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CHAPTER IX.

A NAVAL RETROSPECT.

E had reached 1850, the last year of the half-century. About the beginning of the century, in 1809, "the British fleet," says Alison, "was at the zenith of its power, and Great Britain first appeared in the field on a scale adequate to her mighty strength. With a fleet of nearly 1,100 vessels, including 240 of the line, manned by 140,000 men, she blockaded every hostile harbour in Europe, and still had 37 ships of the line to strike a blow at the Scheldt. With 100,000 regular troops she maintained her immense colonial empire; with 191,000 more she ruled India; with 400,000 militia she guarded the British Isles; while her fleet could convey yet another 100,000, with which she menaced at once Antwerp, Madrid, and Naples; while Lord Minto, the Governor-General of India, announced in his despatches with well-founded pride that from Cape Comorin to Cape Horn a French flag could nowhere be found flying." Yet our ships had no excellence in structural form, nor were our armaments in any way remarkable. It was the pluck, the skill, and the endurance of our sailors, officers and men, and not, it may be repeated, any superiority in our ships or armaments, that gave us, under Providence, and has ever since enabled us to maintain, our supremacy on the seas.

"Up to the end of the last century," says Captain Pim, "little or nothing had been written on naval architecture. We were content to learn from our neighbours, and were slow even at that." But the half-century ending in 1850, and especially its closing years, had seen a change: much

study had been given to, and a great deal written on, the subject. As a result, the forms of our ships had improved.* Moreover, steam had inaugurated a new era. Our fleet still consisted of sailing line of battle ships, frigates, sloops, and smaller vessels.t The stately white-winged threedecker, and her beautiful full-rigged companions, yet remained to us. But a change from sailing to steam ships had commenced, and seemed about to transform our Navy; and the old picturesque yet formidable man-of-war, which, however, was helpless against wind and tide, must, it was felt, give way to her less beautiful rival, which boldly set both at defiance. The screw, moreover, was superseding the paddle-wheel‡ as a means of propulsion, to the great advantage of our war-ships in form and speed. Our naval architects did not even then, perhaps, equal the French, but they would yet, it was hoped, surpass them. With regard to the Armaments of our ships, these, too, were in the way of improvement.§

The Year opened with the announcement in the Government Gazette of the appointment of a Royal Commission for the organization of a Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (an extension of previous local expositions and of a suggested National Exhibition), proposed to be held at the instance of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort. The idea was full of promise of international peace and friendship. We could not, however, lay down our arms and shut up our dockyards. It was necessary to go on

"It is said, however, that out of 150 ships on the Navy List in 1850, upwards of 50 were from foreign models."-Captain Eardley-Wilmot.

"In 1850 Great Britain possessed 86 line of battle ships, all sailing vessels, many of them upwards of thirty years old, and built on still older models, besides 101 frigates of all classes, but chiefly small, and many of these also of antiquated models.”—Parliamentary Paper.

It has been said that "few things of moment have had more insignificant beginnings than the screw-propeller for steamships; and few inventions are destined to produce more important benefits."

§ The Report of the Juries of the Great Exhibition of 1851 remarks that, "instead of firing the great guns by the same mechanism as old muskets, caps and hammers have been adapted to them. Advantages of still higher importance have been obtained by the introduction of guns of very large calibre, mainly due to General Paixhans, which were introduced nearly twenty years ago, and called canons à la Paixhans. At first very few such were placed in each ship, but now we find complete batteries of 68-pounders, the effect of which cannot fail to be tremendous."

building our men-of-war. The Navy in this year was said to consist of 339 sailing-vessels and 161 steamers.

In some of the equipments of our ships great improvements had been made. The lightning-conductors of Sir W. S. Harris, by making metallic conductors an integral part of the hull and masts, protected the ship from the effects of lightning at all times and under all circumstances without the officers and crew being in any way concerned in the matter.* The rigging, blocks and sails of ships had also been improved; the substitution of water-tanks, which kept the water perfectly pure on long voyages, for casks, had contributed to the health and comfort of both officers and crews. The anchors introduced by Lieutenant Rodgers were considered an improvement; the palm, instead of being flat, presenting two inclined planes, which cut the sand or mud instead of resisting perpendicularly, and so held much more firmly. We have already alluded to the chain cables, and the advantages they possessed over the hempen cables formerly employed.

Our ships would have been of little use, however, without our sailors, who, whatever the changes in the materiel of our Navy, remained, as ever, the finest in the world. But the old difficulty of filling up the complement of our ships in times of peace still existed, though it seemed to disappear in war time, when they usually came in shoals. It was a serious one, and needed solution, which we hoped would ere long be found.

The estimates for 1850-51 for wages to the establishment of Chatham Yard amounted to £91,731; for Teams, £1,326; for Police, £2,970; and for Men employed on New Architectural Works, Improvements and Repairs, £12,799; together with £14,898 for all the Yards in the aggregate to the men of the Yard-craft.

*The Report of the Juries of the Great Exhibition of 1851 (from which we take some of these particulars) tells us that Sir Baldwin Walker experienced the great advantages of this system in a large frigate commanded by him, which was struck both on the fore and main masts by heavy discharges of lightning on the coast of Mexico. In this case the force of the discharge was such as to practically fuse the metallic point aloft on which the lightning struck, and leave spots of fusion on the surface of the conducting-plates, but without the least damage being done to the spars or hull; and this, too, while the topgallant masts were housed.

It had for some time been felt that the introduction of steam, and the consequent lengthening of our ships, with their increased draught of water, rendered it necessary to provide longer docks and suitable basins in the Yard for the reception of our largest vessels. A considerable extent of the waste land already alluded to as lying between the east end of the Yard and a creek of the Medway opening into the river at either end, and known as St. Mary's Creek, described as "a monotonous and desolate morass, abounding in long dark weeds and luxuriant in dank grass, the undisturbed haunt of the common kingfisher and the solitary snipe, together with creeping things innumerable," had this year been purchased with that object.* The place is well known to the readers of Dickens as "Tom-All-Alone's." The origin of the name was singular, and is not generally understood. About 1747 one Thomas Clark, living at what is now called Old Brompton, in order to break away from companions of whom he desired to get quit, bought a piece of waste ground some half-mile from the town, and built himself a house there. There he lived about twenty-five years in solitude, and when returning thither of an evening used to go crying or singing, "Tom's all alone!" Hence the place became known as Tom-All-Alone's. Tom by-and-by married, and had a large family; and as the children grew up they married, and had large families, too; and together they formed a distinct little colony; but the name of the settlement remained unchanged.

We must return for a moment to the Civil Service. The salaries of the Dockyard officers and clerks were at that time paid quarterly, and often we-I mean my own household

*It is very remarkable that, as we have already said, the site of the new basins-which was much more distant from the dockyard of that date than it is from the present yard-was so long ago as the reign of Charles II. considered the best adapted for the purpose. Pepys writes on July 11, 1663: "To the Docke at Chatham by coach, to see the Prince launched, which hath lain in docke repairing these three years: went into her, and was launched in her." By barge to St. Mary's Creek, where Commissioner Pett, doubtful of the growing greatness of Portsmouth by the finding of those creeks there, do design a wette docke, at no great charge, and yet no little one. He thinks towards ten thousand pounds; and the place is likely to be a fit place when the King hath money to do it with." But Charles II., as is well known, felt more concern about other matters.

were brought to extremities before salary day. We were obliged to run up little tradesmen's bills, and when these were paid but a small sum was left to go on with. The case was doubtless the same with all the married junior clerks. A debt, moreover, had been incurred by me for unavoidable family expenses, and that had to be paid by quarterly instalments. I could not well have got through that trying period but for the help of kind friends whom Providence raised up, and whose generosity to me I can never forget. But I refer with especial gratitude and pleasure to the Committee of the Royal Literary Fund, who presented me with the sum of £40, by which I was enabled to pay off the only serious debt that I had incurred. I need scarcely add that I felt honoured by the gift.*

One of the most important Acts of Parliament in 1850 was that for which we are indebted to Mr. Ewart and the Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed at his suggestion in 1849, authorizing the formation of Free Libraries for the people, to be supported by local taxation. I need hardly remind my readers that it was (and it continues to be) applicable to any borough, district, or parish, whatever the number of population; that a meeting of the ratepayers might be obtained by the requisition of ten of them addressed to the Town Council or Local Board; and that the adoption or rejection of the Act was to be decided by a majority of those present at the meeting; that if the local authorities preferred it, the will of the majority might be ascertained by the issue of voting papers; and that all such Libraries were to be, as their name denoted, absolutely free to the public. I was much interested in this Act, and shall have to speak of Institutions which sprang from it again and again hereafter.

The foundations of the new (iron) Bridge at Rochester were contracted for in 1850 by Messrs. Fox and Hender

"The Royal Literary Fund was founded in 1790 by David Williams, an ex-Dissenting minister, the friend of Franklin, Mackintosh, and others, and was incorporated in 1818, its object being to relieve literary men of all nations in their pecuniary embarrassments. In 1889 grants to the amount of £2,095 were made to forty authors. From 1790 to 1889 a sum of £100,000 has been thus distributed. The expenditure is met by the subscriptions of the anniversary dinner and investments. The income was £3,850 in 1889."-Chambers Cyclopædia (1890).