PAPERS

ACCOMPANYING

THE REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY

REPORT OF THE ADMIRAL.

WASHINGTON, D. C., November 15, 1886. SIR: Agreeably to your desire that I should prepare a report by the 15th instant embodying suggestions for promoting the efficiency of the Navy, I have the honor to submit the following, which, owing to the brief time available for writing it and the state of my health, may seem to you very imperfect.

There are at the present moment so many points connected with the subject in hand that much consideration is necessary in discussing a matter of such importance. The theme is very familiar to me, but it requires time to put my views in proper shape.

Last year I had the honor to submit, in my annual report, a recom mendation to repair the iron-clads now laid up at City Point, Va.

In rehabilitating the Navy there is no subject worthy of more consid eration than that of home defense. I consider it of vastly more interest at the present moment than the construction of cruisers, and the ves sels referred to are so well adapted to the protection of our coast that it seems a pity they should be left in the condition they are to-day.

During the civil war these iron-clads proved themselves very effective in bombarding forts, blockading harbors, and keeping the sea in boisterous weather when required to do so, performing almost any duty that could be required of them. In the operations in Charleston Har bor these vessels, including the New Ironsides, were struck 1,273 times by the heaviest shot then in use, and although occasionally disabled by a severe fire they were never so much crippled that they could not go into battle again after a day or two's repairs. To this moment the hulls of these iron-clads bear witness to the ordeal they underwent. The heavy indentations still remaining, without doing any actual damage, attest their strength and endurance.

If these vessels were now armed with heavy rifled-guns they would be as formidable as they were in 1863, '64, and '65.

Lying in their present condition at City Point the iron-clads are a con siderable expense to the Navy, as it is necessary to keep officers and men on board to take care of them, while they are not a particle of use to the country; but if put in proper repair two of them would be quite equal to either of the large monitors Miantonomoh, Monadnock, &c.

The following is a list of the iron-clads referred to:

The amount required to repair the Saugus may seem rather large, bat it must be remembered that after the repairs are finished the Saugus will be equal to a new vessel and the expense incurred would not be half as great as would be required to build a new iron-clad.

When these iron-clads are repaired they could mount 22 heavy rifled guns and could force their way past any forts such as are placed to defend our principal seaboard cities.

It was a great satisfaction to officers of the Navy when money was appropriated by Congress for finishing the double-turreted monitors, thus giving some security against the invasion of our harbors by any tenth-rate naval power which might happen to possess a couple of British-built iron-clads. Only a few years ago one of these minor powers boasted that it could lay San Francisco and New York under contribution. I am sorry to say that at the time this might easily have been done.

We will not be entirely free from the danger of such an invasion until the double-turreted monitors are finished and have their guns mounted, and it can readily be judged how formidable an addition the single-turreted monitors would be if properly repaired, fitted, and armed for the defense of our coast.

All foreign naval powers have vessels of corresponding class to the above which go to swell the aggregate of their resources, but they are always kept in perfect repair.

The country has been much exercised of late over the building of the steamers Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and Dolphin, which were commenced in 1883. The three vessels first named were intended to represent main types of unarmored cruisers considered as indispensable components of a naval force to be used for general service on the high

seas.

The Chicago was to be an example of the largest unarmored fighting cruiser in existence, and it was supposed at the time she was contracted for that she would have no superior in the combination of endurance, speed, and armament.

In the Boston and Atlanta it was intended to develop not only the highest rate of speed but also their fighting qualities by placing the battery of each in a central superstructure on the spar-deck, carrying the, sail power amidships, and giving the forward and after guns unlimited sweep over bow and stern.

So far the new vessels have given no evidence of great speed, and it is feared by those most interested in the matter that they never will, which deficiency will render them useless as commerce-destroyers,

although they may serve the purpose of guarding our interests among the smaller powers which have no naval force.

The building of these vessels was a step in the right direction, as they were planned with the idea of having certain classes of ships that would be most useful in a navy like our own, and out of the numer ous experiments made by naval powers throughout the world to evoke a system which would render our Navy less subject to criticism than that of any European nation.

For the past twenty years we have contented ourselves with watching the nations of Europe build ships, sending officers abroad to examine the improvements which have been made in construction and ordnance. We have obtained drawings of almost every important vessel built in Europe, but in spite of our great experience, acquired with so little expense, we commit more mistakes than were committed by any of the European states in their efforts to build up a navy.

I beg leave to draw your attention to the following list of vessels which have been projected. You will notice what a difference there is in tonnage, displacement, horse-power, &c., and that none of the classes seem to assimilate sufficiently to form a system such as is absolutely necessary in a naval force.

Estimated Coal

Name. Length. Beam. Draught. Displace. Indicated
ment. horse-power. speed.

Heavy

capacity. guns.

We require for the Navy the following classes of vessels which will at least enable us to show that we have a system, even if our ships do not equal in speed those of foreign powers.

The first class should be represented by a vessel not less than 6,000 or more than 7,000 tons, and able to make for a few hours a speed of 19 knots.

The second class should be a vessel of not less than 4,500 or more than 5,000 tons, able to make for a few hours a speed of 19 knots. Vessels of the second class to serve as flag-ships on foreign stations.

The third class should be a vessel of 3,000 tons, able to make for a few hours a speed of 18 knots.

It may seem to those who have not closely studied the question that the amount of speed I have estimated is preposterous. It has been asserted that the speed of 18 knots attained by foreign ships of war on their trial trips over a measured mile is never equaled after the ves sels are put in commission. To this I must reply that such speed is familiar to the transatlantic racers, which attain it on every voyage. It is not probable that any war vessel in the world could overtake one of these last-named vessels.

There is nothing in which improvement is made so slowly as in the speed of our naval vessels, for the reason that we make no advance in building steam-engines, but have followed in a beaten track for many years. We adhere to the old-fashioned boilers that involve the consumption of an amount of coal not suited to a nation like ourselves, since we have no coaling stations scattered around the world like Great Britain, France, and Germany.

We have in this country a man of great genius engaged in the construction of marine engines and boilers, but we are blind to his merits. I allude to Mr. Herreshoff, president of the Herreshoff Marine Building Company, of Bristol, R. 1. He is blind also-optically--but gifted with remarkably clear sight as regards the steam engineering of vessels of

war.

The Herreshoff coil boilers are to-day perhaps the most famous in the world.

Mr. Herreshoff's last achievement was the Stiletto, a vessel of 28 tons, which developed a speed of 27 miles an hour, exceeding anything ever attained by our fastest river boats.

Although this gentleman has succeeded in obtaining such a high rate of speed, he has received little encouragement from the Government to induce him to adapt his engines and boilers to a larger class of vessels. Engineers generally, both in and out of the Navy, seem opposed to the Herreshoff system, although I have yet to hear any good reasons for their being so; but one of the most able of the profession we have ever had in the Navy, Chief Engineer B. F. Isherwood, is a strong advocate of it.

To obtain the great speed necessary for a commerce-destroyer the steam power should exceed the displacement as two to one; or actually a vessel of 4,000 tons displacement should have over 8,000 horse power. It has been found almost impossible to supply a vessel of war with a sufficient number of boilers of the ordinary type to drive her rapidly through the water and at the same time give space for a large amount of coal, provisions, ordnance stores, ship's stores, clothing, &c.

This difficulty is obviated in the large merchant steamers crossing the Atlantic, which require only a few days' coal, provisions, &c., and can therefore use the heaviest boilers and as many of them as they please. It is believed by the best authorities that the Herreshoff boiler will furnish a given quantity of power with less than half the weight of any other type of boiler now in use in this country, especially when com bustion is forced to the maximum by blowing air into a closed fire-room. Second. It can be properly used with a higher rate of combustion per square foot of grate surface than any other type of boiler, owing to its entire freedom from "foaming" at all rates of combustion, and to the impossibility of the heat forcing the water from the metallic surfaces and burning them out.

Third. In a vessel of a given displacement, with a carefully constructed air-tight fire-room and adequate blowers, blowing into it, twenty indicated horse-power can be obtained from each square foot of grate surface during the usual trial test.

Fourth. The Herreshoff boilers can be safely used up to a pressure of several hundred pounds per square inch. In experiments made by Chief Engineer Isherwood he used these boilers at a pressure of 260 pounds, and was prevented from sending the steam up higher only for want of a steam-gauge to indicate a higher pressure.

Fifth. The Herreshoff has much less height than other boilers, which will enable it to be placed below the water line in small vessels, or those

of moderate draught of water an important consideration in vessels of

war.

Sixth. The Herreshoff engine can be safely worked at from five to six hundred revolutions per minute. The high reciprocating speed of piston, in connection with a high boiler pressure, allows the engine to be made exceedingly light in proportion to the power it develops. There is no other system of machinery besides the Herreshoff and the Belleville that would give the power required to develop great speed in ships of war, or the space and weight generally allotted to boilers and engines.

Heretofore we have had no experience with the Herreshoff boiler, using several boilers to supply one engine; but such is my confidence in the ability of the Messrs. Herreshoff that I have no doubt of the success of any plan they may recommend. Their designs are as notable for originality and propriety of adaptation as for their success.

There is only one question that seems liable to arise, owing to the multiplicity of boilers; that is the feeding of several boilers to supply one engine; but that is a mechanical difficulty which Mr. Herreshoff claims he can overcome.

We have now reached a point where the greatest speed is demanded for a ship of war. A vessel making but 15 or 16 knots would be use less as a cruiser in time of war, for such a vessel could catch nothing and could not escape from a superior force.

To gain the necessary speed it is requisite to decrease the weights and increase the power, which can only be done by a resort to the Herreshoff system, in which the boiler does not weigh more than half as much as the Scotch boiler and the engines not more than two-thirds. The Herreshoff and the Belleville are the only types of multitubu lous boilers which have as yet been applied to sea-going vessels. So far as I am able to judge, the Herreshoff system is in advance of the other, although the Belleville boiler has been carefully fostered by the French Government, while the Herreshoff boiler has received no particular encouragement from the Government of the United States beyond the purchase of some steam-launches, which have proved themselves the best in our Navy.

The experiments made in France with the vessels of war Voltigeur and Milan have removed all doubts as to the feasibility of the multitubulous system of boilers, and the success attained by the Messrs. Herreshoff indicates that their methods have passed beyond the realms of experiment.

Up to the present time France has obtained for two of her vessels of war greater speed than any other naval power, even surpassing Great Britain, the power which claims the highest speed.

The gunboat Milan, built on the same principle as the dispatch vessel Voltigeur, is 303 feet in length, and 33 feet beam, with a displacement of about 1,600 tons. With a draught of 12 feet the Milan has attained a speed of 193 knots with a developed horse power of 4,000.

In the Herreshoff boiler this country possesses something superior to the Belleville boiler of France, and it remains to be seen which of the two nations will take the lead in perfecting a safe and desirable marine boiler with a reduction of nearly 50 per cent. as compared with the weight of the Scotch type of engine and boilers, and greatly increasing the efficiency of vessels of war.

As the Milan with a length of 303 feet has attained a speed of 19 knots with 4,000 horse-power, I see no difliculty in attaining a speed of