the Pacific in Samoa. But there was no default, and the Calliope was saved. Let me read to you one passage, one graphic and simple passage from the captain's account: “I called on the staff engineer for every pound of speed he could Extract from Capt. give us, and slipped the one remaining cable. The engines worked Kane's admirably, and little by little we gathered way and went out, flooding report. the upper deck with green seas which came in over the bows and which would have sunk many a ship. My fear was that she would not steer and would go on the reef in the passage out, especially as the Trenton, the American ship, was right in the fairway, but we went under her stern and came up head to wind most beautifully. Once outside her it was nothing but hard steaming. If the engines held out we were safe. If anything went wrong with them we were done for, but thanks to the admirable order in which the engines and boilers had been kept we steamed out in safety into the Pacific.' "So splendid, so heart-stirring was the sight of the ship as she steamed out into safety that the brave men who were manning the drifting and sinking ships around her cheered her as she passed, and the emotion of admiration in them was so strong that they lost the sense of their own danger and paid a tribute to the finest piece of seamanship they had seen. I commend this little naval history, for such it will prove to be, to the British public, to the British workmen. commend it to them that they may see that when we ask them for money it is put into ships that are worthy of the traditions of the Navy. I say that if we can still secure such exploits the money is not wasted." I of the Sultan. While we have been more fortunate than others at Samoa, we have Sinking sustained a deplorable loss in the Mediterranean by the sinking of H.M.S. Sultan. It will not be necessary to give particulars of an event which is fresh in the public recollection. CHAPTER XIII. RECAPITULATION OF SUGGESTIONS OFFERED IN NAVAL ANNUAL,' 1887. THE economies and reforms of naval administration urged in The Naval Annual for 1887 are again submitted to the consideration of the reader in the publication for 1888-9. Closing of dockyard schools. DOCKYARDS. Reduction of medical staff in dockyards. More prompt reward of special exertions by professional officers and their subordinates. Classification of workmen. Gradations of pay. More frequent dismissal of the idle and incompetent. Selection of foremen for ascertained personal fitness to carry out work, and not by paper examinations. Relative rank to be given to members of Corps of Constructors. The head to rank, as in France, with a Rear Admiral. EDUCATION AND TRAINING. Removal of the Britannia to an anchorage between Ryde and Osborne. Young officers to have more instruction than at present in navigation, and especially in pilotage. Vessels of the Sunbeam type to be kept constantly at sea, by night and by day, working in and out of harbours and roadsteads, round the Goodwin Sands and along the East Coast of England. Pilotage to be entrusted to the officers under instruction, under supervision. Let us remember Lord Nelson's early experience in the estuary of the Thames as leading up to the masterly handling of the Fleet at the Nile and Copenhagen. Modern languages to be more studied and encouraged. Engineers to have opportunities of seeing the management of engines in the best steamers on the North Atlantic. GUARD-SHIPS. An efficient sea-going ironclad to relieve the Revenge at Queenstown, the Royal Adelaide at Plymouth, the Duke of Wellington at Portsmouth, the Hibernia at Malta, the Victor Emanuel at Hong Kong, and the Urgent at Jamaica. The Liffey store-ship to be abolished. TROOP-SHIPS. The Indian troop-ships to be laid up, and the relief of troops to be carried out under contract with the great steam-ship companies. FOREIGN SQUADRONS. The foreign squadrons to be carefully revised. On certain stations small vessels to be withdrawn. Commence with the ships stationed on the western seaboard of the Atlantic. The flying squadron to visit at intervals the shores of the South Atlantic and the ports of Canada and the United States. AUSTRALIAN SQUADRON. The great political importance of an efficient squadron insisted upon. Such a vessel as the Imperieuse or Warspite should be the flag-ship. A belted cruiser has not sufficient accommodation for an Admiral having the social duties of Commander-in-Chief on the Australian station. Two belted cruisers to take the place of the corvettes of the C class, which have until recently been kept on the station. A Colonial Britannia much needed in Australia. ORDNANCE. The supply of ordnance to be established on the improved system introduced in France since the war with Germany. More experiments before guns and ships are ordered in batches. NAVAL RESERVE. The reserve of officers in the Mercantile Marine to be more closely bound up with the Royal Navy. R Naval Reserve men to be embarked in ships engaged in the annual manœuvres. Encouragement to be given to the Naval Volunteer movement, and to the Colonial Naval Reserves, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, QUEENSTOWN. The Rear-Admiral at Queenstown to have a more active post. command the Coast Guard and First Reserve ships in Ireland. To be second in command of the Reserve Squadron in the annual cruise. To |