. But there is one remark- able fallacy, to the exposure of which too much promi- nence cannot possibly be given. We have a mania for ships, and still are so indifferent about seamen* as to exclude them from the quarter-deck, to flog them, and to pay and provide for them as if they were hodmen or * Of late years the treatment of navy seamen has been impolitic and unjust. From 1700, and probably for a century before that, the officers of the navy ranked and; took command in the following order : — Lieutenant, master, second master, boatswain, gunner, carpenter. Master’s mates and midshipmen were then ranked as quarter-deck petty officers. About 1832 mates took precedence of second masters, and consequently stepped over the heads of the warrant officers ; but the finishing blow to their rank was given in 1844, when they were placed below “ subordinate officers.” — The Disabi- lities of Royal Naval Seamen ; by Joseph Allen, 7, Wellington-street, Strand; 1863. M 2 164 NAVAL POWEK. dockyard scavclmen The truth is, that our seamen lead a life more truly wretched than the Carolina negroes used to do. Under a gloss of liglit-heartedness, most seamen are consumed with care. Their pay, ample for all the proper wants of boys and single men, is insufficient for the married. Enter the homes of such, and while wretchedness stares you in the face, the traces of vice are apparent to a moderately close observer. The half-pay of the husband, under the most skilful handling, would just suffice to keep the soul and body together of wife and little ones, and under moderately unskilful spending cannot do so. Some wives resolutely betake themselves to honest callings : char, wash, iron, or white work; but many do not. The great majority become immoral, then dissolute. Their children swell the ranks of crime ; the honest, manly sailor, then undone, goes from bad to worse, and in time is dismissed or leaves the service. Now, what are seamen to the State that they should be the victims of this neglect ? They are to ships of war what skilled workmen are in manufac- turing industry. Without them ships of war are useless, and possessing them, without possessing ships of war, enterprises of pith and moment might be engaged in, in the presence of an enemy. Foremost among the laurels of the British navy will always stand the cutting out of ships with boats, the destruction of booms, the towing of fire craft, and the storming of forts and works. But for the daring and endurance of our seamen, not on one but on all occasions, and under all circumstances, that prestige which we cherish and the world trembles at would not be ours. Nevertheless it is the fashion to < hcrish ships and neglect seamen. At this moment, and during many years, we have possessed infinitely more ships of war than could by any possibility be manned by NAVAL POWER, 165 even half — nay, quarter-trained seamen. The State, therefore, as regards ships, acts the part of the madman who would spend his fortune building houses which none would occupy. Reserve forsooth ! Surely the first condition of a reserve of ships of war worth possessing is our ability to man the ships on the instant, not with the scum of London, its pickpockets and juvenile offenders, but with men who have sea-legs, who are prac- tised in the use of small arms, accustomed to authority and submission, and, above all things, taught to use shot and powder with alacrity and effect. Just now, and at all times, did it suit the purposes of France, the great and well-organised reserves of that country might literally swallow ours. Comparison with France Every word applicable to the case of ships is necessarily applicable to the case of seamen. As with ships, there can be no comparison of seamen of any real value. The real elements of The real elements of naval power as JN aval Power. Readiness. ... x contradistinguished from the supposed elements are few and intelligible. The first is readiness ; the second, resource ; and there is a third, which may be separated from the second — endurance. A pail of water at hand when the wainscoting of an old house takes fire, might prevent a conflagration. A man, physically unable to cope with any one, making his way home at night through a suspicious neighbourhood, and stopped at a street corner, would settle a fellow, who otherwise might strangle him, by a single well-directed blow with his walking-stick, if the blow were instantly delivered. Often does a mere stripling knock down and punish a bully twice or thrice his weight by the exertion of his NAVAL POWER. m relative feebleness in a scientific manner, taking his adversary unawares. Readiness, therefore, may prevent no end of mischief, and with or without scientific attain- ment, may enable the weak to overcome the strong. The rule is of universal application ; true of all times and all occasions, both on land and sea. The lamentable American war has furnished many instances on both sides. Stuart and Jackson, with their little bands, inflicting all but irreparable injury on their powerful and more unwieldy adversary, are the most notable. In the glorious Italian war, Garibaldi supplied numerous examples of the same kind. James's Naval History , to leave the present, abounds likewise in deeds of suc- cessful daring ; great fleets scattered by small fleets, the former taken at some disadvantage; roadsteads sur- prised, and so on. To readiness in modern war belongs the foremost place. It is worth battalions in the field, and squadrons on the ocean. A ready nation, up to a certain point, has success before it; and an unready nation, chastisement and disgrace. Let us represent to ourselves ready France and unready England engaging in a naval war, both being opposed. France, resolved to profit by its advantage, might either bide its time until preparation could be pushed no further, if the British Government appeared supine, or it might utter the ill-omened word at once if the British Govern- ment vigorously hastened the equipment of the fleet. The consequences would not fail to be calamitous to us, should the French Admiral perform his duty. No doubt our unreadiness would in time be rectified; but the point is that the issue of a dash might possibly be o\ erwhelming to the stronger. On the other hand, ueie both nations ready, and surprise on either side impossible as* far as impossibility can be thought of — NAVAL POWER. 167 a new and probably a sufficient guarantee would exist for the maintenance of peace. Effective readiness. Effective readiness now-a-days is in that measure which accomplishes an immediate purpose, and it is to be taken in connection with that new condi- tion of modern war — the opinion of the public. When France suddenly stopped short at Solferino, it was be- cause its preparations and calculations did not go the length of war with Germany; its readiness up to the very point at which it stopped was effective, but no fur- ther. Some months ago, it will be remembered, during one of the many crises in our relations with the American Government, one of the members of a deputation of trades unionists waiting on Lord Palmerston, remarked that were this country to go to war with the United States, civil war would break out among ourselves. This was evidently an unwarrantable assumption on the speaker’s part, but it shows the influence of the educa- tional agencies now at work, more particularly the penny newspapers; working men now venturing to take sides with those whom they imagine to be right. A similar display of working-class sentiment was very generally remarked during the Trent affair. Thus, to speak of ourselves again, and the occasion of a war with France, the course of events would be wafched and influenced by public opinion in a manner that would startle some people. During the long war, and for a considerable period after, freedom of speech and freedom of writing were imperfectly enjoyed, and for that reason the ruling classes had everything pretty much their own way. That time has gone by. An English Government enter- ing into a war with France which the public opinion of the country only sanctioned by a bare class majority, 168 NAVAL POWER. would be in danger of having peace thrust down their throats if the Solferino dash were repeated in the Channel. Some may smile at the apparent simplicity of this conjecture, but they are perhaps not aware that among the more advanced Radicals there is an impression gaining ground that no moderate Parliamentary changes, such as Mr. Bright used to advocate, are likely to be obtained until the country suffers some great humilia- tion by war as in Canada, by rebellion as in India, or by invasion from across the Channel. They refer you to history and affirm that the spirit of Conservatism now abroad is identical with the intolerance that reigned after Waterloo, and that the Reform Bill, the repeal of the Corn-laws, and other minor changes were the fruits of Court humility, if not of terror. Hence the reason- able possibility of even a Solferino truce on English soil. This at least is certain, that were we to become involved in war with France, it would not be such a war as the last, bloody, purposeless, and protracted, but one to which the enlightened public opinion of the time would assign limits. For France, therefore, to attack this country, its preparations need not assume out-of-the- way proportions as when Napoleon I. meditated a descent; if it were only pretty clear that the policy or course of the British Government would be unpopular, and one overwhelming French dash could be made at London or some other part. Take another case. The difficulty, let us say, is between this country and Brazil; a giant is to strike a pigmy. This was a case where an aa ot war was committed by the British Government, and where the readiness to strike was present, but peremptorily restrained by— opinion. Had war been d> tidied the Government must have forfeited the confi- »an<< ot 1 arliament, and their successors would no NAVAL POWER. 169 doubt at once have engaged the good offices of a friendly Power to obtain peace. This is a most suggestive cir- cumstance, and the influence to which it points is strongly confirmatory of what has just been stated. Vast as the warlike preparations of the world are, this is less an age of brute force than one in which there is a strongly marked tendency to redress the excesses of intemperance and ambition by the soberness of expe- diency and common sense. It is an age, besides, in which a wisely governed country will be ready on the instant to let slip from the leashes the bloodhounds of war, but with the mental reservation that really incon- venient sacrifices shall not be made. Organised readiness. Organisation and combination are essentials of readiness. A ready fleet must be perfect in all its parts, and adapted to the varied work which active war requires. In addition to the ordinary classes of fighting ships, adequate provision should exist for conveying orders by despatch-vessels of the highest speed, and for supplying coal and provisions by tender and transport. No inconsiderable share of the success of the Confederate cruisers has been owing to the successful timing of arrivals of coal and ordnance stores in certain latitudes on the high seas, but the credit of suc- cess is mainly due to our own mercantile marine. With ships adapted to all the drudgery of attending on a fleet, this country, of course, has an inexhaustible supply in the mercantile marine, and France has so, too, but necessarily in a less degree. But in this country, where nothing is said to be organised, the Admiralty enter the market for transports, bidding against the Ordnance-office, the War-office, the India-office, and the Emigration-office. Perhaps in a moment of pressure this 170 NAVAL POWER. extraordinary competition of Government departments would not occasion great loss in cash or much waste in time, but manifestly as long as the Admiralty are not possessed of a fleet of transports of their own, some Admiralty department should exist, charged with the merely formal duty of keeping the run of suitable mer- chant vessels for despatch and other purposes, and vested with authority to lay hold of those wanted on terms mutually advantageous to the owners and the public. The absence of organised readiness is, however, a trifling fault by the side of that apology for combina- tion which has recently attracted so much attention — namely, the sailing of the Channel fleet round the coast. In Admiralty annals this cruise is a feat. It is some- thing that was never ventured on before, at least since the construction of ironclad ships. From Portsmouth to Plymouth and back, from Plymouth to Cork and back, or from Portsmouth to Lisbon and back, are the routine rounds of the home ships. No greater peace schooling is allotted to officers and men in the Channel and in the Mediterranean and elsewhere ; and it is well known that commanding officers take their duties as quietly as My Lords in Whitehall. The consequence is that proficiency in the higher duties of man-of-war sea- manship is impossible in the British Navy. There is no rendezvous in mid- Atlantic which all ships must reach on a given day; no parting of the two divisions and making sail in chase in good earnest ; no gun exercise vhen it is blowing great guns; no intricate manoeuvres to illustrate practically the exploded tactics of sailing ships; and none to familiarise officers of all ranks with those inseparable from steam. This is matter for deep i egi et. This is a criminal neglect of proper and peremp- <»i \ duty. This is inviting attack by reason of the NAVAL POWEK. 171 absence of organised readiness in the fleet. It is indubitable proof that, whatever the condition of the navies of other countries in the first essential of naval power, the navy of Great Britain is on a peace footing, and not prepared to surprise an enemy.* Our naval officers are really but apprentices, because the Admiralty * Last session Sir John Hay directed the attention of the House to the present unsatisfactory condition of the promotions and retirements in the navy, so that the existing state of things is most unassuring. Sir John, in the circular emanating from him, said — It is proposed, 1. That a compulsory age retirement be applied impartially to all ranks, with an earlier optional retirement. 2. That the reserved and retired lists be consolidated on an intelligible system, and that the advantages to which an officer became entitled at the time of his retirement be preserved to him. 3. That a longer minimum period of sea service be required in the ranks below that of captain to qualify an officer for promotion to a higher active list. 4. That the system of promotion by selection from the ranks of commander, lieu- tenant, and sub-lieutenant be so far modified that one-third of the promotions in these grades should be given to those officers having the greatest amount of active service at sea, in their respective ranks. 5. That there be a sufficient scale of full, half, and retired pay, to enable officers to serve their country without incurring debt, and to retire with a fair remuneration for their services. 6. That there be such a reduction of the numbers on the active lists as may ensure the efficiency of officers by frequent employment. 7. That the entry of cadets be regulated according to the vacancies which may have occurred during the preceding year on the active list of lieutenants, whether occasioned by promotion, retirement, or death, and to supply the vacancies which may have taken place amongst the junior officers below that rank. 8. That a Naval College be established, with training ships attached, and that no cadets be sent to sea under sixteen years of age. 9. That to reduce the expenses, and to increase the comforts of officers and men, suitable barrack accommodation should be provided, the most important step towards the establishment of a standing navy. 10. That the position of warrant and petty officers be improved, and many of the duties heretofore performed by sub-lieutenants and midshipmen be intrusted to those officers. By this arrangement two great advantages would be obtained. First , — There would not be any occasion to admit into the service more young officers than those for whom promotion could be found. Secondly , — By improving the position and increasing the number of warrant and petty officers, the prizes within reach of the seamen would be increased, and a greater encouragement thereby offered to respectable lads to enter the navy. 172 NAVAL POWER. do not understand in what naval power consists, and officers are debarred from thoroughly mastering their profession. The second real eie- The second real element of naval ment of Naval Power. . Tr , , • Resource. power is resource. If one nation sur- prises another, it may turn out that a merely temporary advantage will be gained, and that the fighting must proceed. The thickest skin will then necessarily hold out longest. As in the prize-ring, the nation that comes to the scratch oftenest and most resolutely will at last win the day. The items of resource could not easily be enumerated, and the effort, if successful, would neither be entertaining nor of use. To a very few only is it necessary to give prominence. Foremost of all the naval resources of a nation is the ability to construct, equip, and fit ships for sea. The ability, the mere ability, be it observed, is the point, because stern war whets the ingenuity of man, and old stock of ships and the fittings of ships may practically cease to be of any use whatever. The other day the writer had the good fortune of travelling across the Channel, and in France, with a distinguished foreign officer, sent by his Government to report on the naval and military condition of the Northern American States — or rather, be it said, of the United States. The officer at the time was on his way home, and his American inquiries had extended as far West as the head-quarters of General Grant’s army. He, while in Boston, before taking passage in the Cunard steamer to Liverpool, was asked to visit a factory in which the most formidable revolving musket he had ever seen was being manufactured for the American army. u What,” hr remarked to the Federal officer, “you are taking me NAVAL POWER. 173 to a manufactory of pianofortes !” No such thing. The proprietors of the pianoforte manufactory, finding no profitable demand for their well-known instruments after the war was fairly entered on, bethought them- selves of at least temporarily going with the times. They removed their pianos, took a contract for the stocks of muskets, and ended with the invention of a weapon which the distinguished foreign officer believes is still unknown in France and England. The new weapon, with which it is intended to arm the whole American forces, is an eight-shot repeater of great simplicity and effectiveness, which can be charged without inadvertence in a moment almost, indifferently in rain or sunshine, and in the dark or daylight. This is but one instance of American ingenuity to which the war has given rise. There are others as notable, but it is needless to proceed with the enumeration. Suffice it to state that up to the point to which the American war has yet been carried it is manifest that the weapons with which war is begun, as well as the material on hand at the outbreak, are all doomed to be cast aside. We are not now living in the infancy of science, but at a time when it has attained a large development. The genius which is continually storing our workshops and factories with improved, because increasingly effective, mechanism, has a com- paratively new and unimproved field before it, when weapons of destruction come seriously to engage atten- tion. Sir William Armstrong, Mr. Whitworth, Mr. Blakely, and others, in the peace that our happy country now enjoys, have neither half the stimulus nor a fraction of the competitors that they assuredly would have were we to become involved in a life and death struggle such as that which now devastates the once peaceful and happy New World home of so many millions of our 174 NAVAL POWER. countrymen. Our pianoforte makers might then also be expected to take to gun-stock contracts and the improve- ment of the Enfield rifle, our engineers to the building of engines of surpassing power and fitness, and our ship- builders to the designing and construction of ships of war so truly formidable as to consign our Warriors and Minotaurs to the company of the harmless wooden tubs in the Medway, the Hamoaze, and Portsmouth Harbour. Resource, therefore, in the sense it is here spoken of, the irenius to invent and the skill to fabricate what is invented, is an element of naval power second only in importance to that other and superior element of naval power which would strike a blow, and possibly a decisive one, before the enemy to be encountered had bethought himself what to do, or rubbed the scales from his doubt- ing eyes. Resource in stores, Resource in stores, docks, and seamen Docks, and Seamen. 7 7 are the only other elements that need be named under the second head, because with mechanical ingenuity and these all other things are in truth minor. All countries are more or less producers of naval stores, not meaning by the term the rosin, pitch, and turpentine of commerce, but naval stores in the largest sense, and it is a question that only extensive inquiry could solve, whether the country producing least, and continuing to produce least, is nevertheless practically as strong as the country producing most. Italy is the least store-pro- ducer of all the Powers. For lack of skilled mechanics and manufacturing establishments, it is obliged to build it* ships of war in France, England, and America; but once all its now constructing ironclads are afloat, there is no reason to suppose that with a moderate supply of s h arc rigging, cordage, sail, and the like, these ironclads NAVAL POWER. 175 might not successfully open a great campaign. Stores to ships of war are, in the main, like suits of clothing in one’s wardrobe, it being impossible to put everything on one’s back at once, and there must indeed be hot work before two suits of ship’s canvas and spare rigging, &c., are worn out, just as there would be something to show for the disappearance of a using and a reserve pair of trousers and the corresponding coats. Essential as stores are, they are, therefore, relatively of small account ; and Italy without roperies, sail-lofts, and other old- fashioned ship-of-war adjuncts may be as powerful as Italy possessing them. Docks are indispensable, but they may be increased unduly, and before there is occa- sion for them. Ships of war do not always want to be in dock, any more than individuals at their hairdresser’s. Ships of war usually require to go into dock to get their bottoms cleaned, with brush or scraper, and when cleaned and coated with Peacock and Buchan’s or some other person’s composition, a dock may not be wanted it may be for a year or more. Still, there are a class of people always dinning us about the number and capacity of the French docks, totally oblivious of the fact that the Great Eastern is likely to have to wait some time for a dock large enough to take her in, and that after one shall have been provided the owners may still be suffi- ciently self-willed to use a gridiron. No one ever cares to think that in this country there are at least a dozen times the number of docks that there are in France equally available for war or peace. And there is this to be said, too, as against France, that whereas the docks of Toulon, Brest, and Cherbourg admit of no enlarge- ment, unless by great labour and expense, our docks — that is, our private docks — in the greater number of cases, may be made as long, as broad and deep as we NAVAL POWER. 176 Avisli, by a simple application of the spade. On the Isle of Do°s, on Southampton Water, and almost anywhere rounder coasts, a few thousands of sturdy convicts would, in a week or two, excavate sufficient dock accom- modation for the navies of the world, while any one of fifty large ironworks were preparing the gates or caissons. Certainly the best appropriation of useless space in our seven dockyards would be the construction of ornamental docks, which would be always ready, and the maintenance of which would furnish the minimum of excuse for staffs of tax-eating office-holders. Seamen are, of course, a great resource. Put them, however, on fast ships like the Alabama , and their peculiar qualities, even in a time of war, will not be often called into requisition. Hereafter, indeed, their part will always be subordinate. But after the ability to con- struct, equip, and fit for sea, on the shortest notice, ships that will surpass all others in speed and power, sailors follow, and while the best seamen will always render the best account, the greatest number will, in the end, be sure to prevail. Seamen, however, are not so much to be judged by numbers or by individual qualities, as by the fact of being free or not free. An inscription list of seamen is not worthy to be counted with half the number who are seamen by choice. Occasionally the inscription list of France may be mentioned to silence an inconvenient statement in the House of Commons ; but trance just now is, and always has been, distrustful ol the seamen’s services that are involuntary. Com- mission after commission has inquired into the subject, and if the truth were told, half the number of French seamen volunteers would at any time, in peace or war, ! ,c £l {l( Uy taken for the aggregate that is returned. Nor is fr eedom alone the sole test to be applied to seamen. NAVAL POWER. 177 A seaman to be really worth his salt must be intelligent. He must be a fellow that, as the saying is, “knows a thing or two.” Among British navy seamen, ignorance may abound; but among French navy seamen, netted in as they are from stagnant and unknown fishing hamlets, there is vivacity without the self-reliance and inde- pendence that springs from the consciousness of being free, and, on shore at least, of enjoying freedom on the same footing and in the same measure as the best born and proudest in the land. What this consciousness and intelligence make the British sailor is only to be judged on the lower deck of a French or Russian ship of Avar. immaterial whence It i s necessarily immaterial Avhence resource is derived. . # J resource is derived. If a fleet have burned their coal, Avhat matters it apart from expense Avhether the coaling takes place in the Tyne or the Tagus, at Portsmouth or Southampton? Coal is Avanted, and when it has been supplied the coaling is completed, and the ships may proceed again to sea. If topmasts and other spars have been carried away in the North Sea, Avhy not as Avell put into Copenhagen as make for Sheerness? Spars are Avanted, and spars are much the same all the Avorld OA^er ; Avith this difference, that the farther you go for them — namely, to Puget Sound — the better they are believed to be. If fresh provisions are required, and the fleet cruising in the North Atlantic, the Western Islands, and not one of the victualling yards, is the place to send to. “No, no!” exclaim the pensioners of the dockyards in all these cases; the Admiralty instructions are to be adhered to. They see no farther than their sordid interests Avill allow. That place and pension may be preserved, the resources of N 178 naval power. the navy must be passed through the dockyard filter and their unworthy hands. The third real eie- The third and last real element of ment of naval power. . j rru • Endurance. naval power is endurance. ibis, per- haps, is the most popular dependence of alL English- men, it is believed, will not only fight better than all others, but they will endure more. In this belief there is a mixture of truth and untruth. Of the latter, be- cause the present generation of English seamen have not been much tried, and because there is no enlightened desire abroad that a large number of them should be trained for ship-of-war service; the very basis of endur- ance in action, whether on sea or land, being perfect familiarity with gunnery and the use of small arms. Those, therefore, who take the superior endurance of British seamen as a matter of course, without caring whether they are trained or no, are merely deluding themselves and others. The British seaman who can only fight with his fists or with a marlinspike, however intelligent or patriotic, would have to yield without enduring anything before the untidy and semi-savage seamen of the Czar. Untrained seamen in action would be no better than untrained soldiers in the field. En- durance, therefore, is a questionable resource. That trained British seamen have not their equals on the ocean in all proper sailor qualities, is not for a moment to be doubted ; but it is an illogical and false generali- sation to step from the qualities of the few and assume them lor the many. A Chinese Mandarin visiting the House of Commons might as reasonably infer from what he saw and heard that all Englishmen are affluent and well educated, while the truth is that very few are rich and many thousands are unlettered. Easy as it NAVAL POWER. 179 would be by inducements of a material kind to train 100,000 British seamen for reserve service in the fleet, until the thing is done we cannot venture to speak of British seamen as a whole able to endure what others would be sure to yield under. The mere endurance of wet clothes, bad or short supplies of food, is something quite different from facing and encountering cutlass cuts and revolvers, and with these all sailors in the service of their country in a time of war might any moment be required to grapple. At close quarters the partially trained inscription French seamen, although not a match for British seamen, would scatter raw British seamen from the mercantile marine in much the same fashion as chaff before a storm. Colonies neither a Colonies, whatever may some time or strength nor weakness. ' J other be made of them, are not at pre- sent a source of strength to any Power, and they can hardly in any case be deemed a weakness. In the event of war this country might seize the colonies of an enemy, but were peace afterwards to depend on the restoration, it is not conceivable that the right of con- quest would now-a-days be insisted on. The spirit of the times is opposed to humiliations, and leans strongly the other way. Therefore it may be said that the posses- sion of colonies will not weaken any Power. England occupying Algeria during a war with France would only too willingly surrender the unprofitable trust, and France occupying the Cape, Van Diemen’s Land, or our Pacific possessions, would no doubt do the same. Colonies are valuable only as lucrative openings for a wandering but enterprising population, and as Frenchmen are not given to wandering, British colonies would be of little use to them : while, on the other hand, England has too 180 NAVAL POWEE. many colonies to be at all covetous of those of France. So the presumption is that m a war colonies, in lespect to weakness, would count for nothing. As a rule they will be left to themselves, and should it not be worth their while to set a stray cruiser or even a strong squadron at defiance, the enemy no doubt will make allowance for their straitened circumstances, or take the benefit of their want of spirit. That colonies in many cases could be made serviceable to the mother country in extremity is true, but it is equally so that there are no end of obstacles in the way. Colonists, whether those of England, France, or Spain, possess and manifest all the impracticability of children, and from indulgent motives of State policy the parent nations spoil them. Take the case of Canada, which is as good as any, although there are many points of difference between it and other colonies, and especially between it and the colonies of France and Spain. Canada, without incon- venience to itself, could long ago have benefited* the mother country to an incalculable extent by embodying 100,000 or 150,000 militia and volunteers. It will, however, do nothing of the kind, although the integrity of the empire might be regularly threatened in a semi-official "*ay from Washington once a week. Why should Canada do such a thing, presents itself in a dozen different forms to the people of the province. One will ask what ( anada has to do with the quarrels of this country. Another will say that Great Britain ought to defend its colonies. A third will say there is no danger. A fourth will say supporting the proposition would be supporting an unworthy Canadian Government. And so on. The consequence is that Canada does nothing, or so very little, that it is entirely useless. Meanwhile die home Government is powerless, and manifestly the NAVAL POWER. 181 part of wisdom under such circumstances is to take matters as easy as the colonists. Should Canada ever he invaded by the armies of the United States, and recovery appear a greater object to us, than the con- tinuance of war would be an evil, all we would have to do would be to allow the war to proceed. Canada might contribute greatly to our material strength, but never will, unless the formation of a single regiment of unemployed enthusiasts is to be considered something. Australia and India might also aid us, but it would be as unsafe to count upon them as for Spain to cry to Cuba, or for France to appeal to Algiers. Probate immunity Q n the whole it is probable that in of Colonies in modem /• war. modern war the colonies of belligerents will not suffer molestation. Even in the case of war between this country and the United States, were we to assume, on the part of the United States, a desire to annex Canada, there are many reasons why the United States to gain its object should conciliate the colonists by magnanimity, rather than estrange them by desolation and barbarity. Coaling stations, and places provided with docks and gridirons, would, however, be keenly fought for, but in such cases belligerents in consulting the interests of the people would only be caring for their own. Practical immunity would, therefore, be enjoyed from the scourge of war even in these likely cases. Modern war seems from necessity to impose this policy of consideration and generosity on belligerents, because its weapons, unlike those of former periods, will be more formidable and decisive by concentration than diffusion. In a war between France and England it admits of demonstration that it would be the height of folly for either Power to waste its energies in the trumpery 182 NAVAL POWER. attacks or trumpery harassings of commerce which were so serviceable in bygone years. France would bring its whole available strength to bear on England, and England would bring its whole available strength to bear on France. A departure from this policy would almost inevitably involve discomfiture and disgrace. Even in a war between England and the United States, it would be rather a nice point for the law officers of the Crown whether the common law of Europe as regards privateers would not be held as applying to American cruisers ; England hoisting privateers to the yard arm. According to the common law of Europe, privateering is and remains abolished. So is piracy. Obviously an affirmative decision is alone required on this point to require the United States to meet concentrated force with concen- trated force. Stop privateering with a high hand, and P ortland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Annapolis will be covered by the whole naval power of the United States. Nay, say not a word about privateering, but transfer the naval strength of England to the shores of the f nited States, and who but a madman would counsel the frittering away of the naval strength of the United States in any form whatever, even in privateering? Thus it seems that colonies at least mil escape. Doubt may rest on the decision of the law officers of the Crown, and on the intelligence of American Secretaries, but on the v hole it is improbable that in a war between France and England the colonies of either would change hands, or be thought of by the belligerents ; and almost equally so in th<* case of a war between England and the United States, it is improbable that Canada would be subjected to inconvenience or a change of masters. NAVAL POWER. 183 Conditions of Priva- jf the conditions of privateering are teering. # x ° calmly considered, various reasons will present themselves to show that the usage is no longer worthy to be counted among the elements of strength or weakness in modern war. Take the case of a war between the United States and England. The New York Chamber of Commerce passes a string of resolutions calling on the President to sweep British commerce from the ocean. Let us assume that the President is foolish enough to listen to the representations addressed to him and to give them effect. New York, Boston, and Phila- delphia may enjoy all the privateering that they wish. What then? American sailing ships engaging in the business would sooner or later be swept from the sea themselves. But there are American steamers. True ; but they are few in number, at least the sea-going portion of them. Let us assume that by an extraordinary effort a hundred sail put to sea, and an extraordinary effort would not succeed in equipping half the number. But the one hundred sail set out well armed and found, and each steamer has coal on board for a week’s full steaming. Where are they to go to first to sweep British commerce from the ocean, and next to avoid British cruisers? Manifestly it will be wise to stay near home. A week’s supply of coal is the full measure of their aggressive power, the full length of their robbing tether. When the coal fails, the steamers must be burned to avoid capture. France dare not, Spain will not, Holland must not, bestow a single sackful. No doubt the Confederate ships of war obtain coal and pursue their depredations; but were the United States as strong just now as England would be in a war with the United States, no Confederate ship of war would obtain enough coal to light a fire with. England, in a 184 NAVAL TOWER. Avar with the United States, or in a war with France, would think of its interests and honour, and of its law hooks only when the others were fully cared for. Who thinks of the Sabbath day when his ox falls into a pit? True, during the Russian Avar Prussia Avas not chastised for its perfidy to the allies, but it Avas because the allies Avere not great sufferers by the disloyalty and wrong- doing Had Prussia rendered half the service to are now completed. The process of hammering armour-plates, as above detailed, is very generally considered to be the only method by which very heavy plates can be made, but there are grave objections to that system of manufacture, the principal of which are, the oft-repeated heating and constant hammering, which render the iron hard and brittle, and by no means suitable for resisting projectiles. None of these objections exist in the rolling of armour-plates, as this mode of manufacture requires only three heats at the utmost, and the pressure of the rolls, though greater 230 THE MILLWALL IRONWORKS. by far than the blow of a steam-hammer, is gradually applied ; besides which the plate leaves the rolls at a good red heat, and, being allowed to cool slowly, will of necessity be rendered as tough as the iron consti- tuting it will allow. The dimensions of this mill are so great as literally to make persons accustomed to the iron manufacture pause in astonishment. The fly-wheel, 36 feet in diameter, weighs upwards of 100 tons ; the rolls are 8 feet long and 30 inches in diameter; and all the wheels, reversing gear, pinions, &c., are proportionately large and strong. The cost of this mill, with engines, boilers, furnaces, &c., will not be less than £100,000. There is still another rolling-mill in this establishment. This is called the “roughing mill,” and is designed to supply the above three mills and the steam-hammers with moulds, tops and bottoms, rough bars, &c., from which are made the armour-plates, boiler-plates, angle iron, &c. The armour-plate mill and the roughing mill are driven by a powerful pair of horizontal engines, and are surmounted by a steam travelling crane for moving machinery, changing rolls, &c. A fifth mill is in contemplation, and plans are being made to erect it with little delay : it will be designed to make plates, bars, beams, solid rolled girders, &c., of the largest sizes, and its erection will widen the limits of the productive power of the company to an unprecedented degree. Attached to this department is a fitting shop, used more particularly for keeping the mills and hammers in an efficient state of repair. ouUkie erfectlon ° f this Such is the imperfect outline of these great works, and the sagacious principles with which their economy is made to square. The great armour mill is capable of turning out 15,000 tons THE MILLWALL IRONWORKS. 231 of armour-plates of any length or thickness in the course of a single year. The plate and angle-bar mills are capable of turning out 20,000 tons of plates and angle- bars annually, for ships, boilers, or bridges. The works cover 22 acres, and, as is well known, are directly opposite Deptford Dockyard, and accessible either by the river steamers of the Waterman Company, or by railway to the West India Dock station from Fenchurch- street. 232 Chapter IX. THE MERSEY STEEL AND IRON WORKS, LIVERPOOL. of^heWorks d * eXtent These works have long occupied a pro- minent place in Liverpool. They were originated about the year 1810 by the late Mr. Ralph Clay, father of Mr. William Clay, the present managing partner of the company, and the late Mr. Roscoe. The original works were removed in 1862, the ground on which they stood being required by the Great Northern and Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Companies in forming their line of railway from Garston to the south end of the Liverpool Docks. The present works are close to the Harrington and the Toxteth Docks, and have direct communication with the railway just mentioned, a branch leading into the works, and com- municating with the various seats of labour, so that every article produced can be readily transported by * These and the remaining works of the same class are merely described, because it would have involved repetition to have treated them in the same manner as the Millwall Works and the Thames Works. Mr. William Clay, the managing director of the Mersey Ironworks, is eminently qualified to discharge the duties of a member of a Navy Council, should one be established on the plan of the India Council. Mr. Clay, Mr. Harrison, and Captain John Ford, as the members of a Navy Council, sanctioning all expenditure for materiel, and issuing all orders that involved expendi- ture for materiel , would soon rescue the navy from its present deplorable condition, and render it perfectly efficient lor the purposes of war with a considerably reduced annual vote. Whether these gentlemen would undertake the task is, however, another matter. ! -VIEW OF THE MERSEY IRONWORKS, LIVERPOOL. THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. 233 railway, or water carriage, to all parts of the kingdom. The ground occupied is an irregular parallelogram, measuring 700 feet in length by 500 feet. It is divided into three unequal portions by two streets, one from west to east, the other from south to north ; but direct and uninterrupted communication is maintained between all parts by means of tunnels. The northern half of the west portion is occupied by puddling fur- naces, plate rolling-mills, forge furnaces, great steam- hammers, and powerful cranes worked by steam. It also contains a large, well-built, and suitable house 200 feet in length by 54 in width, and of proportionate height. In this there is a spacious suite of counting- house apartments and drawing-offices, together with a commodious dining-room, in which the clerks and draw- ing assistants dine regularly. Adjoining these offices, on the north, under the same roof, is an extensive engineering and fitting shop, supplied with apparatus of immense power, of the newest description. The southern portion of the west division is chiefly occupied by large rolling-mills and their furnaces. This division also contains a mill for the rolling of angle-iron of large dimensions. These mills are worked by a steam-engine of 250-horse power. The eastern portion of the pre- mises is devoted to store-houses, refining furnaces and rolls, and a stock yard, in which the multifarious stores of a large establishment are classified and arranged, and where immense piles of iron — amounting occasion- ally to 8,000 or 9,000 tons of scrap, and an equally large stock of pig iron — are contained. It may be added that there are about 1,500 men and 50 horses regularly employed in the different departments, and eleven steam-engines of an aggregate of 2,000-horse power. 234 THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. Puddle steel and It would be foreign to our purpose to Furnaces. # ~ x x enter into any description of the process known in iron manufacture as “puddling,” and we shall not refer to it further than to say that it is the operation by which cast or pig iron is brought into the condition of malleable or wrought iron, which is effected by two processes. The first of these is denominated the “refining” or second fusion of the iron, in the course of which a considerable amount of metallic and other impu- rities are discharged, and the refined iron cast into com- paratively small cakes. Another process, which originated in Germany, has been greatly improved by the Mersey Steel and Iron Company. This is the peculiar metallic manufacture of what is called “puddle steel,” which is found to possess all the properties of common steel, although produced at considerably less cost. From the improvements introduced into this manufacture, large quantities of excellent quality are produced. Besides the puddling furnaces, which are arranged in avenues resembling streets, there are also in their immediate vicinity several furnaces specially adapted to the heating, welding, and working up of scrap iron ; and in all, the processes of manufacture are carried on day and night, ceasing only on Saturday afternoon, to be resumed on Monday morning. By this continuity of operation, the adoption of the most improved methods of working, and the employment of the best and most efficient machinery, the Mersey Steel and Iron Works are capable of turning out 600 tons of malleable iron and puddle steel weekly. chine™ aces aud Ma " Immediately to the north of the puddling furnaces are numerous large furnaces adapted to the heating of the metal preparatory THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. 235 to its being passed through the plate-rolling mills, which in this division of the works are driven by a steam- engine of 250-horse power. The motion of the fly- wheel connected with this engine is somewhat startling. The wheel is 35 feet in diameter, and weighs 60 tons ; and while at work it makes thirty-eight revolutions in the minute. The rolling-mills are suited to the produc- tion of plates up to 2 inches thick by 5 feet 6 inches wide, and the rolls to the drawing of rod or bar iron. Connected with the same motive machinery, and con- tiguous to the rolling-mills, is a trimming instrument, or cutting shears, sufficiently large and powerful for paring and trimming iron plates of large dimensions; besides other apparatus. The Forge Depart- The S p a ce to the north immediately ment. r # J adjoining these heating furnaces and rolling-mills, containing an area of not less than 42,140 square feet, but completely roofed in, is appropriated to the operations of the forge department. This large working space is completely filled, but not crowded, with steam-hammers, some of which are of great power, welding furnaces of extraordinary capacity, and power- ful steam-cranes, by which immense forgings are lifted and swayed about with an alacrity and precision that might well be considered wonderful, even with comparatively small work, but which, applied to the enormous masses brought under the forge steam-ham- mers, is really marvellous. What adds to the astonish- ment of the spectator is the regularity and self-possession with which the forgemen pursue their labour. To the International Exhibition the company contributed between 150 and 200 tons of forgings, including some of the largest cast-iron fabrics ever made. Among 236 THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. these were two crank-shafts for marine engines. One was exhibited in the finished state by Messrs. Penn and Son of London, for whom it was forged ; the other by the Mersey Steel and Iron Company, in the rough — that is, just as it left the hammer. This last was 30 feet in length by 20 inches in diameter, and had two crank- blanks. Each of these blanks measured 5 feet on the shaft, and was 4 feet 4 inches in depth. The distance from centre to centre of the crank-blanks was 10 feet ; the blanks to be so cut out as to give a 4 feet 4 inch stroke. The weight of the forging was fully 25 tons, and the whole was completed in between five and six weeks. These immense shafts were forged respectively for H.M.S. Northumberland or Minotaur , and the steam- ram Achilles , the engines of each of which are of 1,350 and 1,250 horse power respectively. Another great forging of the firm is the stern-post of the armour-plated steam war-ship Agincourt , now building by Messrs. Laird Brothers, Birkenhead. This is 42 feet in length, and, with its sole and shaft-boss, weighs 40 tons. ma^acturV^ 11 Cann ° a So long ago as the year 1845 the attention of the Mersey Steel and Iron Company had been directed to the construction of wrought-iron guns, forged in such a manner as to be perfectly homogeneous in texture all through the struc- ture, and in that year they forged, in every respect suc- cessfully, a large gun for the United States steam frigate Princeton. This gun was 13 feet in length from breech to muzzle ; and previous to being turned and bored, it weighed 11 tons 3cwt. 2qr. 111b. The length of the bore was 12 feet by a diameter of 12 inches. The boring and turning revealed neither flaw nor fault in the texture of the srun, and when finished it weighed THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. 237 7 tons 17cwt. lqr. ; proving capable of throwing a spherical shot of 2191b. This gun is still in existence, and in perfectly good order. In 1856, in answer to the allegation that malleable iron ordnance of large calibre could not possibly be made, the company forged, finished, and presented to the nation their world- renowned “Monster Horsfall Gun.” This, as is well known, is of the following dimensions : — Length from breech to muzzle, 16 feet; length of bore, 13 feet, by a diameter of 13 inches. The finished weight of this enormous piece of ordnance is 24 tons 3cwt. 2qr. 211b.; when the forging was completed, and before the gun was turned or bored, it weighed 28 tons lcwt. 3qr. 211b. In this, as in the previous instance, the processes of boring and turning showed that the forging was perfect and the metal thoroughly sound and tenacious ; further proof of this being furnished by the repeated tests to which the gun was put by the Board of Ordnance, all of which it passed with the most unimpeachable success. Again, in 1861, the company forged another immense gun, which was exhibited at the Exhibition in the following year, under the name of the “ Prince Alfred Gun.” This gun is 12 feet 6 inches in length from breech to muzzle, has a bore of 10 feet 6 inches long by 10 inches in diameter, and in its finished state weighs 10 tons 15cwt. 2qr. 141b., but as it was taken from the forge, before it was turned or bored, it weighed 13 tons lOcwt. Like the others, the u Prince Alfred Gun ” also passed successfully through all the initiatory and other ordeals which ordnance of the highest quality and character are presumed to undergo. In addition to the guns named, large numbers of wrought-iron field and siege guns of various dimen- sions have been most successfully manufactured in the works. 238 THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. The Forge appliances. Let us now turn to the mechanical appliances of the forge. The furnace is 17 feet, or, including the furnace-neck, 24 feet in length by 8 feet wide, and is furnished with a draught flue 56 feet in height. The crane is 24 feet in height above the ground, but as it is sunk 12 feet in the solid rock, the entire height of the upright shaft is 36 feet. This crane is a double rect- angular tubular one, constructed entirely of plate iron rolled in the works — each entire side of the crane- formed tube being of one plate, a marvel both for form and magnitude. On the upper side of the hori- zontal arm there are two travelling carriages for the purpose of giving a backward or forward motion to the mass of metal held in suspension. The crane has also a rotatory motion of the whole fabric, for swinging its head round between the hammer and the forge, and a winding-up motion for lifting the mass to be submitted to the action of the hammer. By the combination of these three perfectly distinct and independent motions, which, however, can all be applied simultaneously, the largest masses can be lifted, poised, or laid down at any point with the nicest accuracy. The whole weight of the crane is upwards of 50 tons, and it is capable of lifting a mass weighing 120 tons. stupendous Hammer. The next object of interest is a stupendous hammer, by which masses of iron are fashioned as easily as in most cases a piece weighing not more than pounds for tons is manipulated. A glance will show that it is a complicated as well as a powerful implement. The width between its upright supports is 14 feet 6 inches; the weight of the piston and hammer is fully 8 tons, and when employed working it has a fall of nearly 7 feet. The piston and THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. 239 projection rod, which are in reality one, is 15 inches in diameter by 7 feet 6 inches in length, made and forged at the works. The anvil-block of the hammer, which is deeply bedded in the solid rock, is 9 feet square on the base, and weighs 32 tons 15cwt. The height of the hammer and its frame is 23 feet, and the absolute weight of metal in the apparatus, including bed- plates, framing, and anvil-block, is fully 70 tons. As may readily be supposed, the full power of such an implement is very great. The monster hammer of the works is of the following dimensions: — The width between the up- right supporting columns is 25 feet. The weight of piston and hammer, a solid mass of iron, is 15 tons; and the piston and projection rod is 20 inches in diameter by 15 feet 2 inches in length. When in operation this enormous striking mass has a fall of about 9 feet, imparting a blow of almost incalculable force, which causes the solid rock in which the machine is securely fixed to vibrate and tremble as if shaken by an earthquake. The anvil-block of this ponderous and powerful implement, is 10J feet square on the base, 6^ feet in height, and weighs 62 tons, — probably one of the largest masses of cast iron in the world. The total weight of this huge instrument of power, including bed-plates, framing, and anvil-block, is 130 tons; and so admirably adjusted are all the parts of the implement and its appa- ratus, that, while it can be made to give a blow of in- conceivably destructive force, it can also be made to strike as gently as the tapping of a lady’s fan. Like the one previously described, this immense hammer is also supplied with a heating furnace of proportionate size and heating power, with two cranes of like character, so arranged with relation to each other, and to the large furnace and hammer, that their action and power can be 240 THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. combined. Besides these two steam-hammers, the forge department contains other seven. Of these, two have hammers weighing 6 tons each ; one weighing 5 tons ; one 3 tons 10 cwt. ; one 3 tons ; one 2 tons 10 cwt. ; one 1 ton 10 cwt. ; and in the smithy attached to the forge department there is yet another of still smaller dimen- sions. Ship 6 Engineering Immediately adjoining -the forge department — indeed, it may be said, forming a complementary part of the forges — is an extensive and fully equipped fitting or engineering shop. This forms a parallelogram, the area of which is 200 feet by 54 feet, with great height of walls. The whole of the lower or ground floor of this spacious apartment is devoted to the trimming, planing, boring, or turning of the gigantic forgings which are produced in the establishment, so that all the work contracted for by the company may be satisfactorily completed. As an instrument of application in the way of lifting and carrying, common to all the work brought into this branch of the establishment, is a high-level railway, supported on lofty pillars, running from end to end of the shop. On this railway a self-acting travelling crane is placed, of large size, and capable of carrying 30 tons weight. This crane is worked by a band, and is so easy of management that a boy can move it with its load with perfect ease and in any direction. The central portion of the floor of this large and commodious work- shop is 9 ccupied by a gigantic planing-machine, which is nearly 12 feet wide, and is 40 feet long in the travel- ling table. Besides being capable of planing a surface of this size, the table is furnished with an ingeniously- contrived means of regulating the apparatus so that •VIEW OF THE MERSEY IRONWORKS, LIVERPOOL. THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. 241 forgings of any species or degree of curvature may be planed and trimmed with the nicest accuracy. In this way the stern, 18 tons in weight, of the armour-plated war-ship Agincourt was planed after it had been bent ; and the different grooves and rebates necessary for receiving the armour-plates and other necessary portions of the ponderous fabric were cut out and adjusted with the most perfect success and accuracy. The south- eastern portion of the shop is devoted to the working accommodation of two immense turning-lathes. One of these is 6 feet 3 inches high in its centre point, thus giving the means of turning a mass 12 feet 6 inches in diameter ; the other 5 feet 3 inches high in its centre point. These two gigantic lathes are furnished with moveable rests, which can be shifted so far from the head, or fastening disc, as to take in a shaft 65 feet in length ; and it is no unusual thing to see one or other of these lathes giving rotatory motion to a 2 5 -ton crank- shaft, or one of the ponderous guns for the manufacture of which the Mersey Steel and Iron Works have gained a world- wide and well-deserved reputation. The south- western, or opposite portion of the shop, is occupied by lathes of smaller dimensions and less power than the two just mentioned, but still of such magnitude as to entitle them, even there, to the appellation of very large, while in most other establishments they would merit the title of gigantic. Immediately to the north of the vast planing-machine is one of recent contrivance, adapted to the trimming and cutting of armour-plates. This powerful implement of labour is capable of taking in armour-plates 20 feet in length by 4 feet in width, of any thickness, cutting and grooving the edges, which it trims and fits with accuracy. R 242 THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. The Rolling and About one-third of this large shop, Armour-plate Mills. . 0 x at its north end, is covered by a floor at about 20 feet above the ground. This upper floor is liberally supplied with the lathes, drills, slotting- machines, and other implements of an extensive and well-furnished engineering establishment. The next division of these important works is the south-western portion. It is 200 feet in length from north to south, by 295 feet in width from west to east, divided exte- riorly from the other part of the works by Egerton- street, but immediately connected with the works by a tunnel under the street. This section is chiefly taken up with rolling-mills of different capacities, suited to the production of widely different classes of work. Conspi- cuous among these is the powerful mill for rolling armour-plates intended for ironclad war-ships, and also for casing some of the more important of our coast defence fortresses. The productive power of this mill is astonishing : it will manufacture armour-plates from 20 to 40 feet long, 7 feet 6 inches wide, and of any thick- ness that may be wanted. Of these enormous plates it can produce four each day, or twenty -four in a week. The mill consists of numerous huge but well-arranged portions, the motions and magnitude of which convey a very lasting impression to the mind of the spectator. The apparatus is supported on a framework composed of massive ironwork bedded deeply in the solid rock, and securely fastened to a well-constructed foundation framing of oak beams, which measure 24 inches by 22 inches on the sides. These are of the best Quebec oak, about 40 feet long, in two lengths, the joints well scarfed and bolted ; the ends lever-jointed and granted into the carefully excavated rock ; and the breadth of this wooden frame is 11 feet. On these immense THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. 243 oaken beams the cast-iron bed-plate is firmly bolted. It is 36 feet in length by 9 feet in width, and 6 inches thick, weighing 35 tons. Very heavy and thick uprights are securely fastened to this bed-plate, at conveniently arranged distances for supporting the different portions of the moving machinery. The fly-wheel is 25 feet in diameter, 15 inches broad on the rim-face, and weighs between 50 and 60 tons. Working on the same shaft with the fly-wheel is the driving- wheel, 3 feet 6 inches in diameter, revolving, of course, at the same rate' as the fly-wheel. This works into two cog-wheels, each 8 feet in diameter, 18 inches broad on the face, and weighing 10 tons. These again work on their respective shafts another such cog-wheel, 12 feet in diameter, 18 inches broad on the face, and weighing 12 tons ; the latter being supplied with reversing crabs, and working in sills weighing 7 tons each. The shafts to which these are affixed are 20 feet in length, and between them they weigh 13 tons. Attached to these shafts, by means of pinions and spindles, which weigh 5 tons and work in housings of 7 tons weight each, are the rolls. There are two immense cylinders, 8 feet long in the barrel, with a diameter of 2 feet 6 inches ; the pair weighing not less than 22 tons. They work in housings 1 1 feet high, 7 feet 6 inches broad, and weighing 11 tons each. The preceding constitute a few of the leading details connected with this stupendous working tool, which contains in all a weight of metal exceeding 300 tons! Yet all so perfectly arranged and well con- trived as to work with the greatest steadiness and the most perfect regularity. The Heating Fur- Immediately behind this massive con- naee. # •> # geries of machinery is built the heating r 2 244 THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. furnace. This is a low building of large area connected with two flues, with a length of between 50 and GO feet to secure a strong and perfect draught. The furnace front is 20 feet long, and its interior area measures 14 feet by 9 feet on the floor. From the furnace door a railway is laid on a slight inclination towards the rolls, and on this railway a carriage of the strongest and most powerful construction travels upon low wheels, carrying the enormous masses of iron, heated to the most dazzling white heat, down to the rolls through which its fiery burden is to be passed, and by which it is to be fashioned into the ponderous casing-plates which constitute the protection of our ironclads against the crashing power of hostile artillery. On the opposite side of the rolls, and exactly vis-a-vis to the carriage spoken of, is another of similar dimensions and formation to receive the extruded mass and pass it back again, so that it may be submitted to the requisite amount of pressure which shall ensure to it perfect solidity and thorough homogeneousness of texture. When this has been accomplished, the large plate is removed to a convenient spot for cooling, after which it is conveyed into the store pile, while the imple- ments of its manufacture are again put through their respective rounds of action, to produce a similar tangible and ponderous result. After these massive plates have been thoroughly cooled, they are conveyed to the fitting- shop, where, by means of the cutting and trimming machine to which allusion has been already made, they are trimmed and fitted to the exact form and dimen- sions they are intended to assume. Besides the pon- derous rolling-mill, the division of the Mersey Steel and Iron Works now under consideration is fitted with a vast rolling-mill for the purpose of rolling bar, rod, and angle iron of large dimensions; and THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. 245 to the south-east of the armour-plate rolls there is a set of rolls for drawing smaller work. As to the general efficiency and excellence of the armour-plates produced at this establishment, it may be sufficient to state that several of the sample-plates have been sub- jected to the severest tests, and have come through the ordeal in such a manner as to elicit high commendation from the judges appointed by the Lords of the Admi- ralty. It may also be worth while to state that at the Great International Exhibition of 1862 they exhibited among their other forgings one of the largest marine battery plates ever forged, and much beyond the size of those ordinarily forged. They also exhibited the first battery iron-plate * target which ever was fired at, and which was broken by a shot from the stupendous wrought-iron gun which they piade and presented to Government ; and along with the target they also exhibited the shot that broke it. pioyed Pl ° yer and em ~ Having thus cursorily glanced at the machinery and what may be called dead plant of this establishment, with a view to estimate its great power and admirable adaptation to the production of the largest and highest class work connected with iron manufacture, it might appear that our descriptive task was accomplished, but this could scarcely be done with- out pointing out the important fact that the company is in all respects on the best terms with its large and intel- ligent staff of employes and numerous workmen. Among these, embracing, as it necessarily does, men of all ranks and of very varying degrees of intellect and talent, the benevolent management of the company has been con- spicuously shown in its establishment of, and the fostering care it has bestowed on a sick and burial society connected 246 THE MERSEY IRONWORKS. with the works, managed entirely by the workmen. This society holds periodical meetings, the annual one being generally presided over by the managing partner of the firm, and concluded by one of those genial fes- tivities in which all classes of Englishmen delight to mingle. The company have also established and main- tain a well-appointed and efficient reading-room for the use of the workmen. 247 Chapter X. THE ATLAS WORKS, SHEFFIELD. Origin and pr ° gr es s Less than ten years ago Mr. Brown was the occupier of premises in Furnival- street, of very moderate dimensions, noticeable only for the activity of their operations and the fact that they were the works of a young man who had risen from the humblest position, and owed his success entirely to his own energy and enterprise. On the failure of Messrs. Armitage, Frankish, and Barker, Mr. Brown became the purchaser of their newly erected works, adjoining the Midland Railway in Saville-street East. The old name, “Atlas Works,” was transferred to the new premises. The site comprised nearly 3<| acres — the present area of the works south of the railway — and though probably less than half that area was covered with buildings, the removal to premises of such magnitude was deemed by many as a bold step. The works, however, speedily proved too limited for the expanding trade of the new proprietor. On New Year’s Day, 1858, Mr. Brown started a newly erected rolling-mill, 63 feet square, on the west side of the works, giving a dinner to 400 of his workmen. This, though not the first extension, was the most notable that had yet been made. It was to increase the facilities for carrying on the branches of manufac- tures already in operation, not to introduce new ones. At this period Sheffield manufacturers, even of springs and 248 THE ATLAS WORKS. other railway material, received their supplies of iron from remote places in a partially manufactured state. None of them purchased it in the pig and manufactured it for themselves; and even such of the processes as were per- formed in Sheffield were done so at different places; The iron was tilted at one place, forged at another, and so on, reaching the manufacturers in the state ready for the ultimate processes for which it was required, after going through half a dozen distinct and sometimes distant works of different manufacturers. The disad- vantage of this state of things was twofold: Sheffield manufacturers were paying men at a distance for smelt- ing from the pig an article of which they were using immense quantities; and after the iron did reach Sheffield, it was transported at great expense from one place to another to undergo the necessary preliminary processes. This state of things was not longer to continue. Mr. Brown had no sooner got his large rolhng-mill into operation than he embarked in an enterprise which resulted in the introduction of a new and extensive branch of manufacture in Sheffield, and the concentration within single manufactories of the various processes of iron manufacture. In April, 1858, Mr. Brown completed the erection of six puddling furnaces, with ball and other furnaces, Nasmyth hammers, and all the appliances for the manufacture of iron from the pig, and its conversion into the different qualities of steel for the multifarious purposes for which it was required. Mr. Brown had now also filled with extensive railway spring and buffer shops, smiths’ shops, casting shops, rolling-mills, furnaces, forges, &c., the whole of the 3| acres of land south of the Midland Railway. His works were among the largest in the town, and exten- sive enough for the enterprise of any ordinary man. THE ATLAS WORKS. 249 He, however, was surrounded by competitors of rare tact and capacity, and of enterprise equal to his own, and emulating their great successes, his ardent nature disdained the limits of even such ample proportions as the Atlas Works could then boast. Immediately after the French successes in armour-plated ships were forced on the serious attention of the Government and people of this country, Mr. Brown entered with his accustomed earnestness into the new branch of manufacture which the science of war had created. Having taken upwards of 10 acres of land between Carlisle-street East and the Midland Railway, immediately opposite his existing works, Mr. Brown traced out, on Whit-Monday, 1859, the foundations of an extensive mill for the manufacture of armour-plates. ‘ Forged armour-plates were first tried, but the experiments undertaken by Government de- monstrated the necessity of some process by which greater tenacity and power of resistance could be obtained; and about the 20th of March, 1861, Messrs. Brown and Co. (for Messrs. Bragge and Ellis had mean- while entered the concern as partners) commenced with encouraging success the rolling of armour-plates. Great obstacles had to be encountered in a branch of manu- facture so entirely new, but Messrs. Brown and Co. have succeeded in overcoming all. Shlp 6 &? d Planing The “ Old Planing Shop” is a room 56 by 96 feet in extent, abutting north on Carlisle-street East, and west on the works of Mr. Bessemer. When the manufacture of armour-plates was undertaken at the Atlas Works, this capacious shop, now regarded as a very small and insignificant part of the premises, was fitted for the planing and “ slotting” of armour-plates. In consequence of the erection of a new 250 THE ATLAS WORKS. and much larger planing room near the east ern end of the new works, that shop is now partly filled with machinery for rolling railway rails, and kindred purposes. Flank- ing the shop on the south are ten large converting fur- naces, each capable of making thirty -five tons of steel at a time. Beyond these are mills fitted with the most approved machinery for rolling steel plates and steel for railway and other springs. Adjoining the mills is a tilt for hammering steel for tools, chisels, and other pur- poses for which rolled steel is not fitted. Huge hammer heads and faces are fastened on the ends of rough beams of wood fixed in a horizontal position. The beams are worked by machinery with such rapidity that when in full operation the lesser of the tilts delivers 300 strokes per minute, the larger ones striking from 100 to 150 times per minute. A spring fitting shop, 80 feet by 62 feet, occupies the space between the tilt and the rail- way, completing the division of the works between the broad tramway running straight across from the Carlisle- street entrance to the railway. Crossing this tram- way, the visitor reaches a lofty mill fitted with two immense caldrons for making cast steel, on Mr. Bes- semer’s interesting process. Steel thus cast is used for axles, railway rails and tires, piston-rods, guns, and a great variety of other purposes. Beside the mill are the beautiful engines that supply the draught of air blown through the molten steel in the caldrons — an opera- tion peculiar to the Bessemer process. Immediately the visitor passes round the front of this engine-house, to the right there is the “ Old Armour Plate Mill,” 360 feet long, roofed by two spans each 75 feet wide. This mill, which, except a portion of the south side, recently built as a puddling forge, for making cast into malleable iron, was the first part of the new THE ATLAS WORKS. 251 works erected, occupies the centre of the premises north of the railway, extending from the railway about two-thirds of the distance to Carlisle -street East. As the eye of the visitor wanders curiously over its ample dimensions, there is seen, in apparent confusion, but really in the most admirable order, sets of armour-plate rollers, domineered over by tall, strange-looking curved cranes, which ever and anon snatch the seething, newly-rolled armour-plates from the mill floor and swing them upon trucks for removal to the planing-room ; Naylor and other steam-hammers, six tons in weight, and capable of striking with a force of sixty tons ; and tilts with levia- than heads and enormous fly-wheels revolving at almost lightning speed. Surrounding each set of rolls, each hammer and each tilt, are capacious furnaces, glaring with eyeballs of fire upon the visitor, as they heat the armour-plates or the cast-steel guns, shafts, and piston- rods, for rolling or forging, as the case may be ; or as, in the new portion of the mill, they smelt the pig iron into a glowing fuming liquid, into which the puddler from time to time thrusts his huge tongs, and having by dint of turning them round and round succeeded in rolling together, like a snowball, a rough mass of molten metal, hurries with it to the hammer, where it is beaten into blooms (squares) or slabs, throwing out in this process of “ shingling,” as it is called, showers of red fragments. Interspersed with rollers and hammers, tilts and fur- naces, are machines for cutting into shape the slabs of which armour-plates are constructed, and a variety of other appliances required in carrying out the diver- isified processes which are continually going on night and day. The numerous chimneys and brick domes surmounting the furnaces form a feature in the aspect of the mill, which, amid the clang of wheels, the dull rever- 252 THE ATLAS WORKS. berations of hammers, the hissing of furnaces, the screech- ing of steam pipes, and the clatter of tongs and other implements in the hands of the groups of swarthy workmen scattered over the place, present a scene of activity and of the operation of the vast forces of nature evoked, and directed by man’s intelligence in aid of the purposes and necessities of civilisation. ^ The New Rolling- Passing out of the old rolling-mill at the east end we reach the new rolling- mill, which is 250 feet in length and 150 feet in width. In the centre of the room is the engine-house, containing two engines of the nominal power together of 300 horses, but really of far greater power. Project- ing from the engine-house are the enormous fly, cog, and other wheels by which the machinery is driven. Two sets of rolls, 32 inches in diameter and 8 feet long, are erected across the centre of the mill, from the driving machinery to the north side. The two rollers of each set are, of course, fixed one over the other, the armour-plates being crushed between them in the process of rolling. Huge as are the rolls, they have to be so fixed that, while giving a power of compression limited only by the strength of the iron framework in which they are set, they can be easily and instantly drawn close together, as the plate becomes thinner and thinner with each rolling. This object is accomplished by means of ponderous balances, raised or lowered at will by the turning of a large screw at each end of the wheel. There are two enormous furnaces on one side of the rolls, and one on the other, at the distance of about 60 feet, and it is in these furnaces that the iron plates are heated preparatory to being rolled. The floor of the mill is flagged with square iron plates, THE ATLAS WORKS. 253 and declines considerably from the furnaces to the rolls. The plates are conveyed from the furnaces to the rolls on long iron trucks or lurries. The wheels of the lurrie run in grooves from the furnaces to the rolls, for the purpose of securing accuracy in depositing the plates in the rolls. The new mill is at present far less thickly studded with machinery than the old mill. Indeed, the part of it which is to be used as a rail mill is not yet fitted up. It is, however, a lofty, noble-looking room ; and, profiting by their experience in the old mill, Messrs. Brown and Co. have so constructed it as greatly to facilitate operations. The Planing and Beyond the new mill is the new Slotting Shop, &c. / . planing and slotting shop, 220 feet by 75 feet in size, containing eight planing-machines, and five single and one double slotting-machines. These machines are of the most improved construction, and by the simplest arrangement can be made not only to plane the plates into squares with perfectly even surfaces, but also to plane the edges into as equally perfect a semicircle, and also plane one end of the plate thinner than the other, graduating the thinning with perfect evenness and accuracy from end to end — these latter processes being necessary to fit the plates to the curving and sloping sides of the ships. Preparations are being made for occupying the space of ground from the new planing-shop to Hallcarr-lane, which forms the eastern boundary of the works, with a. new hammer shop, and a converting foundry for casting iron generally. A broad road runs along the side of the mills and shops from the old planing-shop at the western to the new planing-shop at the eastern extremity. The space between this broad road and Carlisle-street East is occupied with buildings 254 THE ATLAS WORKS. in course of being fitted for refining iron, and with joiners shops, yard for storing pig iron, fitting, repair- ing, and casting shops — all repairs of machinery, &c., being done on the premises, where also some of the machinery is made. A tramway with iron rails has been laid down on the road close to the mills, as also across the works at several points, for facility in moving armour-plates and material generally from one depart- ment to another, and from the planing-shops to the rail- way. A moveable steam-crane plies on these tramways, facilitating to a marvellous extent the loading and unloading, and other operations. Vast as is the extent of the works, every department is fitted up with machinery to almost a lavish extent. Much of the machinery is of the most massive character ; the more valuable parts having been obtained from the very best makers in the country, including Sir William Fair- bairn, and other celebrated engineers and manufac- turers. From end to end of the premises, the works are firmly and substantially built, and the number of men employed is not less than 2,500. There are also 45 engines, some of them 150-horse power each, on the premises, 60 puddling furnaces of the largest capacity, and a still greater number of convert- ing, heating, and other furnaces. The weight of material turned out per week cannot readily be ascertained with any approach to accuracy. Some idea of its enormous extent may, however, be formed from the fact that the weekly consumption of coal exceeds 2,000 tons, and that the outgoings are over £1,000 a day. overtook the Admiralty What the Admiralty overlook in pro- posing to establish such works as those of Messrs. John Brown and Co., is the fact that the THE ATLAS WORKS. 255 Atlas Ironworks are not the creation of a day, but of a life. True, the great extensions of the Atlas Ironworks are of yesterday, but Mr. Brown nevertheless perceived their utility, and the mode of judicious management, before the ground was purchased, much less built on. He and his partners, by a long course of business training, knew exactly what would answer. The Admiralty, on the other hand, know and see nothing but the great results of the Atlas and other works, and those results they envy. They see what Messrs. John Brown and Co. can do, and they determine on doing likewise. They count as nothing the experience, tact, liberality, power of combination, supervision, direction, and we do not know what besides, which together form the great conditions of Messrs. John Brown and Co.’s success. When the firm entertained their noble visitors the other day, who were always present to Mr. Brown’s mind? Not the visitors, nor his partners in business, but “his brave workmen.” Mr. Brown was constant in his admiration of the “brave workmen,” who had heated 20 tons of iron, dragged it from the furnace, and passed it in an instant through the rolls into an armour-plate 40 feet in length, 4 feet in width, and 4^ inches in thickness. The like had not been done before, not in England only, but in the world. Twenty tons of iron in a white heat were for the first time seen, faced, and handled as quickly as seen, and what has been once done can be done again. With his “brave workmen” Mr. Brown can roll plates such as no ships afloat can carry comfortably, and such as no artillery yet known to science can penetrate. 256 Chapter XI. THE PARKGATE IRONWORKS, YORKSHIRE. Origin and progress The Parkgate Ironworks are situated of the works. 0 . t near Rotherham, m the W est Riding of Yorkshire, on the borders of Derbyshire. In 1839 these works were erected for the manufacture of bar and sheet iron, and the first considerable extension dates from 1845, the great year of railways. During that year a rolling-mill was added to the works, capable of producing 2,000 tons of rails monthly; and it may be remarked that the rails turned out by this mill are hammered before rolling. At a later period, when iron ships and iron bridges became popular, the proprietors, Messrs. Samuel Beale and Co., were induced, by the demand for large and heavy plates, to lay down a plate mill of the largest description that had then been erected, and at this mill all the plates of the Great Eastern were rolled, including those of the stern. Again, in 1856, during the war with Russia, when the Government ordered several floating batteries to be built and covered with 4^-inch plates, Messrs. Beale and Co. were applied to by Messrs. Palmer Brothers, the eminent shipbuilders on the Tyne, to know whether plates 4^ inches thick, and weighing about 3 tons each, could be rolled, as up to that time there had been no such heavy plates THE PARKGATE IRONWORKS. 257 rolled. Messrs. Beale undertook tlie work, and after many experiments and great outlay succeeded in pro- ducing armour-plates up to six tons weight each plate. For nearly five years Messrs. Beale and Co., being the only manufacturers of rolled armour-plates, had to contend single-handed in support of rolled, against hammered plates, and at the comparative trials at Woolwich and Portsmouth it has been proved to demonstration that on the whole rolled armour-plates are to be preferred. Contemporaneously with the expansion of the Parkgate Rolling-mills, large planing and slotting machines for the purpose of finishing the armour-plates had to be procured ; and recently, when the Admiralty considered it advisable to have the armour-plates bent while hot, machines for the purpose of bending them have been erected, and plates can now be bent as they come from the rolls to any desired curve. Plates so bent have, as a matter of course, stood the tests much better than plates bent cold. Extent and facilities. The works cover a large area, and possess the facilities of canal and railway, and adjacent mines. Coal, the consumption of which is something enormous in all ironworks, may be said to exist within the Parkgate Works, and therefore has the advantage of being near the mills and furnaces. This is of great importance, although its value cannot very well be estimated. For instance, in the case of compara- tively remote works, there is a great relative outlay under the head of the carriage of the finished products to market, whether the latter outlay is supposed to come out of the pocket of the seller or the buyer. But inasmuch as the bulk of the finished iron product is less than the bulk of the coal necessary to produce it, s 258 THE PARKGATE IRONWORKS. it follows that, other things being equal, it is more profitable to establish ironworks beside the coal than beside the market in which the finished iron product is required. The advantage, however, may or may not be enjoyed by the buyer just as the seller is or is not required to yield it. Passing by this consideration, let us now direct attention to the com- pleteness of the Parkgate Works, as well as to the care with which the productiveness of labour is kept in view throughout. We enter the works by the coal tramway. On the right is the foundry, and on the left the fitting shop. The railway passes the foundry, enabling it to supply pig iron and coal. The wants of the foundry attended to, the railway, which up to that point is a single line, branches off in four directions for the supply of the blast and puddling furnaces. This arrangement is ad- mirable, as from this point the coal is taken direct to the various furnaces, which are thus kept blazing to their full capacity, no time wasted, and no superfluous un- assisted labour being employed. Immediately in the rear of the second line of puddling furnaces, a steam-hammer in the centre of an open space is flanked by engine-houses with engines driving slabbing rolls, puddle-bar rolls, tilt-hammer, &c. Outside this machinery, and extending backwards to the coal railway, all the necessary conveniences of a great establishment are grouped, — smiths’ shops, warehouses, pattern lofts, fitting shops, sawpits, carpenters’ shops, &c., — that the sometimes trying race of commer- cial competition may be run by the Parkgate Ironworks with the least possible dead weight. Such is the imper- fect outline of one of the important branches of the Parkgate Works. Crossing a turnpike-road, this exten- sive range of buildings is the rolling-mill establishment, THE PARKGATE IRONWORKS. 259 and round it is a line of railway with double branches to two powerful cranes, and a branch to the pig iron yard, while the main line extends to the armour-plate shop, the latter a new outlying extension of the works to the left. Facing the turnpike there is a line of furnaces; and, forming two more sides of a square, additional lines of furnaces extend to the right and left. In the hollow of these three sides of a square is the engine-house, from which No. 1 and No. 2 rolling-mills are driven. Shears, cranes, and the other conveniences of an armour-plate mill abound, and the armour-plate capacity of both mills must be very great. Altogether this branch of the establishment is as complete as the first. All that capital, enterprise, and intelligence could do has been accomplished, so that the Parkgate Ironworks may produce as cheaply, if not cheaper than their rivals. There is a third department of the Parkgate Works — the rail mill department, round which a line of railway runs with convenient sidings. But of this it is unneces- sary to speak. It is a complete establishment in its way, and has long been in successful operation. Altogether, connected with the Parkgate Works are four blast furnaces — one at Parkgate, two at the Holmes, and one in Derbyshire — all supplying good and suitable iron for the requirements of the Works. There are about 60 puddling furnaces, and 30 mill furnaces ; three 6 -ton tilt hammers, and one 5 -ton steam- hammer; and in addition to the rail mill and boiler- plate mill there is a merchant mill for making bar and hoop iron. by T thew S ork 3 ! aught The lessoi b in a word, taught by the Parkgate Works, is the same as that taught by the others. Private enterprise is equal to the s 2 260 THE PARKGATE IRONWORKS. siipply of the wants of the public service in any form, and on better terms than the public establishments. Between the Messrs. Beale and their workmen a feeling exists that experience proves to be impossible in the dock- yards. In the service of considerate masters work- men exert themselves to an extent that is surprising, and become as watchful of the interests of their employers as the latter can be. And the necessary consequence of such a relationship subsisting between employer and employed is the payment of a rate of wages that prac- tically is unattainable in the dockyards. What men in the private establishments earn, their employers can well afford to pay, while in the dockyards it would perhaps be an impropriety were the wages of an humble but skilled hammerman the £900 per annum that is said to be paid to one of the hammermen in the service of the Mersey Steel and Iron Works. In the private establish- ments the phrase “limited earnings” is unknown, and from year to year there is no fluctuation from task and job to day wages and back again in a circle. The rule of the private establishments is to encourage workmen to earn all they can. VIEW OF MESSRS. MAUDSLAY, SO N, AND FIELD’S WORKS, LAMBETH. 261 Chapter XII. THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS.* an^Fieid 37 ’ S ° ns ’ The manufactory of Messrs. Mauclslay, Sons, and Field is situated in the West- minster-road. It was first established towards the end of the last century in Margaret-street, Cavendish-square, and was removed to its present site in the year 1810. It covers several acres of ground, and is in most parts two, and in many three, stories high. It was in this manu- factory that most of the earlier mechanical improve- ments were first introduced into general use, such as the slide-rest (that important adjunct to the lathe), the improved punching machines for boiler plates, and the machinery by which screw cutting was first reduced to a system. The possession of such tools naturally brought the best work to this manufactory, then conducted by the late Mr. Henry Maudslay, and amongst the earliest and most important works executed was the block machinery erected at Portsmouth Dockyard in the year 1804. These machines have supplied the whole British navy with blocks ever since (a period of sixty years). Although of late years marine engines have been the principal manufacture of Maudslay, Sons, and Field, yet many most important engineering works have * This is not to be taken as a list of the engineering establishments, for these are very numerous. 262 THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. been executed by them, such as the pumping engines for the Brentford, Chelsea, Lambeth, and West Mid- dlesex Water Works ; the machinery and pumps for the Commissioners of the Haddenham Drainage ; and the engines and pumps for the Southampton and Copen- hagen docks, for Sebastopol and Egypt. Much of the machinery at the Royal and Calcutta Mints was con- structed at Lambeth, as also that for the Imperial Ottoman Mint; the Anglo-Mexican, the New Granada, and many other South American Mints ; and the whole of the machinery at the great Government Tobacco Works at Lisbon, besides gun-boring machinery for Turkey and Brazil. Messrs. Maudslay also made the stationary engines by which the trains were drawn by rope from Euston-square to Camden- town, locomotives then stopping at the latter place; and they likewise made many locomotive engines for the London and Birmingham Railway Company. This led to the firm being employed on the large engines fixed at the Minories station for drawing the trains from Blackwall to the Minories terminus, rope traction being adopted for this purpose, as it had previously been from Euston-square to Camden-town. The engines for the atmospheric rail- way on the several stations from London to Croydon, and on the South Devon Line, were likewise made at Lambeth. In consequence of the quality of the work executed, Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field have per- formed a great variety of smaller operations, which required not only good workmanship but much scientific knowledge. Amongst these may be men- tioned the time balls at Greenwich, Edinburgh, the North Foreland, and Sydney, New South Wales, which are worked by electricity ; preparing and finishing the -VIEW OF MESSRS. MAUDSLAY, SON, AND FIELDS WORKS. LAMBETH. ( . I'jjH THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 263 standard measures for tlie Government, and all the large work for the Equatorial at the Observatory at Liverpool. The great and most important operations of this firm have been marine engines, the first of which were fitted in the Richmond , a small vessel which was built in the year 1815 and plied between London and Richmond. This was followed in 1816 by the Regent , which ran from London to Margate, and many of the most improved arrangements have been patented by them. In 1827 the oscillating engine was patented, which was followed by the double cylinder (to avoid the wear and tear caused by cylinders of large power on the oscillating principle), the annular, the steeple, double piston-rod engine, which takes up less room than any other form of engine, and finally the three-cylinder economic engines. In 1825 the Enterprise , of 120-horse power, was fitted and in great part owned by this firm, and made the first voyage round the Cape to India, where she was immediately bought by the East India Company, and did very effective service on the Indian and Burmese rivers. On the completion of the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field were called upon to con- struct the engines for the Great Western , of 1,300 tons and 400-horse power. This vessel successfully performed the voyage from Bristol to New York for many years, and effectually solved the problem as to the possibility of steamships being able to cross the Atlantic, which had been denied by the late Dr. Lardner, at the British Association, held at Bristol in 1835. It is to the success of this vessel that we may be said to owe the formation of our present large sea-going mail packet companies. On the formation of the Royal Mail Steam-packet Com- pany Messrs. Maudslay became shareholders, and made 264 THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. the engines for the mail steamers Thames and Medway, and subsequently fitted the company’s ship Orinoco with engines of 800-horse power, which, after working many years, were taken out of this ship (which was broken up) and placed in their new vessel the Paramatta , which was unfortunately lost on her first outward voyage. The engines of her Majesty’s first yacht, the Victoria and Albert (but now the Osborne ), were made by this firm in 1842, and have worked and still continue to work with great efficiency. On the introduction of the screw pro- peller Messrs. Maudslay and Co. were intrusted by the British Admiralty with the construction of engines for her Majesty’s ship Rattler , the first ship fitted with the screw in the Royal Navy. It was in this vessel that most of the experiments with the screw were made, and which led to its almost universal adoption. At this time Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field built a small steam vessel called the Water Lily , in which at their own expense they made many experiments with various forms of screws, and obtained many results which have been useful as guides to themselves and others. This vessel was ultimately purchased by the Austrian Govern- ment and employed in the postal service on the Adriatic. Subsequently Maudslay and Co. constructed for the General Screw Steam Shipping Company a great many vessels of different powers, and fitted them with their patent feathering screws. This enabled the ships, most of which were about 1,800 tons burthen and 300-horse power, to take every advantage of their sailing qualities, and, as the pitch of the screw could be altered from the deck to suit the velocity of the vessel, and the blades even placed fore and aft, they possessed all the qualities of full-powered sailing vessels combined with steam. These ships ran from London to Australia for several -VIEW OF MESSRS. MAUDSLAY, SON, AND FIELDS WORKS, LAMBETH. -VIEW OF MESSRS. MAUD SLAY, SON, AND FIELD'S WORKS, LAMBETH. THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 265 years, but from various reasons the company eventually broke up, and most of the ships passed into the hands of the London and East Indian Company, and have since been employed between London and Cal- cutta. The feathering screw has also been fitted to many gentlemen’s yachts, and likewise to her Majesty’s gunboat Stork and frigate Aurora , of 400- horse power. The public are greatly indebted to Maudslay and Co. for the first fast Channel boats, as in 1843 they, in conjunction with Mr. Mare, then of the Blackwall Ironworks, built and equipped the mail steamer Princess Alice , which vessel ran the distance in just half the time taken by the old packets. She was purchased by the Government within a fortnight after her being put upon the passage. This led to the present fast line of packets not only between Dover and Calais, but to the Channel Islands and between Holy- head and Dublin ; and the firm constructed the Princess Mary , the Princess Maude , the Queen of the French , the Queen of the Belgians , the Chemin de fer Beige , the Express , the Despatch , the Courier , Anglia , Scotia , &c. The latest improvement which has been patented by this firm is the three-cylinder economic engine. This engine is fitted with every appliance tending to economise fuel, such as superheating, surface condensa- tion, and using the steam expansively. Her Majesty’s frigate Octavia , of 500-horse power, is fitted with these engines, and the saving in fuel was found to be just 50 per cent, in comparison with the usual consumption. The Russian iron-plated battery Pervenetz , of 300-horse power, is also fitted with engines of this description, as are also the London and Mediterranean Steam Naviga- tion Company’s vessels Italia , Alexandra , and Clotilda , which are running between London, Genoa, and Patras, 266 THE ENGINEEKING ESTABLISHMENTS. and fully confirm all the experiments made in the Octavia, Although doing actual work at sea, the average consumption during the voyage with good coal is only 2^1bs. per indicated horse-power per hour. The manu- factory gives employment to from 1,000 to 1,500 men, and contains the tools and all appliances required for the manufacture of the largest marine engines. The various departments may he said to consist in the pattern-makers’ shop, which is upwards of 200 feet long and 40 feet wide ; two foundries (iron and brass), forge shops, two coppersmiths’ shops, four vice-lofts, two boiler-makers’ shops, turneries, punching shops, store- rooms, and three large erecting shops, the largest of which is 150 feet long by 60 feet wide, besides large water-side premises. All the shops are provided with travelling cranes, which are capable of lifting from 25 to 30 tons, and run the whole length of the various shops. The tools consist of lathes (of which there are upwards of 80), 30 planing machines, shaping machines, rivetting machines, punching, drilling, screw- cutting, and facing machines, steam-hammers, boring machines, and crank-turning machines. These are driven by six stationary steam-engines. With regard to the capabi- lities of this establishment, it has on an average for many years past turned out marine engines of 5,000-horse power annually (exclusive of other work), and on emergencies much more, as during one year, at the time of the Russian war, this firm supplied the Government with engines for upwards of sixty gunboats, besides several pairs of larger engines. They have at the present moment the following engines either fixing or constructing : — H. M. iron-plated frigate Agincourt 1,350 h. p. „ ,, Prince Consort 1,000 „ ■VIEW OF MESSRS. PENN AND SON'S WORKS, GREENWICH AND DEPTFORD. VIEW OF MESSRS. PENN AND SON’S WORKS GREENWICH AND DEPTFORD. THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 267 Ii. M. iron-plated frigate Ocean 1,000 h. p. ,, „ Caledonia 1,000 „ „ ,, Yaliant 800 ,, „ „ Zealous 800 „ „ ,, Royal Alfred 800 „ H.M. corvette Harlequin 200 „ Besides various marine engines for foreign Governments of the power of 4,000 horses ; whilst up to the present time they have turned out, or are completing, marine machinery alone of an aggregate power of between 90,000 and 95,000 horse-power. Messrs. John Penn Messrs. John Penn and Son’s works and Son. are divided into two establishments, the engine works being at Greenwich, and the boiler manu- factory at Deptford, on the banks of the Thames. Moored off the latter establishment is a hulk fitted with large shear-legs and cranes for the purpose of placing machinery of the heaviest description on board vessels. At the commencement of this century, Mr. John Penn, the father of the present eminent engineer, started a small millwright’s and machinist’s shop on the site of the extensive premises at Greenwich, and for some years devoted himself entirely to the manufac- ture of windmills, water-wheels, and the machinery connected with the same. Many of our large flour- mills and gunpowder works bear witness to his industry and skill, and the treadmills in most of our county gaols are some of his early works. About 1830 the son of this enterprising man directed his atten- tion to the steam-engine as applied to mills and small vessels, and after a few years, not considering the beam engine suitable for marine purposes, he turned his thoughts to the oscillating engine, which is now so 268 THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. intimately associated with his name. The advantages of this style of engine are so universally acknowledged that it would be superfluous to describe them. On their first appearance they met with some opposition, but after several years’ trial it was found that they occupied smaller space, weighed less, were simpler in construc- tion, and were better suited for steam navigation at a high speed than the other engines in general use. This induced the Admiralty to order a pair of oscillating engines of 260-horse power for the paddle-wheel yacht Black Eagle , and their great success has caused the Government to adopt them in many ships of war, in her Majesty’s yachts, and in most of the Royal Mail Packets. About the year 1840, when the Admiralty decided on using the screw as a means of propulsion for ships of war, the general arrangement and speed of paddle-wheel engines for driving the screw being found insufficient without the use of geared wheels, it was determined to seek designs from the most celebrated marine engine makers, with a view to construct a direct- acting engine suitable for the high speed required, all parts of which should be under the water-line. Most of the firms responded, and among them Messrs. Penn and Son, who brought out about this time the double trunk engine. The design was approved, and permis- sion given to supply the vessels Arrogant and Encounter with engines of 360-horse power on that principle. Their successful performance led to the line-of-battle ship Agamemnon , 600-horse power, being similarly fitted, and up to this time the trunk engines have been applied to no less than 130 vessels in the Royal Navy, including the ironclad frigates Warrior , 1,250-horse power; Black Prince , 1,250-horse power; Resistance , and Defence , and are almost exclusively used for the Spanish and Italian •VIEW OF MESSRS. PENN AND SONS WORKS. GREENWICH AND DEPTFORD. -VIEW OF MESSRS. PENN AND SON’S WORKS GREENWICH AND DEPTFORD. THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 269 navies. It may be added that the engines for the new ironclad ships Achilles , 1,250-horse power; Minotaur , 1,350-horse power; and Northumberland , 1, 350-horse power, are in course of construction at these works. Nearly 1,200 men are constantly employed in the various departments at Greenwich, and the works there, which cover about nine acres of ground, have within the last three years been greatly extended and partially reconstructed. The boiler manufactory at Deptford gives employment to about 600 men, and both estab- lishments have been thoroughly furnished with the best modern tools, chiefly by Whitworth. Ordinarily, ma- chinery and boilers for about 6,000 to 7,000 horse power are turned out annually, and in case of emer- gency this might easily be increased to 10,000 horse power. This alone would be sufficient for seven iron- cased ships of the largest size. The works, Altogether the works of the Messrs. Penn, like those of the Messrs. Maudslay, occupy in marine engineering much the same position as the Thames Company and the Millwall Company do in shipbuilding. They are the foremost in traditions, name, and magnitude, not merely in this country but in the world. France has no such engineering .works, neither has America. Together they are equal to the whole marine engineering wants of the Royal Navy, in the greatest possible extremity. This is a fact, the suggestiveness and importance of which could scarcely be overrated. As may readily be supposed, the works of the Messrs. Penn are a model of economic adaptation and administrative skill. Complete efficiency is attained by vesting skilled fore- men with a great amount of power and holding them responsible for its proper exercise. Into the hands of 270 THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. the foremen the work to be done is committed under the supervision of the members of the firm, and the foremen may on the instant discharge workmen for shortcomings or misconduct. The foremen, in point of fact, are the masters of the workmen, and, entering and leaving the works with the workmen, the latter are never at a loss ; nor is there the opportunity, even if there were the will, to be idle or imperfect in the performance of appointed tasks. This is the secret of faultless engines; engines that will do their work without break-down, as long as coal and water are supplied, and indifferently in smooth and troubled water. Upon the best cast and forged metal the best workmanship is placed. And, to do Messrs. Penn’s workmen justice, the yoke of super- vision is an easy, nay, a pleasant one. Treated as men deserve always to be treated, the great body of them have attained that frame of mind which identifies their employers’ interest with their own. An inquirer in Greenwich or Deptford will find that Penn’s “ men ” are a class known to and esteemed by the whole community, chiefly because of the respect they manifest for them- selves and of the esteem in which they hold the members of the firm. The distinguished foreign gentlemen who from time to time have taken off their coats in Messrs. Penn’s works to become practically conversant with marine engine-building, no doubt look back with satis- faction on the time of intelligent association with Messrs. Penn’s workmen. The superior administrative staff is small, which is another suggestive circumstance. Two or three able men, even in engine-building, easily direct a thousand. The argument is unanswerable against numerous staffs, and particularly where the work is less exact and skilled than in engine-building. It is also unanswerable against large outlays for mere control. ■VIEW OF MESSRS. PENN AND SON’S WORKS, GREENWICH AND DEPTFOR! -VIEW OF MESSRS. PENN AND SON'S WORKS GREENWICH AND DEPTFORD. THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 271 A detailed description of these great national works is not required. Suffice it to say that boiler shop, erecting shop, turnery, foundry, forge, &c., are unsur- passed. The Albion iron- The establishment of Messrs. George works. . ° Rennie and Sons consists of two large factories, one in London, the other at Greenwich ; the London works, in Holland-street, Blackfriars, running back to the River Thames, cover several acres. The workshops, of lofty and handsome elevation, supported on cast-iron columns, are replete with all the modern tools and appliances for the execution of mechanical and general engineering work on the largest scale, with a tine iron-foundry. Messrs. Rennie manufacture every- thing for themselves, and their boiler-yard has produced some of the largest wrought-iron boilers for the navy. The Greenwich branch is also of great extent, and fitted as completely as it can well be, for the building of iron ships, and some gigantic iron floating-docks for the Spanish Government were recently completed. The neces- sity of providing dock accommodation for the monster iron-clad vessels of war is so apparent that these floating- docks are entitled to consideration, especially for the colonies and our possessions in the West Indies and elsewhere. The name of Rennie is as distinguished in civil engineering and mill mechanism, as that of Watt in mechanical engineering. John Rennie and James Watt were men of immense talent, and both possessed indomitable energy. They were intimately associated in their lives, and their reputations are now to a consider- able extent inseparable. 272 THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. Rennie’s history, and Having finished his mechanical career Progress of the Firm. ° in Scotland, and fairly established him- self with Boulton and Watt, in England, Rennie repaired for the first time to London, in October, 1784. He established himself close to the Surrey side of Black- friars-bridge, to be near the scene of his future labours — the new Albion Mills. The Albion Mills consisted of two engines of 50-horse power each, and twenty pairs of stones, of which latter twelve or more pairs were constantly kept at work. Rennie went on successfully with the mills until 1791, when a disastrous fire occurred, and in a short time destroyed the whole. The works were never re-erected. The walls still stand, however, and the interior having been converted into dwell- ing-houses, is now known as Albion-place, Blackfriars- road. Watt, in writing of the Albion Mills sub- sequently to their destruction, speaks of Rennie as “a valuable and able mechanician and engineer;” and states that the machinery erected by him “forms the commencement of a system of mill-work which has proved and wall prove most useful to the country.” Another and far more important achievement must be awarded to Rennie. The towing of the Hastings , 74, by a steamboat, suggested by him, led to the adoption of steam in the British navy, the Lightning being shortly after fitted up by Boulton and Watt, at the instance and under the superintendence of Rennie, for the Government. So early as 1801, Rennie reported upon the project of an iron rail or tramway between the east and west ends of London. He also reported, in 1810, on a railway from Berwick to Kelso. His last and most important report on railways, however, was on that proposed to be constructed between Stockton and Darlington, and which had been originally surveyed by 10.— VIEW OF MESSRS. RENNIE'S WORKS, DEPTFORD AND BLACKFRIARS. THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 273 Messrs. Brindley and Whitworth in 1768. These reports are elaborate and valuable documents, and contain minute and exact comparisons between the cost of canals and railways. The adoption of the railway at Stockton followed Rennie’s favourable report, and the gradual substitution of the locomotive engine — then a rude machine in the hands of Blenkinsop — by George Stephenson originated the present railway system. It may be added that the surveying and laying down of the first passenger and goods railway in England — that between Manchester and Liverpool — was effected by the two sons of Rennie, George and John, the first-named acting for both in carrying the Bill through Parliament. In 1836 Messrs. Rennie were called on to remodel the mechanical and engraving departments of the Bank of England. This was accomplished under the superin- tendence of Mr. Oldham, of the Bank of Ireland, and the result was eminently successful. From 1837 to 1842 the Holland-street establishment was much engaged with the construction of locomotive engines, furnishing several for Cuba, the Austrian and Italian lines, and those of Brighton and Croydon. It was found that considerable inconvenience arose from the prosecution of this branch of manufacture — the premises not being well adapted for carrying it on — and it was abandoned. About the same period the Russian Government, which was fitting up a large naval arsenal at Nicholaeff, in the province of Kherson, and on the shore of the Black Sea, anxious to avail itself of all the improvements which had been introduced into the dockyards of England, determined on being furnished with a set of block machinery similar to that at Portsmouth. Messrs. Rennie were applied to, and they undertook its con- struction. The funds to be devoted to the purpose T 274 THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. were, however, less ample than could be desired, and the engineers were obliged to reduce the scale of the machinery. Perhaps one of the most extraordinary works in the shape of dock engineering effected by Messrs. Rennie, or by any other English or foreign engineers, were the massive iron gates supplied to the docks of Sebastopol. These were of dimensions far beyond anything of the kind made before or since, and a leviathan planing-machine, expressly for fitting them up, was contrived by Mr. G. Rennie, and erected in the Holland-street factory. These gates, which contained many hundreds of tons of wrought and cast iron, were successfully transferred to the once great Russian stronghold of the Black Sea, erected there, and par- tially if not entirely destroyed by the cannon of England and France during the siege of Sebastopol. Another work of importance executed by Messrs. Rennie was the machinery for the Turkish Small Armoury, situated on the Sweet Waters near Constantinople. It was designed to manufacture 100,000 muskets per annum, and it comprises the whole of the appliances for forging, rolling, rough and fine boring, adjusting, and proving the barrels; the forging and fitting of the different parts of the locks; the cutting and shaping of the stocks, &c. There were, on the whole, eight sets of rough boring machines, four sets of fine ditto, and twelve turning lathes of peculiar construction for giving proper taper to the barrels. The whole was to be driven by a 30-horse power engine. The plan for the buildings to receive this machinery, and a massive rolling-mill for shaping the skelps of iron intended for barrels in addition, was given by the firm, and it was of a most comprehensive and complete character. The Armoury at Constantinople has been in successful 10-VIEW OP MESSRS. RENNIES WORKS, DEPTFORD AND BLACKFRIARS. THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 275 operation ever since, and during tlie Crimean Avar Avas Avorked to its utmost capability. Marine and land engines Avere also constructed for the home and foreign Governments. Among the first of these may be men- tioned a pair of 300-horse poAver for the Archimedes , a screw steamship built for the Russian Government, and the first introduced into the Russian navy. The celebrated Vladimir , so Avell knoAvn during the Crimean Avar, a paddle-Avheel boat, and remarkably SAvift, Avas fitted up by the Rennies. Many others of less poAver, some propelled by screws, and others by paddle-Avheels, Avere also furnished to the Emperor Nicholas for service in the Baltic and Black Sea. For her Majesty’s Govern- ment they haA'e supplied engines for the Bulldog , 500-horse poAA^er; the Vulcan , 350-horse poAver; for the Oheron , the Melbourne , Samson , Reynard, Courier , and forty or fifty others. The Floating Docks. The mo d e of docking ships in Rennie’s patent floating docks is somewhat similar to that employed in the ordinary process with other docks. The dock is submerged to the extent required by the draught of A\ r ater of the vessel to be repaired. The latter is then to be Avarped in, and placed over the keel blocks. The Avater is then pumped from the compartments of the docks, and the whole mass is gradually raised, the vessel being shored from the altar course and made secure on her seat. Very soon the ship becomes high and dry, although of 7,000 tons, and prepared for examination and repair. When necessary to undock the ship, nothing more, of course, is required than for the sea sluices to be opened, and for Avater to displace the air, Avhich has outlets formed in the decks of the pontoons from the compartments. Then the vessel floats, is t 2 276 THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. warped out, and the dock becomes ready for another tenant. One remarkable characteristic of the floating docks is, that they are quite open at each end. There are no gates, caissons, or any means of closing them, and thus the greater length of a vessel will be no bar to her entrance. Weight is the only point to be considered. The Carthagena Dock, which has been completed, is 320 feet in length, 105 feet in breadth over all, and the depth of its base is 11 feet 6 inches. The clear space within its walls is 78 feet 6 inches, and the inner depth is about 45 feet. The Ferrol Dock is 350 feet in length, 105 feet in breadth, and the depth of its base will be 12 feet 6 inches. In other respects its dimensions accord nearly with those of the Carthagena dock, and the quantity of material used in both is nearly equal. To the consideration of these docks the attention of the Admiralty cannot be too strongly urged. The Phoenix Foundry, Liver- Among the leading engineering works pool. in the town of Liverpool are those of Messrs. Fawcett, Preston, and Co., and so long have they been established that at one period there was no other in the town. Some eighty years ago the foundry was not in existence; but in small premises at the corner of York-street the Coalbrookdale Foundry (in Shropshire) had a depot, managed by Mr. Rathbone, the maternal uncle of the late Mr. Fawcett. On the death of Mr. Rathbone Mr. Fawcett became his successor. Mr. Faw- cett during the greater part of his life resided in the old house at the corner of Lydia Ann-street, now a portion of the works; he was born in 1761, and died in 1844, in the eighty -third year of his age. During the long war, a great demand having arisen for iron guns to enable merchant ships to cope with privateers and vessels THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 277 sailing under letters of marque, Mr. Fawcett introduced the highly important improvement of casting the guns solid and boring them, as is the practice still, the pre- vious custom, however, having been to cast them hollow. Mr. Fawcett’s innovation was so favourably received by the public that the annual value of the guns turned out by him was not less than £10,000 — a very large sum for such a purpose in those days. The carronades marked u solid” on one trunnion and u F ” on the other may be seen now all over the world, and their origin identified. Progress of the estab- The establishment increased and pro- lishment. Guns. x spered, shop after shop being added to it, with appliance on appliance, until the present large proportions have been reached. In addition to the foundry, there are now the brass foundry in York- street, and the extensive boiler yard and copper shop in Lightbody-street. Castings of the heaviest description are run in the foundry, among which are anvil-blocks for the Mersey forge, the heaviest weighing no less than 62 tons, and standing on a base of 110 square feet, foundation-plates for the cranes, and the fly-wheel weighing 60 tons. At this foundry the manufacture of guns is carried on extensively, — not the simple ship- guns of former days, but every description of improved artillery, from the light steel mountain gun on its wrought-iron carriage to the heavy-built rifled Blakely 300-pounder. At present Messrs. Faivcett, Preston, and Co. have several 9 -inch guns in various stages of manu- facture, as well as numerous others of all classes. To the Peruvian and other foreign Governments they have supplied large quantities ; and during the Crimean war our own Government was supplied by the firm with 27$ THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. a large quantity of heavy sea-service mortars, weighing each 5 tons. Engines *&e Marine Beyond the foundry, there are various workshops for the manufacture of the largest land and marine engines, hydraulic and other presses, rice and sawing machinery, water-wheels, caloric engines, and all the varieties of sugar apparatus for the refineries of Cuba, Java, the Mauritius and the world, from the little cattle cane mill up to that with 7-feet rolls, each weighing as many tons, and from the open icon teache to the largest vacuum apparatus. In fact, the manufacture of sugar apparatus may be said to be a speciality of the firm, and Liverpool will say that their reputation has been earned deservedly. Of marine engines the firm have made many. Among other vessels of mark, they fitted the Leeds with engines in 1826. This vessel was built for the City of Dublin Steam- packet Company, to ply between Dublin and Bordeaux, and her performances so well pleased the French Government that they ordered several pairs of engines for war steamers, the Sphinx, the Corner, the Asmodee , and others, the two last of 450-horse power. The Messageries Imperiales have also recently supplied a large portion of their fleet with engines made by this firm. The firm also made the engines for the following well- known ships : — The Quorra, the first iron steamer ever built ; the engines for the ill-fated President ; the engines for the Poycd William, the first steamer that ever crossed the Atlantic from Liverpool to New York; the engines for the Tigris, the Euphrates ; the engines for the Merlin, Medusa, Medina, mail steamers for the City of Dublin Company; and a whole fleet for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company — the Oriental, THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 279 Hindostan , Bentinck , Orissa , Behar , Ottawa , Malta , Nubia , and Aiwa ; and last, but not least, tlie engines for her Majesty’s frigates Inflexible , Resolute , and Assistance : the engines for the Ganges and Jumna , for the Oriental and Inland Steam Navigation Company, are also the work of the firm, and at present several pairs of very handsome engines of high power are in hand. Contract steamers. j n addition to fitting engines for others, they also contract for steamers complete, and of those they have already supplied are the&7i£mff, Pindari , Itapicuni , Capias , and Camossim , for the Brazils. The Oreto , for Palermo, is another of the steamers con- tracted for by this firm, and it is scarcely necessary to remark that she has since changed hands and is now sailing under the flag of the Confederate States as the Florida. There are still others: the Phantom , a steel steamer of great speed and beauty, which, by recent accounts, had found its way into Wilmington, N.C.; the Alexandra , still detained by Government until the legality of her construction is tested on appeal; the Great Victoria , for the Australian line ; and also two beautiful and swift steel steamers on the stocks. Of steam tugs, dredge boats, and barges it is unnecessary to speak, these having been supplied in great numbers. Altogether, of the capabilities of the engineering works of Messrs. Fawcett, Preston, and Co., it is impos- sible to convey an impression. The machinery for boring, turning, and other purposes, is on a scale of the first importance, and the last order for engines on the books is 2,307. Rightly has the establishment been called the Phoenix Foundry, for in 1843 it was burnt to the ground, which, although a serious injury at the time, ultimately proved an advantage, as in rebuilding 280 THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. the premises they were much improved in arrangement and convenience, and the antiquated tools replaced by others of the latest and most effective description. The Biackwaii iron- The Blackwall Ironworks have been works. Stewart. in existence nearly twenty years, during which time, by talent and perseverance, the business has steadily increased. Mr. Stewart originally com- menced business as a manufacturer of engines for tug- boats — a class of machinery requiring peculiar con- struction and great strength, inasmuch as it is subjected to various and severe strains when towing vessels of large tonnage in a heavy sea ; and in addition to the greater number of the best tugs on the Thames, he has manu- factured similar engines for France, America, India, and Australia. Nearly all these tugs have paddle-wheels fitted with feathering floats, some having bearings on the floats, where wood and brass are made to work together ; and the result of this combination is so favourable, that wheels so constructed have been working nearly six years with so little wear that they may go another six years without the bearings requiring to be renewed. Mr. Stewart has now extensive river-side premises, hav- ing built large shops, well supplied with machinery and plant of the best description, by which means he has been enabled to manufacture marine engines and boilers of a large size, and has fitted them to first-class mercantile vessels with the most satisfactory results. Amongst these are two fine steamers for the Australian passenger trade, one of 220-horse power, the other 150- horse power ; the former was built by the Thames Iron Shipbuilding Company, from designs by Mr. James Ash, the latter by Mr. Charles Lungley of Deptford; also three steamers to run between Southampton and the Isle -VIEW OF MR. STEWART'S BLACKWALL IRONWORKS. MILLWALL, •VIEW OF MR. STEWARTS BLACKWALL IRONWORKS. MILL WALL. -VIEW OF MR. STEWART'S BLACKWALL IRONWORKS. MILLWALL. ' THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. 281 of Wight, well known for their speed and efficiency. At present there are in hand three pair of oscillating engines of 150-horse power each, for the Australian passenger trade; a pair of oscillating engines of 225-horse power, for the South-Western Railway Company, to be fitted with surface condensers, and intended to run between Southampton and the Channel Islands, have just left the factory; a pair of engines of 250-horse power for the Chinese trade ; also eight pair of towing engines of various power, the whole to be fitted with all the latest improvements. Besides these, orders have been received to design and build a pair of screw engines of 60-horse power, to be fitted with surface condensers, for a yacht for Arthur Anderson, Esq., chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Naviga- tion Company; these engines are to be in every respect the best that can be made. The hull, &c., is being con- structed by Messrs. James Ash and Co., the dimensions being as follow: — Length between perpendiculars, 144 feet; breadth, 22 feet; depth, 12 feet. Her tonnage is 337 tons, and she is to be fitted in the most sumptuous style. Engine and boiler The en pi ne an d boiler works are works. © situated on the Isle of Hogs, near Messrs. Samudas shipbuilding yard, and although not occupying so large an area as some other factories, possess the advantage of unusual compactness and economy of space. The river frontage is 400 feet in length, and is so arranged that there is a kind of wet dock, over which two powerful travelling cranes are made to traverse, thus affording remarkable facilities for putting boilers and other heavy parts of machinery into steamers. That portion of the factory near the 282 THE ENGINEERING ESTABLISHMENTS. river is devoted almost exclusively to boiler-building, and has a fine shop provided with every necessary and convenience for the purpose. At the back of this are built the various shops for the manufacture of steam- engines — viz., fitting and erecting shops, pattern shop, blacksmiths’ and coppersmiths’ shops, &c., all of which are built from Mr. Stewart’s own designs, and are in all respects first-rate. A large new foundry is now in course of construction on a piece of ground adjoining the factory, and when this is completed the Blackwall Iron- works will in all respects be most complete. Altogether the Blackwall Ironworks furnish another proof, were one required, of the great superiority of private enter- prise and the contract system over the wretched jobbery, inetficiency, and unproductiveness that prevail in the dockyards. Organisation, industry, and economy are visible at every turn. There is not an idler to be seen, and none of those tell-tale stacks of abused material that disgrace the dockyards. Successful private enterprise is incompatible with dead weight of any kind. Its condi- tions are clear-headed calculations, careful working up of raw material, and a good understanding alike with the skilled and unskilled workmen. Mr. Stewart enjoys the zealous and invaluable co-operation of his sons. His business grows upon his hands, and his means of efficient management keep pace with the increase. The same might be said of many other successful firms ; but there is no such thing in the dockyards. Every exten- sion of dockyard work implies an increased area of waste and unproductiveness. If already the dockyard system is not insupportable to the taxpayer, the new works at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Keyham must make it so; while, on the other hand, the development of private industry is at all times an honour and advantage to the country. -VIEW OF THE BOATBUILDING COMPANY’S WORKS, EAST GREENWICH. 283 Chapter XIII. SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. The National Company for Boatbuilding by Ma- chinery (Limited). Foremost among the shipbuilding innovations of the time is that of boatbuilding by machinery. The application is most successful, and in its success there is obviously a strong argument against the maintenance of all the minor dockyard manufacturing establishments, because improvements in boatbuilding imply the possibility of improvements in all other directions — nay, the certainty of such improvements, were the Admiralty entering the market in a straightforward business manner for the supply of all their minor wants, in ropes, sails, blocks, &c. Mr. Nathan Thompson, the inventor of the improved boatbuilding machinery, luckily for himself and the public, did not share the fate of most inventors, but, under the auspices of such men as Colonel Sykes, Peter Graham, and John Dillon, succeeded first in demonstrating the utility of his “tools,” and afterwards in establishing a company, which, enjoying the entire confidence of the mercantile marine, is barely able to keep pace with the increasing demand for boats. The company have had, and may still expect to meet, many difficulties, and to overcome many prejudices ; — doubts as to the quality and durability of the boats turned out by them — ignorance, and in many cases worse than 284 SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. ignorance, on tlie part of the men employed on the machines — the interests of competing boathuilders — the opposition to everything that is new. These, with threatened strikes and many other difficulties, have been one by one overcome, and, under the guidance of its directors and of its manager, there can now be no question as to the future which is before this company. The quality of every description of work turned out by the company is now so universally admitted to be superior to everything previously seen, that from boats suited to the mercantile marine the directors have been compelled to enter upon the erection of barges, canal boats, and vessels of large size. To accomplish this they are now enlarging their premises to an extent that a year or two ago even Mr. Thompson perhaps did not think pro- bable. Boatbuilding in point of time is now reduced from a matter of weeks to a matter of hours, and, as regards expense in the matter of labour, is reduced from pounds to shillings ; the cost of material, of course, being the same whether boats are built by machinery or manual labour. The company’s premises are situated at East Greenwich, about half a mile below Greenwich Hospital, and cover an area of nearly nine acres of ground. Every possible appliance to lessen the cost of production has been provided — wharves, steam- cranes, tramways, &c. The number of men employed under the able superintendence of the Messrs. Fawcett, formerly of Limehouse, and temporarily of Messrs. Nathan Thompson and John C. Thompson, is about four hundred, and there is perhaps no place in the neighbourhood of London more worthy of a visit than the works of the company. Orders to respectable parties are readily given on application to Mr. Grant, the company’s secretary, at the London office, 123, Fen- -VIEW OF THE BOATBUILDING- COMPANY’S WORKS, EAST GREENWICH. SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. 285 church-street. When the scheme of Mr. Nathan Thompson was first submitted to the public, the writer supported it in the following terms : — Machine Boatbuilding.* “When New England ingeniously and unscrupulously began the manufacture of wooden nutmegs, it was apparent that there was no conceivable limit to the application of machinery and steam. To counterfeit the genuine article which housewives use so freely, by giving an irregular oval form to little knobs of New England mahogany, was to let daylight into the economy of trade, and to suggest no end of refined deceits. Wooden cheese and butter for the windows of provision shops, and wooden sugar-loaves for grocers’ shelves, if not for their drawers and hogsheads, were no doubt among the earlier imitative efforts; and of the ultimate development of the science we of course cannot speak. But if the manufacture of nutmegs was sugges- tive of objectionable imitations, we have only to turn to the working of the patents of that eminent scientific American, Mr. Nathan Thompson, jun., to be assured that if inventive genius is stimulated in a bad direction, it is sure speedily to be stimulated in a way that is not only unobjectionable, but useful. We do not mean to say that machine boatbuilding is the offset to any invention that has preceded it, or that it has been suggested by any previous invention, but what we are sincerely anxious about is that our readers should be impressed with the fact that a revolution is impending in the boatbuilding business ; that Mr. Thompson’s machinery is eminently practical and singularly expe- ditious and economical ; that the work it turns out is * Article furnished by the -writer and published in the Steam Shipping Chronicle , 21st June, 1861. 286 SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. more exact and perfect, and, as a matter of course, stronger than the boats built hitherto by manual labour. Mr. Thompson’s boatbuilding by steam is not for a moment to be thought of in connection with the manu- facture of nutmegs or with the many spurious American inventions which by some means or other are introduced in England; but it is an intelligent and intelligible fashioning of the timbers and parts of boats and vessels in an expeditious manner, and so fashioning them that the vessels so constructed may be taken to pieces and fitted up at pleasure with little or no trouble. Advantages of Ma- “The advantages of taking boats to chine-made Boats. # ° ^ 0 pieces are obvious. Why our emigrant, and troop, and other ships have usually an insufficient number of boats to carry all hands is owing chiefly to the space taken up by ‘boats on deck, which involves interference with the health and comfort of every one on board. For the want, therefore, of such an invention as Mr. Thompson’s the number of boats carried has generally been inadequate, while no provision whatever has existed for the loss of boats from swamping or from being stove in. On an emergency, when boat after boat has been got over the ship’s side, and almost imme- diately afterwards turned over, with the unhappy crea- tures in it who hoped for safety, no boat whatever has, frequently, remained for the great majority of the crew and passengers. By the use of Mr. Thompson’s boats a reserve of boats may be kept below, not only sufficient to take off all hands, but to provide against the casualties of launching. Then it is well known that boats hanging from the davits, or otherwise exposed on deck, suffer greatly from exposure, particularly in the tropics, and it will, therefore, be found economical in many cases to SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. 287 have most of our southern-going ships’ boats stowed away. Lastly, duplicates of any part of a boat may be supplied, and instead of boatbuilders’ accounts for repairs, the duplicate can be inserted without any diffi- culty by any one. Thompson’s boats, in short, go together like a bedstead, and it is only necessary to know where the different parts should go, to rig out anything, up to a pleasure yacht of one hundred tons burden. utility in the Navy, a T 0 the Navy the invention can hardly fail to prove invaluable. Boats sufficient to land an army may now be stowed away in a single transport, without, as heretofore, inconveniently encumbering the decks of the transports or the ships of the covering fleet ; and boats which may be taken down and packed up will be available for interior transport when ordinary boats would be of no use whatever. Africa, India, China, and even North America (Mr. Thompson’s own country) are suggestive .fields for the employment of boats which might be carried overland before being launched upon their proper element. And rifled cannon, it is scarcely necessary to observe, threaten to be most destructive to the old-fashioned boats of our ships of war. An action, now-a-days, at close quarters, will, if it does not lead to the annihilation of the ships engaged, render every old-fashioned boat that is exposed entirely useless, while Mr. Thompson’s boats would come out of action all but scathless. Half a dozen round shot pass- ing through them would only lead to the unshipping of the shattered fragments and to the fitting-in of dupli- cates, or to the repairing of one boat in an hour or two with the vestiges of another. So long as we were without an invention of this kind, the seamen in our 288 SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. ships of war were, in fact, unsafe ; and now that this is admitted, we trust that Mr. Thompson will not be treated by the Admiralty as Mr. Trotman has been. We hope to see the new machinery in operation in all our dockyards before the year is out, that the service may profit by increased efficiency, and the votes of next year be reduced by the economy which is sure to follow. Success predicted. u 'Whether it is the intention of Mr. Thompson to grant licences for the working of his patents we, of course, cannot tell, but at the moment it is in contemplation to establish a joint-stock company with sufficient capital to supply a fourth of the 25,000 boats wanted in the United Kingdom annually. That such a company will be formed we cannot for a moment doubt, and that it will succeed is a matter upon which, in scientific circles, no doubt whatever appears to be entertained. The ‘innovation’ is looked upon as pos- sessing much the same recommendations for boatbuild- ing, as the improved frame does for the spinning of yarn, and the improved loom for the weaving of textile fabrics. It is a shorter and cheaper and better way of arriving at a given result, as railway or steamboat travelling is the shortest, cheapest, and best way of getting to a journey’s end. It is, in fine, a great mechanical step forward, and those who are wise will accept it as such. Boatbuilding by manual labour is about to be numbered among the things that were; boats will be produced cheaper than they yet have been ; will be wanted for purposes to which hitherto they have not been applied ; and although a consider- able present displacement of labour will unquestionably be occasioned, all experience shows that eventually a greater number will earn their bread by building boats SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. 289 than do just now. For one who made a living a hundred years ago by the spinning-wheel, ten thousand, if not ten times ten thousand, are now constantly and remuneratively employed. Machinery employed. u e canno t ? perhaps, do better than close these remarks with an account of the number and purposes of the machines employed by Mr. Thompson in the manufacture of a boat thirty feet long in a few hours. The first machine is called the ‘ assembling form,’ which is for holding the gunwales, risings, floor- timbers, cants, keels, stem, stern-post and board in their relative positions, as designed in the finished boat. The second is the combination saw, for all kinds and dimen- sions of stuff, either square, bevelling, or angling, that can be sawed with a circular saw, and to any desired width or taper without measuring: The third is the patent form for spiling, or giving the plank edge the required bevel throughout its entire length. The fourth is for giving the proper bevel to the stern-board, thwart- knees, transom-knees, breast-hooks, risings, forward and stern-ribs, cants, stern-sheets, gratings, toggels, &e. The fifth is for bearding and rebating keels at a single operation, and in the most perfect manner. The sixth machine is for tenoning toggels. The seventh for mark- ing and slotting gunwales to receive their toggels and rowlocks. The eighth for grooving, grating, &c. The ninth for giving the ribs their required bevel. The tenth for planing a plank on both sides at one operation, at the same time giving its interior and exterior curve in the most perfect manner, and uniform in thickness throughout its entire length. The eleventh is a machine for planing perfectly plane surfaces. The twelfth is for 290 SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. moulding toggels, bottom boards, gunwales, and risers ; and it cuts any bevel or irregular mould, or three sides, or planes three flat surfaces at a single operation. The thirteenth and last machine is for bending the ribs to any form or size required in boatbuilding.” The Tripod Masts. The tripod masts, the invention of Captain Cowper P. Coles, is another suggestive innova- tion. These iron masts should supersede dockyard mast- ponds and mast-houses, and, to a very great extent, dock- yard rigging manufacture and rigging-houses. They consist of three-legged iron masts, the upright centre leg being the mast proper, and the other legs the supports in place of rigging. A more admirable invention to pro- mote efficiency and save money can scarcely be con- ceived. But it remains in the category of untried or rather unapplied inventions. To adopt it would be revolutionary, and its adoption will, therefore, be as long as possible delayed. Captain Coles claims for his tripod masts the following among other advantages^ : — 1. From there being no lower stays, the yards can be braced nearly fore and aft, or in a line with the keel, enabling a ship so rigged to set her square sails when under steam, when with the present rig she would be obliged to keep them furled. On steaming head to wind, the yards being braced fore and aft, there being little rigging or top hamper on the topmast, there would be but a small resistance to the wind. 2. When these masts are shot away in action they would, being of iron, sink at once, as would the yards from the same cause. This, with the absence of lower rigging, would greatly lessen the chance of the screw * Lecture delivered at the Royal United Service Institution, 25th March, 1863. SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. 291 being foaled, one of the greatest dangers to which our ships are exposed. 3. The last, though not the least, advantage tp be derived from the adoption of the tripod masts would be the saving which would be effected in the expense annually incurred through the enormous deterioration in the rigging of those men-of-war which it is thought necessary, according to the present system, to keep ready for service in the steam reserve. Ships with these tripod masts would always be comparatively ready for sea, and whilst their perishable sails and running rigging remained stowed away below, nothing would be exposed to the mercy of the elements but their iron masts and yards. The men go aloft by Jacob’s ladders. Submarine Batteries. Jt is well known to the Admiralty that scientific officers of the Navy are likely before long to perfect submarine batteries. These batteries con- template firing the heaviest ordnance from the sub- merged bottom of one ship at the submerged bottoms of other ships. Mere mechanical difficulties, not by any means deemed insuperable, stand in the way of this being done ; and the thing accomplished, another recon- struction of the Navy appears inevitable. But it will be answered, let us think of this invention when perfected, and in the meantime proceed as we are doing. It must be answered, no. On the contrary, let us rather proceed on the assumption that in time submarine batteries may form the most destructive armament of ironclads. America every day teaches us important lessons, and among others the one that explosions are as practicable under the water as out of it. Why, then, proceed on the principle that if above water ships are practically invul- u 2 292 SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. lierable, they may be as slim as you like below the armour shelf downwards? No doubt the wise policy would be to stop new ironclad construction altogether for a time, and in the meanwhile push forward the conversion of wooden ships, obtaining high speed by the substitution of engines of great power for engines of moderate power. This, of course, would compel us to resort to cupola instead of broadside ships ; but who will show that a country possessing a cupola fleet is not as ready and as formidable as a country possessing a broadside fleet? The Connector expe- The Connector experimental ship is rimental Ship. # x # the last innovation to which attention need be called. This is a ship constructed on the principle of a railway train ; in other words, on the principle of detached sections. There is the motive section with the engine, boilers, and coal bunkers, and there are as many more readily attached and detached sections as you please. Many people laugh at the con- trivance, but that has been the fortune of most things. In the Connector there is much for reflection, and this among other points, that in one or more of the attached sections you will always find a comparatively steady gun platform, no matter how it blows or how troubled the water may be. This has been proved experi- mentally by repeated voyages from the Tyne to London in heavy gales. It is, however, no part of the duty of the Admiralty as at present constituted to trouble them- selves about the Connector , submarine batteries, tripod masts, or anything whatever out of the official beaten track. The Admiralty as at present constituted are worried to death with inventors and innovators. But SHIPBUILDING INNOVATIONS. 293 they are constitutionally opposed to all. They are themselves an institution of the time of Henry VIII. of happy memory, and their mission was, and still is, to glorify wooden walls, pigtails, and cat-o’-nine-tails. Henry VIII., in his most hopeful moods, surely never counted on the England of the present time being posi- tively cursed with an establishment of his contriving. Chapter XIV. THE THAMES SHIPPING INTERESTS* yaS e t tf ° rd " sreen D ° ck " Mr. Charles Lungley’s yard at Dept- ford-green is without exception the most complete on the Thames, combining as it does shipbuilding and repairing and the manufacture of steam- engines. It is on the Thames what the yard of Messrs. Laird is on the Mersey, with this difference, that the Messrs. Laird have spent large sums in the finishing of * This is not to be taken as a list of the Thames shipbuilding firms, for these are very numerous. t Mr. Lungley is the patentee of an important mode of interior fitting known as unsinkable shipbuilding. It will be generally interesting to give an extract from the provisional specification : — “ The object of the first part of my invention is to construct iron ships and other vessels in such manner that they shall not be liable to be sunk by any of the casualties which occur to vessels on the open sea, or by striking upon rocks, or by driving upon a lee shore, while at the same time their strength shall be increased and their accom- modation for the stowage and carriage of cargo shall not be interfered with, as it now is where numerous transverse bulkheads are introduced into ships for a like purpose. “ The primary feature of this part of my invention consists in dividing the lower part of the ship or vessel into two or more water-tight compartments, and in affording access to these compartments for the introduction of cargo or stores by means of water- tight trunks or passages led up from them to such a height that their upper or open ends shall never in any practicable position of the ship be brought quite down to the level of the water ; compartments thus formed may be used as ordinary cargo spaces, store rooms, chain lockers, or for any other like purposes, and may be ventilated by suitable trunks or tubes, always providing that all trunks or tubes of every kind which enter them shall be made water-tight and shall rise to the height before mentioned, in -VIEW OF MR. CHARLES LUNGLEY S DEPTFORD GREEN DOCKYARD. -VIEW OF MR. CHARLES LUNGLEY'S DEPTFORD GREEN DOCKYARD. THE THAMES SHIPPING INTERESTS. 295 docks and buildings. This Mr. Lungley has not done, and the liberties that he takes with his one dock are suggestive and remarkable. The dock entrance is a caisson fixture wide enough to take in the largest class order that if by any mischance any compartment should be broken into, and the sea be admitted to it, the water should have no means of escaping therefrom into any other part of the ship. “ In carrying this part of my invention into effect, I vary the mode of applying it according to the form of the vessel and the service for which she is to be employed. In the case of a steamship for carrying both passengers and cargo I prefer to construct an internal bottom or deck in water-tight connection with the sides of the ship, and extending (where the arrangements of the boilers and engines will admit of it) quite fore and aft, at a height of several feet from the outer bottom or bottom proper. The compartment thus formed in the bottom of the ship may be divide^ transversely, if desired, by bulkheads, such bulkheads extending either to the top of the compartment only, or to any greater height as may be desired. Above this lower compartment, or set of compartments, and along the sides of the ship, I build vertical or inclined bulkheads, forming other water-tight longitudinal compartments, which again may be subdivided transversely, and which also are entered and ventilated by trunks or passages rising to the height before mentioned. With these arrangements it is evident that any portion of the submerged skin of the ship may be stove in by colli- sion with another ship, or be torn away by rocks or otherwise, without causing the ship to sink. Supposing the remaining internal water-tight portions to be, as I always make them, of sufficient capacity to keep the ship buoyant and seaworthy, I sometimes form apertures in the inner bottom or deck for the purpose of letting any water that may get into the ship from above run down into the bottom ; but these apertures are closed by valves or doors which are never opened except for this purpose, and are closed directly the letting through the water is completed : vessels built with these my improvements will not, therefore, be liable to those accidents which occur in ships fitted with water-tight compartments in the ordinary manner, and which result from passages through the bulkheads being formed and left open. The space occupied by the engines and boilers of a steam-vessel I close entirely in by water-tight iron walls or bulkheads extending to the same height above the water line as the trunks before referred to, in order that this space may be converted into a water-tight com- partment from which water could not escape into any other part of the ship, and into which water could not enter from any other part. Apertures are formed in these walls or bulkheads for the admission of coals from the coal-bunkers, but these apertures are provided with valves or doors which may be closed either from below or from above. I sometimes further divide the boiler-room from the engine-room by a transverse bulk- head, in order that, should the engine break down or the engine-room become flooded, the boilers may still be kept at work and the steam be used to work pumps by means of an auxiliary engine in the boiler-room. I form divisions by bulkheads across the ship above the skins, which I term ‘ between-deck bulkheads,’ and which also are made perfectly water-tight, and so as to divide the between-deck space in such manner that should the vessel ship seas, or otherwise get water on board, it may be confined to the part where it enters.” 296 THE THAMES SHIPPING INTERESTS. of ship or steamer trading to the Thames ; but the dock itself appears to be diminished and enlarged by turns, to suit the varying wants of commerce. Frequently as many as three large vessels may be found together in the dock, and depth or width is provided by labourers with the spade. Occasionally, again, it may be found that the capacity of the dock is interfered with by the laying down of new ships in what seem out-of-the- way places which either encroach on the dock or which launch into the dock. Such is the fertility of private enterprise. Such are the expedients that successful private individuals resort to. Why not have similar economical docks in our remote possessions for the repair of ships of war? They might not be very sightly in the dockyards, but they would be quite as serviceable as any that can be provided. Mr. Lungley would probably require short notice to dock and repair the Warrior. Those, therefore, who are always deploring the want of docks overlook the fact that docks to any required extent may always be provided at a few weeks’ notice. The Admiralty have only to invite tenders for the overhaul of the Warrior and the other ships to receive the offer of more private docks than they would care to use. M^Lungiey’s'yard ° f The ca P a F> ili ties of Mr. Lungley’s yard are very great. The yard is well stocked with machinery, and constantly receiving addi- tions to meet the requirements of the present busy time. During the Russian war Mr. Lungley built several vessels for the Admiralty, not one of which has been condemned or broken up, — a fact alike creditable to the builder, and to Mr. Letty, the dockyard inspecting officer. Several of the steam-vessels of the fleet of the ■VIEW OF MESSRS- SAMUDA'S YARD. MILL WALL THE THAMES SHIPPING INTERESTS. 297 Union or Cape Mail Company have been built by Mr. Lungley, — two of the number, the Briton and the Roman, being partially fitted on Mr. Lungley ’s unsinkable system. For the Australian trade Mr. Lungley has also built several most successful lio’ht draught of water steamers, and recently he has turned out some first-class iron sailing ships for the China trade, the property of Messrs. Phillips, Shaw, and Lowther. Mr. Phillips, the senior partner of that firm, is, it is well known, the deputy chairman of Lloyds’ Committee. But one of the most creditable pieces of workmanship from Dept- ford-green Dockyard was the Lancashire Witch . This was an American-built ship, put into Mr. Lungley’s hands for strengthening and repairs ; and so well was the work performed that Lloyds’ Committee adopted the Lancashire Witch as the type of repairs for the en- largement of their rules for the restoration of ships to the first class for lengthened periods. This occurred a few months ago; and Lloyds’ Liverpool Committee visited the Lancashire Witch before the vessel was floated out of dock, expressing with the London Committee their high approval of the new plan of strengthening, and the superiority of the workmanship. . Messrs. Samuda’s Yard, Millwall.* Messrs. Samuda’s yard is one of the best-known on the Thames, and has * In the Preface to “ The Dockyards and Shipyards of the Kingdom ” there was published the following proposal of Mr. Samuda to Sir Baldwin Walker, and its repro- duction here stands in need of no apology : — “ I would propose to construct vessels in conjunction with the Government dock- yards: that is, for private contractors to build the entire of the iron hulls, and attach all the armour-plates to them, and to deliver the hulls in the dockj’ards, there to receive the wood decks, magazines, and the entire of the wood fittings ; all of which might be prepared by the Government at the same time that the iron hulls were preparing by the contractors. By this division of the work, which for many reasons I imagine would be advantageous to the service, added to the simplicity of construction, which, looking most carefully into this matter for a long period, has enabled me to suggest that I 298 THE THAMES SHIPPING INTERESTS. been long identified with the construction of the steam- ships of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. Recently a portion of the extensive vacant space between Messrs. Samuda’s original premises and Mr Stewart’s engine-works has been appropriated by the firm, and the first launch took place the other day. Usually Messrs. Samuda have in hand as much as 16,000 tons of shipping, and recently there were the Prince Albert cupola ironclad, and the Tamar transport for the Admiralty, two vessels for the fleet of the Penin- sular and Oriental Company, two for the Viceroy of Egypt, and four for foreign governments and steam navigation companies of importance. The Prince Albert is entirely built of iron, and the topsides for 11 feet from the gunwale downwards is to be covered with 4^-inch armour, resting on 18 inches of teak. The entire top- sides will consequently be protected with armour, and for five feet below the water. The armament will be in four cupolas on Captain Coles’s plan, and the deck, which will be covered with iron, is adapted to firing at an object within 40 feet of the side. Finally, the stem is of great strength, and will be adapted to run- ning down. Placing this ship in the hands of Messrs. Samuda was one of the few good things that the pre- sent Admiralty have done, because Mr. Samuda is an enlightened and zealous advocate of cupola ships. The ship of war building for the Viceroy of Egypt is of a very useful class, being only 350 tons burthen, and drawing no more than 4 feet of water, although carry- think I could undertake to produce three vessels in two years (4,000 tons each) if I were required by the Government to hold myself completely at their disposal, and I imagine that three others might be found who would supply an equal number, and thus the Government might secure frigates at the rate of six a year, which I imagine, looking to what the French Government are doing, is the smallest progress consistent with safety.” • ' . ■VIEW OF MESSRS. JAMES ASH AND CO. S YARD, CUBITT TOWN. raw » sui-ix ' n ilri i Mfc itin!i i!i! #t« *tM t (*Ji mwinpM "* • ■ * 5 - v J I. i,- • i*- ; ; - v *! ••tn* -'*■ ^‘J* i \ "jEsiSi l : ^•V.-.v. ■'* ^^ai='a*‘-V. ii3/' ' i ' . ».* ■VIEW OF MESSRS. JAMES ASH AND CO.'S YARD, CUBITT TOWN. THE THAMES SHIPPING INTERESTS. 299 mg two rifled guns in fixed shields at the extremities. This useful small craft is fitted with twin screws, and by these screws the guns will be trained and the gunboat steered. Recently a cupola corvette has been laid down in the Messrs. Samuda’s yard for the Prussian Govern- ment, of somewhat similar dimensions to the cupola ship built for Denmark by the Messrs. Napier last year. The yard of the Messrs. Samuda is adapted for the construc- tion of ships of the largest class, possessing as it does a fine launching frontage, and being as it is well stocked with machinery. Messra. jamM Ash jf ]\f essrs# Samuda’s yard ranks high Town.* for the construction of steamships of the first class and ships of war, and Mr. Lungley’s yard is remarkable for the combination it presents, that of Messrs. James Ash and Co. is notable for the fact that Mr. Ash has been the successful designer of many of the best ships afloat. For eleven years Mr. Ash was in the employment of Messrs. C. J. Mare and Co., for * The following are the names of some of the many vessels built from the designs of Mr. James Ash : — The Pera „ Delia „ Mooltan „ Poonah „ Nepaul „ Ly-ee-Moon „ Genova ,, Torino OCEAN MAIL VESSELS. I } • I J } Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Messrs. Dent, China. Genoese Transatlantic Steam Navigation Company. CHANNEL PACKETS. The Normandy „ John Penn „ Prince Frederick William. „ Empress „ Queen „ Alliance „ Havre „ Lady of the Lake „ Lord of the Isles „ Fantaisie „ Immaculate Conception .... „ Dolphin 1 I I Dover Mail Steam Packet Company. South-Western Steam Packet Company. Southampton and Isle of Wight Improved Steam Packet Company. Yacht for the Grand-Duke Maximilian. Yacht for his Holiness the Pope. General Steam Navigation Company. 300 THE THAMES SHIPPING INTERESTS. six years in the employment of the Thames Iron Works, and it was during the last of these years that Mr. Mackrow, the present designer of the Thames Iron Works, acted as assistant to Mr. Ash. Than Mr. Ash the Thames has no more accomplished naval architect, and his yard is admirably adapted for the construction of ships of all classes. As a practical appreciation of Mr. Ash’s architectural skill, Arthur Anderson, Esq., the chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, has entrusted him with the building of a yacht, — a hint not to be lost sight of by yachtsmen, nor by the Admiralty when in want of fast-going craft for despatch purposes. Although only beginning business a year past Michael- mas, several ships have been launched by the firm : among the number, two vessels for the Peninsular and Oriental Company ; a steamer for the South Western Railway Company, intended for the Channel Islands station, which has realised a speed of eighteen statute miles an hour; a steamer of more moderate speed for the Australian passenger trade ; and two paddle-wheel steamers of 770 tons to realise a speed of nineteen statute miles an hour. The yard has a considerable river frontage, with a depth of 650 feet ; and the plant, the whole of which has not yet been fitted, is of the newest and best designs and workman- ship. When the firm began business the iron ship- wrights and the bricklayers began work together, — a circumstance that places in a strong light the im- mense resources of this country for iron shipbuilding. To enable iron ships to be built anywhere a few fur- naces are only wanted, and with these, and tools and iron, yachts, first-class steamers, or iron-clad ships of war may be begun. Is it not, therefore, a marvel that in this iron country a single voice should be hence- forth raised in behalf of wooden ships ? -VIEW OF MESSRS. JAMES ASH AND CO.'S YARD, CUBITT TOWN. 301 Chapter XV. THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS.* ironworki rkenhead Messrs - Laird Brothers have an esta- blishment of great compactness and com- pleteness. With a frontage of only some 900 feet and a depth of only some 600 feet, they present building and repairing facilities such as raise the firm to a high position in the shipbuilding world. At the extreme right of the works the backward cupola ram-ship is building on No. 4 slip, and on the adjoining, or No. 3 slip, the forward cupola ram was built. The first of these slips is 230 feet long, and the second 240 feet long. To the left of these slips there is a tidal dock ; next to that, No. 4 graving dock, 440 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 22 feet 3 inches of water on a 20 feet tide ; next to that, No. 2 and No. 1 building slips, the one 250 feet, the other 400 feet ; next to these, No. 3 graving dock, 400 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 26 feet of water on a 20 feet tide ; next to that, No. 2 graving dock, 200 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 18 feet 3 inches of water on a 20 feet tide ; and finally, next to that, No. 1 graving dock, * This is not to be taken as a list of the Mersey shipbuilding firms, for these are ve-y i nmerous. 302 THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. 300 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 18 feet 3 inches of water on a 20 feet tide. The extreme left of the works is a timber yard with a travelling crane over it. Behind, and more or less adjoining these docks and building slips, are grouped the erecting shops, the fitting shops, the engineer and millwright shops, the pattern and boiler shops, the rigging loft, mould loft, smiths’ shops, angle iron, frame bending, punching, and other sheds. The lesson of the The lesson of the Messrs. Laird’s Messrs. Laird s Works. works is that, for shipbuilding and repairing on the greatest scale — the 6,621 tons iron- clad Agincourt for the Royal Navy being in course of construction in No. 3 graving dock — very little more room is needed than is usually found unappropriated in front of the official residences in the dockyards. The nearer the work is to the workshops the more effective is the labour of the workmen, and were this principle only acted on in the dockyards large tracts of ground would at once become available for other pur- poses. Within the area of 900 by 600 feet the Messrs. Laird can simultaneously construct from 16,000 to 18,000 tons of shipping — a quantity equal to the whole present contract ironclad tonnage for the Royal Navy. Between the Messrs. Laird and their workmen the utmost cordiality prevails, the convenience and comfort of the workmen being constantly kept in view by the firm. and^Co Joi shipbuiMng This yard is very compact, forming Yard, Liverpool. nearly a square, with an area of eight acres. The capabilities of this yard may be shown by the following statistics: — The river frontage contains nearly 500 feet. Frame and circular saw-rooms, 80 by THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. 303 30 feet. Deck planing machine-room, 100 by 50 feet. No. 1. Joiners’ shop, above and below, 180 by 25 feet, fitted v ith machinery, model-room in connection, and foreman’s office and timekeeper’s house. 2. Joiners’ shop, 80 by 35 feet, fitted with machinery of the most modern and approved kind. The offices, general and private, occupying a convenient part of the yard and easily approached, the upper part of which are devoted to drawing-offices, &c. Centre of yard — furnaces, angle iron shops for smiths’ work, with drilling shed attached, a number of punching and shearing machines, occupying together an area of 170 by 100 feet. Also, in addition are five sheds for various purposes connected with ship- building. No. 1. 100 by 25 feet, for making wooden spars, with boat-loft over. No. 2. 200 by 50 feet, for making iron spars, with mould-room over. No. 3. 200 by 50 feet, fitted up with single and double fires for shipping and general smith’s work. No. 4. 200 by 50 feet, fitted with fires, with drilling, punching, and shearing machines for angles, plates, &c. No. 5. 200 feet by 50 feet, containing furnaces and machines requisite for bending frames and various other purposes. At upper end of sheds are a range of stores, 165 by 20 feet, containing paint, plumbing shop, and general require- ments for the yard. The work the firm have on hand is as follows : — Two iron ships of 600 tons, two of 1,200 tons, three of steel 1,200 tons, one do. steel 1,350 tons, one steel paddle steamer of 1,500 tons, 350-horse power, one screw yacht 108 tons, one paddle 400 tons, 150- horse power, one screw 1,500 tons, 450-horse power; amounting in all to more than 12,000 tons; besides fitting other vessels in dock, which have been launched recently. The firm were the first who made steel spars for ships five or six years ago ; since then they have 304 THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. built many steel steamers and other small vessels for the Nile and other places. They were the first to receive orders for building merchant ships and steamers from 1,200 to 1,500 tons. They were also the first who adopted the use of steel for the rigging of the ships they are now building, the ships having standing rigging, &c., of steel, besides masts and spars of the same material. Mr. Jones, the senior partner of the firm, is the patentee of the angulated principle for war vessels. The machinery is driven by four engines of 20-horse power. Number of hands employed in the yard 1,200. Messrs. Thomas ver- J n this building yard there are now shipbuilding Yard, in an advanced state of forwardness five large vessels, of which the following are the capacities: — one 1,200 tons, one 1,000 tons, one 900 tons, one 800 tons, and one 700 tons. In addition, Messrs. Vernon are about to lay down keels for five other large vessels, of an average of 1,000 tons each ; and they have in the Liverpool Docks, just completed, the fine clipper ship, Robert Lees , of 1,200 tons register, and the barque Mount Vernon , of 560 tons register. During the past year they launched nine large vessels, of an aggregate of 9,000 tons. It is hardly necessary to state that these vessels, built and building, are all A 1 12 years’ class at Lloyds’, and 20 years’ class with the Liverpool Underwriters’ Association. The firm of Messrs. Thomas Vernon and Sons is one of long standing — the late Mr. Thomas Vernon having been the constructor of thirty iron barges for the Shannon navigation thirty years ago. Up to 1843 Mr. Vernon had built and launched thirty-seven vessels, chiefly of iron, and some of them steam-vessels of con- siderable power and tonnage; and from 1844 to 1861, THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. 305 the firm built and launched no fewer than 109 vessels of an aggregate measured capacity of 46,000 tons. Besides this large amount of tonnage, the firm have had their hands more or less full with various engineering works ; the great iron landing-stage at Prince’s Pier, Liverpool, the iron landing-stage at Woodside Ferry, Birkenhead, and the iron low- water basin stage, Birken- head, being the more prominent and important of these. Messrs. Vernon are also the constructors of the two first of Mr. Bourne’s steam train of barges for the navi- gation of the Indus, as well as barges for the Ganges ; and it will be remembered that they restored the Great Britain steamship after the unfortunate stranding in Dundrum Bay. The dimensions of the yard are large, and the machi- nery and plant such as give it rank with the large private shipyards of the kingdom. From south to north the yard stretches along the river margin 486 feet, and from east to west 323 feet. In the central portion of the east side are situated a commodious range of writing and drawing offices, and contiguous the large drafting room in which the ribs and framing of the different vessels are drawn to the full size. The southern margin of the yard is occupied by the smiths’ shop, which is 230 feet long by 40 feet wide. This shop, in which is turned out the smith’s work of the yard, contains twenty blast hearths, and is amply furnished with all the tools re- quired in the preparation of heavy ironwork, including the making of stern and rudder posts and the scarphing of keels. It also contains a steam-hammer of consider- able dimensions and weight. Just beyond the smiths’ shop, and still more south, is the shop and yard for bending the ribs and other portions of the framing of first-class iron ships. This shop is provided with the 306 THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. requisite extent of perforated iron floor. The premises contain, in addition to two sets of large rollers for bending or flattening rods or plate iron, the usual punching, drilling, and trimming machines of all the flrst-class yards. Messrs. Vernon have also ironworks of a very large extent on the opposite side of the Mersey at Jranmere, and it is at these works where the landing-stages above referred to were constructed. The number of work- men employed by the Messrs. Vernon, at their two establishments, is about 1,300. buiidin^' ^Yard S t^x' W. Miller’s shipbuilding yard teth Dock, Liverpool, covers about 350 feet by 360, and pos- sesses a river frontage of 350 feet. In this yard was built the Oreta , now called the Florida , and the Alexandra , about which so much stir was made relative to its seizure, which case was decided in favour of the defend- ants. The firm have been established ten years, and the experience of Mr. W. C. Miller, acquired by several years’ occupation in the Devonport Dockyard, is a guarantee of knowledge and capability in building vessels, more especially for war purposes. In addition to the gunboats built by Mr. Miller during the Crimean war, the Government since that period have intrusted him with contracts for two despatch boats, and two large class gunboats. During the last twelve months he has built the first and only iron sailing vessel with an iron deck on Harland’s patent principle, named the Huddersfield. This ship has also iron fore and main mast, top-masts, lower and double topsail yards, iron mizen-mast, top-mast, and top-gallant-masts, all in one. The vessel is built on an entirely new principle, combining all the advantages which can be derived THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. 307 from the substitution of iron for wood. Among the number of vessels built in the yard may be mentioned the Phantom , which was constructed entirely for running the blockade. She has made the passage from Liverpool to Madeira in six days nine hours. This vessel is also built entirely of steel, thus showing the advantages of vessels of that material. During the last eighteen months Mr. Miller has turned out twelve vessels of various sizes— steamers and sailing vessels. There are at present three vessels on the stocks, besides orders for several others. The three vessels on hand are, one for the Calcutta trade of 1,000 tons, nearly ready for launching. This ship is for Messrs. Prowse and Co., large shipowners of Liver- pool, who have now given their attention to the substi- tution of iron vessels for their trade, as being more economical in every point of view. No. 2 vessel is a powerful iron dredge for the Liverpool Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. No. 3, a screw steamer for abroad. The machinery for the screw steamer and dredger are constructing by Messrs. Fawcett, Preston, and Co. This dredger is the second Mr. Miller has built for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. In the yard are various workshops for the purposes of shipbuilding. The extent of Mr. W. C. Miller’s business, and which is daily increas- ing, will require larger and better-appointed premises. The advantages derived from the manufacture of iron on the spot are well attested. Mr. Miller has the Mersey Steel and Iron Works in close proximity to his yard. TheBritanniaEngine These works are situated in the imme- Works, Birkenhead. diate vicinity of the great float, a short distance from the 60-ton crane and graving docks, and directly opposite the new chain test works, in a line x 2 808 THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. with Duke-street. The railway passes through the works, being an extension from the London and North- Western and Great Western Companies’ goods stations, branching off on the margin of the docks and float, and affording facilities for goods traffic to all parts of the king- dom. The works were commenced by Mr. James Taylor (under the firm of J amesTaylor and Co.) in the year 1852, in Cathcart-street, when several large iron structures were built for Australia ; engine and boiler work being the principal feature in the establishment. The present workshops cover an area of about 2J acres, one-third of which is taken up by an iron and brass foundry, and the remaining portion the engineers’ and boiler- makers’ departments, consisting of turning, erecting, and smiths’ shops, and boiler yard, with offices. The works are well adapted for a large class of general engineering and boiler work, but hitherto have been chiefly devoted to the manufacture of steam machinery for hoisting purposes with double engines, for which a patent was taken out by Mr. Taylor, the proprietor of the works, in 1852, and since which they have been introduced into most of her Majesty’s dockyards, where they are extensively used as labour-saving machines, into many private yards both at home and abroad, as well as yards of foreign Governments. They are also well adapted for carrying on the manufacture of marine engine and boiler work, having extensive and commodious sheds for the latter, fitted up with over- head travellers running the full extent of the shops, and other powerful appliances requisite for carrying on work of the heaviest class. D^°°c side Gra (L? These premises are situated between mited), Birkenhead, the Monks and Woodside Ferries, cover- THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. 309 ing a space of over 15,000 yards; the largest dock lias an entrance of 85 feet, which is wider bv 15 feet than any on the Liverpool side. There is 22 to 23 feet of water on the blocks on the highest spring tides; the other docks are smaller. Here repairs, both for wood and iron ships, are carried on, the machinery for each being on the premises. In the yard the iron masts for H.M. ships Royal Oak and Caledonia were made. The firm are now employed making masts for others of H.M. ships. In the large dock the late Pasha of Egypt’s royal yacht Fied Geliard , paddle steamer, 82 feet wide, came in under her own steam, was blocked, and lengthened 70 feet without having to remove either engines or paddle- wheels; the length was 387 feet. The docks are built on and cut out of the red sandstone, and could be deepened to any extent for greater draught, if re- quired, without disturbing the side walls, for a mere trifling outlay. The large dock is peculiar in con- struction, taking in three ships of 1,000 to 1,400 tons each ; the firm have blocked five vessels in it on one tide ; it is a wet or dry dock at pleasure, as they can retain the water at will. The other docks work with gates, as usual, simply excluding the water. There is little or no tidal current for 600 or 700 feet from the wall; in fact, what little there is always runs ebb, i.e. north, close to the wall. The docks are under the manage- ment of Mr. W. Ashley Clayton. These docks and those of their neighbours, the Messrs. Laird and Co., are the new private docks in the Mersey, the rest being under the control of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. Repairs, not building, are the primary considerations of the com- pany, and for this the docks are advantageously laid out ; all materials and workshops being within its own walls, saving both time and labour. 310 THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. Since tlie above was written the company have taken the adjoining premises (7,500 yards) for iron ship build- ing, having the London, North Western, and Great Western rails on the quays. g. r. Clover and This fi rm p ave an extensive shipbuild- Co., Liverpool, and . # » Private Graving Docks mg establishment in Birkenhead, in a and Building Yard, ° . _ __ ’ . , Birkenhead. direct line with Messrs. Clayton, Laird, and Co.’s. The repairing yard, with every convenience, is on the Liverpool side of the Mersey, at 1, Baffin- street, Queen’s Graving Dock. Within the establishment are manufactured iron and steel masts, all kinds of ship ironwork, and every convenience for repairing ships in graving dock. The firm have been established since 1825, and have had considerable experience in the constant repairs of ships of all class of tonnage. The Egyptian Frigate, Schea Gehead , was built and lengthened by this firm. The establishment at Birkenhead consists of three graving docks, which will accommodate about 5,000 tons of shipping at one time, and there is every facility on the premises for executing all kind of repairs in wood or iron. There is one iron ship nearly finished of 1,000 tons, and another of 1,200 tons nearly in frame. Since the establishment was opened in September, 1856, upwards of 490 vessels have been repaired, &c., in these graving docks, the tonnage of which amounts to 310,000 tons. The length of blocks for the accommodation of vessels for repairs is as under : — No. 1. — Length of block 700 feet. No. 2. „ 280 feet. No. 3. „ ,, 180 feet. Vessels of any size can be docked in the above docks. THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. 311 The river frontage is 500 feet, and the yard is nearly six acres. No. 1. Large dock, 4001t. long, with 80ft. of entrance. No. 2. — Dock, 300 ft. long, with 36ft. of entrance. No. 3— Dock, 200 ft. long, with 35 ft. of entrance. The draught of water in these docks at spring tide is 22 feet. There are extensive rooms for block-making, joiners’ shops, mould lofts, fitting shops, smiths’, machinery for executing iron ship-building, saw-pits and saw-mills, and every convenience for wood as well as iron ship-building. ancf Co^s shipbuilding The Baffin-street yard has every ac- Yard Baffin - street commodatioii for the building of iron Biackstone-street, near vessels ; and for the extensive business Sandon Graving Docks, . . . Liverpool. carried on, the capabilities of the yard for ship-building are most admirably adapted. The work- shops, moulding-rooms, &c., are conveniently situated. The river frontage is of sufficient length for buildiim three vessels at the same time, and the depth of water is adequate for the launching of any vessel of consi- derable tonnage, or in fact of any amount of tonnage. The length of the yard is upwards of 600 feet. Xo. 1, moulding-room, is 130 by 40 feet. No. 2, room for wood machinery, 86 by 26 feet. No. 3, engine-house, 30 feet in length. No. 4, angle-iron smithy, contains twenty fires. Ships’ smithy ; eighteen fires, with steam hammer. Forge for large work, ten fires. There are also several shops containing all kinds of machinery well adapted for iron ship-building. At present on the stocks are two large iron ships, the tonnage of which amounts to upwards of 2,500 tons. The yard is also adapted for the extensive repairing of wood and iron ships. The firm have also works at the north end, convenient to the 312 THE MERSEY SHIPPING INTERESTS. Sandon Graving Docks, for repairing, boat-building, &c., similar to the yard in Baffin-street, only on a minor scale. The Baffin-street yard has been established for fifty years. Cato, Miller, and Co. Messrs. Cato, Miller, and Co. supply Brunswick Forge and # # . x ^ ironworks. many of the large iron shipbuilders, both in Liverpool and other parts, with forgings and iron masts. They have a factory capable of making and testing the largest anchors and cables. Four large steam hammers, principally intended for manufacturing the forgings required for iron ships and engines, are used in making iron masts and yards. LONDON : PRINTED BY W. ODHAMS, BURLEIGH STREET, STRAND, W.C. \ \ \ C, 0 \