The Question 
 
 of 8)l B,

 
 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS
 
 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS 
 
 THE NA VY AND THE MERCHANT 
 MARINE 
 
 BY 
 
 J. D. JERROLD KELLEY 
 
 LIEUT. U. S. NAVY . . 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 1884 

 
 COPYRIGHT, 1884, BY 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. 
 
 TROWS 
 
 PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 
 NI1V YORK.
 
 With this contribution to the vexed ques- 
 tion of ships I venture to associate the name 
 of James Gordon Bennett, Esq., in grateful 
 recognition of the truth, courage, and loyalty 
 with which the NEW YORK HERALD has 
 sustained the cause of ships and sailors 
 everywhere. 
 
 j. D. y. K. 
 
 U. S. Naval Board of Inspection Foreign Vessels, 
 New York City, January 31, 1884.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 OUR CHANCES FOR MARITIME SUCCESS, . . . i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 RISE AND FALL OF OUR COMMERCE, 12 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE CAUSES OF OUR DECAY, 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE NAVIGATION LAWS, 31 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 FREE SHIPS, 45 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MARINE DISASTERS. THE IMPORTANCE OF A THOROUGH 
 TRAINING FOR OFFICERS AND SEAMEN, . . -55 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION 69 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE TRAINING <>i- BRITISH SEAMEN, 88
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PACE 
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE, . . .108 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 UNION OF THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE, . 137 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED, 158 
 
 APPENDIX 1 187 
 
 APPENDIX IL, . . . - 208 
 
 APPENDIX III. 217 
 
 APPENDIX IV 228
 
 The Question of Ships. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OUR CHANCES FOR MARITIME SUCCESS. 
 
 IT is a curious fact that a great commercial ques- 
 tion, vital in its influence upon the well-being of an 
 eminently practical nation, should so often be ap- 
 proached upon the side of sentiment. A bewilder- 
 ing maze of statistics, an array of accommodating 
 figures, and a dexterous spinning of subtle phrases, 
 are made to form the premises, not of an irrefutable 
 conclusion, but of an appeal, which fires the heart, 
 if it do not satisfy the head, of many a patriot. To 
 discuss a question so sober, so melancholy as the 
 restoration of the Merchant Marine, from the stand- 
 point of its poetical merits, is not a priori convincing 
 of its imminent necessity ; and, whether an advocate 
 shines in the broad light-beam of free-trade, or is 
 glorious in the panoply of protection, he should for- 
 swear heroics and pleas ad hominem, and treat the 
 subject from the grossly material vantage-ground of 
 dollars and cents. 
 
 There should be in the beginning, for example, a 
 thorough understanding of the terms to be employed
 
 2 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 in the discussion : a spade should be called a spade, 
 and mean nothing else ; the necessity and fitness for 
 the possession of a merchant marine by any country 
 should be proven, and not assumed ; the history and 
 growth of the industry should be studied and com- 
 pared ; the causes of its decay should be formulated ; 
 and then, as with an invalid after a careful diagnosis 
 by a physician, the remedies should be prescribed. 
 Sentiment can no more enter this problem than into 
 the determination of the next eclipse ; and so far as 
 the question permits, all its complex and interde- 
 pendent conditions should be viewed and tested. 
 
 It is an axiom that the greatest good to the great- 
 est number is secured, where trade and industrial 
 questions are operative, when the whole population 
 of a nation is engaged in those pursuits which pay 
 best under the environment of the country. There 
 is no imperative demand upon any people to possess 
 a Carrying Trade, a Shipbuilding Industry, or a 
 Foreign Commerce. The carrying trade is an oc- 
 cupation of men who own or control ships, and dif- 
 fers from shipbuilding as carting does from wagon- 
 building ; looked at broadly, the two interests are 
 hostile, because shipowners wish to buy new vessels 
 at low prices, to keep the competing vessels few in 
 number, to maintain freights at the highest figures, 
 and to buy cheap, good ships without regard to the 
 nationality or locality of the builder. 
 
 Foreign commerce is the exchange under varying 
 conditions, the simpler the better, of the products of 
 one country for those of another; merchants want 
 plenty of competing ships, and low freights, and to 
 them it is. a matter of indifference by whom the
 
 OUR CHANCES FOR MARITIME SUCCESS. 3 
 
 vessels are built, owned, or navigated. In other 
 directions these interests are correlated, and each is 
 of great value ; but of all, commerce is the active 
 principle, for lacking it, a country needs neither to 
 own nor to build ships. The carrying trade is an in- 
 dustry which, in itself, is neither more nor less de- 
 sirable than any other, than shoemaking for in- 
 stance : and it is engaged in only because, for equal 
 expenditure of labor and capital, more profit is 
 promised than by any other business. Nor does it 
 follow, if a nation had a commerce, and certain of 
 its citizens found the carrying trade to be an advan- 
 tageous employment for their labor and capital as 
 compared with other industries, that other of its 
 citizens ought to engage in shipbuilding. Any per- 
 son may have a whim for owning a ship built in his 
 native country and be willing to pay for the gratifica- 
 tion its possession affords ; but if it costs him more 
 to do this than to buy abroad, he has lost money. 
 " A fisherman," as Professor Sumner quaintly puts 
 it, " who has caught nothing sometimes buys a fish 
 at a fancy price. He saves himself mortification 
 and gets a dinner, but the possession of the fish does 
 not prove that he has profitably employed his time 
 or that he has had sport." 
 
 Should a country own a foreign trade it would not 
 necessarily be an object for it to do its own carrying, 
 any more than it would be an object for a farmer to 
 insist upon carting to market his own produce, 
 when some person regularly employed in that busi- 
 ness offered him a contract on better terms than his 
 own. Quite as foolish would the man be who re- 
 fused to carry on a carting business unless he could
 
 4 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 build his own wagons ; and sunk in the deepest 
 deeps is a nation which knows that certain of , its 
 citizens could buy and use carts so as to make a 
 legitimate profit, and yet denies the privilege, be- 
 cause certain other equally as good citizens could 
 not build similar carts at home for a profit. 
 
 Maritime success, or the possession of the ele- 
 ments which determine the fitness of a nation for 
 marine enterprise, can no more be called a question 
 of chance than can watchmaking ; nor is there any 
 uncertainty about the conditions which qualify a 
 nation for eminence in navigation. It is subject to 
 the same economic rules, and its genesis, develop- 
 ment, and decay follow the same laws that underlie 
 the evolution and growth of man. Certain impulses 
 go to the establishment of these marine activities : 
 if all exist, pre-eminence is assured ; if some are 
 wanting, there will be alternate periods of exaltation 
 and of depression, and, possibly, of ultimate deca- 
 dence ; and if all or large numbers are absent, no 
 outside aid, whether legislative or individual, can 
 arrest the operations of the inevitable law. Trade 
 may be forced, but all industries are nowhere less 
 than contingent ; and none of them can exist if cer- 
 tain natural conditions are lacking. 
 
 Briefly generalized, the first impulse towards mari- 
 time enterprise arises out of life in a region which 
 will not support its inhabitants by agriculture 
 " original poverty of soil or limited extent of terri- 
 tory almost arising to the heights of a necessary 
 qualification " (Hall). The born navigators of the 
 world have always lived in little half-barren coun- 
 tries, situated in the midst of fruitful regions ; the
 
 OUR CHANCES FOR MARITIME SUCCESS. 5 
 
 almost invariable rule being that those who inhabit- 
 ed a rich soil never engaged in navigation until the 
 population became so dense that agriculture would 
 not afford sustenance to all. This was the case with 
 the Carthagenians, the Greeks, the Latin races of Eu- 
 rope, the English, and among other people in Amer- 
 ica, the New-Englanders. These last took to the 
 sea because the shore did not furnish them with 
 products which would remunerate their capital and 
 labor equally as well ; while on the other hand the 
 people of the Southern States clung to the fruitful 
 land, never fostered nor inherited a taste for the 
 ocean, and to-day do not own one-ninth of the ships 
 under our flag. 
 
 Ocean fisheries affect the maritime fitness of a 
 people by the training they give to sailors, and by 
 their encouragement and exercise of those qualities 
 which prepare mariners for the daring and difficult 
 enterprises of their calling ; in every age the fish- 
 eries have been the original temptations which in- 
 duced men to go to sea, and the only nations that 
 have been eminent in shipping have fished from the 
 beginning. 
 
 It is an accepted law that an art-loving or an art- 
 producing community does not display energy in 
 commerce and industry ; a roaming disposition, a 
 love of adventure, a jealousy of participation in home 
 affairs by foreigners, and a spirit of traffic and in- 
 dustry, invariably impel in the direction of maritime 
 enterprise, and thus make it largely dependent upon 
 the genius of a people. 
 
 It is only a region situated in the midst of great 
 seas, and advantageously central, that can in the
 
 6 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 long run have the most ships and be supreme in 
 commerce ; this, which was so potent in the past, 
 will have double significance in a future of general 
 settlement of inhabitable lands. The flag of com- 
 mercial enterprise shifts with centres of civilization 
 and settlement ; and of two nations competing for 
 trade and navigation to a great market, that one in 
 the end will secure the larger share which is the 
 nearer or which has the better geographical position. 
 
 A great population and a large surplus of native 
 commodities are essential to the permanency and 
 greatness of a merchant marine. This does not pre- 
 clude a certain trade being built up by small nations 
 with a limited population and no commerce ; for, as 
 to-day in the North Countries, a people, forced from 
 irresistible conditions to follow the sea, might find 
 it profitable to prosecute a carrying trade ; but 
 under a limiting environment such an industry 
 would be rarely permanent and never great. The 
 wants and energies of a large native population de- 
 velop trade ; and when the genius of a people is, as 
 with most nations, one-sided agriculture as opposed 
 to manufacturing, for example the laws of supply 
 and demand, and the exigencies growing out of the 
 ownership of a large surplus product, must insure 
 marine enterprise. 
 
 Abundant resources in material for ships ; econ- 
 omy in ship construction and operation ; capability 
 of production for a definite sum less than rival na- 
 tions ; power, in the absence of this, of purchasing 
 where they are best and cheapest ; a wise policy of 
 government these, and all of these, go to the mak- 
 ing of the ideal commercial nation.
 
 OUR CHANCES FOR MARITIME SUCCESS. / 
 
 Do we then possess this fitness, this capacity for 
 maritime success ? So far as commerce affects, this 
 country has a vital interest in the carrying trade, let 
 theorists befog the cool air as they may ; every dol- 
 lar paid for freight imported or exported in Ameri- 
 can vessels accrues to American labor and capital, 
 and the enterprise is as much a productive industry 
 as the raising of wheat, the spinning of fibre, or the 
 smelting of ore. Had the acquired, the " full " trade 
 of 1860 been maintained without increase, $80,000,000 
 would have been added in 1880 to the national wealth, 
 and the gain from diverted shipbuilding would have 
 swelled this sum to a total of $100,000,000. Our 
 surplus products must find foreign markets ; and to 
 retain them, ships controlled by and employed in 
 exclusively American interests are essential instru- 
 mentalities. Whatever tends to stimulate competi- 
 tion and to prevent combination benefits the pro- 
 ducer ; and as the prices abroad establish values 
 here, the barter we obtain for the despised one-tenth 
 of exports $665,000,000 in 1880 determines the 
 profit or loss of the remainder in the home market. 
 Is it generally known, for instance, that a difference 
 in cost of a single penny in laying down grain at 
 Liverpool may decide whether this product shall be 
 drawn from the United States or from the agricul- 
 tural districts of Hungary and Southern Russia? 
 During the last fiscal year 11,500,000 gross tons of 
 grain, oil, cotton, tobacco, precious metals, etc., were 
 exported from the United States, and this exporta- 
 tion increases at the rate of 1,500,000 tons annually ; 
 3,800,000 tons of goods are imported, or in all about 
 15,000,000 tons constitute the existing commerce of
 
 8 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 this country. If only one-half of the business of 
 carrying our enormous wealth of surplus products 
 could be secured for American ships, our tonnage 
 would be instantly doubled, and we would have a 
 greater fleet engaged in a foreign trade, legitimately 
 our own, than Great Britain has to-day (Hall). The 
 United States makes to the ocean-carrying trade its 
 most valuable contribution, no other nation giving 
 to commerce so many bulky tons of commodities to 
 be transported those long voyages which in every 
 age have been so eagerly coveted by maritime peo- 
 ples. 
 
 If the larger proportion of this commerce con- 
 sisted in articles of foreign growth and manufacture, 
 it would not be strange to find foreign ships secur- 
 ing the larger share of the business ; but of the 
 17,000 ships which enter and clear at American ports 
 every year, 4,600 seek a cargo empty, and but 2,000 
 sail without obtaining it. Trade is largely governed 
 by the social, industrial and economical conditions 
 of the consumer. A careful study of the commercial 
 relations of the British colonies of Australia, New 
 Zealand, and South Africa demonstrates that with 
 them, notwithstanding the competition of the 
 mother-country, there are splendid opportunities 
 yet untried ; last year the imports of the two for- 
 mer reached a total of $400,000,000, and their neces- 
 sities demand the very articles we make most skil- 
 fully and supply most cheaply ; and for return 
 cargoes, Australia and the others have many things 
 we want cheap and are forced to buy dear. In 1879 
 the former sent to England wool valued at $35,000,000 
 and in the next, year we imported from England
 
 OUR CHANCES FOR MARITIME SUCCESS. 9 
 
 $23,760,000 of the same staple, obviously buying the 
 Australian wool at second-hand for double freights 
 and brokerages. 
 
 Ships are profitable abroad, and can be made prof- 
 itable here ; and, in truth, during the last thirty 
 years no other branch of industry has made such 
 progress as the carrying trade. To establish this 
 there are four points of comparison commerce, 
 railways, shipping tonnage, and carrying power of 
 the world limited, for the sake of illustration, to 
 the years between 1850 and 1880. 
 
 Increase. 
 
 1850. 1880. per cent. 
 
 Commerce of all nations.. $4, 280,000, ooo $14,405,000,000 240 
 
 Railways miles open. . . 44,400 222,000 398 
 
 Shipping tonnage 6,905,000 18,720,000 171 
 
 Carrying tonnage 8,464,000 34,280,000 304 
 
 In 1850, therefore, for every $5,000,000 of inter- 
 national commerce there were 54 miles of railway, 
 and a maritime carrying power of 9,900 tons ; and in 
 1880 the respective ratios had risen to 77 miles and 
 12,000 tons ; this has saved one-fourth freight, and 
 brought producer and consumers into such contact 
 that we no longer hear " of the earth's products 
 being wasted, of wheat rotting in La Mancha, of 
 wool being used to mend roads in Paraguay, and of 
 sheep being burnt for fuel in making bricks in the 
 Argentine Republic." England has mainly profited 
 by this enormous development, the shipping of the 
 United Kingdom earning $300,000, ooo yearly, and em- 
 ploying 200,000 seamen, whose industry is therefore 
 equivalent to ^300 per individual, as compared with 
 ,190 gained by each of the factory operatives. The
 
 IO THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 freight earned by all flags for sea-borne merchandise 
 is $500,000,000 or about 8 per cent, of the value 
 transported. Hence the toll which all nations pay 
 to England for the carrying trade is equal to 4 per 
 cent, (nearly) of the exported values of the earth's 
 products and manufactures ; and pessimists who de- 
 clare that ship-owners are losing money or making 
 small profits must be wrong, for the merchant ma- 
 rine is expanding every year. 
 
 What then is our situation ? We have been a 
 great maritime nation, therefore we must have had 
 some of the qualities essential to success ; we have 
 had a great commerce, a great shipbuilding interest, 
 and a great carrying trade, hence our citizens must 
 have found these industries profitable. The national 
 genius for trade, adventure, and enterprise has be- 
 come intensified by the changes modern life de- 
 mands ; our fisheries are still profitable, whaling 
 (owing to the petroleum production) alone ex- 
 cepted ; every year our geographical position has 
 improved, so that now we are the Great Middle 
 Kingdom ; our national resources in nearly every 
 direction have quadrupled ; our population, swelled 
 last year by 600,000 emigrants, is so dense that our 
 eastern coasts are overcrowded with people whose 
 race requirements sea-coast born or descended, as 
 opposed to inland reared demand a sea environ- 
 ment ; the carrying trade was never more profitable ; 
 our commerce has expanded so enormously that it is 
 not only a question of profit but of serious necessity 
 that we should manage it, from the growing of the 
 blade to its freighting in every sea and yet, with 
 every impulse, every activity insisting that we should
 
 OUR CHANCES FOR MARITIME SUCCESS. II 
 
 assume our place in the world, our Merchant Marine 
 is in a state of decadence. Our people are not more 
 profitably employed in other occupations, and there- 
 fore it must be in bad laws, apathy of government, 
 or the lack of special resources that the causes will 
 be discovered.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 RISE AND FALL OF OUR COMMERCE. 
 
 THE first vessels built upon our shores were intended 
 exclusively for the fisheries and the coasting trade, 
 the pioneer merchants being contented with the 
 quick returns and small profits of a commerce that 
 was not controlled by exacting foreign governments. 
 The vessels were necessarily small, and, though ad- 
 mirably fitted for their work, of the type struggling 
 shipbuilders must perforce produce. As early as 
 1660 the fisheries off our coast had become so valua- 
 ble that as many as six hundred sails were found 
 upon the Banks during a season, and so great were 
 the profits that the boats often paid for themselves 
 in one voyage. Gaining confidence by successful 
 rivalry in a trade which foreigners had aggrandized, 
 the New England merchants extended their enter- 
 prises in other directions, and, before the Revolu- 
 tionary War, they had built up a commerce which 
 was substantially profitable not only on our own 
 coast, but with Europe and the Spanish West Indies. 
 The war naturally checked the growth of naviga- 
 tion ; but, as a compensation, shipbuilding acquired 
 so great an impetus from privateering, that when 
 peace was established, there were nowhere more 
 skilled or more intelligent ship-designers and me- 
 chanics than our own. At this time our shipping
 
 RISE AND FALL OF OUR COMMERCE. 13 
 
 could not have exceeded 100,000 tons, though, as the 
 government had no control over the registry until 
 after the adoption of the Constitution, no definite 
 knowledge is attainable. Foreigners, however, still 
 controlled the best part of our trade, for at that time 
 "the prominent fact," writes Hall, "was the pre- 
 ponderance of European bottoms in the foreign 
 trade ; in 1789 the registration was 123,893 tons ; 
 68,607 i tne coasting trade ; 9,062 in the fisheries ; 
 and there were still 100,000 tons of foreign shipping 
 in the external commerce." The active social, po- 
 litical, and economic principle of each nation in those 
 days was eminently not fair dealing to other people ; 
 and the accepted theory of trade among the stronger 
 nations was the imposition of such burdens upon the 
 weaker maritime countries that the latter were cer- 
 tain to be driven from all but home ports. The new 
 United States suffered particularly by this policy; 
 and upon her entrance in the race of the trading na- 
 tions, asserted as cardinal principles growing out of 
 her political aspirations, freedom of commerce and 
 entire reciprocity of intercourse. 
 
 Treaties were sought, but in vain, until 1782, 
 when the Dutch, after four years of negotiation 
 initiated by Franklin and consummated by John 
 Adams, signed a convention which gave the ships 
 of both nations exact reciprocity in the ports of 
 each other. At the close of the Revolutionary War 
 an attempt was made to enter into a similar treaty 
 with England, but after a vexatious delay of several 
 years, not only was the offer rejected, but a policy 
 more severe than that shown to any of the Euro- 
 pean governments was adopted towards the new Re-
 
 14 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 public. In July, 1789, the first Congress under the 
 Constitution passed the celebrated Navigation Act, 
 which, coming as it did from a weak country, im- 
 perilling a shipping unprotected by an adequate 
 naval force, excited in Europe a most profound as- 
 tonishment. That its enactment in part was retalia- 
 tory of England's attitude was never doubted, and 
 at first there were threats that boded ill for the kin 
 across the sea ; then came doubts, not of justice but 
 of expediency ; accentuated by the increasing ap- 
 pearances of American ships in foreign waters ; and 
 finally negotiations, controversies, and treaties ; these 
 at first with England in 1794, then with Spain in 
 1795, and at last with France in 1800. 
 
 Though the provisions of these treaties were not 
 entirely satisfactory, yet they were movements in a 
 right direction ; and so much was commerce stimu- 
 lated that in 1800 seven-eighths of the freights was 
 carried in American ships ; the home trade with 
 China was exclusively our own; and between 1798 
 and 1812, 200,000 tons of shipping beyond our 
 needs were sold to foreigners. " Secure in the pro- 
 tection of our laws . . . our merchants entered 
 upon the present century a class of prosperous men 
 and full of confident anticipations for the future " 
 (Hall). Shipping had increased in tonnage as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Years. Registered for Foreign Trade. Coasting Trade. Fisheries. 
 
 1789 123,893 68,607 9,062 
 
 1795 S 2 9.470 164,795 34,102 
 
 1800 669,921 246,295 30,078 
 
 1805 749,341 3 OI >3 66 5 8 ,3 6 3 
 
 England, unable outside of protocols to look upon
 
 RISE AND FALL OF OUR COMMERCE. 1 5 
 
 us as anything but rebellious colonists, still sub- 
 jected our ships to such annoying visits and im- 
 pressed so many of our seamen that, in twelve years, 
 our merchants suffered great losses by the detention 
 and crippling of their vessels no less than 6,000 men 
 having been forcibly taken from the decks under our 
 flag. A further interference with our commerce re- 
 sulted from the blockade of the coasts of France and 
 of the Netherlands, and from the subsequent publica- 
 tion of the Berlin Decree and of the English Orders 
 in Council of 1806, and from the Milan Decree of 
 1807 ; in consequence of these necessities of foreign 
 war, over 1660 American ships were captured, and 
 either condemned with their cargoes or subjected to 
 great losses by trade interference, high insurances 
 and delays ; many of our vessels were forced to seek 
 neutral harbors for protection, and were not only 
 seized at sea, but were searched at the mouths of 
 our own harbors. America protested in vain, and 
 finally passed the Embargo Act. In May, 1810, 
 France repealed the Berlin and Milan Decrees, but 
 Great Britain refused either to desist from her ob- 
 noxious policy of search, or to remove the prohibi- 
 tions which forbade our ships seeking markets on 
 the free coasts of Western Europe. 
 
 As a very natural result the war of 1812 followed ; 
 it cost the government $150,000,000 ; it destroyed on 
 land and sea thousands of lives and millions of pri- 
 vate property, and at its close left us nearly bankrupt. 
 In iSioour tonnage was 1,385,000, and on January i, 
 1815, its gross amount was only 1,828,000 tons, an 
 increase of less than 100,000 tons annually ; in three 
 years 2,300 of the enemy's vessels were captured,
 
 1 6 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 " but our privateers destroyed many of these, and 
 750 were retaken, and we in turn lost 1,407 of our 
 own merchant vessels and fishing boats, so that the 
 balance was slightly in our favor." At last, in 1815, 
 England made a commercial treaty ; and though 
 poor in resources, yet strong with the instincts of a 
 young and vigorous life, the nation entered the great 
 race for maritime supremacy, fortified by the knowl- 
 edge of its past, by the justice of a present gained by 
 blood and iron, and by the hopes of a future preg- 
 nant with promise. 
 
 As a matter of policy, Congress, in 1817, substan- 
 tially re-enacted the navigation laws of England ; 
 our coasting trade was prohibited to other nations ; 
 ships in the foreign trade, unless two-thirds manned 
 by Americans, were taxed fifty cents a ton ; and the 
 great quadrangular trade of Great Britain to Brazil, 
 the East Indies, United States and England, was cut 
 off. At the same time a frank offer of general re- 
 ciprocity was made in which America proposed to 
 put commerce upon the high plane of fraternity 
 among nations, and to leave all victories within that 
 field of action to the intelligence and enterprise of 
 the different peoples of the world. This was de- 
 clined ; and it was not until 1830, and after more 
 difficulties with England and France, that we had 
 direct trade and reciprocity with the principal com- 
 mercial nations. 
 
 From the peace of 1815 our commerce expanded 
 in an extraordinary manner, increasing in money 
 from $270,000,000 in that year to $480,000,0.00 in 
 1836 ; the annual travel and immigration rose from 
 20,000 to 75,000 ; and fifteen years later, in 1850, the
 
 RISE AND FALL OF OUR COMMERCE. \J 
 
 ocean traffic of the United States gave employment 
 to 2,335,000 tons of shipping the total tonnage en- 
 tering and clearing from our ports being 8,000,000. 
 Nothing could supply more absolute proof of our 
 fitness for the demands that a maritime industry 
 imposes than this victory over forces and circum- 
 stances, which in every disguise and under every 
 opposing condition met us at each forward essay. 
 
 Beginning at the end of the line, without a help- 
 ing hand or an encouraging voice ; against obstacles 
 that seemed insuperable ; in war ; during a neutral- 
 ity that was worse than actual belligerency; when 
 harassed and fettered by cruel foreign impositions 
 and discriminations, and impeded by the mistaken 
 views.of internal factions yet, at the last, breasting 
 the waves that were unbroken by rival keels, if not 
 at the very head, yet missing it by so slight a degree 
 that our coequality was recognized surely never 
 before since the world began was there such a rec- 
 ord, never such testimony to the genius and instincts 
 of a people. A widening field of commerce, fol- 
 lowed by equality of competition, aided us ; the as- 
 sertion of fair trading and of equal rights, empha- 
 sized by the splendid services of our navy, gave us a 
 further claim to be heard ; our mariners were the 
 best in the world, and our ships, notwithstanding 
 the higher wages paid, were navigated the most eco- 
 nomically ; our packet lines to Europe crossed in an 
 average of less than twenty days, and American 
 buyers could insure their goods in this country un- 
 der the stipulation they should come in certain 
 American ships; the British. whale fisheries were 
 extinct, while ours employed over 700 ships and 

 
 1 8 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 17,000 seamen ; in thirty years this country built 
 3,900,000 tons of shipping ; all the mails and pas- 
 sengers and a large majority of the immigrants 
 were transported under our flag ; three-fourths of 
 the cotton was exported in the same way, and best 
 of all, the policy of the government was so aggres- 
 sive that our flag was respected everywhere, and in 
 certain trades, even under unequal conditions, had 
 the preference over all competitors. 
 
 But from this period dates our decadence. 
 
 The maximum tonnage of this country at any 
 time registered in the foreign trade was in 1861, and 
 then amounted to 5,539,813 tons ; Great Britain in 
 the same year owning 5,895,369 tons, and all the 
 other nations 5,800,767 tons. Between 1855 and 
 1860 over 1,300,000 American tons in excess of the 
 country's needs were employed by foreigners in 
 trades with which we had no legitimate connection 
 save as carriers. In 1851 our registered steamships 
 had grown from the 16,000 tons of 1848 to 63,920 
 tons an amount almost equal to the 65,920 tons of 
 England; and in 1855 this had increased to 115,000 
 tons and reached a maximum, for in 1862 we had 
 1,000 tons less. In 1855 we built 388 vessels, in 
 1856 306 vessels, and in 1880 26 vessels all for the 
 foreign trade. The total tonnage which entered 
 our ports in 1856 from, abroad amounted to 4,464,- 
 038, of which American built ships constituted 3.- 
 194,375 tons, and all others but 1,259,762 tons. In 
 1880 there entered from abroad 15,240,534 tons, of 
 which 3,128,374 tons were American, and 12,112,000 
 were foreign that is, in a ratio of 75 to 25, or actu- 
 ally 65,901 tons less than when we were twenty-four
 
 RISE AND FALL OF OUR COMMERCE. IQ 
 
 years younger as a nation. This decadence did not 
 originate in the war between the States, but dates 
 from 1856, when it was detected in the decrease of 
 sales to foreigners 65,000 tons having been trans- 
 ferred in 1855, 42,000 in 1856, 26,000 in 1858, and 
 17,000 in 1860. In 1879 we built 43,000 tons of reg- 
 istered vessels, but at the same time we relinquished 
 148,000 tons ; this loss of 105,000 tons being dis- 
 tributed in 37,000 tons sold to foreigners (old ves- 
 sels), 24,000 tons abandoned, and 87,000 tons lost. 
 The grain fleet, sailing in 1 880 from the port of New 
 York, numbered 2,897 vessels, of which 1,822 were 
 sailing vessels carrying 59,822,033 bushels, and 1,075 
 were steamers laden with 42,426,533 bushels, and 
 among all these there were 74 American sailing vessels 
 and not one American steamer. 
 
 In 1856 the total exports and imports $641, 604,850, 
 and in 1880 $1,613,770,663. In the first named year 
 there were carried in ships built, owned, manned 
 and commanded by Americans $482,268,274, and by 
 foreigners $153,336,516 ; in 1880 Americans trans- 
 ported $280,005,497, and foreigners $1,309,466,596 ; 
 the percentage of our carrying in our own trade was 
 in 1856, 75.2 ; and in 1880, 17.4.' 
 
 1 Our domestic marine consists of about 25,211 vessels, aggrega- 
 ting 4,169,600 tons. Of this number 17,042 are sailing, 4,569 are 
 steam, 1,206 are canal boats, and 2,395 are barges. With respect 
 to location they are distributed as follows : The Atlantic and Gulf 
 coasts have 14,762 sailing vessels, aggregating 1,967,023 tons ; 2,- 
 162 steam vessels, 615,039 tons ; 658 canal boats, 58,963 tons ; 
 764 barges, 159,041 tons. The Pacific coast has 807 sailing ves- 
 sels, 148,712 tons; 308 steam, 107,040 tons; 87 barges, 14,595 
 tons. The Northern Lakes have 1,473 sailing. 307,077 tons ; 896
 
 20 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 In the general trade of the world our record is as 
 lamentable. " At the beginning of the i9th cen- 
 tury," writes Yeats, "the commerce of the world 
 seemed passing into American hands, their shipping 
 having increased fivefold in twenty years." " Their 
 decline," continues Mulhall, " in recent years is un- 
 paralleled, as appears from the aliquot carrying 
 power belonging to various flags. 
 
 Country. 1850. 1870. 1880. 
 
 Great Britain 41 44 49 
 
 United States 15 8 6 
 
 France . . .- 8 8 7 
 
 Other flags 36 40 38 
 
 " In size of ships America has now reached the 
 mean attained by England in 1870, the average ton- 
 nage of all sea-going vessels afloat being in 1880 177 
 tons, or an increase in ten years of 36 per cent, in 
 medium tonnage." Our relative' position is shown 
 exactly in the following table : 
 
 Country. 1870. 1880. Increase, tons. 
 
 British 549 748 199 
 
 French 210 320 no 
 
 German 220 . 250 30 
 
 American 405 560 155 
 
 Norwegian 143 190 47 
 
 Italian 135 156 21 
 
 While this poison of decay has been eating into our 
 vitals, the possibilities of the country in nearly every 
 other industry have reached a plane of development 
 
 steam, 203,298 tons; 549 canal boats, 44,774 tons; 170 barges, 
 42,226 tons. The Western Rivers have 1,203 steam, 250,793 tons ; 
 1,373 barges, 251,015 tons.
 
 RISE AND FALL OF OUR COMMERCE. 21 
 
 beyond the dreams of the most enthusiastic theori- 
 zers ; we have spread out in every direction, and the 
 promise of the future beggars imaginations attuned 
 even to the key of our present and past develop- 
 ment. 
 
 1830. 1880. 
 
 Population 12,000,000. 50,000,000. 
 
 Railways 23 miles. 8,000 miles. 
 
 Cotton , 976,000 bales. 5, 500,000 bales. 
 
 Telegraphs none. 100,000 miles. 
 
 Post-offices 8,000. 40,000. 
 
 1840. 1880. 
 
 Wheat 84,000,000 bushels. 460,000,000 bushels. 
 
 Wool 35,000,000 pounds. 225,000,000 pounds. 
 
 Cotton Spindles 2,000,000. 10,000,000. 
 
 We have a timber area of 560,000,000 acres, and 
 across our Canadian border there are 900,000,000 
 more acres ; and in coal and iron production we are 
 approaching the old wo^ld. 
 
 1842. 1879. 
 
 Coal j Great Britain . . . .35,000,000 tons. 135,000,000 tons. 
 
 ( United States. ... 2,000,000 " 60,000,000 " 
 
 Iron j Great Britain .... 2,250,000 " 6,300,000 " 
 
 ( United States. ... 564,000 " 2,742,000 " 
 
 During these thirty-seven years the relative increase 
 has been in coal from 300 to 2,900 per cent. ; in iron 
 from 200 to 400 per cent., and all in our favor. But 
 this is not enough, for England, with a coal area less 
 than that of either Pennsylvania or Kentucky, has 
 coaling stations in every part of the world, and our 
 steamers cannot reach our Pacific ports without con- 
 sent of the English producers ; even if electricity 
 should take the place of steam, it must be many 
 years before the coal demand will cease ; and to-day,
 
 22 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 of the thirty-six millions of tons of coal required by 
 the steamers of the world, three-fourths of it is ob- 
 tained from Great Britain. 
 
 It is unnecessary to wire-draw statistics, but it may, 
 as a last word, be interesting to show, with all our 
 development, the nationality and increase of tonnage 
 entering our ports since 1856. 
 
 Country. Increase. Decrease. 
 
 England 6,967, 173 
 
 Germany 922, 903 
 
 Norway and Sweden 1,214,008 
 
 Italy 596, 907 
 
 France 208,412 
 
 Spain 164,683 
 
 Austria 204,872 
 
 Belgium 226,277 
 
 Russia 104,009 
 
 United States 65,901 
 
 "This," writes Lindsay, "is surely not decadence, 
 but defeat in a far nobler conflict than in the wars 
 for maritime supremacy between Rome and Car- 
 thage, consisting, as it did, in the struggle between 
 the genius, scientific skill, and industry of the peo- 
 ple of two great nations." 
 
 NOTE. A comparative statement of the exports of grain from 
 this port to Europe in 1883 shows that the American steamer is no 
 longer on the ocean in the transatlantic trade, and that the Ameri- 
 can sailing vessel is there, so to speak, simply in name. Of the 
 1, 190 steam vessels which last year crossed the ocean, carrying 
 44,205,009 bushels of grain, the United States cannot lay claim to 
 a single one ; while among the 166 sailing vessels, carrying 4,252,- 
 936 bushels, American ship owners are represented by two of the 
 very smallest cargoes, aggregating 25,650 bushels. 
 
 Of all the nations America is now the last, though in 1880 there 
 were seven nationalities the Dutch, French, Danish, Portuguese,
 
 RISE AND FALL OF OUR COMMERCE. 23 
 
 Russian, Spanish, and Swedish which were behind this country in 
 the ocean carrying trade. Great Britain now heads the list in ship- 
 ments by steamer, her record for the year being 786 vessels and 
 29,444,951 bushels, while Austria comes first in sailing vessels with 
 a record of 51 vessels and of 1,498,684 bushels. Great Britain 
 stands fifth on the list in shipments by sail, but by steam she car- 
 ried 15,000,000 bushels more than all other nationalities combined. 
 It appears at a glance, that the sailing vessel is fast disappearing 
 before the ocean steamer in the transatlantic carrying trade : 
 
 Sailing 
 Year. Steamers. Vessels. 
 
 1879 1,056 1, 798 
 
 1880 1,292 1,789 
 
 1881 1,302 554 
 
 1882 1,069 240 
 
 1883 1,190 166 
 
 Belgium has ceased altogether to be represented by sail, but she 
 has pushed her way up to second on the list, not in the number 
 of her carrying steamers, but in the bushels of grain carried. 
 
 The following table shows the shipments by steamer, and num- 
 ber of vessels and their nationality, which left this port in 1883 : 
 
 Nation. No. of Vessels. Bushels. 
 
 British 786 29,444,951 
 
 Belgian. 93 5,734,018 
 
 German 170 4, 248,485 
 
 Dutch 52 1,587,762 
 
 French 45 1,532,093 
 
 Danish 28 1,094,435 
 
 Italian 14 474,078 
 
 Portuguese i 54, 187 
 
 Spanish i 35,ooo 
 
 Totals i, 190 44,205,009 
 
 Of this total there was in wheat, 17,448,747 bushels ; in corn, 
 22,125,678 bushels, and in rye, 4,636,523 bushels. 
 
 In the following table is shown the shipments by sail for the 
 year :
 
 24 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 Nation. No. of Vessels. BusheFs. 
 
 Austrian.., 51 1,493,684 
 
 Italian 47 1,230,690 
 
 Norwegian 24 650,594 
 
 Portuguese 17 352,560 
 
 British n 259,091 
 
 Spanish 5 68, 984 
 
 Swedish 3 50,443 
 
 Danish 2 42, 947 
 
 German 2 4 I >533 
 
 Russian 2 31, 760 
 
 American 2 25, 650 
 
 Totals. 166 4,252,966 
 
 Of this total there were in wheat, 3,495,728 buafcels ; in corn, 
 751,269, and in rye, 5,939 bushels. 
 
 The following shows the comparative shipments of grain by 
 steamers and sailing vessels in the past four years : 
 
 Steam. Sa3. Totals. 
 
 Year. Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. 
 
 1880. 49,966,579 63,376,584 113,343,163 
 
 1881 53,255,728 1 9>o2o,583 72,276,312 
 
 1882 39, 878,449 6, 284, 289 46, 162, 738 
 
 1883. 44,205,009 4,252,936 48,457,945
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CAUSES OF OUR DECAY. 
 
 PUBLICISTS differ both as to the causes and the reme- 
 dies. In 1865 the first were oracularly referred to 
 the war between the States ; but in modern times 
 the effects of war are generally less potent when the 
 exciting cause is removed, and with us nearly every 
 other industry has quadrupled. At the close of the 
 Crimean war, Russian commerce was said to have 
 been destroyed, but with a favoring environment in 
 the four years subsequent to the peace, the damage 
 was so repaired that in 1860 48 per cent, more Rus- 
 sian ships entered English ports than ever before. 
 
 In 1868 doctrinaires declared that the fluctuation 
 of the currency was the destroying factor, but it is 
 of record that our shipping declined more after the 
 resumption of specie payments than in the years 
 when the fluctuations were greatest. Next followed 
 the assertion that with the revival of general pros- 
 perity so many avenues were opened to profitable 
 investment that no room was left for placing money 
 in the carrying trade ; but money has become cheaper 
 year by year, until now, with our shipping at low- 
 water mark, the rate is but 4 per cent., and for gov- 
 ernment bonds (excepting the consols of 1907) practi- 
 cally lower. None of these is a fair reason, for as 
 a matter of history the first actual decline began
 
 26 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 before the war, in a time of fair interest and no 
 debts, and when money was stable. Some writers 
 assign it to various fanciful causes, and there are not 
 wanting others who discover the secret in British 
 gold, aided and abetted by an unholy trinity of 
 American venality, a hireling press, and a great for- 
 eign insurance combination. But it requires little 
 research to learn that the decadence must be as- 
 cribed to one or more of the following causes : i. 
 Substitution of steam for sails. 2. Use of iron in- 
 stead of wood in shipbuilding. 3. Non-subsidizing 
 of American lines. 4. Navigation Laws. 5. Special 
 Government and State restrictions. 
 
 In this country steam was first applied to the 
 navigation of rivers, and in 1847 the steam-tonnage 
 of the Mississippi Valley alone exceeded that of the 
 whole British Empire ; indeed, so great are the de- 
 mands of our inland navigation that to-day it is 
 claimed our total domestic steam-tonnage does ex- 
 ceed that of England. By 1840 serviceable lines of 
 boats were plying between the principal commercial 
 cities of the Atlantic seaboard, and between 1845 and 
 1851 American steamers were crossing the Atlantic 
 ocean. In 1858 we had 52 steamers of 71,000 tons 
 in the foreign and domestic trades, England at 
 the same time owning 156 vessels of 210,000 tons 
 burden, and the rest of Europe 130 of 150,000 tons. 
 But in that year American competition broke down ; 
 and while we were left with only seven steam vessels 
 in the foreign trade, England had 120 plying to the 
 extremities of the earth. To-day foreigners have 
 over three hundred steamers in the direct trade with 
 the United States, while our country has less than
 
 THE CAUSES OF OUR DECAY. 27 
 
 fifteen steamers running across the Atlantic and Pa- 
 cific oceans. 
 
 Shipping cannot be measured merely by gross 
 tonnage, for steamers, as determined by Leroy-Beau- 
 lieu, multiply the carrying power fivefold. They 
 are cheaper than sailing vessels, as the birth-rate, 
 death-rate and increase " the vital statistics " 
 demonstrate. The ordinary life of a ship, allowing 
 for extraordinary contingencies is, in the United 
 States, 1 8 years ; in France, 20 ; in Holland, 25 ; in 
 Germany, 25 ; in Great Britain, 26 ; in Italy, 28 ; 
 and in Norway, 30. The annual average of wrecks 
 for the seven years ending 1879 is as follows : 
 
 Country. Steamers. Sailing 
 
 Per cent. Vessels. 
 
 British 2.94 3.93 
 
 French 2.47 4.04 
 
 United States 4.06 5.45 
 
 Dutch 3.84 4.49 
 
 German 2.77 4.04 
 
 Italian 1.74 2.94 
 
 Scandinavian 1.96 3. 20 
 
 Allowing three voyages yearly for a sailing ship 
 and fifteen for a steamer, it appears that the former 
 is lost once in 72 voyages and the latter once in 490 ; 
 so that steamers have only one-seventh of the risk 
 of sailing vessels. The death-rate of the world's 
 shipping is 4 per cent., or 750,000 nominal tons, 
 and the birth-rate 5 per cent., the average of new 
 vessels built being 950,000 tons ; but even this 
 does not give a correct idea, since the substitution 
 of steamers for sailing vessels augments the carry- 
 ing power 4 per cent. The vessels lost or broken
 
 28 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 represent 1,200,000 tons a year; and those built 
 attain nearly double that number, as appears from 
 Kaier's returns of the average since 1872, viz. : 
 
 Shipbuilding, Annual Average. 
 
 Dock Yards. Steamers, Tons. Sailing Vessels. Carrying Power. 
 
 British 292,000 167,000 1,630,000 
 
 United States 15,000 118,000 193,000 
 
 Italy, Canada 35,000 324,000 499,000 
 
 342,000 609,000 3,322,000 
 
 The efficiency of seamen measured by the number 
 of tons they carry yearly will be found to have some 
 relation to the quantity of merchandise borne by 
 steamers, viz.: 
 
 Flag. Seamen. Tons Carried. Per Seaman. Steam Ratio. 
 
 Per cent. 
 British 141,440 61,100,000 436 76 
 
 French 1 29,220 8,100,000 271 63 
 
 German 39,980 5,700,000 141 54 
 
 Italian 52,000 4,300,000 83 25 
 
 Various 446,000 38,000,000 85 41 
 
 708,640 117,200,000 165 61 
 
 Ten years ago the average of tons carried by each 
 British seaman was no more than 278, so that two 
 men in 1880 did the work of three men in 1870 ; and 
 further, ships are not sent to sea short-handed, as 
 this might indicate, for the efficiency of the seaman 
 has been indisputably increased ; and the sea mor- 
 tality of 3^ per 1,000 proves how much sanitary prog- 
 ress has gone hand-in-hand with the new conditions 
 which demand superior intelligence. Some shipown- 
 ers claim that owing to this very efficiency the car-
 
 THE CAUSES OF OUR DECAY. 29 
 
 rying trade is overdone, and that the world could 
 satisfy its commercial demands with fewer vessels ; 
 and though it is true that the ballast entries in Great 
 Britain and the Continent arose from 17^ and 2i 
 per cent, in 1870 to 19^- and 22\ per cent, respec- 
 tively in 1880, still the building and employment of 
 new ships disprove this statement. Tonnage move- 
 ment, therefore, gives a better idea of national 
 wealth than tonnage possession, for the tendency of 
 trade is to transact business with that minimum of 
 profit and that maximum of volume which render 
 capacity and speed development essential. Twenty 
 years since a vessel of 3,000 tons on a voyage of 
 given length had to allow 2,200 tons for coal and 
 machinery ; but compound engines and structural 
 and propulsion improvements have so reversed this 
 that now but 800 space-tons are needed for motive 
 power, and 2,200 may be devoted to freight and pas- 
 sengers. In 1883 Great Britain built five steamers 
 to each sailing vessel constructed ; and though a fair 
 proportion of the world's commerce is still carried in 
 sailing vessels, these figures seem to prove that, ex- 
 cept for very long voyages with bulky freights, their 
 days are numbered. , 
 
 But even in sailing vessels iron ships are super- 
 seding wooden, and during the last five years, while 
 we built 101,823 tons almost entirely for domestic 
 trade, England put afloat 1,800,193 tons '> an< ^ to-day 
 still further complicates the problem by proposing 
 the substitution of steel for iron. 1 
 
 1 " A recent English writer, in treating of the new application of 
 steel to shipbuilding, illustrates the advantage of this material over
 
 30 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 In every important respect iron ships are more de- 
 sirable than wooden : i. They secure a higher classi- 
 fication and for a longer term of years ; 2. They are 
 maintained at less expense ; 3. They carry more 
 cargo on equal tonnage and obtain higher rates of 
 freight ; 4. They command the preference at the en- 
 hanced rates ; 5. They are insured on better terms ; 
 and, 6. They are less liable to damage cargoes. 
 
 All parties will accept these as primary causes of 
 the decay of our shipping, their practical influences 
 being coeval with the evolution of new theories of 
 commerce ; but beyond these points of agreement 
 there are two radical and embittered differences of 
 belief, one pinning its faith to the dogma of free 
 ships, and the other looking toward the Mecca of 
 subsidies. 
 
 iron as follows : Suppose the construction of a transatlantic freight 
 steamer carrying 3,500 tons (dead weight) 'is contemplated; if of 
 iron, the hull will weigh about 2, 500 tons, and the entire ship will 
 cost about $350,000 ; if of steel, the hull will weigh 2,000 tons, the 
 total cost being $380,000. Reckoning 6 per cent interest and 6 
 per cent depreciation, etc., on this $30,000 extra cost, we have 
 $3,600 per annum. As an offset to this, the writer estimates as an 
 extra freight on the steel over the iron vessel 500 tons cargo out 
 and 500 tons cargo back. Assuming ten trips per year, this would 
 give io,OOO tons extra freight, which, at $3 average freight per ton, 
 would make $30,000 extra earnings per year. Deducting from this 
 the $3,600, the balance of $26,400 represents the extra net profit 
 per year that would be earned by the steel over the iron steamship, 
 which is equal to 9^ per cent on the entire cost of the vessel,"
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NAVIGATION LAWS. 
 
 THE protection or subsidization of the American 
 foreign trade is not a new idea in our experiments 
 with political economy, the first appropriation dating 
 from 1845, when $1,274,600 were equitably divided be- 
 tween several lines of steamers ; under varying con- 
 ditions and with increasing demands these bounties 
 were continued until 1855, and then ceased, not to 
 appear until 1865, when Congress subsidized Garri- 
 son's Line to Brazil, and, later, the Pacific Mail and 
 Roach's Brazil Line. To develop commerce for the 
 ships we could build was offered as the apology for 
 the subventions in the earlier period ; to foster ship- 
 building as the most important element of commerce 
 revival is claimed as their raison d'etre in the latter. 
 But herein lies a fallacy ; for while shipbuilding is 
 of the navigation interests, it is not its rounded sum- 
 mation : commerce, carrying trade, postal service, 
 and the maintenance of a school for maritime de- 
 fence, being, if not superior, at least not subordinate. 
 The profit of a ship in twenty years' cargo-carrying 
 is fifteen times greater than her first cost, and, low 
 as is our commerce to-day, more wages are distrib- 
 uted to sailors in a single week than all the ship- 
 builders pay their operatives in an entire year ; 
 hence, it is a curious study in political economy to
 
 32 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 find an illogical conclusion resulting in national 
 interests being sacrificed to the policy of a few ship- 
 builders, and to see a great country rejecting a 
 greater profit for a lesser because both cannot be 
 obtained. " There is a familiar doctrine found in 
 the Constitution of the United States and in the 
 Constitution of every State," said Mr. Bayard in the 
 Senate, " which is the necessary outgrowth of the in- 
 stitution of government itself. It is that the interest 
 of the individual or few must give way to that of 
 society at large. But where is the proposition, and 
 where in any civilized government called free can 
 you find the doctrine recognized, that public prop- 
 erty may be taken for private use ? " It is undeni- 
 able that under whatever form subsidies appear they 
 tax the many for the few, and can be met only by 
 new burdens upon the producer and consumer for 
 the benefit of a privileged distributing agent ; this 
 protection means that the greater number of Ameri- 
 can shipowners must compete not only with foreign 
 and home rivals, but with their own more favored 
 countrymen who sit above the salt and receive ex- 
 ceptional favors from the Government ; nay, more, it 
 results in the nation itself entering into competition 
 with the great body of shipowners and shipbuilders, 
 whose contributions to the revenues are turned 
 against themselves. When Congress compensates 
 steamship lines for running at a loss, or pays the 
 difference between the cost of running and what the 
 owners consider a fair profit on their investment, 
 the subsidized lines alone are profited, and the un- 
 protected but restricted ships succumb in the unequal 
 conflict. In nearly every case protected lines in the
 
 THE NAVIGATION LAWS. 33 
 
 past have been beaten by unsubsidized but unre- 
 stricted foreign steamers ; when the bounties ceased 
 the lines stopped running, and while freights were not 
 made cheaper, the results were to make the protected 
 owners richer by the subsidy, to ruin the unprotected 
 shipper, and to develop no foreign trade. During 
 the ten years covered by Garrison's operations the 
 value of our imports from Brazil doubled, and our 
 exports increased but one-eighth, and for this solution 
 of the economic question we paid $1,500,000. 
 
 " Whenever the question of ships is raised, the 
 clamor for subsidies and bounties is renewed, and 
 we are told again that England has established her 
 commerce by subsidies. . . . Some of OUK writ- 
 ers and speakers seem to be under a fascination 
 which impels them to accept as authoritative exam- 
 ples the follies of English history, and to reject its 
 sound lessons. In the present case, however, the 
 matter stands somewhat differently. England is a 
 great manufacturing town. It imports food and 
 raw materials and exports finished products. It 
 has therefore a general and a public interest in 
 maintaining communication with all parts of the 
 world. . . . Subsidies to ships for the mere 
 sake of having ships or ocean traffic, when there was 
 no business occasion for the subsidized lines, would 
 have no analogy with English subsidies " (Sumner). 
 Yet the example of Great Britain is invariably hailed 
 as the clear, effulgent light whereby we may guide 
 our stumbling footsteps, and we are asked to sub- 
 scribe a few millions that we may replace England 
 as a successful wooer for the commerce of the world. 
 But even if our national conditions were as alike as 
 3
 
 34 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 they are dissimilar, an addition of 100,000 toiu i< 
 ocean tonnage, supported by a bonus of $3,500,000, 
 would be only 5 per cent, of the steam fleet of Great 
 Britain, and its total earnings would be but z\ per 
 cent, of the freight money she bids us stand and de- 
 liver on the high seas. England is a country whose 
 greatness is in dependencies which punctuate the 
 page of the world ; 200,000,000 of her people demand 
 postal communications in colonies separated by 
 leagues of sea, and her sea-concessions are analo- 
 gous to what we have done in railroad-grants and 
 mail-routes within our undivided territory. Of the 
 ,783,000 voted in 1881, more than one-half went 
 for mail purposes, and not a guinea was tabooed to 
 ships surveying mankind with commercial view, or 
 built in any country from China to Peru ; some of 
 this bounty has gone to foreign ships under foreign 
 flags, and her object has been, not to make English- 
 men buy or build ships, but to force the colonies to 
 recognize their indebtedness to the mother-country. 
 France exports a good share of her manufactured 
 goods in English-built ships, and Italy must neces- 
 sarily do the same, as she has few others. Hence it 
 seems certain, that for whatever reasons of policy and 
 by whatever country this money is given, it is under 
 no limitations to employ home-built ships or to foster 
 home shipbuilding interests. 
 
 Our coasting trade, which includes the rivers and 
 great lakes, now comprises about 19,000 vessels and 
 2,200 barges, employing 70,000 men, and the com- 
 petition is so great that the charges for transporta- 
 tion have been reduced to a point never before 
 known. Hence no one prominently identified with
 
 THE NAVIGATION LAWS. 35 
 
 this question seeks to alter in the least the conditions 
 of this enormous industry. It is true that there are 
 a few dissatisfied writers who demand entire and im- 
 mediate freedom for ships and tariff, but the great 
 majority of free-ship advocates do not seek such ex- 
 treme measures of relief ; they do not wish, for in- 
 stance, to interfere with this domestic trade, believing 
 that its monopoly of 60 per cent, of the whole ship- 
 building, and that the restrictions in the size of the 
 vessels to be bought in open market (nothing under 
 3,000 tons for foreign trade), ought, with the revenues 
 accruing from repairs, to double the income of ship- 
 builders, who will be carrying to a full development a 
 reviving industry. For years these shipbuilders have 
 been protected, and each year fewer ships have been 
 built ; subsidies have been tried, but commerce still 
 languishes ; the echoes of a world treating the great 
 problem of supply and demand upon new principles 
 have been heard and are unheeded ; and therefore is 
 it that many men believe that a remedy exists, first, in 
 the repeal of the navigation laws, and, secondly, in 
 the removal of those other restrictions which have 
 helped to throttle the fairest promise of modern 
 days. 
 
 These navigation laws, so often quoted and so 
 little understood that few of the laity can distin- 
 guish accurately between enrolment and register, 
 and tr^e best legal talent has been at fault in cor- 
 rectly defining the proper way of transferring the 
 license of a pleasure-yacht from one collection dis- 
 trict of the United States to another, can be found 
 under title 48 of the Revised Statutes, Regulations 
 of Commerce, chapters one to nine, and in various
 
 36 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 scattered sections of the law and of the Treasury 
 Regulations. After our establishment as a nation, 
 the questions of Slavery, Trade, and States Rights 
 were the great sectional issues, and our Constitution 
 and the earliest statute laws were, to a large extent, 
 the results of compromises between these antagon- 
 istic ideas ; indeed, that admired clause which pro- 
 vides no religious test shall ever be required as a 
 qualification for office, as well as the first amendment, 
 which forbids the establishment of religion or the 
 prohibition of its free exercise, were merely parts 
 of a general political necessity, restricting the func- 
 tions of the federal government, and leaving to the 
 several States as much of their separate sovereignty 
 as was consistent with the existence of the Union. 
 A larger belief in the rights of conscience did not 
 engender this liberality, and the reasons of policy 
 which forbade the federal government to meddle 
 with Slavery applied with tenfold power to questions 
 of religion. So was it with the navigation laws, for 
 they originated in a compromise between the slave- 
 supplying and the slave-holding sections of the coun- 
 try ; and the power to regulate commerce was in- 
 serted with, and, as a consideration for the extension, 
 by New England votes, of the slave-trade until 1808, 
 and for the prohibition of export duties. Though the 
 Middle States and Virginia and Maryland protested 
 against the infamous bargain, New England de- 
 manded from the first federal Congress assembled 
 under the Constitution her share of the disreputable 
 compact ; and thus, conceived in iniquity and reared 
 in sin, the present navigation laws have cursed our 
 generations with more than Biblical prophecy. It is
 
 THE. NAVIGATION LAWS. 37 
 
 but fair to add that their final enactment was in re- 
 taliation of the illiberal policy by which England 
 instituted the destruction of our trade with the 
 West Indies ; our triumph galled the British jade, 
 and wincing, she did not look placidly upon our un- 
 wrung withers. Pitt, with a small following, did at- 
 tempt to liberalize trade upon the high seas, though 
 Lord Sheffield, who, among others, was in 1783 bia- 
 tant in two-penny opposition, advised the govern- 
 ment to deal gently with the erring corsairs of 
 Barbary, as the operations of these discriminating 
 cut-throats would be confined mainly to the destruc- 
 tion of the commerce of America and that of the 
 weaker Italian states. Others preached a fine philan- 
 thropy, publicly entreating the British lion and the 
 American lamb to lie down together in peace, and 
 privately praying that the lamb might be inside of 
 the lion. 
 
 Somewhat curtailed, the navigation laws may be 
 summarized as follows : No American is allowed to 
 import a foreign-built vessel in the sense of purchas- 
 ing, acquiring a registry, or using her as his prop- 
 erty ; the only other imports, equally and forcibly 
 prohibited, being counterfeit money and obscene 
 goods. An American vessel ceases to be such if 
 owned in the smallest degree by a naturalized citi- 
 zen, who may, after acquiring the purchase, reside 
 for more than one year in his native country, or for 
 more than two years in any other foreign state. An 
 American ship owned in part or in full by an Amer- 
 ican citizen who, without the expectation of relin- 
 quishing his citizenship, resides in any foreign coun- 
 try except as United States Consul, or as agent or
 
 38 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 partner in an exclusively American mercantile house, 
 loses its register and its right to protection. A citi- 
 zen obtaining a register for an American vessel must 
 make oath that no foreigner is directly or indirectly 
 interested in the profits thereof, whether as com- 
 mander, officer, or owner. Foreign capital may build 
 our railroads, work our mines, insure our property, 
 and buy our bonds, but a single dollar invested in 
 American ships so taints as to render it unworthy of 
 the benefit of our laws. No foreign-built vessel can, 
 under penalty of confiscation, enter our ports and 
 then sail to another domestic port with any new cargo, 
 or with any part of an original cargo, which has once 
 been unladen previously, without touching at some 
 port of some foreign country. This law is construed 
 to include all direct traffic between the Atlantic and 
 Pacific ports of the United States via Cape Horn, 
 the Cape of Good Hope, or the Isthmus of Panama ; 
 and being a coasting trade, foreigners cannot com- 
 pete. An American vessel once sold or transferred 
 to a foreigner, can never again become American 
 property, even if the transaction has been the result 
 of capture and condemnation by a foreign power in 
 time of war. Vessels under 30 tons cannot be used 
 to import anything at any seaboard town. Cargoes 
 from the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope are 
 subject to a duty of 10 per cent, in addition to the 
 direct importation duties. American vessels repaired 
 in foreign ports must pay a duty on the repairs 
 equal to one-half the cost of the foreign work or 
 material, or pay 50 per cent, ad valorem, the master 
 or owner making entry of such repairs as imports. 
 This liberal provision, which, dates from 1866, is
 
 THE NAVIGATION LAWS. 39 
 
 made to include boats obtained at sea, from a pas- 
 sing foreign vessel, in order to assure the safety of 
 our own seamen. No part of the proper equipment 
 of a foreign vessel is liable to duty, except it be con- 
 sidered redundant ; thus when two sets of chains 
 were found upon such a vessel, one was made charge- 
 able with duty. Foreign vessels arriving here in 
 distress, with loss of equipment, must pay duties on 
 the articles imported for repair ; if they need sheath- 
 ing, 45 per cent is exacted for the new copper used, 
 and 4 per cent, for the old copper removed. In one 
 case a foreign vessel left her mooring chains of for- 
 eign manufacture on an American wharf, and with 
 great alacrity duties were immediately and lawfully 
 collected on them as importations. If a citizen buys 
 a vessel of foreign build stranded on our coast, takes 
 her into port, repairs and renders her serviceable, 
 she cannot become American property unless the 
 repairs amount to 75 per cent, of the whole value of 
 the vessel. Except in the fisheries, all our vessels 
 engaged in foreign trade must pay annually a tax of 
 30 cents a ton ; a ship of 1,000 tons, for instance, 
 contributing $300, which represents the profit and 
 interest of $5,000 at 6 per cent. Vessels belonging 
 to foreign states having commercial treaties with us 
 pay the same tonnage dues ; but if an alien becomes 
 an owner, even to a fractional amount, in an Amer- 
 ican ship, not only does the latter lose her registry, 
 but the foreign privilege is void, and the joint own- 
 ership is charged with a tax of sixty cents a ton. If 
 a picnic party comes into an American port in a 
 foreign vessel on the great lakes, for example, in a 
 Canadian steamboat such vessel becomes liable to
 
 40 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 a tonnage tax. Though the act of 1872 made free 
 all material necessary for the construction of ships in 
 this country for foreign trade, such vessels cannot 
 engage in domestic trade for more than two months 
 in any one year without payment of the duties, for 
 which a rebate was allowed. Canal-boats crossing 
 the Hudson River, or any other navigable stream, are 
 making a coasting voyage, and must be enrolled and 
 licensed as coasters ; in default of such precautions 
 they have been seized, and released only after much 
 delay and upon the payment of a fine. A foreign 
 private yacht, touching at different parts of our lake 
 or sea-coast, and carrying passengers members of 
 other hospitable clubs can be punished for violat- 
 ing the laws of domestic trade. 
 
 Such, briefly sketched, are some of the laws under 
 which a free people live, and for their repeal the 
 historic bill, No. 724, was introduced by Senator 
 Beck on January 27, 1880. Stripped of its official 
 verbiage, this proposed measure enacted that certain 
 provisions of the statute law be repealed, and that 
 hereafter it should be lawful for our citizens to pur- 
 chase ships built in whole or in part in any foreign 
 country, and to have them registered as, and ac- 
 corded the privileges of, ships built wholly within 
 the United States, and owned and controlled by our 
 citizens. It being a debatable question whether the 
 full measure of relief could be proposed anywhere 
 save in the House, under its power to originate 
 money or revenue bills, all provisions relative to 
 tonnage dues, local taxation, bonded ship stores, 
 and free material for construction and repair, were 
 purposely omitted.
 
 THE NAVIGATION LAWS. 41 
 
 Other evil agencies are at work, and the repeal of 
 such of the laws as apply to foreign trade is only the 
 first step ; prominent among these are consular fees, 
 compulsory pilotage, State and local taxation, per- 
 sonal liability, determination of tonnage capacity, 
 shipping, discharge and transportation of sailors, 
 and protective duties upon shipbuilding materials. 
 The limits of this argument forbid any but the fol- 
 lowing brief hints : For the year ending June, 1880, 
 the Treasury received, mainly from American ships, 
 $592,161 ; these fees, the interest of $10,000,000, be- 
 ing extorted in order that the consular service might 
 be self-supporting, and not, as in England, main- 
 tained by the nation. Pilotage to New York is more 
 than double that to Liverpool, and with a thorough 
 appreciation of the energy, skill, and sacrifices of 
 our pilots, it seems somewhat wrong that the Sandy 
 Hook service, composed of one hundred and thirty- 
 three New York and fifty-eight New Jersey mem- 
 bers, should have received last year between $800,- 
 ooo and $1,000,000, or a mean average of over $5,000.' 
 
 1 "The committee declared the pilot service a monopoly. The 
 pilot fees are fixed by law, and can only be changed by act of the 
 Legislature ; they were increased in 1865, in consequence of the 
 gold premium, about 50 per cent, with an understanding, had 
 with the merchants, that it should be for three years only, but this 
 three-year clause was subsequently stricken out of the bill by act of 
 the Legislature, and the fees have since remained as follows (the 
 rates fixed by the act of 1853 and prevailing till 1865 being added 
 
 for comparison) : 
 
 Inward. Outward. 
 
 Per Foot. Per Foot. 
 
 For every vessel drawing less than 14 feet $3 70 $27 
 
 For every vessel drawing 14 feet and less than 18 feet 4 50 3 10 
 
 For every vessel drawing 18 feet and less than 21 feet 5 50 4 10 
 
 For every vessel drawing 2 1 feet and upward 6 50 4 75
 
 42 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 If compulsory pilotage be necessary and this just 
 men deny how can the smaller merchant thrive 
 under a system which makes it as expensive to 
 bring a vessel into our harbors as it does to pay her 
 captain for a round voyage to the West Indian 
 ports ? In this country ships are assessed as per- 
 sonal property, in New York at a 60 per cent, valua- 
 tion. The annual profits of a steamship costing 
 $500,000 may be assumed to be $25,000, and her 
 taxes in New York, at a 2^ per cent, rate on $300,- 
 ooo, will amount to $7,500, or 30 per cent, of the 
 average profit ; in England the income of the ship 
 alone is taxed, about $500 will satisfy the govern- 
 ment's demands, and the ownership of a vessel 
 which is idle or unprofitable does not entail those 
 
 " If a vessel be moored within Sandy Hook or detained at Quar- 
 antine, the pilot is entitled to his discharge and to full pilotage 
 fees. When boarding a vessel beyond the sight of Sandy Hook 
 Lighthouse the pilot is by law entitled to charge 25 per cent, in ad- 
 dition to the regular fee. This 'off-shore pilotage,' however, has 
 been declared illegal by judicial decision, and is no longer collected 
 unless specially agreed to by the master of the vessel. Between 
 the first day of November and the first day of April $4 is added to 
 the pilotage of every vessel coming in or going out of port. 
 
 " The committee presented a statement showing fees paid at 
 several of the leading European ports, none of which are as easy of 
 access as the port of New York. A ship drawing 21 feet in and 23 
 feet out has to pay for pilotage in and out at the port of Liverpool, 
 $67.44; London, $147.55; Bristol, $125; Bremen, in summer, 
 $55.85; Bremen, in winter, $88.79; New York, in summer, 
 $245.75 > New York, in winter, $253.75. The Sandy Hook pilot 
 service comprises 22 boats belonging to the State of New York and 
 7 belonging to the State of New Jersey, the 29 having an estimated 
 value of $300,000." From Report of Special Committee Chamber 
 of Commerce, New York City,
 
 THE NAVIGATION LAWS. 4-3 
 
 burdens which must weigh upon vessels assessed and 
 taxed under the same conditions as real estate. Ac- 
 cording to the British mercantile rule, the tonnage 
 capacity of vessels is measured only on cargo space, 
 allowance being made for quarters and machinery ; 
 with us the space occupied by the galley and closets 
 was until last year alone excepted, and as a conse- 
 quence our ships suffered, not only at home, but in 
 ports where harbor duties and light-money are levied. 
 Sailors discharged in foreign ports receive three 
 months' pay regardless of character or of the fact 
 that most of them are foreigners, and many of them 
 beach-combers, who double their wages by such 
 tricks, and that all of them are at home in any part 
 of the world. 
 
 Thirty-odd years ago the commerce of the world 
 was carried in sailing vessels, and it was no idle 
 boast when Americans claimed that England was 
 lagging in the great ocean race, because of our su- 
 perior build and management of vessels. In many 
 important trades our magnificent clippers were the 
 favorite ships, and the great commercial interests of 
 England were so involved from the want of similar 
 vessels that remedial measures became necessary. 
 But England was shackled by navigation laws, the 
 first dating from 1380, and, strangely enough, offer- 
 ing as a panacea for existing evils " that no subject 
 of the king should ship any merchandise, outward 
 or homeward, save in a ship of the king's allegiance, 
 on a penalty of forfeiture of vessel and cargo." 
 Since Cromwell's time offensive prohibitions, not 
 unlike our own, had existed on her statute books, 
 broadening down from age to age by that precedent
 
 44 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 so dear to the English heart ; and in 1849, when the 
 reform was finally debated, such men as Disraeli, 
 Brougham, and Bentinck declared that free trade in 
 shipping would ruin shipowners, drive the British 
 sailor into prospering Yankee ships, and destroy the 
 shipbuilding interests of Great Britain. Brougham, 
 skilled in brilliant misinformation, avowed that the 
 navigation law was not only the corner-stone of 
 England's glory, but the foundation of her very ex- 
 istence ; and Mr. Disraeli closed his protest against 
 the expected arrival of the same old New Zealander 
 by airily promising that " he would not sing Rule 
 Britannia for fear of distressing Mr. Cobden, but he 
 did not think the House would desire Yankee Doo- 
 dle." Shipowners sold their vessels at ruinous rates, 
 forswore the sea, and implored Parliament to save 
 them ; but in vain the protests and petitions, for the 
 intelligence of the country was aroused on behalf of 
 its pocket, and by a good majority the cause of prog- 
 ress triumphed. Thirty years since England was 
 more free than this country is to-day, and when, in 
 1856, the restrictions upon her coasting trade were 
 removed, she was in a position that our most enthu- 
 siastic free-ship men do not hope for in the lustrums 
 yet to be. England's new policy paid, for from 1840 
 to 1879 her tonnage movement, that is, the entrances 
 and clearances of English ports, grew from 6,490,485 
 tons to 30,943,506 tons, or an increase of 476 per 
 cent.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FREE SHIPS. 
 
 ALL other nations have the power of buying ships 
 for foreign trade in the cheapest market, and the ef- 
 fort to protect our shipbuilders by the denial of this 
 right forbids the return of commercial prosperity. 
 In the coast trade, foreign interference can be ex- 
 cluded, but upon the high seas our rivals cannot be 
 taxed ; we labor under the disadvantages of tradi- 
 tionally higher wages and better rations ; but the 
 same skill which enabled us up to 1860, with well 
 fed, well paid and more intelligent crews, to over- 
 come these difficulties, will not desert us now. By 
 treaty we grant to Germans trading in ships of any 
 build every right allowed our citizens in American 
 built ships. Norway and Sweden, under commercial 
 treaties, claim every privilege conceded to the Ger- 
 mans ; and as France and England are granted by 
 law all concessions yielded to the most favored na- 
 tions, we have practically given the maritime peoples 
 the power to compete freely with free ships for a 
 trade we deny our merchants. Under this dispensa- 
 tion our seaboard cities have become stations where 
 foreigners may loot our producers ; we survey, buoy, 
 and police our harbors mainly for foreign guests ; 
 and our grand lighthouse system holds out to burn 
 so that these sinners against our greatness may
 
 46 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 return, unregenerated, unrepentant, and voracious 
 for more of our material advantages. This is an ag- 
 ricultural country, nine-tenths of our products for 
 export being no further advanced in manufacture 
 than hogs idealized into pork, and wheat transmuted 
 into flour, which, being as perishable as they are 
 beautiful, must go abroad. To the monopolists, 
 free ships or ships protected mean nothing ; but to 
 the farmer, transportation spells profit or loss, life 
 or death almost. Millions are annually appropri- 
 ated for railways, canals, river and harbor improve- 
 ments, simply to move crops which, arriving at the 
 seaboard, find a lame and impotent conclusion in 
 foreign ships, ruled by a combination of home rail- 
 ways and alien shipowners and insurance companies. 
 As a rule, competition eastward keeps down the 
 price, but a syndicate of railroad men, charitably 
 excited by our necessities, can tax the country mil- 
 lions of dollars by increasing freights a few cents a 
 bushel on wheat and a dollar a ton on other articles, 
 which find at the home ports, not three thousand 
 ship-captains bidding for cargoes, but a secret agree- 
 ment like that of 1873, when the great transatlantic 
 lines pooled and bled the country of millions. 
 
 Free ships foster American interests, while the 
 other policy develops, and will develop, the material 
 greatness of other countries. There is no injustice 
 of indiscrimination in subjecting to a high rate of 
 duties commodities imported separately, while allow- 
 ing the vessels composed of these articles to be im- 
 ported free ; for the former are thrown upon a protected 
 market where the burden can be distributed, and the latter 
 compete in open market with ships that are unrestricted.
 
 FREE SHIPS. 47 
 
 We will not buy the condemned ships of England, 
 and it is fair to suppose that the same judgment in 
 the employment of a means to an end will be ex- 
 erted here as in any other path where every justly 
 balanced and economic element must be considered. 
 This great national question bears a special mean- 
 ing to the service, for no law is better defined than 
 the correlation and interdependence of the mercan- 
 tile and naval marines. Honest men differ hon- 
 estly as to causes and to remedies, and the way is not 
 always clear ; but fairly considered, it seems that in 
 the generalization of free ships lies the answer to the 
 great economic enigma ; its literature is open to all, 
 and the examples of our past and the past of other 
 nations are of history. Superiority in the carrying 
 trade is not due to the facility with which steamers 
 can be built, nor to any one of a half-dozen different 
 elements ; the books of the shipbuilders of the Tyne 
 and the Clyde show that they build vessels as read- 
 ily for other nations as for their own ; and in ex- 
 plaining this, an English writer declares that if the 
 Americans had ten years ago repealed their suicidal 
 Navigation Law, and bought or built a steamer for 
 every British steamer built on the Clyde, they would 
 to-day be in some position to compete with England 
 in the carrying trade, instead of having to deplore 
 their present state of destitution. " The effects pro- 
 duced by changes in the conditions of an industry 
 are inevitable, and cannot be avoided by legislation ; 
 the only solution that gives, is to cause the loss to 
 fall on some other set of people instead of on those 
 directly interested. Again : it is evident that a coun- 
 try needing a protective tariff on iron and steel can-
 
 48 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 not expect to supply ships for ocean traffic at the 
 low price of competing constructors in countries of 
 no tariff. For the country which by hypothesis 
 needs a protective tariff on iron and steel cannot 
 produce these articles as cheaply as some other 
 country. Its ships, however, must compete upon 
 the ocean with those of the country which has cheap 
 iron and steel. The former embody a larger capital 
 than the latter, and they must be driven from the 
 ocean. If then subsidies are given to protect the 
 carrying trade when prosecuted in ships built of 
 protected iron, the loss is transferred from the ship- 
 owners to the people who pay taxes on shore. 
 These taxes, however, add to the cost of production 
 of all things produced in the country, and thereby 
 lessen the power of the country to compete in for- 
 eign commerce. This lessens the amount of goods 
 to be carried both out and in, lowers freights, 
 throws ships out of use, checks the building of 
 ships, and the whole series of legislative aids and 
 encouragements must be begun over again, with a 
 repetition and intensification of the same results " 
 (Prof. Sumner). 
 
 The men who ask for free ships are not the reckless 
 theorizers their adversaries claim, and what they ask 
 can be best exhibited in the particularized items, 
 submitted in a late memorial to Congress : 
 
 1. The admission to American register of all ships 
 over 3,000 tons, subject to the same laws regarding 
 ownership that now prevail. 
 
 2. The admission of all materials to be used in the 
 construction and repair of vessels of over 3,000 tons 
 duty free.
 
 FREE SHIPS. 49 
 
 3. The adoption of new tonnage measurements, 
 based on actual carrying capacity and excluding the 
 space occupied by engines and boilers and accom- 
 modations for officers and crew. 
 
 4. Exemption from taxation, local and national, 
 of all vessels engaged in the foreign trade for more 
 than eight months of the year. 
 
 5. Permission for all American vessels in the for- 
 eign trade to take their stores and ship-chandlery 
 out of bond duty free. 
 
 6. A general revision of the laws relating to sea- 
 men and to the consular service. 
 
 As already shown, the advocates of both the great 
 theories of relief accept all these conditions, save 
 the first and second, as absolutely necessary for the 
 regeneration of our merchant marine ; nay, many 
 go so far as to find the second so little a matter of 
 dispute that the adverse views may be said to separ- 
 ate only upon the first. Taken generally, the de- 
 mands as formulated are moderate, and fairly repre- 
 sent the juste milieu, the golden mean, that has been 
 attained by concession through the belief that any- 
 thing more radical would not, under our govern- 
 mental theory of taxation and with the existing 
 conditions of the industries themselves, be justifi- 
 able. By the proposed remedies an American is 
 enabled to buy his ship in the best and cheapest 
 market, and to place it under the protection of a 
 flag that is in little danger of war from outside com- 
 plications. At the same time, under the restrictions 
 of ownership, no foreign power, Great Britain for 
 example, whose safety-valve and temper-check are 
 in her carrying trade, would be able in war to place 
 4
 
 5O THE QUESTION OF SHI' ., 
 
 her navigation interests under our p*ciection with- 
 out relinquishing ownership ; and alarmists may 
 therefore be certain that she will not be able to re- 
 sort to the well-knewn process of whitewashing a 
 system of bills of sale with counter-mortgages 
 while holding fast to our legitimate opportunities. 
 
 What is more, both by original constructions and 
 repairs, ship-building would, under the liberal plan 
 proposed, be stimulated, and not only would the 
 corps of skilled workmen be retained, but private 
 shops filled with eager apprentices must, of the ne- 
 cessities of the case, spring up wherever coal and 
 iron and deep water-fronts made shipbuilding feasi- 
 ble. 
 
 Other remedies have been suggested, and they 
 run the gamut of theory, from the wildest license of 
 Free Trade to the grimmest asceticism of Protection. 
 These admit only of the briefest notice. One is a 
 change of policy with respect to international trade, 
 a revival of the law of 1817 which forbade any ship to 
 bring a cargo to the United States except from the 
 ports of the country to which it belonged. This 
 policy might result in profit with South America 
 and Asia, for those countries own few ships trading 
 to the United States, and we have commerce with 
 them ; but England and the other maritime nations 
 would doubtless respond by a like enactment, and 
 thus deprive our ships of nearly all the general trade 
 we have outside our own country. As this is a simple 
 question of what will pay best, this proposed relapse 
 into the practices of barbarism need not be consid- 
 ered here ; neither would it be germane to call it, in 
 this age of private enterprise, the employment of a
 
 FREE SHIPS. 51 
 
 policy that characterized the idyllic days when every 
 essay was seconded by the sanction and effort of pa- 
 ternal government ; though as a matter of demon- 
 strable fact it may be sufficient to affirm that we 
 would lose much, and not even get the credit of be- 
 ing martyrs to progress. 
 
 Mr. Elaine solves the problem by bounties, for 
 this purpose enacting a general law which ignores 
 individuals and enforces a policy. His scheme pro- 
 vides that any man or company of men who will build 
 in an American yard, with American material by Am- 
 erican mechanics, a steamship of three thousand tons, 
 and sail her from any port of the United States to any 
 foreign port, he or they shall receive, for a monthly 
 line a mail allowance of $25 per mile per annum for 
 the sailing distance between the two ports ; for a semi- 
 monthly line $45 per mile, and for a weekly line $75 
 per mile. Should the steamer exceed three thousand 
 tons, a small advance on these rates might be allowed ; 
 if less, a corresponding reduction might be made, 
 keeping three thousand as the average and standard. 
 Other reformers propose a bounty to be given by the 
 government to the shipbuilder so as to make the 
 price of an American vessel the same as that of a 
 foreign-bought, equally good but presumably cheap- 
 er, ship. This will be brought about positively 
 by hard cash, negatively by discriminative duties. 
 There are a few enthusiasts, generally socialists and 
 foreigners, who will be satisfied with nothing less 
 than both the immediate abolition of all duties not 
 even retaining a modest tariff on luxuries for 
 revenue and the opening of the coast and domestic 
 trade to the world. And last of all, at the other
 
 52 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 swing of the pendulum, there are kindred spirits 
 who would abolish seamen, ships, and seas, turning 
 the last, for the eternal and cloistered happiness of 
 America, into walls of fire that would ban the for- 
 eign commercial invader. 
 
 What is most wanted is action, action, action. 
 From the beginning of the war to this hour Con- 
 gress has not passed a single act to uphold the for- 
 eign carrying trade, and during the same time it has 
 enacted ninety-two laws in aid of internal transpor- 
 tation, has given in public lands an acreage larger 
 than that of the original States, and has added 
 $70,000,000 in money. A thorough-going Congres- 
 sional investigation of the whole subject of our com- 
 merce, manufactures, and navigation would be of 
 great service in enabling merchants and the govern- 
 ment to co-operate harmoniously and intelligently. 
 It would bring about a better understanding be- 
 tween the agricultural, industrial, and mercantile 
 classes, and, revealing the directions in which effort 
 should be expended, it would tend to give us what 
 we greatly lack and so much need, " a national policy 
 with respect to navigation" Something should be done 
 to make the ocean mail service bring a fair return to 
 the carriers ; as our theory is that postages shall be 
 rated so as merely to pay expenses, it does not seem 
 fair to an important and admirable service that the 
 $400,000 of receipts over expenditures for foreign 
 mails should be retained by the government for the 
 benefit of star routes that begin and end nowhere ; 
 other conditions being equal, give the mails to our 
 own lines, pay a fair price for their transportation, 
 and above all things release our ships at once from
 
 FREE SHIPS. 53 
 
 the existing burdensome postal restrictions. 1 Rigid 
 inspections of vessels should be imperative ; so that 
 in the event of a change in the Registry laws, no ves- 
 sel could be admitted to the benefit of our protection 
 which would not be so well-found and serviceable as 
 to entitle her to a high rating. 
 
 In Free Ships with the co-ordinate measures of re- 
 lief is the only solution of the problem submitted for 
 discussion and proof. As yet the popular voice is 
 not hoarse from singing of anthems in favor of the 
 policy, and in high places there is much contemptu- 
 ous denial of its claims ; but an active and an able 
 minority believes that the cause is just and worthy 
 of fighting for, and that in the end success is certain 
 to come. Sketching the repeal of the Corn Laws, 
 Buckle writes : " Those who knew the facts opposed 
 the laws ; those who were ignorant of the facts fa- 
 vored the laws. It was therefore clear that whenever 
 the diffusion of knowledge reached a certain point 
 
 1 The merchant vessels of the United States are compelled by law 
 to carry all mail offered to their masters by post-office authorities 
 here and by consuls abroad, and to accept such compensation as 
 Congress directs. " The necessity of delivering the mails is fre- 
 quently a source of delay and great expense to a ship . . . 
 whose plans upon touching at some port for telegraphic advices from 
 home may be changed by the owners. No matter what the trouble, 
 the ship is compelled to deliver the mails assigned, or forfeit all the 
 rights and privileges of a vessel of the United States." Stages and 
 wagons receive an average of $28 per mile of route per annum ; 
 coast and river steamers, $43.50 ; railroads, $131 the compensa- 
 tion to these last ranging all the way from $35 to $538, $897 and 
 $1,155. Merchant vessels get only about $i per mile per annum, 
 the American steamers from Philadelphia to Liverpool receiving, for 
 instance, about 80 cents.
 
 54 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 the laws must fall. . . . The opposition the reform- 
 ers had to encounter was immense, and although 
 the principles of Free Trade had been established 
 for nearly a century by a chain of arguments as 
 solid as those on which the truth of mathematics is 
 based, they were to the last moment strenuously re- 
 sisted." 
 
 The instinct for our country's good through that 
 larger freedom and more equal justice for all men 
 which vivify this question, has had just such a past, 
 and is finding just such a present ; but to those who 
 watch, there are not wanting signs and portents of 
 an equal triumph for its future.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MARINE DISASTERS. THE IMPORTANCE OF A THOROUGH 
 TRAINING FOR OFFICERS AND SEAMEN. 
 
 THERE is a growing interest throughout the country 
 in the revival of our merchant marine. In newspa- 
 pers and legislative bodies there is apparent a larger 
 appreciation of the vitality of the question, and those 
 who have most persistently insisted upon the value 
 of the industry as an important factor in the prob- 
 lem of national wealth and happiness have never 
 been more hopeful that some relief would be granted 
 by Congress. Connected intimately with this meas- 
 ure there are other interests which must not be ne- 
 glected, and it is the duty of the government to 
 anticipate the demands that will be made upon it. 
 Ships without effective crews cannot compete suc- 
 cessfully in an age where commercial power is the 
 price of unceasing vigilance and economy ; and the 
 officers and men of our merchant vessels should in the 
 next decade be as much superior to the complements 
 of ships of any other nation as they were in those 
 glorious days of rivalry when American pluck and 
 skill almost wrested the commerce of the world from 
 England. At present we have few modern ships ; 
 there is no school afloat in which merchant sailors 
 can be trained, and the 60,000 seamen we had at the 
 beginning of the war have disappeared. Since 1856
 
 56 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 the evolution and development of new theories of 
 commerce make new demands upon the navigation 
 interests, and yet without a home fleet to give this 
 training in youth, nor examinations and other tests 
 to make it obligatory in manhood, we are discussing 
 the creation of a modern steam fleet, to command 
 which there are few officers properly qualified either 
 by training or experience. When it is remembered 
 that an error of judgment or a want of information 
 upon a simple matter may in some cases, nay, has in 
 many, led to the sacrifice of hundreds of lives, or that 
 a single shipwreck may represent $2,500,000, it be- 
 comes a question both with the government and with 
 shipowners to find the best men capable for such enor- 
 mous responsibility. On shore, where a thousand 
 unforeseen circumstances do not complicate the 
 question, a person intrusted with an enterprise of 
 equal pecuniary magnitude would be required to 
 furnish most crucial tests of his fitness for the busi- 
 ness in hand ; and no company nor legislative body 
 would be acquitted of blame which failed to take 
 the precautions that promised reasonable security 
 to invested capital and absolute safety to human life. 
 As yet our government has done almost nothing, 
 though periodically some unhonored and unsung 
 PHmsoll does attempt to improve the condition of 
 the service and to ameliorate the hardshipsof a life 
 which it does not need man's injustice or careless- 
 ness to make among the most rigorous in the human 
 environment. It is true that the shipping of seamen 
 is under control of government officers, but this is 
 not, under the existing regulations, an unmixed 
 blessing. For the steamboat service there is a rule
 
 MARINE DISASTERS. 57 
 
 of thumb inspection which is conducted by a star- 
 chamber process, in a rough and ready kind of way ; 
 and the Life Saving Service and Revenue Marine, 
 with limited appropriations, are doing as good work 
 as can be expected from the imperfect organizations 
 which further personal interests and hamper general 
 efficiency. Still, so far as any general law goes, or 
 the possession of any new system regulating the con- 
 ditions which perforce surround the control of mer- 
 chant shipping, it may be safely asserted that none 
 exists. Abroad the subject has received the closest 
 attention, and to-day the efficiency of the British 
 sailor is so much improved that where ten years 
 since the average of tons carried by each seaman was 
 only 278, now it is 436, or in a ratio of the labor of 
 two men in 1883 equalling that of three in 1873. In 
 our whole country there is but one ship in which 
 the future merchantman is receiving preliminary 
 training ; and, though the work of the St Mary's.is 
 most excellent, yet it seems absurd that out of 
 $3>5> 000 appropriated for education in the State 
 the one hundred and twentieth part only should go 
 to the schooling of the men who are to man and 
 command the ships of the future. Still worse is it 
 that a State should be compelled to burden its citi- 
 zens with duties that belong to the people of a whole 
 country ; and it would be farcical, were it not almost 
 criminal, to find a population of 50,000,000 contribut- 
 ing each year about twenty-five trained American 
 boys to a commerce which, notwithstanding its un- 
 paralleled decadence, is still the second in the world. 
 In 1880 the number of men employed in English 
 merchant ships was 200,000 120,000 in sailing ves-
 
 58 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 sels, and 80,000 in steamers and of these the esti- 
 mated annual waste reached the enormous figure of 
 16,000, 500 alone being officers ; to replace this loss 
 is a question that has received intelligent study and 
 action, yet with government aid and comfort and 
 the commissioning of eighteen training ships, two of 
 which are for officers, this annual waste is so illy re- 
 placed that England is compelled to man her ships 
 with foreigners to some considerable degree. The 
 first duty of a sailor is evidently to take care of his 
 ship ; to navigate her upon the high seas, and with 
 safety and certainty to make his ports of destination ; 
 yet to-day it is a matter of record that one-half of the 
 wrecks are due to preventable causes, and that in 
 England, for example, two-thirds of the wreckages 
 are set down by the British Board of Trade as the 
 results of ignorance and incompetency. If this be 
 true, and statistics prove it, under a system which 
 demands from masters and mates the possession of 
 certain elements of fitness for their duties it would 
 be natural to deduce that in a country where no 
 specially tested qualifications are required more dis- 
 asters would occur ; otherwise education and train- 
 ing go for nothing. Then again, there should be 
 under the first system a relative annual decrease of 
 wreckages, for if this do not appear then the safe- 
 guards which the nations are giving each year to 
 navigation are useless, and in vain are the surveys, 
 lighthouse organizations, improved instruments of 
 navigation, steam lanes, charts, etc., which supple- 
 ment the diffusion of nautical science and the execu- 
 tive control over insurance corporations, ship own- 
 ers and merchant masters and their assistants.
 
 MARINE DISASTERS. 59 
 
 Certain writers have claimed that an analysis of 
 the files of the Bureau Veritas and of the English 
 wrecking list confirms the statement that, as the ton- 
 nage of the merchant marine increases each year, so 
 in like proportion do the disasters to vessels seem 
 to grow. Broadly tested this is not true ; for, apart 
 from every other reasonable consideration, it im- 
 plies either that the same intelligence and the same 
 application of means to an end are not being em- 
 ployed in the science of navigation as in every other 
 economic question, or that the morality of seafaring 
 people in an age when the world is improving must 
 tie retrograding. Professor Rogers finds, from his 
 comparisons and examination of trade statistics, that 
 in Great Britain there is an increase in the number 
 of wrecks and casualties, with a decrease in the 
 number of vessels, this decrease for the years 1856- 
 1873 being i per cent. In the same period the in- 
 crease of tonnage was 19 per cent. ; the increase in 
 the number of wrecks, including collisions, was 33 
 per cent. ; the increase in the number of collisions 
 was 23 per cent., and the increase in the number of 
 wrecks, excluding collisions, 36 per cent. Compar- 
 ing the number of collisions which occurred in 
 Great Britain with those of the United States, he 
 finds that the ratio of the former is as i to 67, and 
 that of the latter as i to 43 ; therefore, he argues, 
 since in a large number of cases the average of all 
 causes, except carelessness, which produces colli- 
 sions must be a constant, the modulus of careless- 
 ness between the two countries may be stated to be 
 nearly at 2 to 3 in our favor. He finds further 
 that the proportion of wreckages, excluding colli-
 
 60 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 sions, is somewhat less with us, though he admits 
 that the data of the Life Saving Service, except for 
 the past four years, is neither full nor reliable. 
 There is a wide discrepancy between these results 
 and those of Mulhall, who shows, upon an examina- 
 tion of Lloyd's Register, that between 1880 and the 
 preceding fourteen years there were in 1866-1879 an 
 average of 2,171 vessels lost, and in 1880 2,193, an 
 increase of but i per cent. ; while in the same period 
 the over-sea traffic had risen over 70 per cent. A 
 writer in the Quarterly Review, supposed by Brassey 
 in his book on British seamen to be Farrer, a mas- 
 ter of statistics and of administrative and legislative 
 details, says for every ship lost in 1833-35 there were 
 3,794 tons on the register and 7,714 tons in foreign 
 trade ; while in 1870-72 there were 6,547 tons on the 
 register and 24,909 so employed. For every 100 tons 
 lost in 1833-35 tne tons were respectively 2,656 and 
 5,401, and in 1876-72 the figures were 2,242 and 8,529. 
 For every life lost in 1833-35 there were 2,276 tons on 
 the register and 4,628 tons in the foreign trade, and 
 in 1870-72 the statistics give 3,635 and 13,831 tons. 
 Tabulating these figures they appear as follows : 
 
 Tons on Register. 
 , 1833-35. 1870-72. 
 
 Tons in Foreign Trade, 
 United Kingdom. 
 1833-35. 1870-72. 
 
 For every ship lost 
 
 3.794 
 
 6,547 
 
 * 7,7H 
 
 24,909 
 
 For every TOO tons lost. 
 
 2,656 
 
 2,242 
 
 5,401 
 
 8,529 
 
 For every life lost 
 
 2,276 
 
 3,663 
 
 4,628 
 
 13.831 
 
 The above results are so striking that he had them 
 tested in another way. The number of ships actu- 
 ally employed in the trade of the United Kingdom 
 being known from the year 1849, the number em- 
 ployed in the earlier years has been estimated from
 
 MARINE DISASTERS. 6l 
 
 them, and the wrecks at the different periods have 
 been compared with these numbers, showing the 
 average annual percentage of ships lost to average 
 number of ships employed to be as follows : 
 
 Periods. Average. 
 
 5 3-72 
 
 Periods. Average. 
 
 1860-62 3.00 
 
 1841-42 3.20 i 1870-72 2.95 
 
 These figures dispose of the allegation that em- 
 ployment in British shipping is far more dangerous 
 now than it was forty years ago, at a time antecedent 
 to the repeal of the navigation laws. 
 
 Between 1866 and 1880 the steam tonnage in- 
 creased from about 1,500,000 to 4,000,000 tons, and 
 its carrying capacity from 40 to 6 1 per cent, as com- 
 pared to a decrease in sail-carrying tonnage of from 
 60 to 39 per cent. 
 
 The relative national losses of vessels in the same 
 period are shown by Kaier, an eminent Norwegian 
 statistician, to have been: 
 
 Steamers. Sailing Vessels. Total. 
 
 1879. Per Cent Per Cent. Per Cent. 
 
 United States 4.06 5.45 9.51 
 
 Dutch 3.84 4.49 8.33 
 
 British 2.94 3.93 6.87 
 
 German 2.77 4.04 6.81 
 
 French 2.47 4.04 6.51 
 
 Scandinavian 1.96 3. 20 $ I ^ 
 
 Italian 1.74 2.94 4.68 
 
 This disproves the assertion so often made that 
 the relative loss of steamers is greater than that of 
 sailing vessels ; and it makes apparent that our loss 
 is the greatest, a third more than England and 
 double that of Italy, and that the fewest wrecks oc- 
 cur among Italian vessels, due probably to the fact
 
 62 
 
 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 that in all long voyages increased care is secured be- 
 cause each sailor has a share in the ship. It will be 
 seen that Norwegians have, likewise, a very low per- 
 centage, which may arise from the preponderance of 
 sailors and ship-owners in that country ; for there is 
 almost a ton of shipping for each inhabitant, or five 
 times as much as the ratio in Great Britain. Allow- 
 ing three voyages yearly for a sailing vessel and 
 fifteen for a steamer, the first is lost once in 72 voy- 
 ages and the second once in 490 voyages, giving the 
 latter class but one seventh the risk of the former. 
 The ordinary life of a ship is, in the United States, 
 1 8 years ; in France, 20 years ; in Holland, 22 years ; 
 in Germany, 25 years ; in Great Britain, 26 years ; 
 in Italy, 28 years, and in Norway, 30 years. The 
 annual death-rate of the world's shipping is 4 per 
 cent, or about 750,000 tons, and the birth-rate 5 per 
 cent, or 950,000 tons of vessels built ; but since the 
 substitution of steamers for sailing vessels gives an 
 augmentation of 4 per cent, in carrying power the 
 loss is represented by 1,200,000 tons annually, and 
 the gain is about double, or 2,322,000 tons. During 
 1882, 198 steamers were lost, the nationality and 
 tonnage being as follows : 
 
 Nation. 
 
 No. Tonnage. Nation. 
 
 No. Tonnage. 
 
 British 141 151,041 
 
 French 6 6,486 
 
 German 5 4, 562 
 
 Spanish 4 4, 177 
 
 Belgian 3 4,643 
 
 Chilean 2 1, 150 
 
 American 15 1 1, 568 
 
 Danish 6 3,274 
 
 Swedish 4 2,458 
 
 Dutch 3 4,390 
 
 Brazilian 3 4, 643 
 
 Various 8 4,425 
 
 Four of these steamers were built of steel, five of 
 wood, and the remainder of iron ; the largest pro-
 
 MARINE DISASTERS. 63 
 
 portion of these losses was due to stranding, 99 
 being cast away by the ignorance, over-confidence 
 or carelessness of the people in charge ; 30 were lost 
 by collision, 40 foundered, 7 were burned, 6 were 
 abandoned, 2 were sunk by ice, i broken in two, i 
 exploded, and n were missing. Very few sailors 
 know the number of ships that have never been 
 heard from after leaving port, for in Great Britain 
 alone, in 1873-74, there were 80 vessels missing ; in 
 1874-75, 137, and in 1875-76, 101 ; between 1864-1869, 
 of 10,588 reported lost, the fates of 846 are unknown, 
 and even this frightful list is said to be less than 
 more accurate information or more extended insur- 
 ance would show. In 1877 the losses of the English 
 merchant marine comprised 560 sailing vessels 
 and 68 steamers, representing a value with cargoes 
 of $18,000,000 and of 2,700 lives ; and in 1875 the 
 total wrecks of all nationalities were 4,259, or a 
 number equal to that employed in our whole sea- 
 going service. Appliances, however, for saving life 
 are becoming every year more effective, no less than 
 1,295 crews having been saved in 1880, as compared 
 with an average of 1,023 ^ n tne preceding years. 
 The number of persons drowned by shipwreck in 
 1880 was 1,725, and the average per annum since 
 1866 was 1,775, showing a decrease of 3 per cent. 
 
 A careful investigation of the causes of wreckage 
 shows many curious and unexpected results. Among 
 other general principles which have been deduced 
 is that over one-half the number of wrecks occur 
 when the wind blows less than a fresh gale, or 
 when a ship, if properly found, manned, and nav- 
 igated, could keep the sea with safety. From 1864
 
 64 
 
 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 to 1874, inclusive, 229 vessels were wrecked during 
 calm weather ; 360, in light airs ; 1,010, light 
 breezes ; 405, gentle breezes ; 1,689, moderate 
 breezes ; 2,131, fresh breezes ; 2,329, strong breezes ; 
 919, moderate gales ; 1,020, fresh gales ; 4,320, strong 
 gales; 1,921, whole gales; 373, storms; 666, hurri- 
 canes ; 57, variable, and 639 unknown. The num- 
 ber of wrecks is proportionally larger for new vessels 
 than for those that have reached the average age of 
 service. Without giving the general table which 
 may be found in the " Proceedings of the United 
 States Naval Institute " (vol. vii. No. 3) and in Plim- 
 soll's " Monograph on Seamen," the statistics show 
 the age of greatest loss for England is between the 
 twenty-first and thirtieth years of the ship's age 
 3,418 being lost then as compared to 1,802 between 
 the thirty-first and fortieth years ; 2,747 were lost be- 
 tween the fifteenth and twentieth years, as compared 
 to 3,111 between the third and seventh years. 
 
 Country and Period. 
 
 
 
 $a 
 
 r 
 
 aJ 
 
 feS 
 
 1' 
 
 o 
 cT 
 
 4 
 
 o 
 
 .j 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 i w 
 
 '? 
 
 s^ 
 
 | 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 1 
 
 
 n 
 
 u 
 
 fa 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 h 
 
 Mean Great Britain, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I864.-74 . 
 
 2~l<( 
 
 6?? 
 
 T?6 
 
 146 
 
 02 
 
 nX 
 
 147 
 
 621 
 
 2,2IO 
 
 Mean United States, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I87C-7Q. . 
 
 44" 
 
 2 ^0 
 
 T 
 
 00 
 
 1 2O 
 
 267 
 
 16 
 
 620 
 
 1,0^8 
 
 Totals 
 
 ' '' 
 
 J * 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 682 
 
 882 
 
 2O7 
 
 245 i 213 
 
 365 
 
 179 
 
 J.^o 
 
 4,148 
 
 
 For the United States the greatest loss is between 
 the third and seventh years, 1,267 wrecks as com- 
 pared to 875 between the fourteenth and twentieth
 
 MARINE DISASTERS. 6$ 
 
 years, and 874 before the third year. To a large ex- 
 tent the number of wrecks is dependent on the char- 
 acter of the cargoes carried. 
 
 After making a liberal allowance for the larger 
 number of vessels engaged in certain kinds of trade, 
 it still remains proved that there is an excessive 
 number of wrecks corresponding to certain classes 
 of cargoes. Colliers are the most exposed to danger ; 
 next come ships in ballast, and then lumber vessels, 
 these last being indubitably caused by the venerable 
 age and decrepit character of the craft employed. 
 To become a " lumber drogher," as it is called, is the 
 sere and yellow leaf of a ship's existence, and as one 
 of these wallows across the Western Ocean or down 
 the North Seas it is the scoff and jest of every trim- 
 built clipper which shows a foaming wake and an 
 underwriter's rate that are the golden dreams of the 
 ocean tramp's skipper. With steamers grain and coal 
 are the most dangerous cargoes. The latter is apt to 
 cause loss by spontaneous combustion, caused by the 
 shipment of certain kinds of coal in a wet condition, 
 together with bad ventilation through the body of the 
 cargo. No extraordinary precautions are needed, but 
 ordinary care is not always given, whether from ig- 
 norance or carelessness, or from both, it is difficult to 
 say. This is more difficult to understand when an 
 effective tell-tale which gives warning of danger can 
 be made by inserting through the top of an ordi- 
 nary thermometer a copper wire that will extend to 
 the 100 degrees line Fahrenheit, for example. This 
 wire is in electrical connection with a battery and 
 an alarm bell kept in any convenient spot. The mo- 
 ment the temperature of the heating coal expands 
 S
 
 66 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 the mercury to the 100 degrees mark, the circuit is 
 closed through the wire, battery, bell, and the re- 
 turn wire to the mercury bulb at the bottom of the 
 thermometer, and a signal is rung continuously. 
 
 Grain cargoes are still improperly loaded in bulk, 
 and are often stowed without shifting boards ; and 
 there are not wanting underwriters who will insure 
 such cargoes, often at values both of ship and freight 
 which they know to be fictitious. For fraudulent 
 insurance is a prolific cause of wrecks, and what is 
 worse, in England, where those things are ordered 
 differently, the remedy is not apparent. In our 
 country we have insurance men who, for skill and 
 probity, are unsurpassed in the world, and yet in- 
 quiry among them demonstrates the futility of hop- 
 ing to eradicate this criminal practice. In 1867 
 there were in the Baltic 215 British vessels and 220 
 Swedish. The former had large insurances and the 
 latter scarcely any, and of these 17 British vessels 
 and 3 Swedish were lost. From 1857 to 1867 the 
 ratio of loss was 10 British to 3 Swedish, and this 
 difference cannot be accounted for by any superior 
 skill of the north country navigator, and gives inter- 
 nal evidence of no relation to any underlying cause 
 save the differences between the amounts of insur- 
 ance. 
 
 Two sources of information are open to any one 
 wishing to ascertain the ratio of wrecks and to de- 
 duce the causes : First, the numerical data fur- 
 nished by the Bureau Veritas of France, by the 
 Wreck Register for Great Britain, and by the re- 
 ports of the Life Saving Service of the United 
 States. Secondly, the comparison of the findings of
 
 MARINE DISASTERS. 6/ 
 
 the courts of inquiry upon the causes of wrecks, 
 casualties and collisions, ordered by the British 
 Board of Trade or reported to this Board. By the 
 Merchants' Shipping Act of 1854 it was assumed in 
 the preliminary courts of inquiry that a vessel might 
 be lost by any one of thirteen specified causes, the 
 list beginning with the act of God, running through 
 culpable inefficiency, and ending by the act of the 
 Queen's enemies. At present the causes are rele- 
 gated to four classes : First, accidents, etc. ; second, 
 errors, ignorance, neglect, etc. ; third, defective ma- 
 terial ; fourth, perils of the sea. From an examina- 
 tion of 15,828 English and 1,367 American casual- 
 ties, it was found that for the total number of 
 wrecks, excluding collisions, 45 per cent, was due to 
 preventable causes, and in 1,267 trials by the officers 
 of the British Board of Trade there were but 504 
 clear acquittals. Including with these the class of 
 wrecks for which no cause can be safely assigned, 
 that involving vessels which were never heard from 
 after sailing, and those other wrecks for which it is 
 exceedingly difficult to determine the true cause, the 
 general conclusion is reached that about one-half of 
 all the wrecks which occur are due to preventable 
 causes. That is, ignorance or dishonesty is the fruit- 
 ful source of an enormous loss of life and capital 
 which could be saved. 
 
 The remedy for these, for both can be treated 
 with some hope of cure, is in education. The law- 
 makers should be educated so as to frame a general 
 law which will elevate and protect the merchant mar- 
 ine. In England the Merchants' Shipping Act has 
 been productive of the greatest good, and, as has
 
 68 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 been shown, there is every year a steady decrease in 
 the number of wrecks ; and as the tests for officers' 
 certificates are increased there will be a like de- 
 crease in the causes now classed as preventable. 
 With us especially, should a committee be intrusted 
 with the duty of providing an organization, the 
 duties of which will be analogous to those of the 
 British Board of Trade ; and in place of one school- 
 ship there should be a dozen, governed under the 
 same general plan as the Naval Training Squadron, 
 and turning out yearly, if not enough lads to supply 
 the annual loss of American seamen, at least enough 
 to fill the place of the officers, without whom we 
 would be almost helpless in peace or war. We want 
 good officers, not only for the protection of life and 
 property, but also to secure for our seamen judicious 
 and thorough commanders. Under the most strin- 
 gent inspections, inefficiency upon the part of the 
 master often leads to shipwreck, and it is only by 
 enabling officers and men to learn their duties pro- 
 fessional and moral and subjecting them periodi- 
 cally to tests and examinations, that we can be as- 
 sured vital interests are not being sacrificed. Sailors 
 are the pioneers of civilization and, with maritime 
 countries, the reliance upon which the nation's honor 
 and safety mainly depend.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 AN intelligent English officer declared, in a discussion 
 upon the relative values of French and British naval 
 training, that one suffered from too much system 
 and the other from too little, and that English su- 
 premacy which he claimed was in spite, not in con- 
 sequence either of national legislation or of public 
 spirit In these days, when trade is the active so- 
 cial principle, many radical changes have been in- 
 troduced in commercial theories, and there is a 
 wider appreciation of its demands and of the close 
 relation existing between national and merchant 
 marines. Abroad these changes have generally 
 been in the direction of progress, but at home not 
 only has there been retrogression, but an absence of 
 that genius which, despite national neglect, should 
 have triumphed over an unfavorable environment 
 and placed us, at least, upon an equality with those 
 smaller nations which of old we scorned as rivals. 
 Our navy has been made ridiculous by insufficient 
 appropriation, and the same criminal carelessness 
 of Congress, acting in other channels, has nearly 
 driven from the sea a merchant marine which five 
 and twenty years since was the peer of England's in 
 size and value, and the unchallenged superior of 
 every other nation's in promise and efficiency. The
 
 70 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 country, however, seems awakening to the necessi- 
 ties of the sea-going trade, and our future is not 
 without hope. What we should do to meet the de- 
 mands to be made upon us is not always clear, but 
 after thirty years' trial in other countries certain 
 principles as points of departure maybe said to have 
 been established. Between the rigorous lines which 
 the government in France lays down for the conduct 
 of every enterprise and our own untrammelled lib- 
 erty of neglect there must be a golden mean. No- 
 where is there apparent a system so harmonious 
 that every national condition can be satisfied, but 
 there are evident, wherever any system does exist, the 
 possibilities of a compromise between that executive 
 control arid that unhampered energy of the indivi- 
 dual, which show in a tentative age like ours what a 
 wiser generation may accomplish. 
 
 France, Italy, Great Britain, Russia, and the North 
 Countries rejoice in a plan of some sort, but so far 
 as our necessities demand, and to the degree that 
 practice can justify theory, England of all the na- 
 tions appears to have secured what we should essay. 
 Not that her plan is perfect ; for wreckages, bad 
 management, and criminal loss of life all due to 
 preventable causes justify the demands for im- 
 provement which so many thinkers advance. In- 
 deed, there are not wanting men of a wide experi- 
 ence in ship owning and ship governing who declare 
 that, since the repeal of the navigation laws, eighty- 
 nine per cent, of the British seamen has deteriorated 
 professionally, sixty-five per cent, physically, and 
 seventy-one per cent, morally. On the other hand, 
 experts like Brassey, Lindsay, and Farrer deny this
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. Jl 
 
 and affirm, upon what seem fair grounds of proof, 
 that the sailor of our time is as competent as any 
 seaman of the days of Drake or Nelson, and in every 
 direction is more to be depended upon than in those 
 years of long voyages, hard knocks, and scurvy. And 
 as it is with the men so it is with the officers, for, 
 without yielding a tithe of the admiration and re- 
 spect which justly belongs to the mates and masters 
 of the old clipper ships, it is undeniable that the 
 demands made upon the modern merchant officer, 
 where a modern marine exists, have resulted in the 
 necessity for and the production of a superior man. 
 This last is especially true in England, and, though 
 something is attributable to the upward lift of all 
 classes in the wave-sweep of progress, yet it is 
 mainly due to the conditions which the British sys- 
 tem imposes. France does well, but her best ships 
 are commanded by naval officers, and her plan is 
 based upon a theory which, however suited it may 
 be to our necessities, is at variance with our national 
 instincts. Its underlying principle is that every in- 
 dividual owes personal service to the State, either in 
 the army or navy ; and it is the natural outgrowth of 
 that paternal rule which is the basis of every Gallic 
 trial of government, be the theories of the rulers of the 
 hour or accident what they may. For two hundred 
 years the seafaring classes have accepted this, but it 
 is certain we would dare neither to justify nor to put 
 it in practice. One of its consequences is to give 
 France to-day the best internal naval organization 
 in the world. Under its perfection of detail a sailor 
 may be transferred from a three-decker gunnery- 
 ship, manned by over a thousand men, to a corvette
 
 72 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 with a personnel of two hundred, and without 
 changing the station number given him in the first 
 ship, take up his duties and perform in the second 
 proportionally the same amount of labor alow and 
 aloft. 
 
 The merchant service is under equally rigorous 
 control, and as every man in it must at some time 
 have served in the national fleet, it is at all seasons a 
 reserve from which trained men can be drawn in 
 any emergency. The crews of the French navy are 
 supplied from three sources first from the inscription 
 maritime ; secondly, from voluntary enlistment, and 
 thirdly, these methods failing, from conscription in 
 the political departments touched by the tides. 
 The greatest number belong to the first class ; in it is 
 inscribed every one who has arrived at his eighteenth 
 year and who has made two deep-sea voyages, either 
 in a public or a private ship, or who has been for 
 eighteen months in the coasting trade, or for two 
 years in the home fisheries, and who in every case 
 declares himself as wishing to continue a seafaring 
 life. All persons in any way connected with the 
 working of steam machinery afloat are likewise sub- 
 ject to this inscription, and are called into active 
 service when the twentieth year is attained. The 
 first period of obligatory service is for five years, 
 three of which must be in actual service afloat ; but 
 at any time, and especially during the fourth and 
 fifth years, leave without pay may be granted to go 
 to sea in any capacity, and should this leave be 
 spent in the coasting trade, home fisheries, or on 
 short voyages, the time is counted as if employed in 
 the service of the State. Succeeding this first pe-
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. 73 
 
 riod there is another of two years, during which the 
 inscrit is nearly always in the position of renew- 
 able leave. Certain advantages accrue for this ser- 
 vice. Inscribed seafaring men alone have the right 
 to follow that trade ; they are freed from the public 
 service save in the navy and at marine arsenals dur- 
 ing periods of necessity ; they can decline to have 
 soldiers billeted upon them during their term of 
 service and for four months after its expiration ; 
 they are exempt from acting as guardians to minors ; 
 they are admitted gratuitously to the hydrographic 
 schools established for those who wish to prepare 
 for the grade of officer, and they can travel while in 
 service that is, for seven years on all railways at 
 one-fourth rates. No person may command a mer- 
 chant vessel unless he is twenty-four years of age 
 and has passed sixty months at sea in actual service 
 on board either a man-of-war or a merchant ship. 
 His birth certificate, a record of his services, and a 
 testimonial of good conduct, attested by the mayor 
 of his place and vt'sJby the commissioner of the 
 inscription maritime of his arrondissement, must be 
 produced, and, in addition, he must give evidence 
 of his professional and intellectual attainment be- 
 fore a board of rigorous examiners. After twenty- 
 five years seafaring, or after the fiftieth year has 
 been reached, every one on the inscription list is 
 entitled to a pension, whether he has done any actual 
 service to the State or not. These particulars, which 
 are taken from excellent reports by Lieutenant 
 Commander Chadwick and Professor James Russell 
 Soley, both of the United States Navy, make evi- 
 dent that this system is not adapted to the needs of
 
 74 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 our country, and during later political excitements 
 in France sufficient protest has been awakened 
 to show that, if the tradition and precedent of so 
 many years did not sustain its claims, the system 
 would be replaced by some other which would not 
 so largely imperil personal freedom and so vigorous- 
 ly shackle individual energy. That its effects in 
 certain directions have been good is unquestionable, 
 but the characteristic fault of too much system is 
 everywhere apparent. There is a sacrifice of results 
 to methods, and efforts seem to be exerted which 
 look rather to the perfection of the machinery than 
 to the work done by the machine. It is the outcome 
 of extreme centralization, though fortunately the 
 evil effects reach more nearly the minor details than 
 the larger plan, for, as in all such systems where the 
 agents ally great personal ability with a willingness 
 to sacrifice much but not all to the logical idea, suf- 
 ficient elasticity has resulted to give a unity of pur- 
 pose, a distinct perception of the ends proposed, and 
 an adaptation of means to reach them. The wonder- 
 ful organization, although dating from Colbert's 
 time, was first revealed during the Crimean war, and 
 showed how much France owed primarily to its great 
 finance minister, then to Lalande and Hugon, and 
 later to De Joinville, a prince of the blood, and one 
 of the best sailors who ever walked a ship's deck. 
 
 England learned by actual comparison afloat both 
 the low state of her seamen and her want of any sys- 
 tem, and there were naval experts who grimly con- 
 fessed that the next Trafalgar might have a Breton 
 Nelson who flew a tricolor at his masthead and ran 
 up signals that began and ended with La France.
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. 75 
 
 Humiliating as the lesson might be it was made a 
 wholesome one, and the results of intelligent study 
 have enabled England to replace an annual waste 
 of twenty-four hundred blue jackets with an equal 
 number of trained apprentices, who, individually, 
 are worth a dozen of the riff-raff formerly sold by 
 the crimps at a guinea a head to the press gangs and 
 recruiting officers. Nor has the merchant service 
 been forgotten, and when we see a concrete and co- 
 herent system which tends to the continuous im- 
 provement of workingmen who should be placed upon 
 the same basis as those of any other trade, we can- 
 not but be alarmed for our future where effort may 
 be wanting in the direction of necessary radical 
 change. We have never had a definite plan in this 
 country, the interests of owners being supposed suf- 
 ficient to guarantee proper shipkeepers, and, trust- 
 ing to this or to some other unhappy chance, we 
 have silenced all mild protests and throttled all at- 
 tempted energy by emphatic affirmations of the suc- 
 cess of the good old days when we were the favorite 
 commerce carriers. 
 
 It is evident that to maintain an efficient mercantile 
 marine four conditions must exist : First, there must 
 be a centralized system ; secondly, effective ships ; 
 thirdly, good officers and crews ; and fourthly, an 
 adequate reserve for supplying deficiencies in the 
 personnel. No country has more fully recognized 
 the importance of these correlated interests than 
 Great Britain, and to-day the proof of her apprecia- 
 tion rests upon the incontrovertible fact that she is 
 the leading maritime nation of the world. 
 
 The English system went into effect with the en-
 
 ?6 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 actment, in 1854, of the Merchant Shipping Act. This 
 was amended in 1855 and in 1862 ; and finally, in 
 1867, was given the form which it retains substan- 
 tially to this day. In the " Manual " codified by a 
 London publisher, the acts are arranged, according 
 to subject-matter, under eleven heads : First, The 
 Board of Trade ; second, British Ships ; third, Mas- 
 ters and Owners ; fourth, Safety and Prevention of 
 Accidents ; fifth, Pilotage ; sixth, Lighthouses ; 
 seventh, Mercantile Marine Fund ; eighth, Wrecks ; 
 ninth, Liability of Shipowners ; tenth, Legal Proce- 
 dure, and eleventh, Miscellaneous under this last 
 chapter being included regulations for coolie con- 
 tract labor, power of colonial legislatures to alter 
 provisions of the act, etc. The enumeration of 
 these eleven general divisions, with the variety and 
 preciseness of details under each, gives evidence of 
 the great labor and intelligence devoted to the ques- 
 tion in England, and makes it, so far as breadth 
 and particularity go, an unequalled code of mari- 
 time law. 
 
 The book is prefaced by a short chapter in which 
 the short titles of the acts and the legal terms em- 
 ployed are briefly defined. Among these last Her 
 Majesty's dominions are said to be the dominions so 
 called and all territories either under the govern- 
 ment of the East India Company or governed by 
 any charter or license from the Crown or Parlia- 
 ment. A British possession is any colony, planta- 
 tion, island, and settlement within the dominion and 
 not within the United Kingdom. In all of these the 
 Acts are operative under certain privileges accorded 
 colonies, and to carry them out there is constituted
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. 77 
 
 a Board of Trade, which is defined to be " the Lords 
 of the Committee of Privy Council, appointed for 
 the consideration of matters relating to trade and 
 foreign plantations." 
 
 To the Marine Department of this Board of Trade 
 is entrusted the general superintendence of all mat- 
 ters relating to British Merchant Ships. Under the 
 general heads enumerated above, the Board has di- 
 rect or appellate control of the description and 
 ownership of British vessels ; of the tonnage, meas- 
 urement, and registry ; of the transfer and transmis- 
 sion of shares on ships ; of mortgages and sales ; and 
 of forgeries and false declarations of ownership. 
 Under the caption of Masters and Seamen is stated 
 the authority which decides all questions affecting the 
 personnel of the service. It regulates and establishes 
 Local Marine Boards and Mercantile Marine Offices 
 and the examinations and certifications of masters, 
 mates, and engineers. It provides apprentices to sea 
 service, and has control of the engagement of sea- 
 men, allotments and remittances of wages, savings- 
 banks for seamen, legal claims to wages and mode of 
 recovery on default of payment, relief to seamen's 
 families out of the poor-rates, wages and effects of de- 
 ceased seamen ; discharge of seamen abroad ; relief 
 and return of distressed seamen ; volunteering into 
 the naval service ; provisions, sanitary rules, and ac- 
 commodations ; protection of seamen from imposi- 
 tion ; internal and general discipline ; naval courts 
 relating to the merchant marine on the high seas and 
 abroad ; registration and returns respecting seamen ; 
 official logs ; unseaworthy ships ; greatest draught 
 of water ; deck and load lines ; boats for sea-going
 
 78 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 ships ; ships' lights and fog-signals ; rule of the road 
 at sea ; build, equipment, and survey of steamers ; 
 misconduct of passengers on steamers ; inquiries 
 into accidents, casualties, wrecks, and salvage ; gen- 
 eral supervision of pilotage as established by local 
 authorities, including the general regulations for 
 pilot boats, licenses, signals, licenses for masters 
 and mates, compulsory pilotage, and the rights, 
 privileges, remuneration, and offences of all pilots ; 
 and finally, of the mercantile marine fund. The man- 
 agement of light-houses, beacons, and buoys lies 
 within the jurisdiction of special authorities for each 
 of the three Kingdoms : the Trinity House for Eng- 
 land, the Commissioners of the Northern Light for 
 Scotland, and the Corporation of the Port of Dublin 
 for Ireland. Under such specific regulations the 
 seamen of Great Britain are trained, shipped, pro- 
 tected, and discharged under all possible contingen- 
 cies. Of the various duties cited here only a few 
 need further explanation. 
 
 Local Marine Boards are subordinate officers of ad- 
 ministration established in seaports and other selected 
 places to enforce the provisions of the law. These 
 boards are made up of three classes first, of the ex 
 officio members, consisting of the mayor or provost 
 and stipendiary magistrate of the place, or such of 
 them as the Board of Trade selects ; secondly, of four 
 members chosen by the same authority from persons 
 residing in or having a place of business at or within 
 six miles of the port ; and thirdly, of six other mem- 
 bers elected for three years by the owners of ships 
 registered in the port, every owner of not less than 
 250 tons having for every 250 tons one vote for each
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. 79 
 
 member, providing that no one individual's one shall 
 exceed ten. This local board controls the maritime 
 affairs of the district, establishes shipping offices 
 now called mercantile marine offices, and appoints 
 over each of these a superintendent. The duties of 
 this officer are to afford facilities for engaging seamen 
 by keeping registries of their names and characters ; 
 to superintend their engagement and discharge ; to 
 provide means for securing their presence on ship- 
 board at the proper time and in proper condition, and 
 to encourage and provide apprenticeships. In the 
 port of London there is established a General Regis- 
 trar and Record Office of Seamen, under charge of 
 the Registrar General, who is appointed by the Board 
 of Trade. In order to assist him in the registry of 
 all persons who serve in ships, every master of a 
 vessel the crew of which is discharged in the United 
 Kingdom must make out and sign a list containing 
 the following particulars : First, the number and 
 date of the ship's register and her registered tonnage ; 
 secondly, the length and general nature of the voy- 
 age or employment ; thirdly, the Christian names, 
 surnames, ages, and places of birth of all the crew, 
 their qualities on board, their last employment, and 
 the date and place of shipment ; fourthly, the names 
 of any members of the crew who have died or who 
 have otherwise ceased to belong to the ship, with the 
 wages due them, together with all the attendant 
 circumstances of death, desertion, etc. ; fifthly, the 
 names of any of the crew who have been maimed ; 
 sixthly, the name, age and sex of every person not 
 of the crew who has died on board ; seventhly, similar 
 data of births ; and eighthly, every marriage on board.
 
 80 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 These lists are forwarded through the superintendent 
 before whom the crew is discharged, and in the case 
 of foreign-going ships must be handed in within 
 forty-eight hours after the ship's arrival at her final 
 port or upon the discharge of the crew, whichever 
 first happens, under a penalty of ^"6 for every de- 
 fault. Besides this all officers of the customs are or- 
 dered to detain any such ship unless the master 
 produces a certificate from the superintendent that 
 his list has been forwarded. A similar list must be 
 delivered, under like penalties, by the master of any 
 home trade ship within twenty-one days after June 
 3oth and December 3151 in every year, thus enabling 
 a complete record of every British seaman to be 
 kept, and giving the government power not only to 
 exercise a judicious control over a most important 
 class of its producers, but to form some just opinion 
 of its resources for any emergency which may arise 
 either in peace or war. 
 
 Under the act ships include every description of 
 vessel used in navigation not propelled by oars ; 
 they are divided into two classes first, foreign-go- 
 ing ships, which embrace all vessels trading beyond 
 the limits of the United Kingdom and places situ- 
 ated off its own coast and the islands of Guernsey, 
 Jersey, Sark, Alderney, and Man, and all that part 
 of the Continent of Europe between Havre and the 
 River Elbe ; secondly, home trade ships, which dis- 
 tinguish all vessels the voyages of which are con- 
 fined to the limits specified above. Foreign-going 
 ships cannot legally proceed to sea unless the mas- 
 ters, or the first and second or only mates have cer- 
 tificates either of competency or service ; rror home
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. 8 1 
 
 trade ships unless the masters and first or only mate 
 possess such certificates ; and no ship of any class 
 of 100 tons burden or upward can start on a voyage 
 unless at least one person besides the master has a 
 valid certificate appropriate to his grade. To check 
 fraud every person who ships in any of these grades 
 without such a certificate, or any person who know- 
 ingly employs him, or without ascertaining that he 
 has such a certificate, incurs a penalty not exceed- 
 ing ^50 for each offence. The certificate of com- 
 petency is the one now most in use, especially in 
 the junior grades, and is given to such applicants as 
 pass a set examination and comply otherwise with 
 certain conditions of sobriety, morality, etc. The 
 testimonials of service entitle officers who served 
 either as masters or mates in foreign going ships be- 
 fore January i, 1851, or on home trade ships before 
 the same date in 1854, to serve in like capacities ; 
 and is further extended to include all officers who 
 obtained the grade of past mate and above in the 
 English naval or the East India Company's service. 
 Any such officer, upon the production of testimo- 
 nials as to character, is entitled to obtain a certifi- 
 cate as master of a merchant ship. There are simi- 
 lar certificates given to engineers, that of service 
 being for persons who served as first or second class 
 engineers in government or private employ before 
 April, 1862, certain conditions as to the size of the 
 ship and the officers' grades in the latter service de- 
 termining whether their certificates shall be first or 
 second class. Certificates of competency for a for- 
 eign-going ship entitle the holder to the command 
 of any ship, but those for the home trade are rigo- 
 6
 
 82 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 rously confined to service in that class. In order to 
 determine the fitness of applicants rules for the con- 
 duct of examinations have been published, and ex- 
 aminers have been appointed by the local boards for 
 each district. These examiners are rarely over two 
 in number, and may be selected from either the naval 
 or merchant service ; though in some cases the one 
 employed to test the navigation knowledge of an ap- 
 plicant has been a civilian with a special knowledge 
 of that science and without any sea training. The 
 examination days are arranged for general conven- 
 ience, so that a candidate who wishes to go to sea 
 and misses the day at his own port, may proceed to 
 another where the Board is in session. Except in 
 London and Liverpool, where certain hours and 
 days of the week are made obligatory, candidates 
 must give their names to the local board on or be- 
 fore the day of examination, and . at all times testi- 
 monials as to character must be submitted in ample 
 season to permit their verification at the office of 
 the Registrar General. In the case of foreigners or 
 of British seamen serving in foreign vessels, these 
 testimonials must be officially confirmed by some 
 authority of the foreign country to which the per- 
 son or ship belongs, or failing that, by the evidence 
 of some credible witness. 
 
 The grades for which examinations must be 
 passed are second, only and first mate, master and 
 extra master in foreign-going ships ; mate and mas- 
 ter in home trade ships, and first and second class 
 engineers in all steamers, with a voluntary exami- 
 nation for all masters and mates in steam. A sec- 
 ond mate must be seventeen years of age and have
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. 83 
 
 been four years at sea ; an only mate must be nine- 
 teen years of age and have been five years at sea, 
 and a first mate have the same age and sea service, 
 with at least one year's experience as second or only 
 mate. The qualifications demanded of the two 
 lower grades are those which are supplied by what 
 is known in this country as a common school educa- 
 tion, with some rough knowledge of simple naviga- 
 tion and an acquaintance with signalling. Practi- 
 cal seamanship and the ability to keep an ordinary 
 watch are also requisite, with an intelligent under- 
 standing of life-saving appliances. Added to these a 
 mate must be able in navigation to observe azimuths 
 and compute the variation of the compass ; to com- 
 pare chronometers and to keep their rates, and from 
 them to find the longitude by observations of the sun, 
 and to determine the latitude by single altitudes of the 
 sun off the meridian; finally he must be able to adjust 
 and use the sextant in all observations. In seamanship 
 he must give evidence of a superior knowledge, such 
 as would entitle him to be trusted with the ship in 
 bad weather, to handle sails, to shift spars, to get in 
 heavy weights and to stow a hold. A master must 
 be twenty-one years of age and have been six years 
 at sea, for two of which at least he must have been 
 a first and second mate ; his testimonials must be of 
 a first class character, and added to the qualifications 
 demanded of a mate, he must be able to find the 
 latitude by sun and star, to compute the variation of 
 the compass in all the usual ways, to explain the 
 law of tides and, from the full and change of the 
 moon, find the state of the tide at any hour in any 
 part of the world ; and finally, he must explain the
 
 84 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 nature and mode of determining the extent of the 
 attraction ol the ship's iron upon the comprss. In 
 seamanship he must show a capability to deal with 
 any maritime emergency and to care for his ship 
 under unexpected and perilous circumstances ; he 
 must know how to make jury-rudders, build rafts, 
 and understand signalling so as to tell at a glance 
 their characters and in many cases their meaning 
 without referring to the book ; he must be able to 
 manage mortars and rocket-lines in case of strand- 
 ing, and be acquainted with the leading lights of the 
 channels he has been accustomed to navigate or 
 which he is likely to employ. He is questioned as 
 to his knowledge of invoices, charter parties and 
 Lloyds' Agents, and besides knowing the nature of 
 bottomry he must possess a sufficient acquaintance 
 with the provisions of law relating to entry, and dis- 
 charge and management of his crew, and with the pen- 
 alties and entries to be made in the official log-book. 
 He must, as a matter of conscience, understand his 
 medicine chest, for his clientele lies without the pur- 
 view of " crowners' quests," and he must be able to 
 mitigate or prevent scurvy on shipboard. An extra 
 master's examination is voluntary and is intended 
 only for persons who desire to obtain certificates of 
 the highest grade. Its demands are quite rigorous 
 and fall below only those practical tests to which 
 ensigns in the navy are subjected. 
 
 Looked at broadly all these examinations serve, so 
 far as any examination can, to prove an officer's fit- 
 ness for the grade to which he aspires. It is claimed 
 that they are loosely conducted and that many in- 
 capable candidates pass owing to the carelessness,
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. 85 
 
 venality, or over-indulgence of the examiners ; but 
 from the characters of the men selected for this last 
 duty it may be safely argued that the number of ap- 
 plicants who slip through is small. 
 
 The Norwegian government has endeavored to 
 assimilate the condition of the naval and mercantile 
 services, and has made intellectual attainments ob- 
 ligatory upon the merchant masters. The results 
 have been to form a sober and an intelligent class, 
 that has secured the admiration and respect of the 
 maritime peoples. It is not unfrequent that naval 
 lieutenants obtain permission to command merchant- 
 men, and public policy there, as it should every- 
 where, dictates that masters and mates should be men 
 of education and special training, qualified for use- 
 ful and brilliant service to their country in time of 
 need. Under this centralized system most excellent 
 results have been attained. And it is only where such 
 exist that maritime success may be assured. 
 
 What then are we to expect when we have no 
 tests, and it rests only with the ship-owner to deter- 
 mine who shall be intrusted with property of which 
 his share may be the smallest part ? In England 
 they are striving every day to advance the scheme 
 of examinations, and to eradicate faults which they 
 claim arise more from the lowness of the standard 
 than from any other pregnant cause. It certainly 
 would add to the efficiency of the merchant marine 
 and increase the prestige of its officers if a broader 
 examination were required. Not only should it be 
 made to include the highest seamanship and all 
 practical navigation, but, according to Brassey, at 
 least one foreign language and the elements of a
 
 86 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 commercial education. If a moderate annual stip- 
 end were given to those who passed an examination 
 in gunnery, the officers would be encouraged to pre- 
 pare themselves in peace for the duties war might 
 require. With us especially would all these tests be 
 necessary. Our navy, at the best, is a skeleton, upon 
 which with material drawn from the merchant ma- 
 rine we must build a vivified personality that would 
 aid us in asserting every right external violence or 
 greed might assail. The higher examinations would 
 tend to secure more uniform excellence, for even 
 now, under existing rules, the captains of the largest 
 ships are unequal in character and skill. It is not 
 necessary that this proposed extension of the scope 
 of requirements should be in the line of abstruse 
 mathematics ; but naval architecture, modern lan- 
 guages and commercial knowledge, whether relating 
 to law, foreign exchange, or general trade, would 
 scarcely be less useful than the mathematical theory 
 of navigation. 
 
 Here then in England is a system founded upon 
 principles of equity, justice, and usefulness, suited to 
 our necessities and not antagonistic to our na- 
 tional genius and instinct ; a plan so practical 
 that no individual effort is hampered, and yet so 
 theoretical that the mere man of straw, whose fit- 
 ness rests only upon what his experience of facts 
 may reach, and not upon what his grasp of prin- 
 ciples may assert, is sure to find a level where his 
 possibilities for harm are reduced to a minimum. 
 We can adopt it with safety, for it grew out of those 
 same necessities of the modern spirit which affect 
 our civilization ; it is based upon intelligence and
 
 FOREIGN SYSTEMS OF ADMINISTRATION. 87 
 
 education ; its success justifies its existence, and its 
 progress gives surety of its permanence. Fortified 
 by the knowledge of the good it has effected in Eng- 
 land we can urge its adoption here, and as we must 
 begin at a beginning that is not as yet, and fight our 
 way up to the point already attained by nations 
 lacking those maritime activities so essential to com- 
 mercial supremacy that we possess, it is our duty 
 and should be our pride to anticipate in the present 
 the demands of a future which can be made glorious 
 for the merchant service.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. 
 
 BUT even with a logical and consistent system of ad- 
 ministration, and with effective ships, there can be 
 no permanent nor profitable maritime success unless 
 there are good sailors and officers, and a sufficient 
 reserve from which losses may be wholly or in part 
 supplied. Good crews can be obtained only by giv- 
 ing more attention to the physical, mental, and moral 
 condition of sailors. As a creature of romance the 
 hardy tar is a noble being ; as the actual victim of 
 persecution and neglect, he is a deplorable evidence 
 of man's inhumanity. To be even a fairly good 
 sailor requires double the ability demanded by any 
 other of the common pursuits of life, for as Raleigh 
 said, years ago, it is the one which exacts all manner 
 of carnal cunning. It seems reasonable to believe 
 that when the mysteries of the business were once 
 solved, it would be pursued with zest and profit ; 
 and yet in every year over one-third of the losses of 
 skilled mariners is due to the voluntary surrender of 
 a trade which pays better than any other followed 
 by the laboring classes, which is always certain of 
 affording employment, but which has been gained 
 and is maintained only through such infinite misery 
 and sacrifice, that it becomes unbearable. And there 
 is no reason in this, for while it could be brought to
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. 89 
 
 the same plane of comfort and respectability as any 
 other, it suffers from a neglect almost universal. This 
 is due partly to misapprehension, partly to careless- 
 ness ; for, fairly stated, the attitude of the public 
 mind toward it is the result more of the observation 
 of Jack ashore, and of the ignorance of Jack afloat, 
 than of any belief that the trade is of its nature a 
 brutalizing one. In a dim way there is an apprecia- 
 tion of its heroism and of its importance in the modern 
 scheme, and vaguely it is understood that no life 
 calls for more manly traits or for greater self-denial. 
 But, except upon rare occasions, land and sea exis- 
 tences are nowhere tangent ; and being thus re- 
 moved from the sphere of active sympathies of those 
 in whom lie possibilities for his amelioration, what 
 may be expected of the man before the mast ? 
 
 Usually a wanderer from childhood, his home ties 
 are severed and his home influences weakened ; his 
 life is spent either on shipboard, in a dull round of 
 mechanical duties accentuated by moments of terri- 
 ble peril, or on shore, awaiting a chance to ship 
 again ; the labors of the one period are swallowed 
 by the idleness of the other, just as his system pul- 
 sates between the severe asceticism of the sea and 
 the nameless debaucheries of the shore ; nowhere 
 is there a point of rest for the swing of his life- 
 pendulum, and he has before him the pauper work- 
 house or the sea that is always waiting. 
 
 Ashore he lives in a sailor's boarding-house, where 
 he is robbed and inveigled into all kinds of debauch- 
 ery while his money lasts or his prospects of getting 
 a ship will justify the boarding-master in holding 
 him upon the credit of the advance money. The
 
 90 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker may 
 be idle awaiting business or enjoying relaxation just 
 BO long as their money permits, but that being ex- 
 hausted, they must work or starve. Not so with the 
 sailor ; for his credit is so good and his absolute value, 
 based upon supply and demand, is so great that he 
 may be kept as sheep are kept, penned in a market 
 of horrors, awaiting the highest bidder, who always 
 comes. Finally he is shipped, and joins his vessel 
 usually half starved, half clothed, entirely impecun- 
 ious and wholly drunk. And when he is recalled to 
 a practical appreciation of the beauties of life by a 
 backhander from the mate who is stowing the an- 
 chors, he finds himself outside Sandy Hook, bound 
 for a deep-water voyage and with two months' earn- 
 ings, yet to be gained, all gone in advance. Here is 
 what several ^experienced ship masters testified to 
 before the Congressional Committee, though these 
 are matters of such every-day occurrence as to excite 
 no more interest, even in shipping circles, than the 
 sudden foundering of an ocean-tramp would arouse 
 among the dervishes howling outside the mosques 
 of Cairo. 
 
 Captain B. S. Osgood, who had twenty-five years' 
 experience at sea, said "it was a fact that ninety 
 per cent, of the engaged sailors went on board 
 drunk. What was needed was a law to blot out the 
 legalized boarding-house master. The so-called 
 philanthropy that went about the country collect- 
 ing money, and that turned out nothing but books 
 and tracts, was not the kind of philanthropy re- 
 quired for the sailor. No sailor, no matter how good 
 he might be and how much money he had, could
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. 91 
 
 come there (into the Fifth Avenue Hotel). He and 
 his baggage would not be received. He had to go to 
 the boarding-house, where he was robbed, and New 
 York State legalized it. His son that day was in an 
 English ship, because he could not with decency 
 sail in an American vessel. ' Blood money ' was 
 the cause of it. ' Blood money ' meant paying for 
 an opportunity to go into a ship. It was divided 
 between the boarding-house keeper, the master of 
 the ship, and in many instances with the owner of 
 the vessel. The charge was $5 per capita in this 
 port. There was a time (but many years ago) when 
 he, with others, marched down to the port and they 
 were selected by the captain of the ship for their 
 certificates of good character and for their physique. 
 Now they had to go through a system of red tape. 
 They went, say, to the top of Cherry Street, and 
 were picked out as it suited the boarding-house 
 keeper, and not as it suited the captain 4 and even 
 when the sailor was supposed to be guarded by all 
 the safeguards of the law he was robbed. Witness' 
 son had had his name erased from a list because he 
 would not pay the blood money, while dozens of 
 men were shipped before him. That, he thought, 
 was a case for the District Attorney." 
 
 " In most cases," continued another witness, " ship- 
 owners received much of the blood money that had 
 been so much talked of. That fact he was positive 
 of." He gave an interesting description of the 
 sailors themselves, instigated by landlords, appear- 
 ing in crowds in his office, wearing some distinc- 
 tive mark by which the captain of the vessel would 
 know they were of the blood-money paying circle.
 
 92 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 The captain picked these men out in preference to 
 others who were not in the ring, and the Commis- 
 sioner's efforts to " shut down " on the blood-money 
 system were by this ingenious method frustrated. 
 Still another gave several examples of what sailors 
 call " shanghaing " that is, kidnapping stating 
 that men of all professions were forced on board as 
 sailors, so that the boarding-house master might get 
 the "advanced wages." He had known a Catholic 
 priest to have been "shanghaied." The notes by 
 which the money was obtained were forged. As far 
 back as May, 1857, the Chamber of Commerce took 
 up the question of advance wages and decided to 
 move for its abolition, but in one week they were 
 compelled to " back down by the landlords, who had 
 the sailors completely under their control." 
 
 This is the sailor's life on shore, and it is better on 
 shipboard only because it is sober .and of some value 
 in a world which expects work from everybody ; 
 though this last consideration loses much of its un- 
 questionably logical force, when weighed from a 
 head-boom by the seaman who is stowing the jib on 
 a dark night, in freezing weather, off the Cape. As a 
 rule the sailor lives in a murky den which figures in 
 innumerable sea ditties as "the folk'sle, blessed scene 
 of jollity"; and he eats rations which are beautiful to 
 look at when stated in nicely ruled schedules and 
 provided for in mandatory scales, and yet are nothing 
 less than abominations when actually served out from 
 the greasy galley. Attaining with such a life the 
 grand results which the commerce of the world, 
 and our expanding civilizations prove, what could 
 not be hoped for under a more favorable environ-
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. 93 
 
 ment ? What would he be, even if the least of the 
 things vouchsafed by the old Hippocratic formula 
 to the worst of men, pure air, good water, and 
 sunshine were not denied him to some degree ? 
 Nothing could be worse for a blue-jacket, or for his 
 less ornamental but equally useful brother of the 
 merchant service, than coddling ; but there is some- 
 where that golden mean which would make out of 
 shambling, dissatisfied, but splendid animals, re- 
 spected and self-respecting members of society. Im- 
 prove ships and crew accommodations especially ; in- 
 sist upon educated and humane officers ; punish a 
 sea-bully as you would a wife-beater, with hard 
 labor and innumerable dozens of the cat for he is 
 the greatest coward on the earth and sea ; teach Jack 
 in the forecastle that there is something higher and 
 holier for him than passing weather-earrings and 
 riding down foretacks all his days ; in one word, give 
 him the half-chance which has usually been denied 
 him from the day of his birth, and then judge what 
 his possibilities may be. It can be done, it is being 
 done now in some degree. What a common human- 
 ity has failed to enforce, the jingling shillings, the 
 nimble sixpences have brought about ; and of all 
 nations England, as that one most nearly affected, is 
 foremost in the new departure. 
 
 These simpler things are ordered differently there, 
 though of course the absolute state of affairs is good 
 only by contrast with the evil of the management 
 here. A few of the provisions of the General Act 
 and its amendments are as follows : No fees are ex- 
 acted for the engagement and discharge of seamen ; 
 no seaman has the power to assign or dispose of
 
 94 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 his wages, but must receive them himself ; no debt 
 exceeding five shillings, incurred by any seaman 
 after engaging to serve, is recoverable until the ser- 
 vice is concluded ; good boarding-houses under wise 
 control are offered him to choose from ; lodging- 
 house keepers charging a seaman for a longer time 
 than he owes, are liable to a penalty of $50.00 for 
 each offence ; and in brief, by the enactment of an 
 admirable law, the rights of sailors are jealously 
 guarded, and so far as human wisdom can effect, 
 every precaution is taken for their welfare afloat 
 and ashore ; for their present life, and for those evil 
 days to come when they are sure to become a bur- 
 den either upon their past savings, or lacking them, 
 upon the charities which are so sparingly doled out 
 to men of the sea. Like this country, England dis- 
 covered that her supply of native seamen was dimin- 
 ishing ; unlike us, she is trying to remedy the dis- 
 ease, for it is a malady of most malignant type. In 
 1851 the number of foreigners in British ships was 
 5,793 out of a total of 141,937, or about 4.2 per cent. ; 
 in 1876 this had grown to 20,911 out of a total of 
 198,638, or 11.76 per cent.; and to-day nearly 13 per 
 cent, of the crews in British vessels consist of aliens. 
 In 1876, of the total mentioned above 125,811 were 
 employed in sailing vessels and 78,827 in steamers; 
 10 per cent, of the former and 50 per cent, of the 
 latter belonging to the class of stewards, firemen, 
 etc., seafaring persons who are not sailors, thus 
 leaving of the seamen class about 150,000 for the 
 supply of the various vessels. In the grand total 
 for the year there was a loss of about 16,000 persons, 
 not quite one-third of these being due to deaths and
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. 95 
 
 the remainder to desertions and to relinquishments 
 of the trade. The vessels afloat under the British 
 flag require over 20,000 officers, 3,000 of these being 
 for vessels of above 800 tons register, that is for a 
 class of ships needing men of more than average 
 skill and intelligence. The annual loss is nearly 
 1,000, 50 per cent, of which is credited to deaths a 
 striking exemplification of the rigorous nature of 
 the business. Out of a whole number of deaths for 
 the year (officers and men) of 4,151, 2,270 were 
 caused by drowning, 1,237 of these being in ship- 
 wrecks. 
 
 To replace these losses of crews and officers 
 several sources of supply are open ; for the re- 
 newal of losses among the men there are appren- 
 tices, volunteers, and boys from the training ships. 
 To meet the demands for the officers there are four 
 classes eligible : seamen or machinists competent 
 for promotion ; cadets qualified by training afloat 
 in sea-going ships or from the two merchant-train- 
 ing ships ; volunteers from English or alien navies, 
 and volunteers from other merchant services. 
 
 In the case of the men, apprentices are divided 
 into two classes : those taken by the owner or mas- 
 ter free or upon payment of a bounty, and those 
 supplied by the Guardians or Overseers of the Poor, 
 any of whom, in every Union, " may put out and 
 bind as an apprentice any boy who, or whose parent 
 or parents is or are receiving relief in such Union, 
 and who has attained the age of twelve years and 
 is of sufficient health and strength, and who consents 
 to be so bound." These facts must be attested to in 
 the presence of the boy before two justices of the
 
 96 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 peace ; the expenses of his outfit is charged to the 
 Union to which he belongs, and he is assigned a 
 number and a certificate by the Registrar General 
 of Seamen. Volunteers are such persons as the 
 master and owner may consent to receive on board 
 as part of the crew ; the regulations governing their 
 shipment have been mentioned before, and as a rule 
 the class is so, efficient that, in the relative manning 
 of British and American steamers carrying mails, 
 freights and passengers, there is, under the English 
 flag, one man to every 70^ tons, and under ours one 
 to every 40^ tons. In steamers carrying freight 
 only, the British have one man to every 51 tons, and 
 we have one to every 40^, showing that there is not 
 undermanning but a superior quality of seaman- 
 ship. 
 
 It is generally accepted as a sea maxim that the 
 best way to make a sailor is to begin early ; in the 
 British naval service the age at which an applicant 
 may enter is between fifteen and sixteen and a half 
 years, a boy exceeding this last limit being regarded 
 as too mature to adopt readily a life which makes 
 such a radical change on all demands, mental and 
 physical, previously known. This seems wrong, for 
 no boy under seventeen should be taken purely be- 
 cause of the physical harm that is done ; it ought to 
 be added that in this the weight of opinion is against 
 the writer, and he must be contented in sharing 
 his belief with physicians generally and with a few 
 officers abroad who have no control of naval training. 
 To give this education and discipline there are in 
 Great Britain nineteen ships, none under naval ad- 
 ministration, and all employed for the supply of sea-
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. Q/ 
 
 men to the British Mercantile Marine, and under 
 certain conditions to the Naval service ; these are 
 stationed at various suitable points on the coast, gen- 
 erally where the opportunities for most easily drain- 
 ing a district of its available recruits are best, or where 
 the overplus of a pauper or homeless class coming 
 within the intention of particular schools, makes their 
 presence most necessary. A broad generalization 
 includes these vessels in three classes, though they 
 overlap in certain directions : first, reformatory 
 schools ; secondly, industrial schools ; and thirdly, 
 schools for the laboring classes. The total pupil 
 capacity is about 4,500 and the average number al- 
 ways on board under instruction is not far from 
 4,000. Three ships are purely reformatory schools 
 the Akbar and the Clarence, stationed near Liver- 
 pool, and the Cornwall, in the Thames. Eleven are 
 industrial schools the Cumberland, off Garelock, 
 Scotland ; the Formidable, off Bristol ; the Gibraltar, 
 off Belfast ; the Havannah, off Cardiff ; the Mars, on 
 the Tay ; the Southampton, off Hull ; the Weliesley, 
 in the Thames, and the Clio and the Mount Edge- 
 combe. In addition to these there is the Endeavor, 
 which is defined in Brassey's book to be " a land 
 training brig, at Feltman." The Arethusa, the Chi- 
 chester, the Exmouth, and the Warspite are for the 
 laboring classes generally, and one, the Indefati- 
 gable, off Liverpool, is specially intended " for the 
 sons and orphans of sailors, and for other poor and 
 destitute boys." Here is a school system which 
 is unequalled in the world and here a splendid 
 charity. The instruction and discipline vary in 
 the different classes, but briefly recited, it may 
 7
 
 98 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 be said that the tuition is restricted to the elemen- 
 tary branches ; that the discipline is rigorous but 
 kindly ; and that the food is plain but wholesome ; 
 one-half of each day is given to text-books and reci- 
 tations, the other half to nautical drills and exer- 
 cises, and there are the usual holidays and vaca- 
 tions. 
 
 First in point of age is the Warspite. The society 
 for the administration of this school was founded in 
 1772 by Jonas Hannaway, and in one hundred and 
 ten years of its existence nearly 60,000 boys were 
 sent by it into the naval and mercantile services. 
 Boys admitted to this ship must be between thirteen 
 and sixteen years of age, and belong to some one of 
 the following classes : ist. Those who are destitute 
 and without friends. 2d. Those who are in abject dis- 
 tress and are recommended by officers of the society. 
 3d. Those who have been apprentices charged with 
 petty offences, and who are found unfit for shore 
 apprenticeships ; and, 4th. Those who are desirous 
 of going to sea and whose parents are unable to 
 support them. The school is maintained by volun" 
 tary offerings, the list of subscribers reaching nearly 
 five hundred, and at times the amount donated ex- 
 ceeds sixty thousand dollars. The boys are not kept 
 for any definite term, but usually the period is two 
 years. In 1880 one hundred and fifty-three boys 
 were sent afloat, principally into the naval service. 
 The Arethusa and Chichester receive the waifs of 
 the London streets, the boys being of extreme youth 
 and cared for as in a Reformatory. The ships are 
 supported by one branch of that great benevolent 
 society of which Lord Shaftesbury is the head, and
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. 99 
 
 which has the charge of many hundreds of children 
 of both sexes. 
 
 The Formidable, off Bristol, may be taken as an 
 example of the ships under the Industrial Schools 
 Act, to which large grants are made by the gen- 
 eral government and special annual allowances are 
 given by the various townships sending boys to the 
 ships. 
 
 The regulations for admission to this class are 
 usually as follows : 
 
 Boys between the ages of eleven and fourteen will be received on 
 board the Formidable, if sent by magistrates with a medical cer- 
 tificate of fitness for a sailor's life, and approved by the committee 
 under the following sections Of the Industrial Schools Act : 
 
 CLAUSE 14. Any person may bring before two justices or a mag- 
 istrate any child, apparently under the age of fourteen years, that 
 comes within any of the following descriptions, namely : 
 
 That is found begging or receiving alms (whether actually or 
 under the pretext of selling or offering for sale any thing), or being 
 in any street or public place, for the purpose of so begging or receiv- 
 ing alms. 
 
 That is found wandering and not having any home or settled 
 place of abode, or proper guardianship, or visible means of sub- 
 sistence. 
 
 That is found destitute, either being an orphan or having a sur- 
 viving parent who is undergoing penal servitude or imprisonment. 
 
 That frequents the company of reputed thieves. 
 
 The justices or magistrates before whom a child is brought as 
 coming within one of those descriptions, if satisfied on inquiry of 
 that fact, and that it is expedient to deal with him under this act, 
 may order him to be sent to a certified industrial school. 
 
 CLAUSE 15. Where a child, apparently under the age of twelve 
 years, is charged before two justices or a magistrate with an offence 
 punishable by imprisonment or a less punishment, but has not been 
 in England convicted of felony, or in Scotland of theft, and the 
 child ought, in the opinion of the justices or magistrate (regard be-
 
 100 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 ing had to his age and to the circumstances of the case), to be 
 dealt with under this act, the justices or magistrate may order him 
 to be sent to a certified industrial school. 
 
 Boys who do not come under one of these clauses, 
 and who therefore cannot be sent by a magistrate's 
 order, will be received into the school, if those who 
 are interested in them are willing to contribute 18 
 per annum for each boy ; and provided also that the 
 boy is physically fitted for a sailor's life, and is wil- 
 ling to be bound to remain at the school a certain 
 period and go to sea when a ship is selected for him. 
 His age must be between eleven and fourteen, and 
 he must also be approved by the committee and its 
 medical officer. 
 
 The Exmouth is a school for boys of the poorest 
 class, who are sent to it by the Boards of the Unions 
 (almshouses) of the metropolitan districts of Lon- 
 don ; they are received at any time between the 
 ages of nine and fifteen and a half, and are ob- 
 liged to leave when they arrive at the age of six- 
 teen or sixteen and a half ; the largest number 
 received on board are between twelve and thirteen 
 years of age. They are instructed in the elementary 
 English branches, seamanship, swimming, small-arm, 
 cutlass, great-gun drill, and singing. All boys are 
 taught to cut, make, and mend their own clothing. 
 A band with a complement of fifty-eight is kept up, 
 and certain boys are given instruction in carpenter- 
 ing and in cooking ; the latter, a most excellent idea, 
 receiving especial attention. 
 
 Attached to the ship is a small brigantine, which 
 is used for practical training underway. She cruises 
 in the mouth of the Thames between April and Oc-
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. IOI 
 
 tober ; the complement of boys on board is thirty, 
 ten being changed every week, so that they are 
 always twenty oldsters to ten new hands. The more 
 important instructions on board this tender are : 
 keeping careful watch by night when at anchor ; 
 mooring and unmooring ; loosing and making sail, 
 and reefing and furling under all conditions ; steer- 
 ing ; a thorough knowledge of conning terms ; heav- 
 ing-to and picking up boats ; heaving the log and 
 lead ; handling anchors ; and practical teaching of 
 the rule of the road in a crowded river. 
 
 From 1876 to 1879, 876 boys were admitted; 202 
 sent to sea ; 29 transferred to the army as musicians ; 
 90 discharged by order of the Boards of the Unions 
 from which they came ; 3 given other situations ; 5 
 absconded, and 2 died. These boys would in most 
 cases have formed a part of the great pauper class of 
 England ; but instead, owing to well-directed charity 
 and through the expenditure of very little money, 
 they are lifted to a plane the possibilities of which 
 by comparison are limitless. 
 
 The Indefatigable, which is moored in the Mersey, 
 off Liverpool, has for its object the training of the 
 Orphans and sons of seafaring men connected with 
 the port of Liverpool, and of boys whose parents 
 may be unable to support them. Preference is given 
 always to the former class. The ship depends entire- 
 ly upon contributions and subscriptions for its sup- 
 port, and a considerable amount of money is paid 
 into its treasury by American passengers on board 
 of English steamers between New York and Liver- 
 pool, who thus contribute, in most cases without 
 knowing, to a most praiseworthy charity.
 
 102 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 The committee of management comprises some of 
 the most prominent names of Liverpool, most of the 
 great ship-owners being represented. The mayor of 
 Liverpool is president ex officio. 
 
 GENERAL RULES. 
 
 Boys of all religious denominations are eligible for admission. 
 
 No boy is received on board under twelve or over fifteen years of 
 age, nor is any one retained who does not show an aptitude for a sea- 
 life. 
 
 The period during which a boy may remain on board is intended 
 to be not less than three years. This period is not extended except 
 by special sanction of the committee in individual cases. 
 
 Life-governors or others willing to contribute not less than jioo 
 to the funds of the institution, or an annual subscription of .10, 
 have a right to nominate a boy for each such donation. 
 
 The general committee, under whose management the ship is, 
 must consist of not more than forty members. An executive com- 
 mittee, of not more than ten members, is elected by the general 
 committee. The executive committee is obliged to meet twice in 
 each month, three members forming a quorum.- 
 
 In a report on the Training of Seamen of Eng- 
 land, from which many of these facts are taken, 
 Lieutenant-Commander Chadwick, U. S. Navy, says : 
 " Not to be passed over as training-schools for boys 
 destined for the sea, are the industrial schools such 
 as that as Feltham, which has taken the foremost 
 rank as a school of the kind. It is a reformatory 
 establishment for convicted boys, and is conducted on 
 the half-time system. It is an admirably managed 
 institution, and Captain Brooks, a retired officer of 
 marines, has received high praise for the success of 
 the place. What makes the mention of it proper 
 here is that there is in the grounds a brig, built from 
 the berth-deck upward, upon which the boys, who
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. 103 
 
 have selected a seafaring life, are exercised. Fifty- 
 six boys were sent to sea from this place last year, 
 six of whom entered the navy as bandsmen, much 
 attention being also given to music. 
 
 "This method of having a means of nautical train- 
 ing attached to institutions of this kind is very well 
 thought of. Many boys thus receive sufficient train- 
 ing to fit them to early become good sailors, #nd a 
 taste for the sea is fostered in a class for which 
 there is too little employment of a fixed kind." 
 
 To meet the demands for officers there are two 
 ships, the Conway, anchored off Liverpool, and the 
 Worcester, anchored off London. These school- 
 ships are employed mainly to train and educate 
 boys for officers of the Merchant Marine, but pupils 
 intended for the Royal Navy are also admitted 
 and receive a special training. On each ship an 
 efficient nautical and civil staff is maintained, and 
 the course, which requires two years, includes mathe- 
 matics as far as spherical trigonometry, the theory 
 and practice of navigation, magnetism, meteorol-. 
 ogy, and such seamanship as can be acquired on 
 board ship at an anchorage ; this last, it is true, may 
 not be much, but it is of such sufficient value as to 
 warrant the Board of Trade in reckoning the full 
 period as one year spent actually afloat off soundings. 
 Six appointments as midshipmen in the Royal Naval 
 Reserve are annually granted to the Conway ; posi- 
 tions as apprentice leadsmen in the Bengal Pilot 
 service are allotted the graduates ; and many ship- 
 owners give such a preference to these cadets over 
 all other apprentices as to take them into their em- 
 ploys without the customary fee of indenture. No
 
 104 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 boy is received under the age of twelve and none 
 over sixteen ; the terms of admission are fifty guineas 
 per annum, and for this board, tuition, medical at- 
 tendance, uniform and outside clothing are supplied. 
 The boys belong to an exceptionally good class, and 
 it argues well for the merchant marine that the sons 
 of many distinguished and influential men should be 
 acquiring the elements of an honorable profession 
 under circumstances which, before many years, will 
 result in the best English vessels being commanded 
 by officers in no wise inferior to their brother sailors 
 of the government marine. The capacity of both 
 ships is about 300, and this number as a rule is main- 
 tained on board. 
 
 Undey these general methods of supply the losses 
 of the British merchant marine are made good ; the 
 training ships, of course, yield the smallest percent- 
 age, but they give a nucleus which will absorb grad- 
 ually the more important duties of the service. The 
 annual returns for one year are compiled here, in 
 order to show the number of boys sent into the mer- 
 chant service by each class of ships, the average 
 cost of maintenance, and the sources whence the 
 revenues for the support of the system are derived. 
 
 " The great defect of the mercantile training sys- 
 tem now in use in England is that too many of the 
 vessels are mere reformatories, which send into the 
 service boys with bad antecedents. Too great a 
 supply of such boys tends to cast a stain upon the 
 profession, and causes it to be looked upon as a 
 refuge for the destitute, worthless, and vagabond 
 class. The great aim ought to be to elevate it as a 
 reputable calling ; to make men think and feel that
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. 
 
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 106 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 it is as respectable as any other manual labor ; the 
 general thought of parents being that for a boy to 
 go to sea is to go entirely to the bad. This latter 
 feeling, of course, is strengthened in the service it- 
 self, where too many of a depraved class are sent 
 from reformatory institutions and houses of refuge. 
 The aim ought rather to be to attract volunteers to 
 the training ships, and not, as in too many cases in 
 England, require that the boy should be a pauper 
 before he can have the advantages and facilities af- 
 forded by these vessels." (Chadwick.) 
 
 In some measure this is true ; but it goes too far, 
 for, on the other hand, the new influences are whole- 
 some, and though the best material may not be ob- 
 tained, yet certain classes are reached, the large ma- 
 jorities of which are saved from crime and pauperism. 
 Many of these boys have become officers, and in the 
 great mass the evil tendencies of those who are dis- 
 tinctly criminal, as opposed to the instincts of others 
 who are merely poor, cannot counteract the perma- 
 nent good which the force of example and the re- 
 straint of discipline produce. It is certain that crime 
 is less prevalent, and that ships are better manned 
 and handled than ever before. 
 
 But what are we doing to make good the losses 
 which, by the same operations of the economic law, 
 fall upon our merchant marine. We have one ship, 
 the St. Mary's, stationed at the Port of New York 
 and supported mainly by the city government. 
 The results of her services have been good, but these 
 are necessarily of the most limited character. In 
 eight years there were 896 entries and 328 graduates ; 
 of these, 228 went to sea; 70 non-graduates also
 
 THE TRAINING OF BRITISH SEAMEN. IO? 
 
 adopted a seafaring life, and of the whole number 
 perhaps 60 have become officers. Are we prepared 
 to let this matter rest here ? Our legislative 
 bodies, and, failing them, our merchants, and as a last 
 resource, our charitable people, must study these fac- 
 tors and attempt to solve the problems into which 
 they enter. New and accepted theories make rig- 
 orous demands upon us, and the schools which gave 
 us the capable seamen of the first half of this cen- 
 tury are inadequate to satisfy the requirements of 
 these later days. As a last word, it must be empha- 
 sized that even if our shipping were restored, we 
 have neither the men nor the officers to man it ; and 
 this under a civilization which insists upon a skilled 
 merchant marine, governed, equipped, and educated 
 in accordance with modern ideas, as the only hope 
 of successful competition for the commerce of the 
 world.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 
 
 THE relation between the navy and the merchant 
 marine is not always apparent to the non-profes- 
 sional reader, but no law of the economic question 
 is better defined ; commercial supremacy and naval 
 power have gone hand in hand in all countries, and 
 though it is conceded the former should precede, 
 yet we once made the mistake of permitting com- 
 merce to develop without commensurate additions 
 to our naval strength, and to our great disadvantage. 
 Had an adequate force been at the disposition of the 
 government in 1861, the ports of the seceding States 
 would have been seized before they could have been 
 placed in a defensive condition ; not a blockade run- 
 ner could have entered ; not a rover have escaped to 
 prey upon our commerce ; and those fitted out else- 
 where would have been cut short in their careers of 
 destruction. Still further, the decadence of our 
 commerce, though not the outgrowth of the civil 
 war, would have been arrested, and long ere this we 
 might have entered upon that policy of revival which 
 we are bound to pursue. Trade is gained and influ- 
 ence maintained in China and Japan by the nations 
 which keep powerful naval forces on those coasts. 
 The Pacific commerce belongs naturally to us, but 
 despite our proximity the flag is rarely seen off the
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. ICX) 
 
 western coast, and our intercontinental trade barely 
 suffices to employ one line of steamers. We are the 
 great middle kingdom, and an analysis of the laws 
 underlying trade expansion proves incontrovertibly 
 that we should rule the commerce of the world. 
 Our enormous productive surplus demands new mar- 
 kets, and to foster and develop a commerce based 
 upon conditions of supply, demand, and direct and 
 easy means of transportation, we must have an effi- 
 cient and powerful war marine. Every ship should 
 become a commercial agent, and the dissemination 
 of information upon the resources of the country, 
 the prices and values of our commodities, the advan- 
 tages inuring to foreign merchants by dealing with 
 us in short, a realization of the work laid down 
 for the Ticonderoga in her last cruise ought to 
 form an essential part of the orders of cruising men- 
 of-war. 
 
 The duty of all navies is bey6nd everything else 
 to guard the territory of its country ; next to protect 
 its natural commerce ; and then to police and sur- 
 vey the seas in the general interests of humanity. 
 When the naval service is not altogether neglected, 
 it is treated from a standpoint where absolute and 
 special knowledge are wanting, and it is a common 
 complaint that of no other branch of the government 
 service does there exist so little general information. 
 A generally accepted, but none the less erroneous, 
 idea is that its duties are confined almost exclusively 
 to offensive and defensive operations during hostili- 
 ties ; that in peace it is a luxury, partly justified, 
 perhaps, in the shadowy maxim of accepted states- 
 manship that peace should prepare for war. With
 
 IIO THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 us there is a blind dependence upon what is called 
 the creative possibility of the nation. Little serious 
 examination is given to the subject, and with experts 
 only is there a full appreciation of the ignorance of 
 and the want of anything more than a sentimental in- 
 terest in the navy of the country. To cruise between 
 pleasant ports, to show the flag in the strongholds 
 of nations that respectfully hint their acquaintance 
 with our tremendous possibilities of aggression, and 
 then, the novelty of the cruise being exhausted, to 
 return to navy yard and dry dock and, about election 
 time, afford employment to swarms of unskilled 
 henchmen of ambitious politicians these, and only 
 these, make up the popular belief of the duties of a 
 modern man-of-war in time of peace. Occasionally 
 the national conscience is stirred by the recital of 
 the low plane to which our service has fallen, and of 
 the advances which are being made abroad ; a pale 
 glimmer of interest is excited, the conditions are 
 hazily discussed, and the responsibility and blame 
 being relegated to Congress, where they belong, all 
 public interest in the subject ends. At times there are 
 a few critics who demand the extinction of the service, 
 its necessity for any reasons being denied ; this is 
 usually supplemented with the assertion that in war, 
 a navy sufficient and capable could be created with 
 the same readiness, and raised to the same standard 
 of excellence in the same time, as could a volunteer 
 army. As a concession to the prejudices of less de- 
 structive minds, the reformers are willing to employ 
 a few skilled officers who will keep alive the embers 
 of naval knowledge, much as the laborious monks 
 preserved those of ancient letters during the Middle
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 1 1 1 
 
 Ages. Foreign squadrons are branded, from the ex- 
 tra-professional standpoint, as useless because we 
 have no interests abroad, and this being disproved, 
 the home squadron is assailed, presumably because 
 we have no interests at home. As much of this 
 hypercriticism arises from ignorance, it is only fair 
 to show what are the duties demanded of a navy in 
 time of peace ; wherein these are satisfied by our 
 squadrons ; the connection between the navy and 
 the merchant marine ; in what direction naval use- 
 fulness may be extended, and what claims the home 
 squadron has for extension and development as the 
 most important naval division. 
 
 Peace has its naval duties no less than war, and 
 none the less onerous nor honorable are the demands 
 it makes upon the skill, intelligence, fearlessness, 
 and readiness of resource, which are the essential 
 characteristics of the seaman. At home the complex 
 machinery of the law and the force of communal 
 interest protect the citizens, but upon the high seas 
 and in foreign countries his life and happiness are 
 assailable save for the protection vouchsafed by the 
 navy of his country. So much was this principle 
 recognized by the framers of the Constitution that 
 the navy was given a permanent, in contradistinc- 
 tion to the temporary character of the army, the 
 Constitution expressly declaring that Congress shall 
 have power "to raise and support armies," and "to 
 provide and maintain a navy." Armies have some- 
 times subverted the liberties of a country, navies 
 never, and in some countries, notably England, the 
 navy is, for the reason of its superior importance, the 
 senior service. War is never absent from the calcu-
 
 112 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 lations of the civilized nations, and barbarism, re- 
 specting nothing but force, repels alike interference, 
 association, and instruction. In every sea-port of 
 Europe ; in Asia, to the head of unnamed rivers on 
 the confines of the Chinese Empire ; in Japan ; in 
 the islands and among the groups of the Southern 
 seas, our citizens claim and need protection. Abroad 
 they are found occupying every field which enter- 
 prise dares invade or energy avails to conquer ; and 
 everywhere they carry with them those affirmative 
 and sometimes aggressive ideas of freedom and 
 progress which are antagonistic to the traditions, 
 customs, and practices of local governments; our 
 progressive civilization is apparent in every land our 
 countrymen penetrate, and we can afford to neglect 
 neither our responsibilities as a representative na- 
 tion, nor our obligations to the people who claim our 
 countenance and the protection pf the flag. Thus 
 our navy vivifies, asserts, and develops the idea of 
 republicanism as the vital factor in contemporary 
 civilization. 
 
 Navies are the police of the world ; they carry 
 the strong arm of the law into the remotest regions ; 
 they empanel themselves as jurors to decide the fact 
 and sit in judgment upon wrong-doers ; zealously 
 and with great sacrifice they guard the well-being of 
 citizens whose happiness and liberty without them 
 would be wholly insecure; and they project civiliza- 
 tion into lands which are benighted, first by the in- 
 fluence of the moral idea, and then, if necessity arise, 
 by those energies that, after all, most appeal to the 
 savage or semi-barbaric mind. The spirit of piracy 
 exists now as ever, and there are no pirates, or piracy
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 1 13 
 
 is rare, because the seas are policed by the war ves- 
 sels of the world. 
 
 It is not germane here to consider the necessities 
 which may appeal to a maritime country during con- 
 ditions of belligerency or alliance ; but at all times 
 such a nation is subject to the demands which neu* 
 trality may make. These require that no aid preju- 
 dicial to the warlike status of other countries shall 
 be given to one of the belligerents beyond, of course, 
 the requirements of a common humanity ; that the 
 citizens of the neutral must not supply a belligerent 
 with articles recognized as contraband of war ; that 
 warlike operations within its territory must be for- 
 bidden, and that in belligerent countries the life 
 and property of its citizens must be guarded and 
 its commerce protected from unjust or burdensome 
 interferences. The determined stand we took upon 
 the Alabama claims pledges us irrevocably to the 
 acceptance of these terms, and yet without the pos- 
 session of an effective fleet contingencies may arise 
 under any of these conditions which might imperil 
 the national honor. 
 
 Under circumstances of perfect amity a nation is 
 bound to preserve the friendly relations which exist 
 and to strive for a peaceful adjustment of all differ- 
 ences; citizens or foreigners within its territory must 
 be kept from violating the laws which forbid active 
 aid being given to foreign insurrection or rebellion ; 
 arbitrary acts of reprisal must be prevented ; the lives 
 and property of its citizens must be guarded from 
 mobs or the dangers of insurrections within the ter- 
 ritory of a friendly nation ; foreigners must be warned 
 against the performance of arbitrary acts injurious to 
 8
 
 114 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 commercial rights ; assistance must be given to the 
 survey of the highways of commerce ; a correct 
 knowledge of the coasts of the world must be ob- 
 tained by exploring and surveying expeditions, and 
 no legitimate means must be spared to foster and 
 to extend those' commercial interests which are es- 
 sential factors of national happiness and prosperity. 
 Fortunately the theory of our government is one 
 of extreme reserve as to foreign affairs, and it would 
 be the commission only of some overt act which 
 would justify a display of naval strength as a means 
 of awakening the serious attention of an offending 
 nation to a question in dispute ; still the zeal of our 
 consular service, whether arising from misdirected 
 devotion to the old flag and an appropriation, or from 
 the claims of friendship or private business, is apt at 
 times to call for the exercise of the wisest discretion 
 in treating what are popularly called outrages. From 
 the general policy of non-intervention in questions 
 outside our territory must be excepted the Monroe 
 doctrine ; by its moral force the Spanish colonies of 
 Central and South America were aided to gain and 
 have since been able to maintain their independence. 
 The reassertion of its principles at a time when ad- 
 vantage was taken of internal dissension to violate it, 
 and the subsequent display of a trained army and an 
 effective fleet forced France to leave Mexico. And 
 to-day we can be no more willing to abandon our 
 position than when our resources were most 
 weakened. Foreign Powers must not interfere be- 
 tween combatants on this continent, even under the 
 specious plea of humanity, and we cannot permit 
 any other country to assume control of a canal the
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 1 1 5 
 
 unfriendly possession of which would be a menace 
 in time of war and a denial of inherent and vital 
 commercial rights in days of peace. Covetous eyes 
 are said to be cast upon outlying islands and sea- 
 ports of Central America, and at least two of the 
 Continental Powers are searching for new colonial 
 stations on our coasts, which would form flanking 
 positions and rendezvous in war, and commercial 
 points of attack in peace. 
 
 Such, briefly stated, are some of the duties which 
 our relations to other nations impose upon us ; but 
 besides these there are others no less imperative, 
 and the fulfilment of which gives greater power for 
 home and foreign defence. Twenty-five years since 
 the approaches to our Atlantic coast were the most 
 dangerous in the world ; but to-day, so far as the 
 hydrographic work of naval officers can be operative, 
 they are as safe as any others of equal importance ; 
 but these charts and sailing directions require con- 
 stant care and verification owing to the shifting of 
 channels through the effect of winds and currents, 
 and hence this work must be permanent from its 
 vital relation to commerce. Our lighthouse estab- 
 lishment is the largest in the world, and the success- 
 ful administration of this immense interest is being 
 conducted mainly by naval officers, with an efficiency 
 and economy which make it the admiration of other 
 governments. The education of officers and men is 
 zealously cared for that of the former at the Naval 
 Academy, an institution the methods of which are so 
 admirable as to have gained for it the highest award 
 of the Paris Exhibition. The instruction of the men 
 is an element of the greatest value, for it has been
 
 Il6 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 found impossible to supply in time of peace the navy 
 with seamen drawn from other services or from the 
 merchant marine ; and our government, like others, 
 has been forced to establish training ships, where 
 youths are drilled in the duties and subjected to the 
 discipline which will make them, with their officers, 
 coequally useful servants of the Republic. Navy 
 yards and other shore stations, boards of inspection 
 and examination, the manufacture and supply of ord- 
 nance and of equipment stores, the Naval Observa- 
 tory, the Bureaus of the Navy Department, the Tor- 
 pedo Station and other important and special duties 
 claim the services of naval officers. And notwith* 
 standing that the list of officers is 336 less than it 
 was forty years since, and that the country has grown 
 from seventeen to fifty millions, inhabiting a territory 
 increased by the whole Pacific coast, it may be safely 
 asserted that, under like claims upon its resources, 
 no other department of the government can show 
 a record equally as good. 
 
 To carry out effectively all the duties of police, 
 commercial development, protection, neutrality, ex- 
 ploration, and education of its personnel, the govern- 
 ment has assigned its naval force to five divisions : 
 First The North Atlantic. The limits of this sta- 
 tion extend from the east coast of North America 
 to the forty-fifth degree of longitude west, or to 
 about the meridian of the Grand Banks, and from 
 any indefinite north latitude to the equator, and 
 thence in a diagonal line westward along the north- 
 eastern coast of South America. Within this area, 
 though not under its direction, are the navy yards 
 of Portsmouth, Boston, New York, League Island,
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 1 1/ 
 
 Norfolk, and Pensacola, with the naval stations of 
 New London and Beaufort. At present there are 
 five vessels attached to this squadron. Secondly 
 The European station. This embraces the European, 
 Mediterranean, and African coasts, as far south as 
 St. Paul de Loando ; thence diagonally westward to 
 the junction of the equator and the forty-fifth de- 
 gree of west longitude, this meridian separating it 
 from the North Atlantic station. Three vessels are 
 attached to the fleet, and there is a storehouse at 
 Villefranche, France. Thirdly The South Atlantic 
 station. This commences at the southern limit of the 
 European, embraces all the Atlantic coasts of Africa 
 and South America, and extends by a late order 
 beyond the Cape of Good Hope to the yoth degree 
 of east longitude, and as far north as the equator in 
 that quarter. Two ships are attached to the station, 
 and there is a naval depot at Rio Janeiro. Fourthly 
 The Pacific station. This includes the Pacific coasts 
 of North and South America. North of the equator 
 it extends to the xyoth degree of west longitude; 
 south of the line it stretches to the i3oth degree of 
 east longitude, then curves northerly so as to embrace 
 the islands east of Borneo, and thence it follows the 
 ii5th degree of east longitude to the Antarctic conti- 
 nent. The whole area embraces Australia, Austra- 
 lasia, Polynesia, and part of the Aleutian chain. Six 
 vessels belong to the station, and there is in the north 
 a navy yard at Mare Island, and in the south a store- 
 ship at Callao. Fifthly The Asiatic station. This 
 embraces the east coast of Africa, excluding the 
 waters of the South Atlantic station, the Indian 
 Ocean, and China seas, and the northeast coast of
 
 Il8 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 Asia as far as the lyoth degree of west longitude. 
 Six vessels are attached to the station, and there is a 
 storehouse at Nagasaki, in Japan. 
 
 Roughly speaking, the Pacific station includes 
 nearly one-half of the whole cruising area, China 
 about one-third, and the others the remaining one- 
 sixth, the proportions being, relatively, Pacific, 7-15 ; 
 China, 4-15 ; South America, 2-15, and Europe and 
 the North Atlantic about 1-15 each. Assuming the 
 water space of the world usually given, and reject- 
 ing those parts not of necessity subjected to the 
 visits of war vessels, there are over one hundred 
 millions of water square miles to be policed by all 
 the navies, and as our share we contribute twenty- 
 three indifferent vessels. This is absurdly small, 
 and improvement is necessary in the direction of in- 
 crease, not only of vessels but of squadrons. But 
 in doing this we must remember that extension can 
 be based only upon the needs of commerce-develop- 
 ment, and upon the necessity of protection being 
 assured our citizens abroad and at home, the latter 
 being the primary consideration. Our trade with 
 Europe is fixed as to volume, direction, and growth, 
 and all attempts at change must be made in the 
 means, the vehicles of transportation. Commerce 
 with Japan, China, and Brazil can be profitably se- 
 cured, though its development will be of slower 
 growth, owing in the East to the Oriental theory of 
 governments that the land should support the people, 
 and, because in all these countries of the limits in- 
 evitably imposed by the social, industrial, and eco- 
 nomical condition of the importers. Everywhere 
 there is evident less or greater trade development,
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 119 
 
 based upon the true laws of supply and demand, and 
 capable of being fostered by judicious efforts, which 
 under no circumstances mean subsidies or anything 
 out of a fair chance for all our people to compete 
 fairly in the markets of the world. Of course there 
 are substantial obstacles due to our high duties, but 
 the prosperous British colonies will buy our labor- 
 saving machines and commodities if they have a 
 chance, and the absence of discriminative duties 
 leaves the field as open to American as to British 
 merchants. 
 
 Beginning, then, with the Pacific fleet, where the 
 area is greatest and commerce development the ac- 
 tive principle, it seems necessary to create either two 
 stations, or one station with two divisions, as in 
 1867-71 ; one assuming the control over all the 
 waters of the old station north of, and the other 
 of all those south of, the equator. To each should 
 be assigned five vessels, the greater area of the 
 southern division and the necessities of Australian 
 trade being compensated for by the extremely and 
 increasingly delicate nature of our relations with 
 the semi-independent British American Dominion 
 of the Northwest, and with the unsettled local gov- 
 ernments of Mexico. The Asiatic station should 
 be separated into nearly equal portions, under simi- 
 lar conditions of administration as proposed above, 
 the southern to be known as the Indian Ocean 
 squadron, and to have assigned to it as cruising 
 grounds the ocean of that name, the Red Sea, the 
 Arabian Gulf, and the Bay of Bengal ; its eastern 
 limits should include Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and all 
 the coast of Australia west of the izoth degree of
 
 120 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 east longitude. Four vessels should be attached to 
 this squadron with a supply depot upon the main- 
 land. All to the northward of this area should be 
 assigned to the China squadron, and as our citizens 
 have great and necessary interests there, not less 
 than eight vessels should be selected as the effective 
 cruising force. 
 
 A glance at the waters of the Atlantic Ocean will 
 show the difficulties that enter into the mutual rela- 
 tions of the European and South Atlantic stations. 
 Apart from the special duties of each, they divide 
 between them the west coast of Africa, the former 
 extending to Loando, the other thence to the Cape. 
 So far as European trade goes the navy can do little 
 toward furthering a development which has already 
 acquired such an unequalled energy. There is no 
 very great danger to the lives or property of our 
 citizens in those civilized lands, and it is probable 
 that three ships, upon the plan of a French naval 
 division, would be ample for every demand which 
 use and tradition could make. But outside these 
 limits, from Mogador to the Cape, there are promises 
 of a great and increasing trade. Under the present 
 system, to reach the ports south of Loando, a ship 
 once a year crosses the profitless expanse of the At- 
 lantic from South America, sails down the coast, 
 and then returns to Brazil, the best part of her labor 
 and time being absorbed in reaching a port and 
 seeking a storehouse. It would seem to be in the 
 direction of a wise policy to relegate the patrol of 
 the whole western coast of Africa to the care of the 
 European squadron ; for then, beginning at the 
 upper end, the vessels would communicate with the
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 121 
 
 land, like the reciprocal action of a cogwheel, touch- 
 ing at every needful point going and coming, and 
 thus quadrupling, as compared with the present de- 
 sultory visiting, the opportunities for displaying the 
 flag, settling disputes, and extending commerce. To 
 effect this change the waters of the European station 
 should extend as far west as the 3oth degree of west 
 longitude north and south of the equator, and should 
 have assigned to it six vessels, two or more of these 
 being always in the neighborhood of the Cape, and 
 all of them taking regular turns in cruises on both 
 coasts. By this change the area of the South At- 
 lantic station would be narrowed, and three vessels 
 would be sufficient for its needs at least until a 
 busier future demanded an increase. 
 
 The North Atlantic station is that upon which our 
 main defence rests, and should have not less than 
 nine vessels. In home waters, besides the com- 
 mercial opportunities of Mexico, Central and South 
 America, and of the contiguous islands, our relations 
 are such that protection to the coast is the paramount 
 duty. The internal conditions of the neighboring 
 countries and the irresistible logic of the history of 
 the past thirty years prove the necessity of constant 
 care and watchfulness. Wars may be foreseen and 
 their exigencies provided for at comparative leisure, 
 but insurrections can never be foretold, and hence 
 the necessity in peace times of an effective squadron, 
 ready to act upon any threatened point at the short- 
 est notice and with the greatest advantage. In the 
 North the disputed questions of the fisheries, the 
 operations of reciprocity treaties, and the dormant 
 idea of annexation should never be absent from our
 
 122 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 calculations, for the history of British American rela- 
 tions shows a singular alternation of equitable and 
 aggressive dispositions toward the interests of the 
 United States, and notably at seasons when they have 
 been most hampered by other complications. France 
 and Austria, assisted at first by Spain and England, 
 have in the past made a serious assault upon our 
 only asserted policy ; and to-day some of the trading 
 nations are seeking not only new markets but new 
 colonies in the vicinity of our coasts. In the West 
 Indies we have our hereditary interests in Cuba and 
 the remembrance of difficulties not only unatoned 
 for, but which are believed abroad, notably in the 
 Virginius case, to have been settled by an abject 
 apology on our part to Spain. All about us are 
 islands the diverse ownerships of which are liable, 
 from European complications, to place us in a posi- 
 tion of neutrality. We cannot give up our influ- 
 ence with nor our interest in the South and Central 
 American republics, struggling as they are, slowly 
 but surely, to the vantage grounds of constitutional 
 liberty and progress. Nor can we view with indif- 
 ference the control either of the Panama Canal or 
 Transisthmian Railway, both of which will be as 
 much a part of the commercial future of this country 
 as any of the Pacific Railroads. The necessity of 
 acquiring coaling stations and rendezvous for our 
 fleets in tropical waters is another element requiring 
 careful attention, and we must awaken to the reality 
 that traditions against outlying possessions are at 
 this stage of our history simply imbecile, and are 
 worthy only a country poor in resources and 
 trembling in abject fear of some great naval power.
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 123 
 
 Here, then, at home lie the very greatest of our 
 needs and dangers, and here most liable to appear 
 are the circumstances which demand a fleet. The 
 defence of our coasts is our first duty, and opportuni- 
 ties should be afforded officers to acquire the knowl- 
 edge essential to that end. Stretching a distance of 
 3,000 miles, its demands are enormous, for the stra- 
 tegic possibilities of the different basins as points of 
 attack, defence, and support ought to be tested and 
 the acquaintance with these home waters by the 
 average sea officer should be that of the intelligent 
 coast pilot, supplemented by the special acquisitions 
 which his combatant duties require. In turn each 
 of the five great Gulfs from Maine to the Rio Grande 
 should be studied by a squadron of exercise, and all 
 the dispositions for its defence, and all its capabilities 
 as a point of attack and support, should be made plain 
 under circumstances as nearly analogous to those of 
 actual war as possible ; in brief, here, upon our own 
 coast, should be assembled a fleet worthy of the 
 name, and to it every vessel fitted out at any Eastern 
 port should be sent for the first six months of a 
 cruise, and be subjected to its discipline and instruc- 
 tion. Twice a year, in some one of the great bays, 
 all the vessels should be assembled for those drills 
 and exercises which infuse a healthy spirit of rivalry, 
 give uniformity to routine and organization, and, best 
 of all, enable our officers to understand intelligently 
 the inevitable conditions under which modern sea 
 battles will be fought. 
 
 In his report for this year Secretary Chandler de- 
 clares " There is one measure of national defence 
 in regard to which the argument cannot be made,
 
 124 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 as in the case of ships and guns, that modern discov- 
 ery is likely to make such improvements in the art of 
 construction that action might for the present be de- 
 ferred. This is the creation of an interior coast line 
 of water-ways across the head of the peninsula of 
 Florida, along the coast from Florida to Hampton 
 Roads, between the Chesapeake Bay and the Dela- 
 ware, and through Cape Cod. To these should be 
 added a railroad from the mainland of Florida to Key 
 West. To secure the combined commercial and 
 military advantages which these avenues for mer- 
 chant and naval vessels would afford, work should 
 be immediately begun and deliberately and econ- 
 omically prosecuted, and not left to be done hastily 
 and expensively in an emergency. 
 
 " The United States should not be dependent," he 
 continues, "upon the ports of the great naval powers 
 for coal for the various squadrons in foreign waters. 
 We have already established coaling stations at Hon- 
 olulu, the Samoan Islands, and at Pichilingue, in 
 Lower California ; and the Monongahela is being 
 fitted for a store-ship at Callao, to hold 1,000 tons of 
 coal. Authority should be asked from Congress to 
 fix the above stations on a firm basis, and to establish 
 additional coaling and naval stations at some or all of 
 the following points : Samana Bay, or some port in 
 Hayti ; Curacao, in the Caribbean Sea ; Santa Ca- 
 tharina, in Brazil ; the Straits of Magellan ; La 
 Union, in Salvador, or Amapala, in Honduras ; 
 Tullear Bay, in Madagascar ; Monrovia, in Liberia ; 
 the Island of Fernando Po ; and Port Hamilton, 
 in the Nan-how Islands of Corea ; from which lat- 
 ter naval station and the ports of Corea there should
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 125 
 
 be established a regular line of steamers carrying 
 the United States flag, connecting with the present 
 American line between San Francisco and Japan. 
 Similar stations should in addition be maintained, one 
 at the best point on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus 
 of Panama, and another at the Islands of Flamenco, 
 Perico, Culebra, and Henao on the Pacific side, now 
 owned by American corporations." 
 
 To give our navy an effective status, an immediate 
 increase in the number of our ships is necessary. 
 
 In the report of the first Naval Advisory Board it 
 was asserted that, "taking into proper consideration 
 the various requirements of the different squadrons 
 for surveying, deep-sea sounding, protection and 
 advancement of A'merican commerce, exploration, 
 protection of American life and property endan- 
 gered by wars between foreign countries, and ser- 
 vice in support of American policy in matters 
 where foreign governments are concerned, forty- 
 three unarmored cruising vessels are required con- 
 stantly in commission, or twelve more than are pos- 
 sibly available now, in case of the most urgent 
 necessity, both in commission and in reserve. In- 
 creasing this number by fifty per centum in order to 
 obtain a reserve of sufficient strength to maintain 
 the effectiveness of the fleet, a total of sixty-five ves- 
 sels is obtained, which would be sufficient were it 
 nqj for the fact that the present condition and lim- 
 ited lifetime of some of the vessels included will soon 
 weaken the number very materially. To allow for 
 this loss it is the opinion of the Board that five more 
 vessels should be added, giving a total number neces- 
 sary to perform efficiently the work of the navy at
 
 126 
 
 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 present of seventy vessels. Taking from this the 
 thirty-two vessels now available, the Board is of the 
 opinion that thirty-eight unarmored cruising vessels 
 should now be built." 
 
 Finally, in August, 1882, and March, 1883, Con- 
 gress authorized an increase of the navy, and in 
 Mr. Chandler's report to the President, under date 
 of December i, 1883, he says : 
 
 " The three new steel war vessels and the armed 
 despatch steamer 'authorized at the last session of 
 Congress, which have been named the Chicago, 
 Boston, Atlanta, and Dolphin, are in the course of 
 construction and will be completed, the cruisers 
 within eighteen and the despatch boat within twelve 
 months from the last week in July, 1883. The gen- 
 eral dimensions and characteristics of the ships will 
 be as follows : 
 
 
 I 
 
 Breadth, 
 
 1 
 
 P 
 
 Displacement. 
 
 Indicated 
 horse-power. 
 
 Estimated 
 sea-speed. 
 
 Estimated 
 smooth-water 
 speed. 
 
 - G a 
 
 H 
 
 Armament of 
 heavy guns. : 
 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Feet 
 
 Tons. 
 
 
 Knots. 
 
 Knots. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 
 Chicago 
 
 315 
 
 48 
 
 *9 
 
 4.5oo 
 
 5,000 
 
 4 
 
 16 
 
 940 
 
 14 
 
 Boston 
 
 270 
 
 
 17 
 
 3,000 
 
 3.500 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 580 
 
 8 
 
 Atlanta 
 
 270 
 
 42 
 
 X 7 
 
 3,000 
 
 3.500 
 
 '3 
 
 14 
 
 580 
 
 8 
 
 Dolphin 
 
 240 
 
 32 
 
 '4 
 
 1,500 
 
 2,300 
 
 15 
 
 
 3' 
 
 i 
 
 "These vessels represent three main types of un- 
 armored war ships now universally considered ^as 
 indispensable components of any fleet suitable for 
 general national service upon the high seas. The 
 Chicago is an example of the largest and best un- 
 armored cruising and fighting vessels now built, 
 and will have no superior in the world in the combi-
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 127 
 
 nation of speed, endurance, and armament. In the 
 Boston and Atlanta, speed and endurance have been 
 given full development, while their fighting power 
 has been notably increased by placing the battery 
 in a central superstructure on the spar-deck, and by 
 adopting a brig rig, thereby leaving the extremities 
 clear and unobstructed for fore and aft fire. 
 
 " In the Dolphin an important auxiliary in naval 
 operations will be obtained, and she is expected to 
 furnish an excellent model from which may be ex- 
 panded a high-speed commerce-destroyer, instead of 
 taking as a standard either the overgrown merchant 
 line steamers or the large and expensive despatch 
 vessels which have been built abroad, of question- 
 able utility in time of peace, 
 
 "The ships are now under construction in accord- 
 ance with the Appropriation Acts of August 5, 1882, 
 and March 3, 1883, authorizing such increase of the 
 navy, under the advice and supervision of the 
 Naval Advisory Board. By public advertisement 
 and notice of August 5, 1882, as required by the Act 
 of that date, all designers and builders of ships, 
 marine engines, or ordnance were invited to submit 
 plans of any of the vessels, or any part thereof, with- 
 in the period of sixty days after August 2oth ; and 
 further notice was given, November xyth, that such 
 period would be extended up to the time for final 
 decision and action. After the general features of 
 the vessels were indicated by the Board, they were 
 submitted to all shipbuilders likely to make propo- 
 sals for their construction, with requests for their 
 advice and suggestions concerning the designs, with 
 the view of reaching such final plans and specifica-
 
 128 
 
 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 tions as would give the best and most effective ships 
 that could be built. All plans, models, designs, sug- 
 gestions, and explanations from any quarter were 
 fully examined and reported upon by the Board. 
 The general features and essential requisites of the 
 ships having been settled by the Department and 
 the Advisory Board, the plans and specifications were 
 prepared by the Bureaus of Construction and Repair 
 and of Steam Engineering; and on May 2, 1883, 
 advertisements were published, as required by the 
 Act of March 3, 1883, inviting proposals for their 
 construction ; these were opened on Monday, July 
 2d, and all the contracts were on the day following 
 awarded to the lowest bidder, Mr. John Roach, 
 of New York City. The contract for the Chicago 
 is dated July 26th, with a bond for due completion 
 in the sum of $500,000 ; the contracts for the 
 Boston and Atlanta are dated July 23d, with bonds 
 for $300,000 each ; the contract for the Dolphin is 
 dated July 23d, with a bond for $150,000. 
 
 " The estimates, the contract prices, and the next 
 lowest bids were as follows : 
 
 
 Cost estimated by 
 the Advisory 
 Board. 
 
 Contract prices. 
 
 Next lowest bids. 
 
 Chicago 
 
 $1,248,000 
 
 $889,000 
 
 $1,080 ooo 
 
 Boston 
 
 78-?, <coo 
 
 619,000 
 
 650,000 
 
 Atlanta 
 
 781, x> 
 
 617,000 
 
 650,000 
 
 Dolphin . 
 
 ^QQ.OOO 
 
 3IS.OOO 
 
 571: OOO 
 
 
 
 
 
 showing a total cost for the hull and machinery of 
 the vessels, including the masts, spars, boats, and 
 rigging, for preparing which the navy yards are to
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 129 
 
 be utilized, of $2,440,000, being $774,100 less than 
 the estimates, and $315,000 less than the next lowest 
 bids. 
 
 "The statutes authorizing the construction of the 
 cruisers require that they shall be built of ' steel of 
 domestic manufacture, having as near as may be a 
 tensile strength of not less than 60,000 pounds to 
 the square inch, and a ductility in 8 inches of not 
 less than 25 per centum.' Fears were, for a time, 
 entertained that contracts for bu ilding the vessels 
 could not be effected at reasonal le prices, because 
 of the hesitancy of the steelmake rs of this country 
 to bind themselves to furnish the steel required, sub- 
 ject to the scientific and practical tests prescribed 
 by the Advisory Board to insure a compliance with 
 the law. All difficulties have, however, been hap- 
 pily overcome ; and the demonstration that such 
 material can be here produced at moderate cost, is, 
 of itself, of great importance in the progress of our 
 mechanical industries. 
 
 " The present condition of our national fleet makes 
 it necessary that the work of reconstruction should 
 be continued as rapidly as a due regard for economy 
 will admit. Accordingly, the Advisory Board sub- 
 mitted a report dated October 25, 1883, of its views 
 as to the new work which should be undertaken in 
 the coming year. It recommends the construction 
 of seven additional unarmored steel cruisers, three 
 of which should conform to the types already 
 adopted, as represented by the Chicago, the Boston, 
 and the Dolphin. Of the other four, two should be 
 heavily armed cruising gunboats of about 1,500 tons 
 displacement. These would be of the same size as 
 9
 
 130 
 
 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 the Dolphin, but constructed on a different plan, be- 
 cause intended to supply a different want. In the 
 Dolphin, which is designed for a specific purpose, 
 actual fighting and working qualities are limited, so 
 as to obtain the maximum speed and endurance 
 possible with her size, while in the proposed vessels 
 the aim will be to secure the highest amount of 
 efficiency for general service, both in peace and war. 
 Finally, in view of the necessity for a certain num- 
 ber of vessels of small size and light draft, the 
 Board recommends the construction of two gunboats 
 of about 750 tons displacement, and not more than 
 nine feet draft, which shall be capable of going to sea 
 and also of navigating shallow waters. 
 
 " The estimated cost of vessels of the proposed 
 types is as follows : 
 
 Type. 
 
 Hull. 
 
 Machinery. 
 
 Ordnance. 
 
 Equipment. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Chicago 
 
 
 
 $225,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Heavy gunboat. . . 
 Light gunboat 
 
 216,000 
 132,000 
 
 175,000 
 ,7,000 
 
 100,000 
 40,000 
 
 25,600 
 20,000 
 
 516,000 
 269,OOO 
 
 "The total cost of the five vessels, one of each type, 
 will be $3,498,000, and adding the cost of the two 
 additional vessels of the last two types, the total 
 cost of the seven vessels proposed by the Board, and 
 
 a gg re atin g I 35 tons > wil l be $4,283,000. 
 
 " The Board expresses the opinion that the limit of 
 combined efficiency and economy is reached in the 
 cruiser of the Chicago type, of 4,500 tons displace- 
 ment, and it condemns any policy looking to the 
 present construction of cruisers that shall rival in
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 131 
 
 speed the fastest transatlantic steamers. The mer- 
 chant steamers having this exceptionally high speed 
 comprise less than one-hundredth part of the ocean 
 steam-tonnage of the world, either in number or 
 value, and most of them in the event of a war would 
 be withdrawn from their ordinary pursuits. In order 
 to match their speed it would be necessary tp build 
 vessels with a displacement of at least 11,000 tons ; 
 and while the great draft and dimensions of such 
 vessels would confine their general efficiency within 
 the narrowest limits, they would absorb for their 
 maintenance and management an undue share of the 
 current appropriations and of the existing allowance 
 of seamen. Furthermore, the cost of building and 
 fully equipping one such vessel would be at least 
 $4,000,000, or nearly as much as that of all the seven 
 ships recommended by the Board. 
 
 " In the above opinion and recommendations the 
 Department concurs. If, however, it should appear 
 to Congress desirable to construct one vessel in 
 which all other qualities shall be sacrificed to the 
 attainment of the highest possible speed, and to pro- 
 vide for maintaining it in commission, the Depart- 
 ment will gladly submit plans and estimates there- 
 for, and the vessel when completed will no doubt 
 add to the capabilities of the Navy. But the im- 
 mediate object should be at moderate expense to re- 
 place our worn-out cruisers with modern construc- 
 tions fitted for general service, and for this reason 
 the reconstruction should for the present be con- 
 tinued on the lines already begun. In representing 
 the recommendations of the Board, the Department, 
 in addition, advises the construction of one of the
 
 132 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 five steel rams recommended by the first Advisory 
 Board, November 7, 1881, and by the report of last 
 year ; of one cruising torpedo-boat, at a cost of 
 $38,000, advocated by the same Board, and by the 
 present Board in its memorandum of November 21, 
 1882 ; and of two of the ten harbor torpedo-boats 
 recommended by the first Board, of the kind asked 
 for in the ordnance report of this year. 
 
 "The recommendations of the Board and the 
 Department are believed to be in pursuance of a 
 wise plan for that reconstruction of our naval force 
 which all admit is, in some form and to some extent, 
 indispensable to the national welfare. Such a plan 
 should conform to the demands of our national policy. 
 The scope of that policy, as it relates to the mainten- 
 ance of a military establishment, has been clearly 
 and ably outlined by the late President Garfield, and 
 his judicious words may well serve as guides in any 
 action that we may take to-day. In a speech made 
 in 1878, in the House of Representatives, he said : 
 ' The men who created this Constitution also set it 
 in operation, and developed their own idea of its 
 character. That idea was unlike any other that 
 then prevailed upon the earth. They made the 
 general welfare of the people the great source and 
 foundation of the common defence. In all nations 
 of the old world the public defence was provided for 
 by great standing armies, navies, and fortified posts, 
 so that the nation might every moment be fully 
 armed against danger from without or turbulence 
 within. Our fathers said : " Though we will use the 
 taxing power to maintain a small army and navy, 
 sufficient to keep alive the knowledge of war, yet
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 133 
 
 the main reliance for our defence shall be the intel- 
 ligence, culture, and skill of our people ; a develop- 
 ment of our own intellectual and material resources 
 which will enable us to do everything that may be 
 necessary to equip, clothe, and feed ourselves in 
 time of war, and make ourselves intelligent, happy, 
 and prosperous in peace." 
 
 " With the views of American policy thus expressed 
 the Department is in perfect accord. It is not now, 
 and it never has been, a part of that policy to main- 
 tain a fleet able at any time to cope on equal terms 
 with the foremost European armaments. The pos- 
 sibility of such war is not lost sight of ; but with our 
 isolated position, and traditional peace policy, it is 
 a remote contingency, and we should cherish no am- 
 bition to take the lead among the naval powers of the 
 world ; certainly not until we again become foremost 
 in the possession of a merchant marine. Any differ- 
 ence which would- involve us in a conflict with one of 
 the great powers should be the growth of time, afford- 
 ing opportunity for gradual preparation. On the 
 other hand, in order to be prepared, not merely by 
 the potentiality of our immense resources, but also 
 by an actual armament, to assert at all times our 
 natural, justifiable, and necessary ascendency in 
 the affairs of the American hemisphere, we un- 
 questionably need vessels in such numbers as fully 
 to ' keep alive the knowledge of war,' and of such 
 a kind that it shall be a knowledge of modern war ; 
 capable on brief notice of being expanded^ into in- 
 vincible squadrons. It is well known that we have 
 not the elements of such a force to-day. The con- 
 dition of decrepitude into which the fleet has fallen,
 
 134 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 through a failure to provide for its gradual re- 
 newal by modern ships, is justly a subject of rid- 
 icule at home and abroad. The vessels available 
 for actual service are insufficient to give training to 
 the officers and seamen, unequal to the present 
 necessities of the Government, and unworthy of a 
 great and prosperous maritime state. 
 
 "The specific plan, which, in the opinion of the 
 Department, should be adopted, looks to a gradual 
 replacement of the present decaying fleet by modern 
 constructions. The proviso of the Act of March 3, 
 1883, limiting the repair of wooden ships to 20 per 
 cent, of their cost, should be continued in force, in 
 order that no money may be expended in rebuilding 
 wornout structures of an obsolete type. Provision 
 should then be made for building new cruisers, with 
 due care and economy, by an annual outlay extend- 
 ing over a considerable period. At least seven 
 modern vessels should be built in each year, until 
 the Government has acquired a new steel navy. Of 
 the annual expenditure of four millions which such 
 a plan would require, from one-third to one-half can 
 be saved by abandoning attempts to rebuild the 
 present wooden fleet, and by otherwise retrench- 
 ments in the naval appropriations. 
 
 " In pursuance of the act of Congress of August 5, 
 1882, and of reports of the inspection boards, made 
 as therein directed, the following condemned vessels 
 have been stricken from the Navy Register : Con- 
 gress, Guard, Plymouth, Kansas, Emerald, Massachu- 
 setts, Sabine, Connecticut, Iowa, Niagara, Oregon, 
 Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Blue Light, 
 New Orleans, Colossus, Java, Susquehanna, Glance,
 
 THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE, 135 
 
 Burlington, Supply, Sorrel, Antietam, Dictator, 
 Frolic, Relief, Pawnee, Rose, Benicia, Nyack, Saco, 
 Old Monadnock, Narragansett, Tuscarora, Alaska, 
 Worcester, Canandaigua, Jean Sands, Shavvmut, 
 Savannah, Santee, Phlox, Wyoming, Roanoke. 
 
 " Of these vessels, the Wyoming, Antietam, Sup- 
 ply, Emerald, Santee, Phlox, Jean Sands, and Rose 
 have been reserved for purposes for which they can 
 be made useful, or for future sale. The Massachu- 
 setts, Connecticut, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
 Colossus, Java, and Canandaigua, all except the last 
 being uncompleted at the navy yards, will doubtless 
 be there taken to pieces, as they cannot be advan- 
 tageously sold. The remaining twenty-seven vessels, 
 excluding the Florida, Pawnee, and Benicia, for 
 which no bids were made, have been sold to the 
 highest bidders, in accordance with the statute. 
 Their appraised value was $330,100, and they sold 
 for $384,753, an advance of $54,653 over the ap- 
 praisement. 
 
 " Sales at public auction of condemned stores and 
 supplies have also been made at the navy yards under 
 the provisions of the second section of the act, 
 amounting to about $138,000." Wise words are 
 these, and not the least pregnant of the most states- 
 manlike document ever issued by the Navy Depart- 
 ment, and we should bear them in mind, for our 
 naval future and national honor hinge upon their 
 truth. 
 
 The first Advisory Board, in its report of Novem- 
 ber 7, 1881, gave an estimate of the required strength 
 of a suitable unarmored cruising fleet. The report 
 of this Board, composed of erninent naval officers,
 
 136 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 represents the highest professional opinion, and 
 certainly these officers would not underestimate the 
 necessities of the Government. The standard adopted 
 by them may therefore be safely regarded as a maxi- 
 mum for the naval force in time of peace. The re- 
 port fixed the number of vessels required in commis- 
 sion at all times at forty-three, and the reserve at 
 twenty-seven, making a total of seventy. To pro- 
 vide such a force it recommended the construction 
 of thirty-eight vessels. Further deterioration in the 
 existing fleet since the report was made will necessi- 
 tate an increase in the number of new ships in order 
 to obtain the force established by the Board. As 
 sufficient for that result, the Navy Department there- 
 fore advises the continuance of the policy recom- 
 mended, of building annually at least seven new 
 ships during the next ten years, before the end of 
 which period the country will find itself possessed 
 of a modern steel navy in every way adequate to the 
 maintenance of the safety and honor of the nation.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 UNION OF THE NAVY AND THE MERCHANT MARINE. 
 
 DURING the last session of Congress two notable 
 reports upon the commercial marine were submitted, 
 one by the Secretary of the Navy, the other by the 
 joint committee appointed to investigate the causes 
 of the decline of American shipping. Both agreed 
 materially as to the means required for the revival 
 of our merchant marine ; and there was an equal 
 agreement as to the necessity of some centralized, 
 logical form of administration. Upon this latter 
 point Mr. Chandler said in his report : " The vari- 
 ous services now charged with the supervision and 
 regulation of matters relating to the merchant mar- 
 ine should be brought together in one department 
 or bureau of the Government, which should be dis- 
 tinctly charged with the execution of laws concern- 
 ing the shipping interests of the country, and to 
 which ship owners could look for assistance and for 
 the reception and presentation of their claims. 
 There exists at present no responsible head to which 
 are entrusted the interests of our merchant marine. 
 Those branches of the subject of which the Govern- 
 ment undertakes supervision are so scattered among 
 subordinate officers, variously related, and loosely 
 organized, that the industry might as well be left to 
 itself." "The simplest and most natural method of
 
 138 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 accomplishing the desired object," he continues, 
 "consists in the establishment of a Bureau of Mer- 
 cantile Marine in the Navy Department. 
 
 The Congressional Committee at the conclusion 
 of its report declared, that " the English merchant 
 marine and English commerce have been greatly 
 aided by the watchful supervision and regulations of 
 the British Board of Trade, whose president is a 
 member of the Cabinet. In the executive depart- 
 ment of our Government we have no board nor bu- 
 reau with similar duties and power, and none which 
 is required by law even to keep a watchful eye over 
 the interests of our shipping, except for the pur- 
 poses of collecting the revenues. Whether it would 
 not be wise to establish in the Treasury Department 
 a Bureau or Board of Commerce and Navigation, of 
 which the Secretary of the Treasury should be the 
 official head, with powers and duties in some respect 
 akin to those of the British Board of Trade, is al- 
 ready under consideration by the Committees on 
 > Commerce of the Senate and the House, and will 
 undoubtedly receive the attention it deserves." 
 
 These suggested plans of administration differ only 
 in the departments to which they were to be en- 
 trusted, and in the degree of authority which it was 
 proposed to vest ; both are excellent in principle, 
 because the tendency is in the right direction, and 
 from either only good can come. In considering the 
 question in the light of the failure of this bill, it be- 
 comes therefore a question simply how and where 
 the best results may be obtained. 
 
 The English Board of Trade is composed of " the 
 Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council ap-
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. 139 
 
 pointed for the consideration of matters relating to 
 Trade and Foreign Plantations." Under the presi- 
 dency of a member of the Cabinet, who is assisted 
 by a parliamentary and a permanent secretary, there 
 are five departments, viz. : Harbor, Marine, Railway, 
 Finance, and Statistical, each in charge of an assistant 
 secretary, and one, Law, under the direction of a 
 solicitor. Professional experts are attached to each, 
 naval officers serving on the Marine and Harbor 
 Boards, and military officers upon the Railway staff. 
 The general duties of the Board in relation to Eng- 
 lish vessels may be found in Part I. of the "Mer- 
 chant Shipping Acts." This code of laws is admir- 
 able in the breadth and wisdom of its provisions, and 
 so far as the conditions permit, it is enforced with 
 zeal and intelligence ; there are, however, objections 
 to the methods of administration, which would ob- 
 tain equally here with the plan proposed by the 
 Congressional Committee. Broadly stated these are, 
 First, that the control is given to officials whose 
 fitness may be questioned because of their want 
 of the special training which is vital. Secondly, that 
 an important and specific branch of government is 
 made a part of a general department, which admin- 
 isters enormous and most variant interests. Thirdly, 
 that though each of these interests is distinct in its 
 aims and purposes, and requires a special experience, 
 yet all are brought together in a system where the 
 final jurisdiction rests with officials who cannot 
 have either the sufficient knowledge or training 
 which the responsibility assumed presupposes ; and 
 Fourthly, that a new bureau is created while an old 
 one already exists which is not only co-central in its
 
 I4O THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 purposes, but is in possession of such advantages for 
 the work that the control of the merchant marine 
 will not involve its own affairs with those of any 
 other branch of Government. 
 
 These are the general objections to the system 
 recommended by the Congressional Committee ; but 
 there are others governed by political considerations. 
 For those who desire more detailed information as 
 to the defects of our present laws, including a com- 
 parison of our system with that of other countries, 
 and a full argument as to the establishment of a 
 central bureau in the Navy Department, the Appen- 
 dices to the Report of the Secretary of the Navy for 
 last year are open. 
 
 No two branches of government are more nearly 
 allied than the navy and the merchant marine. The 
 first responsibility of a naval establishment is the de- 
 fence of a nation's coast, this being the pure and sim- 
 ple duty of men who transfer destructive energy from 
 shore to sea ; and its second is the guardianship of a 
 nation's commerce afloat. In return the merchant 
 marine is the school where the reserve which may 
 be called into action during emergencies or war is 
 trained and maintained. If there were no merchant 
 marine there would be no need for a navy either to 
 foster commerce or to police and survey the seas, 
 and a naval establishment would consist very prop- 
 erly of coast-defence vessels manned by stokers, and 
 by such artillerymen as had their sea-legs. But a 
 merchant marine is an economical necessity to every 
 sea-board country ; for, briefly generalized, its ad- 
 vantages are that it enriches in seasons of general 
 peace the nations owning it, and instils that sense
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. H! 
 
 of self-respect which comes from healthy rivalry 
 with other competing maritime countries ; when 
 neutral nations are at war it secures the safe trans- 
 mission of property belonging to its citizens, and 
 relieves them from a perilous dependence upon the 
 ships of nations liable to capture and confiscation ; 
 in war or when an emergency arises, it becomes the 
 reserve from which seamen and officers are to be 
 drawn ; and at all times it advances prosperity at 
 home, and promotes and diffuses the influence of 
 a nation beyond its borders far more than agri- 
 culture, mines, or manufactures. It quickens a na- 
 tion's powers and infuses life and vigor into its 
 international relations ; for the flag flying at the 
 mast-head of a vessel typifies the individuality of a 
 country and asserts its place among the govern- 
 ments of the world. The merchant marine, there- 
 fore, claims protection in its best and widest sense 
 abroad and at home ; and in the high seas and in 
 foreign waters this means safety from alien inter- 
 ference by capture, destruction, detention, search, or 
 insult. To afford protection effective war ships and 
 competent crews are necessary ; the first must al- 
 ways be the best which the modern idea can design ; 
 they must be sufficient in number to show the flag 
 everywhere, and they must have such means of of- 
 fence and defence as to impress an enemy, whether 
 open or disguised, with the necessity of fair play. A 
 competent personnel implies good men and trained 
 officers and so many of both that duty afloat and 
 ashore may be performed with efficiency and fidelity ; 
 and finally there must be an active reserve from 
 which reliefs can be drawn at all times, and a po-
 
 142 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 tential one which in emergencies will supply the 
 trained seamen upon whom the safety of the country 
 mainly depends. Therefore is it that the obligations 
 of the merchant marine and the navy are mutual 
 and interdependent so far as they relate to the de- 
 fence of a country in war and to the protection of 
 commercial interests in foreign waters under all cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 At home there is a relationship no less close. 
 Under any proper system the administration of the 
 shipping of a nation requires educated officials, 
 specially trained in maritime affairs ; the national 
 safety depends upon the maintenance and instruc- 
 tion at all times of a reasonable naval force ; there 
 must be a nucleus of war ships, of sailors, and of 
 officers ; not so many of these, it is true, as the possi- 
 bilities of attack demand, but more than the opera- 
 tions of peace require ; that is, there must be enough 
 to meet the first necessities of those emergencies 
 which always arise. There is no escape from this 
 simple propositipn, and hence, being obliged to keep 
 such a force, the nation can be best and most eco- 
 nomically served by extending the sphere of active 
 naval employment so as to require officers and sea- 
 men of the navy to perform all the work of the 
 national government upon or in direct connection 
 with the ocean. " This clear and salutary princi- 
 ple," writes Mr. Chandler, " should be deliberately 
 adopted and effectually enforced in all proper meth- 
 ods by the national Congress," for its outcome would 
 be to invigorate, improve, and strengthen the navy 
 "not only without increased expense to the Govern- 
 ment, but with results of positive economy." Its
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. 143 
 
 effect upon the merchant marine can be best made 
 plain by a statement of the necessities of this latter 
 service. 
 
 Under every form of government shipping is enti- 
 tled to the same treatment and care as any other 
 form of invested capital. That their titles may be 
 clear, vessels are enrolled, registered, and licensed ; 
 and their fitness for the trusts reposed in them is 
 guaranteed by their survey, measurement, and inspec- 
 tion. Besides these precautions it is the duty of the 
 State to see that reasonable security against acci- 
 dents is assured ; that crews and officers are properly 
 selected, and that their rights and those of passen- 
 gers, shippers, insurers, and owners are guarded ; that 
 the health of all seafaring persons is not endan- 
 gered by the parsimony, indifference or cruelty of 
 ship-owners or of persons in immediate authority on 
 shipboard ; and that in case of illness or disability, 
 humane and skilful treatment is provided. The high 
 seas passed over, the coasts approached, and the 
 harbors entered should be freed from those dan- 
 gers which science can remove or, failing that, these 
 should be so clearly distinguished as to minimize all 
 chances of accident ; robberies, piracies, and general 
 crimes should be detected and punished ; and, in the 
 event of casualties, permanent and ample provision 
 should be made for the safety of the lives and of 
 the cargoes thus imperilled. All these details may 
 be grouped in three classes : First, those which ap- 
 ply to merchant vessels only, viz., the enrolment, 
 registry, and license of vessels and their inspection, 
 measurement, and survey ; the examination and en- 
 gagement of officers and the shipment and certifica-
 
 144 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 tion of seamen ; and the preservation of the health 
 of crews afloat. Secondly, those which affect equally 
 merchant and naval shipping, viz., the survey of 
 oceans, coasts, harbors, and inland navigable waters ; 
 the service of light-houses, light-ships, beacons, and 
 buoys ; the general laws governing pilotage ; and 
 the life-saving service. Thirdly, that one condition 
 which is purely naval in its demands, viz., the police 
 of the high seas and of tide and inland waters. 
 
 These duties are strictly maritime ; in two of the 
 classes the demands of naval administration are 
 clearly evident ; and in the remaining one the bene- 
 ficial effects of similar control are no less potent. 
 At present the enrolment, registry, and license of ves- 
 sels belong to the Register of the Treasury, with the 
 regular work of whose office they have no connec- 
 tion save that arising from the fact that such an of- 
 ficial may be a properly constituted person to register 
 everything from bonds to barnacles ; with equal 
 propriety, however, it might be assumed that the 
 duty would fall within the province of an election 
 bureau, because it enrolls voters, or be entrusted to 
 the mayor's deputy because he licenses dogs for the 
 summer months. The inspection of steam vessels 
 also draws its inspiration from one of the heads of 
 the Treasury Hydra, why, no one seems clearly to 
 know. This inspection service consists of a super- 
 vising inspector general ; of supervising inspec- 
 tors ; of inspectors of foreign vessels, and of local 
 inspectors. It is more or less abused as a very close 
 corporation, and is said by competent authority to 
 further the interests entrusted to it by a star-cham- 
 ber process, which culminates in its reporting to
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. 145 
 
 and legislating for itself. Each district has a num- 
 ber of local boards made up of an inspector of 
 hulls and an inspector of boilers. The former is 
 required to satisfy himself as to the structure of 
 ships, the accommodations for passengers and crew, 
 the completeness of equipment for saving life and 
 for extinguishing fire, and the sufficiency of anchors 
 and cables. The latter must inquire into the safety of 
 boilers and engines, including everything which per- 
 tains to steam machinery. Acting as a board, the 
 two inspectors examine the qualifications of masters, 
 chief mates, engineers and pilots of steam vessels, 
 and upon their favorable report licenses for the 
 term of one year are issued. They receive from li- 
 censed officers the reports of all accidents, and they 
 investigate charges of incompetency or of neglect 
 against such officers, having power to summon wit- 
 nesses and, upon proof of misbehavior, negligence, or 
 unskilfulness, to suspend or revoke licenses. These 
 are very important duties and require special quali- 
 fications to determine which there is a board con- 
 sisting of a supervising inspector, a collector of cus- 
 toms and a DISTRICT JUDGE. 
 
 The shipping of seamen is under the direction of 
 commissioners whose duties are prescribed in the 
 statutes of the country. It is a matter of record 
 that these officials, even with the best intentions, are 
 unable to overcome the difficulties which beset their 
 duties. So far as any guarantees of capacity go, the 
 crews of all vessels and the officers serving in any 
 sea-going craft, except in steamers, are without the 
 least control. Marine Insurance Companies and the 
 American Ship Masters' Association of the Port of
 
 146 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 New York have endeavored to correct the lack of 
 training and experience in officers by providing lim- 
 itations, but unavailingly ; and to-day the lives and 
 cargoes of our citizens are entrusted to pseudo-ma- 
 riners whose qualifications rest upon their relation- 
 ship to the master, owner, or other interested person. 
 No examinations are required, and we are forced to 
 trust our lives and property to so many incompe- 
 tent merchant officers, because of our theory that 
 the interests of an owner are so important that he 
 will not submit them to any risk. But this covers 
 neither the insurer nor the passenger, and the melan- 
 choly roll of American wrecks proves upon what an 
 unstable foundation this claim rests. The control of 
 the commissioners over the seamen is only less than 
 that of the Government over these officials themselves, 
 for they are not directly connected with any executive 
 department, and are appointed by those hardy tars 
 and expert mariners the Judges of the Circuit Court. 
 
 The organization for the care of sick and disabled 
 seamen, with its numerous and spacious hospitals, 
 and its large corps of surgeons, is known as the Ma- 
 rine Hospital Service, and is in charge of a bureau 
 of the Treasury Department ; it is supported chiefly 
 by a monthly tax of forty cents on the wages of all 
 seamen, and is administered by surgeons whose ap- 
 pointments come from the Secretary of the Treasury. 
 Naval seamen are cared for by another department 
 and by a separate corps of practitioners, who pass 
 competitive examinations for their positions ; in 
 some places there are duplicate hospitals, marine and 
 naval, usually large buildings intended for the maxi- 
 mum demands which war or pestilence may make ;
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. 147 
 
 in one instance, at least, two of these edifices occupy 
 adjoining grounds, and with a divided duty, and 
 more or less deprecation of each other's usefulness, 
 stare one another out of countenance vacantly. 
 Sea Hygiene has a place, and an important one, in 
 the modern scientific world, and notable and most 
 useful contributions have been made to it by our 
 naval officers. The excellent sanitary conditions of 
 men-of-war at this date are due to the intelligent 
 study and zeal of our surgeons, and nowhere are 
 there officials better qualified to bring the standard of 
 merchant ships to the plane which our civilization 
 demands. Their appreciation of the physical needs 
 of seafaring people has been gained on shipboard, 
 and though their fight against wet decks, insuffi- 
 cient and badly cooked food and defective ventilation 
 has been a bitter one, yet the victory happily is with 
 them now. It is generally believed that the sphere 
 of experience of the surgeons of the Marine Hospital 
 Service is, perforce of circumstances, a limited one, 
 and that like our naval constructors, they have never 
 studied that special part of their profession which 
 their appointments require, in the only place where it 
 can be properly learned at sea with a sailor dientelle. 
 All these duties are maritime, and should be gath- 
 ered and welded together in order that they may ac- 
 quire coherency and efficiency. The control should 
 be given to a central department, maritime in its 
 character ; and for its special administration a Bureau 
 of Maritime Marine should be created, relegating 
 the Marine Hospital Service to the care of the Naval 
 Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Congressional 
 action should then take this form : First, the trans-
 
 148 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 fer to the Navy Department of all the duties in re- 
 lation to the registry, enrolment and license of ves- 
 sels, the regulation of steam vessels, and the ship- 
 ment of seamen. Secondly, the creation of a Bureau 
 of Mercantile Marine which shall administer the 
 above ; and, Thirdly, the passage of a general law 
 as similar to the British Merchant Act as the differ- 
 ences of our institutions and the requirement of the 
 foregoing provisions will admit. House Bill No. 
 7158 (1883) provided for the first two of these. The 
 general control was given to the Secretary of the 
 Navy, who was to be assisted by a board to be known 
 as the Mercantile Marine Board, and to be com- 
 posed of the following persons : The chief of the 
 Bureau of Mercantile Marine and the supervising 
 inspector general of steamboats, ex officio ; five civ- 
 ilians to be appointed by the President, among whom 
 there were to be one experienced seaman and navi- 
 gator, one shipbuilder, skilled in designing and con- 
 structing vessels of wood and iron, one scientific 
 man of eminent attainments, and two persons of spe- 
 cial experience in commercial and maritime affairs ; 
 and finally three officers of the navy, likewise to be 
 appointed by the President, one of whom was to be 
 a naval constructor, one a chief engineer, and one a 
 line officer, the last named to act as secretary of the 
 Board. Sections u and 12 prescribed the duties of 
 this Board as follows : To consider and investigate the 
 condition of the mercantile marine, and to advise and 
 assist the Secretary of the Navy in making rules and 
 regulations for executing the laws in relation to it; 
 and to report the results of its investigations to Con- 
 gress. Section 3 established the Bureau of Mercantile
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. 149 
 
 Marine and entrusted it with the various duties enu- 
 merated before ; contracting them in some particu- 
 lars and amplifying them in others. One notable 
 change was the appointment of an additional inspec- 
 tor of vessels, who was to report upon the strength 
 and sufficiency of the equipment, and the complete- 
 ness and efficiency of the navigating instruments and 
 charts ; and to examine into the fitness of master, 
 mate, or pilot of any vessel. In addition to the duties 
 already defined, the Bureau was to have charge of 
 the regulations governing the safety of ships and 
 the prevention of accidents ; the draught of water and 
 the location of load water lines ; the heights of free- 
 board ; the running lights, the fog-signals, and the 
 rules of the road at sea ; the provisions, health, and 
 accommodations of passengers and crews ; the pro- 
 tection of seamen from impositions ; the misconduct 
 of passengers ; and all inquiries into wrecks, casual- 
 ties, and salvage. A Registrar General of Seamen 
 was to compile and preserve all records relating to 
 the qualifications and service of officers, seamen, and 
 apprentices, and to provide for examinations, for the 
 granting of certificates, and for the making of ap- 
 prenticeships. In order to carry out the details of 
 the Bureau it was proposed that Local Marine Offices 
 should be established, where should be kept the 
 records of sales, transfers, and hypothecations of ves- 
 sels ; seamen were to be shipped and discharged 
 there, as in England, without any charge ; and the 
 local boards of inspection were to keep their records 
 and to hold their investigations, and all officers were 
 to be examined in the same place. In brief, these 
 offices, in every shipping town of any size, were to be
 
 150 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 to the sailor and the ship-owner what the custom- 
 house is, or ought to be, to the merchant and broker. 
 Few words are necessary to show the advantages 
 which would accrue from the transfer to the Navy 
 Department of the duties grouped above in the sec- 
 ond class as partly naval and partly mercantile. At 
 present the Coast Survey is nominally a bureau in 
 the Treasury Department. "Its primary object, as 
 expressed in the Statute (Revised Statutes, Section 
 4681), is to cause a survey to be taken of the 
 coasts of the United States, in which shall be desig : 
 nated the islands and shoals, with the roads or places 
 of anchorage, within twenty leagues of any part of 
 the shores of the United States." Subsequent legis- 
 lation extended its operations to parts of the ocean 
 beyond the original limit, and provided for deep- 
 sea soundings, current observations, and for a hydro- 
 graphic development of the dangers of ocean navi- 
 gation on the west coast of North America. There 
 are, at present, eleven vessels in commission in this 
 service, eight on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and 
 three on the Pacific coast ; six of these are steamers 
 and the remainder are schooners. In this service 
 sixty-one naval officers and two hundred and seventy- 
 five seamen are employed, continuing that policy 
 which for fifty years has given the hydrography of 
 our coast to the trained officers of the navy ; of the 
 officers now on the active list two hundred and 
 thirty-two have been on the survey at different times 
 and with excellent results to both. Marine survey- 
 ing, and the preparation and distribution of charts 
 and sailing directions, are duties which naturally fall 
 within the scope of a naval establishment, and to-
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. 151 
 
 
 
 day not only is the Hydrographic Office of the 
 Naval Bureau of Navigation exercising these func- 
 tions, but the actual work on the coast is performed 
 by naval officers, and one-third of the total cost of 
 the whole survey is borne by naval appropriations. 
 Its connection with the Treasury is of the most re- 
 mote character, and no good reason can be given for 
 a separation of duty and authority which would be 
 mutually enhanced by consolidation. In any event 
 its present position is an anomaly ; for if topographi- 
 cal work be the main duty, this should be relegated 
 to a bureau of the Interior Department, which should 
 have general charge of all surveys on land ; while 
 the sea and coast work proper should be placed 
 under the direct control of the Hydrographic Office 
 of the Navy. Our surveys are admirable in charac- 
 ter, but are entrusted to no less than four different 
 Departments of the General Government, the opera- 
 tions of which are continually overlapping. A broad 
 generalization would give all topography to the De- 
 partment of the Interior, and all hydrography to 
 that of the Navy. This would abolish the Coast 
 Survey in its present form, and limit Army duty to 
 its legitimate sphere, and with the advantage of con- 
 solidating the work to be done. 
 
 The Light-House Board has charge not only of 
 light-houses, but of the establishment and care of 
 all other aids to navigation light-ships, beacons, 
 buoys, fog-signals, and sea marks. It is under the 
 Treasury Department, and is administered by a 
 board of nine members : three officers of the navy, 
 three officers of the corps of engineers of the army, 
 and three civilians, one of whom must be the Secre-
 
 152 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 tary of the Treasury, and the remaining two per- 
 sons of high scientific attainments. Its original as- 
 signment is explained by the fact that at that time 
 the Navy Department did not exist. For some 
 years it was under the superintendence of the Com- 
 missioner of the Revenue, and afterward of the 
 Fifth Auditor, but the defects of both plans led to 
 the formation, mainly through the exertions of naval 
 officers, of the present Board. There are fourteen 
 light-house districts : six on the Atlantic, two on 
 the Gulf, and four on the Pacific coast ; along the 
 Great Lakes there are two ; and there is one on the 
 Ohio River, and one which extends from the head of 
 navigation of the Mississippi and of the Missouri to 
 New Orleans. The report for 1883 shows that the 
 Government owns : 
 
 Light-houses , 723 
 
 Light-ships 30 
 
 Fog-signals operated by steam or hot air 64 
 
 Fog-bells operated by machinery 115 
 
 Beacon lights on Western rivers . . .- 860 
 
 Day or unlighted beacons 345 
 
 Automatic whistling buoys 33 
 
 Automatic bell-buoys 14 
 
 Other buoys, 3>377 
 
 Steam tenders 22 
 
 Steam launches 4 
 
 Sailing tenders 2 
 
 Light keepers, including laborers, in charge of Western river 
 
 lights 1, 769 
 
 Other employes, including crews of light-ships and tenders . . 686 
 
 The appropriations for the fiscal year, were : 
 
 For the establishment $2,249,000 
 
 For light-houses, fog-signals, etc 500,000 
 
 Total $2,749,000
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. 153 
 
 These lights are divided into seven classes, with 
 an intermediate class between the third and fourth, 
 and two others known as lantern and lens divisions. 
 Each district is under the personal charge and super- 
 intendence of a naval officer, detailed exclusively for 
 this duty ; in three of the districts there are also naval 
 officers employed as assistants ; and three more are 
 members of the Board in Washington, one of these 
 being chairman and the other naval secretary. The 
 army officers, apart from those on the Board, have 
 supervision only of the erection and repair of build- 
 ings and apparatus, most of this being performed 
 incidentally and in addition to their regular duties 
 under the War Department. As this service is alto- 
 gether maritime in its character, and so largely 
 naval in its administration, there seems no reason 
 why its transfer should not be made to the Navy 
 Department. 
 
 The statutes of the United States authorize the 
 several States to make their own pilotage laws, the 
 general government surrendering nearly all of its 
 supervising power. In Maine and New Hampshire 
 pilots are appointed by the Governor and Council 
 upon the recommendation of the ship-owners and 
 ship-masters of any port. In Massachusetts, commis- 
 sioners license them, except for the ports of Boston 
 and New Bedford, where the power of appointment 
 rests finally with the Governor. In the port of 
 New York, two boards have concurrent jurisdiction, 
 one known as the Board of Commissioners of Pilot- 
 age, and consisting of three commissioners chosen by 
 the Chamber of Commerce and two by the Board of 
 Underwriters of the City of New York ; and the other
 
 154 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 made up of seven commissioners appointed by the 
 Governor of New Jersey with the advice and consent 
 of the State Senate ; each of these boards has power 
 to license its own pilots and is given all authority 
 over them. In Pennsylvania, pilots are selected by a 
 board of wardens ; in Maryland, by an examining 
 board, and in Alabama and Louisiana, by the harbor 
 masters and port wardens. These plans are practical- 
 ly the same, and there are no objections to them under 
 our theory of government, but some general juris- 
 diction over pilotage boards should belong to the 
 nation. Salutary laws, looking to the interests of 
 all classes of citizens, should be passed. Compul- 
 sory pilotage should be kept within those proper 
 limits which, while not unduly burdening owners 
 and shippers, protect the lives of passengers and 
 crews, and supply the incentive for zeal, courage, 
 and sacrifice upon the part of the pilots. All fees 
 ought to be based upon a reasonable law which gives 
 adequate compensation for the risks assumed, and 
 does not create a crushing monopoly that drives ship- 
 ping from our ports. Masters and mates who can 
 pass the proper examinations should receive pilot cer- 
 tificates, granted upon conditions which can be easily 
 formulated, and each district should be compelled to 
 make returns of the regulations and ordinances un- 
 der which it works, including a full description of 
 its pilots and apprentices, with the character of the 
 services for which each is licensed, the rates of pi- 
 lotage in force, and the total amount of money re- 
 ceived in this last distinguishing between the 
 charges upon American and foreign ships, respec- 
 tively. Nothing of this is mentioned in the Report
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. 155 
 
 of the Secretary, but it seems a part of the general 
 plan, and would naturally be entrusted to the Navi- 
 gation Bureau of the Navy Department. The Life- 
 saving Service is under the direction of a bureau in 
 the Treasury Department, and as its general duties 
 are administered by officers of the Revenue Marine, 
 the reasons for its transfer will follow those affecting 
 that service. 
 
 The third class of the general group is that which 
 performs duties purely naval, viz., the police of the 
 high seas and of tide and inland waters. This is the 
 province of the Navy and of the Revenue Marine. 
 The last named service is controlled by a Treasury 
 Bureau, and requires, to maintain its efficiency, 185 
 officers and 36 vessels ; 23 of the latter are sea- 
 going steamers, fifteen being propellers varying from 
 131 to 403 tons, and eight paddlers varying from 
 201 to 499 tons. Its working limits are harbor and 
 coast cruising, and in addition to preventing infrac- 
 tions of customs laws, assisting in collecting the 
 revenue, and aiding distressed vessels, it performs 
 those duties of police along the coast which the navy 
 exercises on the high seas and in foreign waters. 
 The crews are armed ; the cutters carry from one to 
 four guns, and in war are always pressed into the 
 naval service. The present separation is an absur- 
 dity, and by the proposed transfer to the Navy De- 
 partment mutual benefit will result. The Revenue 
 Marine will gain in every way, by its connection 
 with a department which is administering mari- 
 time affairs on a large plan and is looking, not to 
 the personal aggrandizement of a few officials, but 
 to the best interests of the Government ; it will de-
 
 156 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 rive all the benefits which enhanced experience, in- 
 telligence, and zeal can yield ; the standard of its 
 officers will be raised by the discipline and routine 
 enforced through naval methods ; and their possi- 
 bilities of usefulness will be increased by making 
 them a part of a permanent body in which their 
 commissions will be insured against the operations 
 either of malice or of favoritism, and their services 
 will be rewarded by dignified offices of retirement 
 at an age when duty well done deserves the grace- 
 ful recognition of a grateful country. 
 
 The transfer will benefit the navy by opening to its 
 junior officers a new school of experience which will 
 thus inure them to the dangers and teach them the 
 necessities of our coast at their most plastic age men- 
 tally, and when their resources physically, actual and 
 in reserve, are greatest ; it will give them that famil- 
 iarity with the coast and harbors which is so essen- 
 tial in war and peace ; and thus increase their mari- 
 time usefulness by making them better surveyors 
 and light-house inspectors of the future ; finally, it 
 will give them practice in handling vessels of the 
 smallest sizes under difficult circumstances, and pro- 
 vide in every way a field of training which will make 
 them better naval officers. 
 
 It utilizes for the country a personnel that must 
 be kept at a high standard, and economically and 
 most efficiently employs the services of officers in 
 a sphere which by their training they are in every 
 way qualified to occupy and this under a general 
 control which is the life of all organization. The 
 transfer would not interfere in any way with the 
 present officers of the Revenue Marine, for they
 
 UNION OF NAVY AND MERCHANT MARINE. 1 57 
 
 would retain their duties until in the course of years 
 a policy of absorption resulted in making the service 
 wholly naval. Under the provisions of the bill intro- 
 duced last year, no officer in the Revenue Marine 
 could ever be placed under the command of a naval 
 officer, nor be ranked in his present sphere of duties 
 by any such person ; for it was explicitly guaranteed 
 that vacancies in the upper grades were to be filled by 
 promotion from the lower grades in the corps, and 
 that naval officers could be detailed for duty only as 
 vacancies were made at the bottom of the list. To 
 harmonize all the interests it was proposed to trans- 
 fer the service to the Navy ; the small vessels em- 
 ployed in harbors to belong to the Treasury, and the 
 larger ones to be assigned to duty, as at present, 
 upon the requisition of the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury, their movements in each district being directed 
 for the time being by the collector of customs. 
 
 The result of all these changes would have been the 
 creation of two new bureaus in the Navy Depart- 
 ment, the amplification of the duties of two bureaus 
 already existing, and the passage of a general act 
 based upon the necessities of our shipping. Opposi- 
 tion was evoked, mainly by small bodies of interested 
 officials, though, to some degree also, by the igno- 
 rance of our citizens in regard to the questions at 
 issue, and the measure failed. But dispassionate 
 examination will do much to correct this, and will 
 show the necessity of the reforms proposed and of 
 immediate action ; for the demands formulated here 
 are founded upon justice and intelligence, and are 
 for the general good of the whole country.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 
 
 IF the arguments advanced in the preceding pages 
 are correct, the restoration of our merchant marine, 
 its efficient conduct, and its central administration 
 are matters mainly of intelligent legislation. Apart 
 from special beliefs, it seems but fair to assume that 
 all who have examined the subject concede that 
 these things should be done. This being granted, 
 nothing remains but to recapitulate the facts already 
 set forth, in order to emphasize the reasons why it 
 is believed that the special plan proposed in this 
 book should be adopted. 
 
 Briefly, then, it seems to be certain that ships are 
 profitable abroad, and can be made profitable here. 
 We were a great maritime people and, by the position 
 we assumed, proved incontestably that of all compet- 
 ing nations we possessed most fully those qualities 
 essential to maritime success, viz., national instinct, 
 and necessities of environment in land population 
 and geographical position. Our commerce had gone 
 to the very fore-front of man's adventure on the high 
 seas ; then paused, retreated, and finally almost per- 
 ished. This decadence, however, was not due, as is 
 generally claimed, to the war between the States in 
 1861, to the revival of a general prosperity which 
 left no money for investment in shipping, to the
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 159 
 
 fluctuations of an unstable currency, or to that un- 
 holy trinity of British gold, a hireling press, and a 
 foreign insurance ring which so vexes certain doc- 
 trinaires ; but had its origin^ purely, in those changes 
 which commerce theories demanded, and which we 
 failed to adopt, videlicet, the substitution of steam 
 for sail, the use of iron in place of wood for ship- 
 building, the antiquated navigation laws of this 
 country, and the burdensome National and State 
 taxes. 
 
 Subsidies will not correct these evils, for they have 
 been tried and found wanting, and the great foreign 
 trades have been established not by a grant of public 
 money to a favored few, but by the liberalization of 
 the world's commerce to the bold essay of free men 
 in free ships. To regain our position, to hope even 
 for a share of our legitimate carrying trade, we must 
 in the beginning adopt certain measures of reform. 
 These are : First, the admission to American regis- 
 ter of all ships over 3,000 tons, subject to the same 
 laws regarding ownership which now prevail, save in 
 one or two important particulars. Secondly, the ad- 
 mission duty free of all materials to be used in the 
 construction and repair of vessels of over 3,000 tons. 
 Thirdly, the adoption of new tonnage measurements, 
 based on actual carrying capacity, and excluding the 
 space occupied by engines and boilers, and accom- 
 modations for officers and crew. Fourthly, exemp- 
 tion from taxation, local and national, on all vessels 
 engaged in the foreign trade for more than eight 
 months of the year. Fifthly, permission for all Amer- 
 ican vessels in the foreign trade to take their stores 
 and shipchandlery out of bond duty free. Sixthly,
 
 l6o THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 a general revision of the laws relating to seamen and 
 the consular service. Seventhly, individual liability 
 as to ownership. Eighthly, a general and equitable 
 postal bill, with fair compensation for carrying the 
 mails ; and, Ninthly, a change in the pilot laws 
 modifying compulsory pilotage and permitting mas- 
 ters and mates, when properly qualified, to pilot 
 their own vessels. 
 
 Owning a profitable trade and free ships, we must 
 manage it with a good personnel, for ignorance, care- 
 lessness, or dishonesty are the most fruitful sources 
 of marine disasters. The percentage of American 
 wreckages is greater than that of any other nation, 
 and we must expect to maintain that proud eminence 
 as long as we are absolutely without any guarantees 
 as to the capacity of our foreign-going and home sea- 
 faring people. France, Italy, Russia, the North 
 Countries, and Great Britain, all have plans of some 
 kind ; but none of these seems so well suited to our 
 necessities, nor so little antagonistic to our national 
 genius and instinct, as that of England. It is prac- 
 tical enough not to hamper individual effort, and 
 yet so theoretical that the mere rule-of-thumb mari- 
 ner cannot, as he should not, be entrusted with in- 
 terests which, humanly and commercially considered, 
 are of enormous magnitude. There are examinations 
 for officers and certifications for seamen, and the 
 whole conduct of merchant shipping is controlled by 
 a wise and general law. To supply the annual losses 
 of the merchant marine there must be various 
 sources of supply, one of which, at least, should be 
 a nucleus of intelligence around which the brawn and 
 muscle can rally. To give this training there are in
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. l6l 
 
 England nineteen ships, seventeen for seamen and 
 two for officers, and, theorists to the contrary, the 
 annual entrance into service afloat of the pupils of 
 these schools has resulted in most pronounced good. 
 Starting out fairly on a commercial enterprise, well 
 found, well manned, and insured against unjust dis- 
 criminations at home and abroad, vessels must have 
 protection from foreign enemies and rivals. Hence 
 there must be war ships to watch the commercial in- 
 terests of a country. The first duty of a navy is the 
 defence of its coasts at home, and of its citizens 
 abroad ; the next is.the protection of its commerce; 
 and the third is the police and survey of its own 
 shores and of the high seas in the general cause of 
 humanity. But the economical demands of our 
 country forbid the navy being maintained at a war 
 standard, hence there must be a reserve of ships and 
 of men from which aid can be drawn. A revived 
 commerce means a revived and effective ship-build- 
 ing plant, and a large merchant marine supplies that 
 potential reserve, upon which the integrity of the 
 country, so far as sea defences go, mainly depends. 
 
 Finally, to administer all these various relations 
 there must be a central bureau. Ships must ever 
 carry the declaration of some national supervision 
 over them, both as a protection to the owners as 
 well as a warning to foreigners. They must have 
 the imprimatur of some State that they are worthy 
 the hire of those who seek transportation for them- 
 selves or for their goods upon the high seas ; and 
 they must be forced, for the general welfare of the 
 nation, at least, to carry competent crews and to 
 guard the health of all who manage or sail in them. 
 ii
 
 162 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 These duties are maritime, and should be entrusted 
 to some bureau or department which shares this dis- 
 tinctive character with them. There seems no ques- 
 tion but that to the Navy Department these func- 
 tions should be relegated, not only for reasons of 
 special efficiency, but for those of economy. In the 
 annual report for 1883 the Secretary of the Navy re- 
 asserts the reasons given in 1882 for the centraliza- 
 tion and control of the national work upon the 
 ocean. 
 
 " In the report from this Department of last year," 
 he writes, " it was affirmed as a broad and salutary 
 principle of administration, that the officers and sea- 
 men of the Navy should be employed to perform all 
 the work of the national Government upon or in 
 direct connection with the ocean. It was shown 
 that such an extension of the field of naval em- 
 ployment would strengthen and invigorate the 
 service without any detriment to existing inter- 
 ests, while the fusion of all branches of nautical ad- 
 ministration would secure concentration of purpose, 
 unity of action, and broader and more substantial 
 results. 
 
 "The reasoning upon which this proposition is 
 based is simple and obvious. The United States 
 have an ocean commerce of 2,500,000 tons and a sea- 
 coast of 10,000 miles. Though the carrying trade 
 has fallen largely into foreign hands, yet in maritime 
 tonnage our country is still the second, and in extent 
 of coast-line the third, in the world. Upon our coast 
 lie more than twenty great cities, the centres of dis- 
 tribution for the products of the interior. What 
 affects them affects the whole country. The only
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 163 
 
 safeguard for these important and vulnerable inter- 
 ests lies in the Navy. To dispense with a navy would 
 be to invite aggression and to insure disaster. 
 
 "The Navy, as an arm of maritime defence, is there- 
 fore a national necessity. It must be maintained 
 continuously for two purposes : to avert war, by 
 making it costly and dangerous for an opponent ; 
 and to wage war, when it cannot be averted. From 
 the nature of things, however, the fulfilment of these 
 purposes cannot of itself give the naval force full and 
 continuous employment. Nevertheless, it must be 
 maintained, and maintained in a state of efficiency. 
 Although the contingency that will call it into full 
 activity is remote, its officers must always be kept in 
 readiness. If they cannot be, it would be better, for 
 the country's interest as well as for their own, that 
 they should be disbanded. 
 
 " There is only one way in which the people can 
 assure themselves that their Navy shall be always 
 thus prepared for service. It must be constantly 
 occupied to the full measure of its capacity ; its oc- 
 cupations must be directly in the line of its profes- 
 sion ; and they must be carried on under the super- 
 vision of that Department which is responsible for 
 its efficiency and discipline. If it were necessary, in 
 order to effect this, that new work should be devised 
 for the Navy to do, the result would be sufficiently 
 important to warrant the undertaking. But it is not 
 necessary. The Government is to-day performing, 
 by Yneans of other officials and other establishments, 
 work which, in its general professional character and 
 in the professional training required, is indistinguish- 
 able from that of the Navy itself. A sound policy
 
 1 64 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 demands that in it the Navy should be utilized, oc- 
 cupied, and practised. 
 
 " This nautical work now carried on by the Govern- 
 ment outside of the Navy Department comprises the 
 surveying and lighting of the coast and its adjacent 
 islands ; the prohibition of illicit trade, the assistance 
 of vessels in distress, and the rescue of life and prop- 
 erty from the perils of the sea ; the inspection of 
 the hulls and boilers of merchant steamers, with a 
 view to their safe navigation ; and the admeasure- 
 ment and registration of vessels and the shipment and 
 care of seamen of the merchant marine. The meas- 
 ures proposed by the Department consisted in the 
 application to this unquestionably nautical work of 
 the general principle advocated, and in its extension 
 in the same direction by an organized and practical 
 effort to supervise and advance the interests of our 
 decayed merchant marine. 
 
 "In applying the general principle to the nautical 
 work within the province of the Government, it is 
 found that one portion, the supervision of commerce 
 by a single branch of the executive, though highly 
 important and desirable, is not in operation at all ; 
 that a second portion, the shipment of seamen, is 
 carried on by subordinate officials under no execu- 
 tive supervision ; that a third portion, the survey- 
 ing and lighting of the coast, is done almost wholly 
 by officers of the Navy, under the direction of the 
 Treasury Department ; while a fourth portion, con- 
 sisting of the cutter service, the life-saving service, 
 and the steamboat inspection^ is also committed to 
 bureaus in that Department, and is performed by 
 officials connected therewith. In reference to the
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. ' 165 
 
 supervision of commerce and the shipment of sea- 
 men, the question whether they shall be directed by 
 any Department, and, if so, by that of the Navy, is 
 one that may be determined on its merits, without 
 regard to existing relations. In reference to the 
 Coast Survey, it is clear that the present arrange- 
 ment, by which the direction and control of a large 
 body of naval officers and seamen are transferred to 
 the Treasury Department, is unsuitable, unnecessary, 
 and detrimental to the interests of the Government. 
 As to the rest of the work, which is now wholly car- 
 ried on by the same Department, while no criticism 
 is made upon the integrity or efficiency of its admin- 
 istration in any particular under the system adopted, 
 yet the expediency of the system itself becomes a 
 general question of national policy, which, not alone 
 in its bearing upon the useful employment of the 
 Navy, the Navy Department is competent and is 
 called upon to consider. 
 
 " In pursuance of this duty, and after careful in- 
 quiry and mature reflection, the Department, in its 
 report of last year, recommended that the Navy 
 should be employed, as far as was possible, to per- 
 form all this maritime work ; and it suggested a pro- 
 cess by which the transfer might be accomplished 
 without any interruption of the operations of the 
 Government. The views then expressed have only 
 increased in strength, as added experience and dis- 
 cussion have thrown new light upon them. The 
 main points of the argument are therefore restated, 
 and the recommendations are emphatically renewed. 
 
 "The Light-House administration, charged with 
 the establishment and care of aids to navigation,
 
 166 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 including light-houses, light-ships, beacons, buoys, 
 fog-signals and sea-marks, performs a work under 
 the Treasury Department which is strictly nautical 
 in character ; of which no one but a practical navi- 
 gator is a competent judge ; which requires a kind 
 of skill and experience that the Navy alone can 
 furnish ; and all the essential parts of which, except- 
 ing only the erection and repair of buildings and 
 apparatus, are carried on at this time by naval offi- 
 cers. Being nautical and not fiscal operations, they 
 should be supervised by the Navy and not the Treas- 
 ury Department. 
 
 " The Coast Survey, originally established for the 
 purpose of making hydrographic charts, has of late 
 years extended its functions in a totally different 
 direction, that of geodetic surveys in the interior. 
 In making this extension, it has gradually aban- 
 doned the water survey to the Navy, until how the 
 actual work in this field is done almost exclusively 
 by naval officers withdrawn for the purpose from 
 the direction and control of their own Department. 
 By an extraordinary anomaly in legislation, the 
 United States Hydrographic Office, an indispensable 
 branch of this Department, is allowed to survey and 
 make charts of every coast in the world but that of 
 the United States ; while the best naval surveyors 
 are claimed by another Department to perform this 
 work under its supervision. Sixty seven naval 
 officers are now diverted in this manner from the 
 direction of the Navy ; and 280 seamen, out of the 
 7,500 allowed to the Navy, are now on board Coast 
 Survey vessels. 
 
 " For such an arrangement there might be some
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. l6/ 
 
 show of reason if the work upon which the officers 
 are engaged were specially connected with the 
 Department under which they are placed, and re- 
 mote from the subjects of which their own Depart- 
 ment has cognizance ; but, in view of the fact that 
 no part of this work has the faintest traceable con- 
 nection with the general purposes of the Treasury, 
 that its effectual performance is of vital importance 
 to the Navy, and that an office exists to-day in the 
 Navy Department where similar work is necessarily 
 carried on, it is inconceivable why so inconvenient, 
 artificial, and indefensible an arrangement should be 
 perpetuated. The existing office might properly 
 continue the geodetic work, which seems gradually 
 to be absorbing its attention and its appropriations, 
 while the hydrographic surveys on our coast, now 
 performed by naval officers, under a naval inspector, 
 in the office of the Geodetic Survey, should be car- 
 ried on, like other hydrographic surveys, by the 
 Naval Hydrographic Office. 
 
 " The duties of the Revenue Marine, as officially 
 defined, consist in cruising for the prevention of 
 illicit trade, and for the enforcement of certain laws 
 applicable to shipping, particularly those requiring 
 the registry, enrollment, and license of vessels, com- 
 pelling life-saving appliances to be kept therein, the 
 name and hailing port to be affixed, and lights to be 
 exhibited ; prohibiting the overloading of passenger 
 ships, assessing the Marine-Hospital tax, and aiding 
 in the quarantine service of the States. The cutters 
 further assist in enforcing the neutrality laws, and 
 those for the suppression of piracy, and for the pro- 
 tection of the timber reserves. They are also called
 
 1 68 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 upon to prevent unlawful traffic in rum and fire- 
 arms in Alaska ; to protect the seal-fisheries, to sup- 
 press mutinies, and extinguish fires on board mer- 
 chant-vessels, and to carry out the laws in aid of 
 distressed seamen. 
 
 " Several of these duties, such as the enforcement 
 of the neutrality laws, the suppression of piracy, of 
 mutinies on board merchant-vessels, and the like, 
 the ships of the navy are now charged with, and ac- 
 tually perform in common with revenue vessels. Of 
 the rest, there is not one that is foreign to the gen- 
 eral purpose and scope of the naval officer's profes- 
 sion. The only duty connected directly with the 
 customs is that of the seizure of smugglers a duty 
 which is precisely similar to the -naval officer's duty 
 of searching and seizing, during war, vessels en- 
 gaged in contraband trade. It requires a knowledge 
 of the statutes relating to the subject, a knowledge 
 not very difficult to acquire ; but beyond this noth- 
 ing that is outside of a naval officer's necessary 
 training. The duties of both services are identical 
 in their general nature, only they operate in differ- 
 ent localities. Both cruise to protect the maritime 
 interests of the Government, and to rende/ assist- 
 ance to American vessels the one on the coast, the 
 other, in addition, at sea and in foreign waters. 
 One polices the shore, the other the ocean. In war 
 both engage in naval operations. 
 
 "The practical identity in the character of the 
 Naval and the Revenue Marine Services lies in the 
 fact that they are both nautical and both military. 
 That the 'Revenue Marine is a nautical service re- 
 quires no proof. It is nothing if not nautical. That
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 1 69 
 
 it is a military service was officially asserted by the 
 Treasury Department in the report on the service 
 for 1881, in these words : 
 
 " ' The Revenue Marine, while charged by law with 
 the performance of important civil duties, is essen- 
 tially military in its character. Each vessel is pro- 
 vided with great guns, and furnished with as full a 
 complement of small arms for its crew as any ship 
 of war. Its officers are required to be proficient in 
 military drill, and possess a thorough knowledge of 
 the uses of both great and small arms. Its crews 
 are required to be instructed from day to day at the 
 great guns and in the use of the carbine, pistol, and 
 cutlass. Commanding officers are required, while 
 boarding vessels arriving in ports of the United 
 States, in case of the failure or refusal of any such 
 vessel, on being hailed, to come to and submit to 
 the proper inspection by an officer of the service, to 
 fire, first across her bows as a warning, and, in case 
 of persistent refusal, to resort to shot or shell to 
 compel obedience. In the performance of this 
 work, they are likely at any time to receive injuries, 
 and be subjected to the same dangers in time of 
 peace as the force employed on naval vessels. 
 
 " ' By the Act of March 2, 1799, it is provided that 
 " the revenue cutters shall, whenever the President 
 so directs, co-operate with the Navy." It will be ob- 
 served that the co-operation of the two services pre- 
 scribed in the act above quoted is not contingent 
 upon a state of war or other particularly perilous 
 conditions. On the contrary, it may take place in 
 time of peace and for pacific purposes, and when 
 less hazard is involved to the two services than per-
 
 1 70 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 tains to the discharge by a revenue vessel of its or- 
 dinary duties. . . . It is difficult to conceive that 
 discrimination could be made by the law between 
 services subjected to equally hazardous and dqually 
 important military duties, both in time of peace and 
 in time of war. . . . Objection to granting pen- 
 sions for the revenue-marine officers and seamen 
 has been made, on the ground that such action 
 would be extending this bounty to civil employes of 
 the Government, a policy to which our legislative 
 traditions, so to speak, are opposed. But, if in legal 
 theory they are civil employes, are they so in fact ? 
 Are they less positively a part of our military force in 
 time of war than the Army or Navy ? It is true, reve- 
 nue vessels are not to be ordered into action on purely 
 military service, offensive or defensive, except the 
 President so direct ; neither are vessels of the Navy.' 
 
 " The above clear and precise statement, showing 
 that the so-called Revenue Marine is simply a coast 
 navy, is without doubt correct and just, notwith- 
 standing that the same subordinate in the Treasury 
 Department who formulated it for official communi- 
 cation to Congress, now makes the following asser- 
 tion, though not, as it appears, with the endorse- 
 ment of the Secretary : 
 
 " 'The fact is, the business of the Revenue-Marine 
 officer is as distinct from that of a naval officer as 
 one land service is from another. The military drill 
 and instruction of the Revenue-Marine officer do 
 not necessarily make him a naval officer any more 
 than the present education of a naval officer fits him 
 to manage vessels in harbors and along the shoal 
 waters of the coast.'
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. i;i 
 
 "Whether the views put forth in 1881, or the ex- 
 actly opposite views emanating from the same per- 
 son in 1883, are correct, and whether the service is 
 to be considered as military or not, it is still. unques- 
 tionably nautical ; and it is for this reason that it 
 comes within the scope of the general principle now 
 advocated. It is because it forms a part of Govern- 
 ment work in which officers and seamen are em- 
 ployed to navigate Government vessels, at sea, from 
 port to port, that it may fi,tly become a part of the 
 naval establishment. If the present system of mili- 
 tary instruction is so defective that the officers of 
 the revenue navy are not made naval officers, it 
 would seem that some other system should be 
 adopted to that end, seeing that they are " subjected 
 to equally important and equally hazardous military 
 duties, both in time of peace and in time of war," 
 and that they are no less positively " a part of our 
 military force in time of war than the Army or 
 Navy." If, on the other hand, naval officers now 
 have too little practice in coast navigation, a method 
 should be devised of giving them such practice at 
 once, for there is nothing more essential than this to 
 success in the operations of modern warfare. 
 
 "The plan proposed with these objects in view in- 
 cluded the transfer to the Navy Department of the 
 cruising cutters, their officers and seamen (except- 
 ing the harbor boats used by the inspectors of cus- 
 toms, which do not require a special corps of offi- 
 cers) ; the organization of the officers transferred, 
 as a Revenue-Marine Corps in the Navy, upon a 
 footing precisely similar to that of the present naval 
 officers ; and the gradual employment of junior offi-
 
 172 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 cers of the Navy in this service, as vacancies occur 
 at the bottom of the list. Such a measure would ac- 
 complish the desired result while protecting effectu- 
 ally the interests of the existing corps. 
 
 " The Life-Saving Service, being closely connected 
 with the Revenue Marine, and being equally work 
 of a nautical character, would necessarily follow the 
 latter. The objection which has been suggested 
 that naval officers are not surfmen, applies with 
 equal force to officers of the Revenue Marine. It is 
 obvious that one branch may be utilized in this ser- 
 vice as readily as the other. The objection that a 
 necessary incompatibility exists between naval offi- 
 cers as such, and professional surfmen, which is not 
 to be found in the relations to the latter of Revenue- 
 Marine officers, requires no answer. The transfer of 
 the service involves no displacement of the crews of 
 life-saving stations ; nor can any reason be adduced 
 why they should not perform as good work in saving 
 life endangered by the sea, under a department 
 charged with nautical matters, as under one whose 
 appropriate functions are the collection and dis- 
 bursement of the revenue, the issue of the currency, 
 and the regulation of the national debt. 
 
 " In view of the close and essential connection be- 
 tween the Navy and the Mercantile Marine, it was 
 further proposed to establish a Bureau of Mercantile 
 Marine in the Navy Department, which should be 
 charged with those branches of administration re- 
 quiring a professional knowledge of the men and 
 materials employed in commercial navigation. Sucli 
 a bureau would include the registry, enrollment, 
 and license of vessels, their admeasurement for ton-
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 173 
 
 nage, the inspection of steam vessels, and the ship- 
 ment and care of seamen. It should further be 
 made the business of the proposed bureau, aided by 
 a board representing the principal maritime and 
 commercial interests, to exercise such care and su- 
 pervision over these interests as would tend to a re- 
 covery of our carrying trade, and in general to the 
 prosperity of our rapidly decaying merchant marine. 
 The time has arrived when such a central adminis- 
 tration is a necessity, as the merchant marine can- 
 not prosper while its governmental regulation re- 
 mains in the present chaotic condition. Whether 
 its regulation should be intrusted to this or to an- 
 other existing department, or to a new department 
 created for it. is still an open question. 
 
 " The first plan was advocated upon three distinct 
 grounds : first, that much of the work requires a 
 special technical knowledge which it is the business 
 of the Navy Department to have always at com- 
 mand ; secondly, that as the Navy is now charged 
 with the protection and assistance of our shipping 
 interests abroad, it might be wisely connected with 
 the promotion of these interests at home ; and, finally, 
 that as the merchant marine must always afford the 
 sole reserve upon which, in emergencies, the Navy 
 can draw to recruit its strength, the interests of the 
 two are inseparably united. 
 
 " The recommendations made in the report of last 
 year were followed by considerable discussion, of 
 which a brief notice may fitly be taken. In some of 
 the remonstrances presented by commercial and 
 other organizations the various subjects were so 
 confused and distorted, and the general purpose of
 
 1/4 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 the recommendations was so entirely ignored that 
 the objections failed to have a bearing upon the 
 actual merits of the question. Other remonstrances 
 were notoriously procured by persons who are 
 supported and given undue importance by the 
 existing system, and who were alarmed lest change 
 should destroy their occupations. 1 In many in- 
 stances the representations were not full or delib- 
 erate expressions of the opinion of the bodies whose 
 names were used. Notably was this the case with 
 the resolutions of the Chamber of Commerce of 
 New York, where the mover of an adverse resolu- 
 tion became himself the chairman of the committee 
 to which the consideration of the measures was re- 
 ferred, and secured the adoption of a substantially 
 similar resolution by a vote of only 17 out of 740 
 members of the Chamber. 
 
 " Few of the arguments adduced by interested par- 
 ties seem to have force against the broad general 
 proposition that the direction of these 1 nautical sub- 
 jects should be united, and that the nautical depart- 
 ment of the Government should carry on the work. 
 The greater portion of them were based upon harsh 
 criticisms of the past management of the Navy De- 
 partment, and of the conduct of officers and seamen 
 of the Navy. To these no rejoinder will be here 
 engaged in, for an obvious reason. The question 
 whether, as a permanent assignment, any particular 
 
 1 This was especially seen in New York, where the author, in 
 arguments before a commercial committee, was met by misstate- 
 ments and misrepresentations claimed to have been supplied by 
 persons connected with the Revenue Marine and the Steam-Boat 
 Inspection Service.
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 175 
 
 subject-matter most appropriately belongs to one de- 
 partment or to another, must be settled on its merits, 
 upon the assumption that both departments either 
 are or will be ably and honestly conducted. Integ- 
 rity and capacity in executive business are not 
 the exclusive possession of any one branch of the 
 Government, or of any one body of officials. To 
 say that naval officers cannot wisely be employed on 
 board the cruising cutters, whose principal use has 
 no relation to the appropriate business of the Treas- 
 ury Department, because occasionally dutiable ar- 
 ticles have been brought home in naval vessels, is 
 as unreasonable as to argue that the supervising in- 
 spectors should not inspect steam vessels, because, 
 in spite of their honesty and ability, terrible explo- 
 sions of boilers have taken place directly after their 
 most rigid examinations and unqualified certificates 
 of approval. The real point in the present question, 
 from which Congress should not be diverted by in- 
 terested clamor, is : Ought these kindred branches 
 of the public service to be united ; and under which 
 of the two departments, when both are well-man- 
 aged, should they be most naturally and appropri- 
 ately conducted ? 
 
 "To stigmatize naval officers as idlers who are 
 seeking to obtain an undue share of the civil ad- 
 ministration is as unjust as it is illogical. If naval 
 officers are idlers, it is because idleness is enforced 
 upon them by a system which excludes them from 
 the occupations for which they are peculiarly fitted. 
 The remedy lies in giving them the employment 
 which the naval service proper, in time of peace, 
 cannot from its very nature fully afford. If they
 
 1 76 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 desire to obtain such employment, the desire is 
 worthy and commendable. In the present case, the 
 charge against them of encroachment is without 
 foundation ; since the recommendations in this re- 
 port have been made, not at the instance or solici- 
 tation of officers of the Navy, but, upon a careful 
 consideration, by the head of the Department, of 
 the principles that should govern their employ- 
 ment. 
 
 " If the Navy Department has not been wisely, 
 economically, and energetically administered, and if 
 naval officers have their faults or their vices, thor- 
 ough reforms should be instituted, and such have 
 been and will be unsparingly recommended and 
 carried out. If they cannot be effected under the 
 present distribution of executive powers, and if, on 
 the other hand, the management of nautical affairs 
 is an appropriate attribute of fiscal administration, 
 then the existence of a separate nautical department 
 is an error which should be rectified by placing the 
 Navy under a bureau in the already comprehensive 
 Department of the Treasury. But whether attached 
 to one or to the other, all branches of nautical 
 administration should be united. As well might the 
 various parts of financial work be scattered among 
 different departments as the fragments of nautical 
 work be separated into an ocean navy here and a 
 coast navy there ; a survey of foreign coasts under 
 one department and a survey of our own under 
 another ; a bureau and an engineer corps for the 
 engines of naval steamers, and another bureau and 
 another engineer corps for those of merchant 
 steamers. Wherever the direction of nautical affairs
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 177 
 
 is placed, all its branches should be under a common 
 head, and should work with a common purpose. 
 
 " One general argument has been presented against 
 the transfer, in the form of an objection to employ- 
 ing military officers in civil duties. This is wholly 
 out of place when applied to the army or navy of a 
 popular government in a law-abiding community. 
 In a despotism, where a standing army is maintained 
 without the consent of the people and may be used 
 for the repression of liberty, it would be wise to 
 resist the extension of military employment to civil 
 labors, even though the saving of expense should 
 partly balance the evils resulting from an increase 
 of despotic control. But in the United States the 
 Army and Navy are the creation of the popular will. 
 They are organized and supported only because the 
 people deem them necessary for national existence 
 and safety, and they can be disbanded at the pleas- 
 ure of the people. They are equally with all other 
 officials under the direction of a civil administration. 
 They can therefore be wisely and safely employed in 
 any work that will not impair their efficiency or 
 discipline, and where their employment would save 
 money that would otherwise be paid to maintain an 
 unnecessary civil establishment. They should by 
 all means be so employed when the service will not 
 only relieve and benefit the people, but will add to 
 the professional experience, and to the fitness for 
 war duties, of the officers and men. Their exclu- 
 sion can only be justified on the theory that to ren- 
 der them harmless they must be rendered inefficient ; 
 a theory which, if carried out, would result in the 
 immediate abolition of the service. 
 la
 
 1 78 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 " The argument in favor of the full use of the Navy 
 in all appropriate labors of peace becomes stronger 
 as the nation seems more unlikely to engage in 
 actual warfare. Our international policy tends to 
 peace with all the world ; our conflicts will be 
 infrequent ; and therefore more than all other 
 nations we should utilize our officers, seamen, and 
 ships in the nautical works which peace times re- 
 quire. Such are their appropriate sphere, not for 
 their private benefit, but for the greater good of the 
 Government to which they desire to give the fullest 
 possible service. 
 
 " In presenting its recommendations last year, the 
 Department made every effort to mature its opinion 
 by the fullest and most exhaustive examination of 
 the subject. Had it done otherwise it would have 
 fallen short of its duty. The question has a vital 
 bearing upon the improvement of the Navy, and is 
 in no way dependent upon the character of admin- 
 istration for the time being in this or that depart- 
 ment. It is a broad question of permanent policy 
 and statesmanship. In such a spirit it has been 
 dealt with here. It is not, perhaps, to be expected 
 that such an extensive change will commend itself, 
 at the first inspection, to the community and to Con- 
 gress while those who live upon the existing system 
 are seeking, by denunciatory methods, to create an 
 unfavorable public sentiment. But it is believed 
 that the advantages of the change, when impartially 
 examined, will be recognized, and that it must ulti- 
 mately be made. In such a confident belief the 
 Department renews its recommendations, basing 
 them not upon an appeal to popular prejudice, or
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 1/9 
 
 upon recriminations, as odious as they are irrelevant, 
 respecting the conduct of other branches of the 
 public service, but upon a calm and candid consid- 
 eration of the whole question, in the interests of a 
 sound administrative policy, and of the efficiency of 
 the naval arm of the Government as closely con- 
 nected therewith." 
 
 Early in the present session of Congress Mr. 
 Dingley of Maine introduced in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives four important bills relating to shipping. 
 The first is substantially the same as that passed by 
 the last House and which will be found among the 
 appendices to this volume. It requires only the mas- 
 ter of an American vessel to be a citizen and allows a 
 minority ownership of an American vessel by aliens. 
 It takes away from consuls the right to exact three 
 months' extra wages on the discharge of a seaman, 
 and provides instead that only the wages due shall 
 be paid, except when a vessel is sold in a foreign 
 port or a sailor is discharged by reason of ill-treat- 
 ment by the officers of a vessel, in which cases one 
 month's extra wages is to be paid. The right to ship 
 a seaman for any port and discharge him at the ex- 
 piration of the shipping agreement is recognized. 
 The bill increases the compensation of vessels for 
 transporting shipwrecked seamen in certain cases 
 and abolishes consular fees for services to vessels 
 and seamen, providing that consuls shall be paid 
 from the Treasury. The mode of levying the ton- 
 nage tax is changed, this section being as follows : 
 
 " In lieu of all duties on tonnage, including light 
 money, now imposed by law, a duty of three cents 
 per ton, not to exceed in the aggregate fifteen cents
 
 l8o THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 per ton in any one year, is hereby imposed at each 
 entry on all vessels which shall be entered in any 
 port of the United States from the West India Islands 
 or from any port or place in the Republic of Mexico, 
 or from any place south of Mexico down to and in- 
 cluding Aspinwall and Panama, or from any port or 
 place in the dominion of Canada, or from the Sand- 
 wich Islands, and a duty of six cents per ton, not to 
 exceed in the aggregate thirty cents per ton in any 
 one year, is hereby imposed at each entry on all 
 vessels which shall be entered in the United States 
 from any other foreign port ; provided, that nothing 
 in this section shall be construed to repeal sections 
 2793 and 4220 of the Revised Statutes." 
 
 The bill reduces the Marine Hospital tax upon sea- 
 men engaged in the foreign carrying trade to twenty 
 cents per month instead of forty ; limits the indi- 
 vidual liability of a ship-owner to the proportion of 
 all debts that his individual share of the vessel bears 
 to the whole, and the aggregate liabilities of all the 
 owners to the value of the vessel. It further pro- 
 vides that any fine, penalty, forfeiture, or exaction 
 upon a vessel when paid under protest may be re- 
 covered from the Treasury, on application within 
 one year, if the Secretary of the Treasury finds it 
 was illegally exacted. It also gives sailing vessels 
 the same privileges in unloading cargo that are ex- 
 tended to steamers. The last section of the bill ex- 
 empts any sailing vessel under tow of a steam vessel 
 in charge of a licensed United States pilot from the 
 obligation to take or pay for the services of any pilot 
 under State laws. 
 
 The second bill authorizes the United States In-
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. l8l 
 
 specters mentioned in Section 4442 of the Revised 
 Statutes, to examine and license masters of vessels 
 and others as pilots for sailing vessels in the coast- 
 wise trade upon the same terms and conditions, so 
 far as applicable, as pilots are now licensed for steam 
 vessels, and exempts vessels piloted by such licensed 
 pilots from taking or paying for the services of any 
 State pilot. 
 
 The third bill, "To encourage American ship- 
 building for the foreign carrying trade," extends the 
 act of 1872, admitting free of duty materials of 
 foreign production for the construction of wooden 
 vessels for the foreign carrying trade, so as to admit 
 in like manner all materials of foreign production 
 for the construction, equipment, repairs, and supplies 
 of iron and steel, as well as wooden vessels, for the 
 foreign trade. It also admits free of duty materials 
 of foreign production for the manufacture of articles 
 to be used in the construction and equipment of such 
 vessels, and also materials for the construction of 
 machinery for ship-yards and shops connected there- 
 with. 
 
 The fourth bill establishes a Bureau of Commerce 
 and Navigation in the Treasury Department, and 
 authorizes the appointment by the President of a 
 Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Com- 
 merce and Navigation, with such clerks as the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury may detail from his present 
 force. The Commissioner of Commerce and Navi- 
 gation, under the direction of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, shall have general superintendence of 
 the commercial marine and merchant seamen of the 
 United States ; shall have charge of all questions
 
 1 82 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 relating to the issue of registers, enrollments, and 
 licenses of vessels ; shall have the supervision of the 
 laws relating to the admeasurement of vessels, the 
 assigning of letters and numbers thereto, and the 
 interpretation and the execution of the laws relat- 
 ing to these subjects and to the tonnage tax. The 
 Commissioner is also charged with so much of the 
 duties heretofore imposed upon the Bureau of Sta- 
 tistics a"s relates to navigation and foreign commerce. 
 He is also authorized to accept international rules 
 for the commercial marine of the United States and 
 to keep supervision of the navigable waters of the 
 United States and report all obstructions. He is 
 to prepare annually and publish a list of vessels of 
 the United States, and is authorized to change the 
 names of vessels. The Commissioner of Commerce 
 and Navigation is required to investigate the work- 
 ing of the laws relating to navigation and to report 
 such particulars in their operation as may, in his 
 judgment, admit of improvement or require amend- 
 ment. If this initial step in establishing a Bureau 
 of Commerce and Navigation should be approved 
 by Congress, Mr. Dingley hopes that in due time 
 all other boards and officials charged with duties re- 
 lating to the merchant marine of the United States 
 will be brought within the control of this bureau, so 
 that the Government may have a department similar 
 to the British Board of Trade, charged with the duty 
 of guarding the interests of shipping. 
 
 The provisions of these bills are excellent in some 
 particulars, and are undoubtedly tendencies in a 
 right direction ; in details, however, and in want of 
 breadth they are open to criticism, the justice of
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 183 
 
 which will stand or fall by the arguments already 
 advanced. The Secretary of the Navy must un- 
 doubtedly be gratified that his statesmanlike princi- 
 ples of administration are bearing such good fruit, 
 for surely in a future, not distant, right-thinking 
 men everywhere will accept the plan proposed by 
 him as the true one. The special objections to the 
 Bill which seeks to establish a Bureau of Commerce 
 and Navigation in the Treasury Department are 
 based upon the facts that the practical control is 
 given to officials whose lack of special training ren- 
 ders their fitness questionable ; that a specific branch 
 of government is made a part of a Department 
 which already administers enormous and most 
 varied interests ; and that a new bureau is created 
 while an old one exists, which is co-central in its 
 purposes and is already possessed of such special 
 advantages for the work that its control of the mer- 
 chant marine will not involve its own affairs with 
 those of any other department. 
 
 And with the restoration of the Merchant Marine 
 the elevation of the Navy should go hand in hand. 
 The people of this country are most willing, nay most 
 anxious, to recreate their Navy and no Congressional 
 action would be more popular ; but the fear of a 
 Democratic House of Representatives that its ap- 
 propriations on the eve of a national election will be 
 handled by a Republican Executive, through his 
 Secretaries, seems to be so important that every other 
 consideration is consigned to a limbo of political 
 expediency. But can we hesitate longer? The 
 present condition of our fleet makes it necessary 
 that the work of reconstruction should go on as
 
 1 84 THE QUESTION OF SHIPS. 
 
 rapidly as possible On foreign stations we have less 
 than twenty cruising vessels, and with nothing at 
 home to replace them. Therefore, besides the three 
 vessels now building, seven additional unarmored 
 steel cruisers should be begun, three of which should 
 conform to the types illustrated by the Chicago, Bos- 
 ton, and Dolphin, and four should be heavily armed 
 cruising gunboats of about 1,500 tons displacement, 
 with good speed. 
 
 The nucleus of the armored fleet now represented 
 by the doubled turretted Monitors Puritan, Amphi- 
 trite, Terror, Monadnock, and Miantonomah should 
 be increased by the construction of three steel rams, 
 three cruising and six harbor torpedo boats ; and 
 the standard fixed by the first Advisory Board in 
 1881, viz.: a fleet of forty-three cruising ships, with 
 a reserve of twenty-seven, should be adopted. To 
 reach this total of seventy war ships would require 
 the building of forty-five vessels, and in order to keep 
 abreast with the march of improvement at least seven 
 of these should be constructed yearly for the next 
 ten years. Under this plan the country would find 
 itself in 1894, by a yearly expenditure of $4,283,000 
 and with an annual construction of 13,500 tons, in 
 the possession of a modern steel navy, "in everyway 
 adequate to the maintenance of the safety and honor 
 of the nation." 
 
 Then with a legitimate commerce protected and 
 aided by a competent naval force we can assume our 
 old place among the nations of the world. Insolent 
 and jealous rivals and snarling enemies can be taught 
 the lessons so long needed ; and when the next cen- 
 tury dawns upon a nation of seventy millions of
 
 THE CASE BRIEFLY STATED. 185 
 
 freemen who illustrate the wisdom and confirm the 
 prophecy of our forefathers, this country will have 
 the power to assert the natural rights of man wherever 
 such may be assailed. Prosperity on land is the 
 handmaiden of power at sea, and whose is the ocean, 
 his also are the lands around and about it. Action, 
 action, action is needed, but vain is the call, as of 
 old, unless the people command the change ; for Con- 
 gress will consider only the political bearings of the 
 great question, and will never consent to the restora- 
 tion of the merchant marine and to the golden wed- 
 ding of the two services until the citizens of this Gov- 
 ernment, which is of the people, for the people, and 
 by the people, demand in trumpet tones, "FREE 
 SHIPS AND SAILORS' RIGHTS."
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 IN the Congress of 1881, upon motion of Mr. Perry 
 Belmont, a committee was appointed to inquire into 
 the condition and wants of American ship-building 
 and ship-owning interests, and to investigate the 
 causes of the decline of the American foreign car- 
 rying trade. Contrary to usual custom, Mr. Bel- 
 mont was not made a member of the Joint Com- 
 mittee appointed by both Houses a reversal of 
 precedent that excited much invidious comment. 
 After various meetings the Committee, on December 
 15, 1882, submitted the following report : 
 
 Your committee assembled in New York City August nth, 
 and, for the purpose of furthering the investigation which 
 they were directed to make in the recess, extended a public 
 invitation to all persons possessing information on the sub- 
 jects of inquiry to furnish the committee with written replies 
 to the following interrogatories : 
 
 First. Why cannot this country build iron, steel, or wooden vessels 
 as well and as cheaply as they are built in Scotland, England, or other 
 countries ? 
 
 Second. If we have such vessels, without cost to us, can they be run 
 by us in competition with those of other countries who build their own 
 vessels and run them with their own officers and crews, without a 
 modification or repeal of existing laws ? 
 
 Third. What modifications of existing laws or what new laws are 
 required to remove discriminations against and burdens upon our 
 shipping and ship-owning interests, such as customs dues, port dues, 
 consular charges, pilotage, tonnage, and other dues, etc.?
 
 1 88 APPENDIX. 
 
 Fourth. Compare the laws of other countries with our own with a 
 view to their effect upon our and their shipping and ship-owning in- 
 terests ? 
 
 Fifth. Should our navigation laws be repealed or modified, and if 
 modified, wherein and for what purpose ? 
 
 Sixth. What is the cost of the component materials of iron, steel, or 
 wooden vessels in other countries and our own ? 
 
 Seventh. What would be the effect of a rebate on any or all such 
 material ? 
 
 Eighth. Present any other statements connected with the cause of 
 the decline of the American foreign carrying trade, and what remedies 
 can be applied by legislation ? 
 
 After taking measures to give a wide publicity to this in- 
 vitation through the press and to forward the interrogatories 
 to a large number of persons, in various parts of the Union, 
 supposed to be practically acquainted with the subject, the 
 committee adjourned to reassemble in New York City No- 
 vember i $th, and during their six days' session in that city 
 the efforts to obtain all possible information were cordially 
 seconded by representatives of the associations interested 
 in American shipping, and by gentlemen interested in the 
 prosperity of the ship-building and ship-owning industries of 
 the United States. 
 
 The exhaustive and very valuable statements and statis- 
 tics accompanying this report bear witness not only to the 
 cordiality with which the inquiry has been welcomed, but 
 also to the deep interest felt by the American people in the 
 adoption of measures calculated to improve the condition of 
 our foreign carrying trade. The official tables appended to 
 this report furnish an accurate statement of the condition of 
 the American merchant marine engaged in the foreign and 
 coastwise trade and in the fisheries for each fiscal year from 
 1840 to and including 1882, so far as the same is shown by 
 the tonnage employed in each, the value of the exports and 
 imports which make up our foreign commerce, and the 
 share of these carried in American vessels. 
 
 The following figures for each semi-decennial year since
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 189 
 
 1840 will present at a glance the facts relating to the past 
 and present condition of American shipping : 
 
 
 
 
 
 Per Cent. 
 
 Per Cent. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Tonnage in 
 Foreign Trade. 
 
 Tonnage 
 in Coastwise 
 Trade. 
 
 Value of Exports 
 and Imports. 
 
 carried 
 in American 
 
 carried 
 in Foreign 
 
 
 
 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 1840. 
 
 762,838 
 
 1,172,694 
 
 $231,227,465 
 
 82.9 
 
 I7.I 
 
 I84S. 
 
 904,476 
 
 1,223,218 
 
 231,901,170 
 
 81.7 
 
 18-3 
 
 1850. 
 
 1,439,694 
 
 1,797,825 
 
 330,037,038 
 
 72-5 
 
 17-5 
 
 1855- 
 
 2,348,358 
 
 2,543,255 
 
 536,625,366 
 
 75-6 
 
 14.4 
 
 1860. 
 
 2,378,30 
 
 2,644.867 
 
 762,288,550 
 
 66.5 
 
 33-5 
 
 1865. 
 
 1.518,350 
 
 3,318,522 
 
 604,412,996 
 
 27.7 
 
 62.3 
 
 1870. 
 
 1,448,846 
 
 2,638,247 
 
 991,896,889 
 
 35-6 
 
 64.4 
 
 1875- 
 
 1,515,998 
 
 2,219,698 
 
 1,219,434,544 
 
 25.8 
 
 74.2 
 
 1880. 
 
 1,314,402 
 
 2,637,686 
 
 1,613,770,633 
 
 17-4 
 
 82.6 
 
 1881. 
 
 1,297,035 
 
 2,646.011 
 
 1,675,024,318 
 
 16.0 
 
 84.0 
 
 1882. 
 
 1,259,493 
 
 2,873,638 
 
 I ,567,07i,700 
 
 15-5 
 
 84-5 
 
 THE COASTWISE MARINE. 
 
 The above table indicates nearly as prosperous a condi- 
 tion of our merchant marine engaged in the coastwise trade, 
 to which only American vessels are admitted, as is found 
 in other domestic industries. The amount of trade, to be 
 sure, is but little larger now than before the war ; but as a 
 much larger proportion of it is now composed of steamers 
 than was the case twenty-five years ago, the carrying capa- 
 city is increased very much more than the comparison of 
 tonnage would indicate. The rapid extension of our rail- 
 road system within a quarter of a century has also diverted 
 to land conveyance a large proportion of the freight for- 
 merly carried by sailing vessels. When it is borne in mind 
 that during the past decade the number of freight cars em- 
 ployed on railroads in the United States has increased 120 
 per cent., so that to-day their freight capacity is nearly three 
 times that of the vessels employed in our coastwise, includ- 
 ing the lake and river trade, the slow growth of the latter 
 interest is fully accounted for. Some burdens have, how- 
 ever, been pointed out to your committee, which ought to
 
 igO APPENDIX. 
 
 be removed from our coastwise marine to enable it to 
 compete on equal conditions with common carriers on the 
 land. 
 
 THE FOREIGN TRADE. 
 
 The foregoing official table presents a very unsatisfactory 
 and humiliating condition of the American merchant marine 
 employed in the foreign carrying trade. While our foreign 
 commerce has steadily increased the value of our exports 
 and imports the last fiscal year having been seven times as 
 much as it was in 1855, and more than twice as much as it 
 was in 1860 yet the share of these exports and imports 
 carried in American vessels has decreased from 82.9 per 
 cent, in 184010 15.5 per cent, in 1882. Of this loss 16.4 
 per cent, was before the breaking out of the civil war in 
 1 86 1 ; 38.8 per cent, during the four years of the war, and 
 12.2 per cent, since the close of the war. The decline ex- 
 perienced between 1845 and 1850 was largely recovered be- 
 tween 1850 and 1855 ; but from 1856 the decline was con- 
 tinuous, although slow up to 1861, when it became so rapid 
 and serious, in consequence of the civil' war and the opera- 
 tions of the Confederate cruisers, that between 1861 and 
 1865 we lost more than one-third of our foreign carrying 
 trade. Between 1865 and 1870 there was some improve- 
 ment, mainly brought about by a return of vessels to the 
 foreign trade, which had been employed during the war in 
 Government service and the coastwise trade. Between 1870 
 and 1875 ^e share of the foreign carrying trade controlled 
 by American vessels declined 9.8 per cent.; between 1875 
 and 1880 the decline was 8.4 per cent., and in the past two 
 years it has been 1.9 per cent. 
 
 The growth of American tonnage engaged in the foreign 
 carrying trade practically ceased in 1855. Before that period 
 it had increased for many years at the rate of about twelve 
 per cent, per annum, but between 1855 and 1860, notwith- 
 standing our exports and imports increased eight per cent, 
 per annum or forty per cent, during the five years, our ton-
 
 APPENDIX. IQI 
 
 nage employed in the foreign carrying trade remained al- 
 most stationary, and the ship-building industry, so far as it 
 was directed to the construction of vessels for the foreign 
 trade, rapidly declined. In 1855 our tonnage employed in 
 the foreign trade was 2,348,358 tons, and in 1860 it was only 
 2,379,396, thus barely holding its own. In 1855 there were 
 507 vessels of the classes usually employed in the foreign 
 trade built in the United States ; in 1856 the number de- 
 clined to 463 ; in 1857 it declined to 309 ; in 1858 to 168, 
 and in 1859 to 117. 
 
 During the four years of civil war the American tonnage 
 employed in the foreign trade declined from 2,496,894 tons 
 in 1861 to 1,518,350 tons in 1865, a loss of 978,544 tons, or 
 nearly forty per cent. The decline of this tonnage since 
 1865 has been about 15.5 per cent., notwithstanding the value 
 of our foreign commerce has increased from $604,412,996 
 in 1865 to $1,567,022,700 in 1882. 
 
 CAUSES OF THE DECLINE. 
 
 The decline of our foreign carrying trade dates from 1855, 
 although the causes which produced it gathered volume so 
 slowly as to attract little attention for several years. What 
 these causes were appears from an investigation of the mari- 
 time history of the commercial world, and particularly of 
 England, between 1840 and 1860. Up to 1850-55 the ocean 
 trade was carried on exclusively in wooden sailing vessels. 
 To be sure, a few ocean iron steamships had been con- 
 structed between 1836 and 1845, but the prejudice against 
 them was so strong that it was not till between 1845 and 
 1855 that they began to gain a secure position on the ocean. 
 The success of iron steamships gave to England an opportu- 
 nity to seize upon the carrying trade of the world, which she 
 was not slow, to take advantage of. So long as wooden sail- 
 ing vessels engrossed the ocean trade the United States had 
 the advantage in possessing cheaper materials for ship-build- 
 ing over every other maritime nation. But when it was
 
 192 APPENDIX. 
 
 discovered that iron could take the place of wood, and steam 
 could be successfully substituted for sails in ocean freighting, 
 then the tables were turned, because of the fact that England 
 possessed such extensive iron and coal mines near the sea, 
 with cheap labor to work them. These advantages, how- 
 ever, would not have availed England in the start if her 
 Government had not come to the aid of her shipping inter- 
 ests by liberal mail pay, and even by guaranteeing seven 
 and eight per cent, dividends to capitalists ; and thus the 
 English Government secured the establishment of steam- 
 ship lines to all parts of the world. Parliament in 1854 es- 
 tablished a Board of Trade, with its president a member of 
 the Ministry, for the sole purpose of looking after the inter- 
 ests of British commerce and British shipping. The mer- 
 chant shipping laws of the United Kingdom were revised so 
 as to remove every burden from her merchant marine, and 
 afford every possible facility for gaining possession of the 
 ocean. 
 
 It is not surprising that the great advantage given Eng- 
 land by the change in the ocean carrying trade from wood 
 to iron and sail to steam, so signally strengthened by the 
 co-operation and material aid of the British Government, and 
 met only by a policy of inaction on the part of the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, should have begun to check the 
 growth of our tonnage for several years prior to 1860. 
 
 It is probable, however, that if the civil war had not come 
 upon us just as we began to realize that our foreign carrying 
 trade had ceased to grow, while that of England was rapidly 
 extending, some measures would have been taken to regain 
 the advantages which we were beginning to lose. But at this 
 crisis the civil war came upon us, and not only engrossed 
 our energies and capital from 1861 to 1865, but also swept 
 from the ocean more than one-third of all the deep-sea ton- 
 nage which we possessed at the opening of the struggle. 
 Great as was the loss to our merchant marine by the direct 
 influence of the war, yet more serious still was the injury it 
 inflicted on us by the opportunity that it gave England to
 
 APPENDIX. 193 
 
 build up great iron ship-yards and gain possession of the 
 channels of trade at a time when our hands were tied. Even 
 after the war closed a depreciated currency, inflated prices, 
 and the high taxation necessary to pay the expenses of the 
 conflict of arms, made it difficult to devise any policy to re- 
 vive our shipping interests. To add to our difficulties the 
 extraordinary profit afforded capital and labor by the open- 
 ing up of the far West made the more moderate profits of 
 the foreign carrying trade undesirable for investors. It was 
 not till our currency had settled down to a specie basis and 
 restored normal prices, and not till the far West ceased to 
 offer so exceptional opportunities for investment, and the 
 rate of interest dropped to the point where it has remained 
 for a few years past, that any legislative measures could be 
 devised which would be likely to attract capital to the for- 
 eign carrying trade. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES TO BE OVERCOME. 
 
 In considering what remedies for the prostrate condition 
 of our foreign carrying trade are within the reach of legisla- 
 tion, it is obvious that the difficulty of the problem is greatly 
 increased by the fact that England has had more than a 
 quarter of a century the start of us in working out her com- 
 prehensive and ingenious policy of building up her merchant 
 marine employed in the foreign trade since iron and steam 
 began to revolutionize the transportation. However wise 
 may be any plan of relief and encouragement, it is obvious 
 that the revival must be slow. But the stake is so great in 
 its economical aspects and so vital to our national growth 
 and safety, that no effort should be spared to accomplish the 
 end which Congress had in view when this investigation was 
 ordered. 
 
 The foreign carrying trade, unlike the protected coast- 
 wise trade and all other domestic industries, is on the great 
 highway of the ocean, where competition is open to the 
 whole world. The nation which can carry on this trade the 
 3
 
 194 APPENDIX. 
 
 most efficiently and at the least cost to shippers will control 
 it, and in controlling it will command the ocean. By our 
 ability to build vessels as cheap as other nations so long as 
 wood was the material of which they were constructed, and 
 by our ability to sail them as economically as others so long 
 as sailing vessels engrossed the ocean trade, and the British 
 Government left her merchant marine to take care of itself, 
 as our Government always has, the United States had a 
 proud position on the ocean. We lost that position when 
 these conditions passed away. If we are to revive our for- 
 eign carrying trade and assume the place on the ocean to 
 which we are entitled, we must make it feasible to build the 
 kind of vessels required for the foreign trade so that they 
 will cost our ship-owners no more than they cost to foreign 
 owners. 
 
 CONSTRUCTION OF VESSELS. 
 
 If wooden sailing vessels controlled the ocean trade as 
 they did twenty-five years ago, there would be no problem 
 of the construction of vessels to solve. We can build to-day 
 first-class wooden sailing vessels as -cheaply as they can be 
 built elsewhere, as we did before the war ; but notwithstand- 
 ing such vessels will always be used extensively in the coast- 
 wise trade, and to a restricted extent in the foreign trade, 
 yet it is obvious that iron steamships are to largely control 
 the ocean carrying trade of the world. Year by year, as im- 
 provements have been made to economize fuel, steamships 
 have improved more and more, until to-day they command 
 the trade of the North Atlantic. All of the practical gentle- 
 men who appeared before your committee agreed that it 
 now costs on the average $10 to $15 per ton more to build 
 an iron sailing vessel and from $25 to $35 per ton more to 
 build an iron steamship in the United States than it costs 
 on the Clyde. They all agreed that the chief cause of this 
 excess of cost is due to the fact that the labor required to 
 mine, smelt and make the iron and fashion it into the form 
 of the steamship costs considerably more in the United
 
 APPENDIX. 195 
 
 States than it does on the Clyde. If we had been called 
 upon to build iron steamships before the war we should have 
 found the same difficulty in competing with Great Britain in 
 a manufacture requiring so large an amount of labor as does 
 the building of iron steamers from the ore and coal in the 
 bed. Among other causes named was the fact that the 
 small demand for iron vessels for the reason that England's 
 experience, start, and other advantages enable her to build 
 and sail vessels more cheaply than we can gives little en- 
 couragement to investment of the large amount of capital 
 needed to establish and extend iron ship-yards, stimulate 
 the inventive genius of our people, and overcome the obsta- 
 cles always encountered in inaugurating new industries. 
 
 It is conceded by all that no remedy can be effective or 
 wise which does not look to the development of shipbuild- 
 ing in the United States and to making it practicable to 
 build iron vessels in this country for the foreign trade at a 
 cost to the owners no greater than that of similar ships of 
 our rivals. Every remedy suggested is urged largely on 
 the ground that it will ultimately accomplish this result. 
 Nothing is better settled than the fact that no nation can 
 gain or long hold a strong position on the ocean unless it 
 builds its own ships. Any nation which relies on another 
 nation for its supply of ships loses in time of peace its com- 
 mercial independence, and in time of war places its very ex- 
 istence at the mercy of the powers which command the 
 ocean. In endeavoring to devise a policy which will build 
 up the iron ship-building industry in the United States, and 
 supply our ship-owners with such vessels as they may want 
 for the foreign trade at a cost no greater than the cost of 
 vessels run by their competitors, your committee have found 
 more or less difference of opinion among ourselves as to 
 what would be the wisest and most efficient plan. Feeling 
 the grave importance of an earnest effort to provide a 
 remedy for the decadence of the American carrying trade, 
 and recognizing that there must be some yielding of per- 
 sonal views if anything is to be done, your committee, with-
 
 196 APPENDIX. 
 
 out waiving the individual right of any member to favor ad- 
 ditional remedies, have united in recommending the adop- 
 tion by Congress of the plan as laid down in section 18 of 
 the bill presented, providing for the payment of a draw- 
 back on American material used equal to the duty if it had 
 been foreign material. 
 
 For the purpose of illustrating what would be the practi- 
 cal working of the foregoing plan, we have obtained from the 
 Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works a 
 schedule of the materials actually used in constructing two 
 first-class passenger and freight steamships for the Pacific 
 trade of 2,131 tons each, having a speed of thirteen knots. 
 It appears that 3,709,845 pounds of iron, mainly in the form 
 of plates, angles, and bars, were used in the construction of 
 the hull, engines, boilers, etc., of each steamship. The 
 duty on iron, if imported in these forms, would average under 
 the present tariff about $26 for each ton of the steamship. 
 The duty on the other materials used in the hull, equipment 
 and furniture, would carry the drawback allowed from the 
 Treasury to about $34. As the cost of each of the steam- 
 ships to which we have referred was $286,317, or $134 per 
 ton, the net cost under the foregoing plan, after deducting 
 the drawback, would be about $100 per ton, which, from all 
 the information obtained by your committee, would be sub- 
 stantially the cost of a similar steamship built upon the 
 Clyde. If the steamship were intended only for freighting, 
 with the speed of seven or eight knots, as usually found in 
 English freighting steamers, the quantity of iron used, the 
 drawback, and the cost would be considerably reduced. In 
 the case of iron sailing vessels the drawback would be about 
 $15 per ton. That the proposed drawback, therefore, will 
 practically affect the increased cost of building an iron 
 steamship in the United States over its cost on the Clyde is 
 the unanimous judgment of ship-builders and owners of the 
 Board of Trade of San Francisco (which proposed this plan), 
 the Maritime Association of New York, and other commer- 
 cial boards.
 
 APPENDIX. 197 
 
 So far as the original cost of any kind of a vessel affects 
 the question of the restoration of the American flag to its 
 proper position on the ocean, there is good reason to be- 
 lieve that the policy proposed will solve the problem. It 
 should be borne in mind, however, that the United States 
 Treasury receives annually about $1,500,000 from the tax 
 on tonnage engaged in the foreign trade. This tax is not 
 imposed on vessels engaged in the coastwise trade or on any 
 other industry. In 1880 the tonnage tax yielded $1,490,544, 
 of which $237,863 was paid by American vessels. During 
 the last fiscal year the amount of the tax was little less, but 
 it is certain to increase as our foreign commerce enlarges. 
 There would be a general concurrence in the justice of abol- 
 ishing the tax were it not for the fact that England and most 
 foreign nations impose a similar tonnage tax on all vessels en- 
 tering their ports, and the further fact that five-sixths of our 
 tonnage tax is paid by foreign and only one-sixth by Amer- 
 ican vessels ; and on account of reciprocal commercial trea- 
 ties the tax cannot be abolished on our own vessels without 
 also working abolition as to foreign vessels. We can, how- 
 ever, and should use the tax or its equivalent to encourage 
 our own merchant marine employed in the foreign trade. 
 This was precisely what England did when she granted 
 $10,000,000 out of her tonnage tax to make the Clyde the 
 most favorable location in the world for iron ship-building. 
 
 On the reasonable supposition that the tonnage tax will 
 amount to $10,000,000 during the next five years, this alone 
 would meet the drawback demands under the plan proposed 
 for at least 400,000 tons of new steamships and sailing ves- 
 sels for the foreign trade during that period. This increase 
 of tonnage would itself go far to revive our foreign carrying 
 trade without taking a single dollar from the ordinary reve- 
 nue. If the addition to our tonnage should be more than 
 this the additional appropriations required would be wisely 
 expended. From any point of view the experiment is one 
 which affords much promise and, in view of the general in- 
 dorsement which it has received from boards of trade and
 
 198 APPENDIX. 
 
 commercial men and the national importance of the end 
 sought to be reached, ought to be given a thorough trial. 
 If, in addition to this direct aid, the United States shall imi- 
 tate Great Britain in giving contracts to private ship-yards 
 to build a portion of any steel war ship which it may be 
 deemed wise to construct for our navy, there is reason and 
 hope that favorable results would follow. As it is essen- 
 tial for our iron and steel ship-yards to place themselves in 
 a position to secure contracts for building vessels for South 
 America, and perhaps other foreign countries, your com- 
 mittee recommend that a drawback of ninety per cent, be 
 allowed on any imported materials of a vessel constructed 
 in the United States for foreign account. The law as it now 
 stands (section 3019, Revised Statutes) allows such a draw- 
 back in the case of a vessel or other article wholly constructed 
 of imported material. As many of the materials of such a 
 vessel can be obtained at home as cheaply as abroad, and 
 would be preferred by the builder of a vessel for foreign ac- 
 count, it is wise to allow a drawback, so far as imported ma- 
 terials are concerned, when the vessel is built partly of for- 
 eign and partly of domestic material. 
 
 The other problem which must be satisfactorily solved re- 
 lates to the successful running of American vessels in the 
 foreign trade after they are built. After a policy has been 
 inaugurated which will secure to America sail and steam 
 vessels at no higher cost than those owned by our rivals, such 
 a consummation will not revive the carrying trade of the 
 United States unless we can maintain and sail these vessels 
 under our law at no higher cost to the owner than English 
 ship-owners can sail their vessels under British laws. That 
 we have not been able to do this for many years is evident 
 from the fact that, notwithstanding we have built first-class 
 modern sailing vessels for nearly ten years as cheaply as our 
 foreign competitors, yet we have been gradually driven from 
 the ocean by foreign sailing vessels as well as by foreign 
 steamships. More than half of our exports and imports are 
 still carried by sailing vessels, and yet American vessels
 
 APPENDIX. 199 
 
 carry but little more than a third of this half. To be sure, it Is 
 only in this branch of carrying trade that we make any show- 
 ing, but the slow and steady decline of even our sailing ton- 
 nage employed in the foreign trade and the unanimous voice 
 of our ship-owners bear witness to the disadvantages under 
 which we have labored. The evidence presented to your 
 committee shows that a large part of the obstacles to the suc- 
 cessful recovery of American vessels in competition with 
 English ships may be overcome by modifying our shipping 
 laws, removing burdens, and giving the same privileges as 
 to ships' supplies and the same compensation as to mail ser- 
 vice as the English laws have given for a quarter of a cen- 
 tury. Up to 1854 the English laws relating to shipping were 
 substantially the same as ours. At that time the English 
 Parliament began a complete revision of her merchant ship- 
 ping statutes, so as to remove every obstacle and give every 
 facility to British shipping, and from year to year, as the 
 Board of Trade has recommended, England has been legis- 
 lating in the interest of her merchant marine. During this 
 whole period nothing has been done by the American Con- 
 gress to meet England in this direction. Our merchant 
 shipping laws remain substantially the same as they were 
 originally framed more than four score years ago. They 
 were all that were needed so long as the English laws were the 
 same. Our error was in not imitating England, so as to give 
 our merchant marine the same advantages in this respect 
 that English shipping enjoys ; and our further error was that 
 when steamships began to take the place of sailing vessels 
 we did not also imitate England in extending the same en- 
 couragement for the establishment of American steamship 
 lines that she did for her own, although the adoption of such 
 a policy after England has intrenched herself in her position 
 on the ocean for a quarter of a century, your committee be- 
 lieve would gradually work most beneficial results. At least 
 it would remove all legislative obstructions to the revival of 
 our foreign carrying trade, and would leave American enter- 
 prise and capital free to enter into competition for a due
 
 200 APPENDIX. 
 
 share of ocean transportation. Your committee, therefore, 
 unanimously recommend a modification of our laws relating 
 to the American merchant marine employed in the foreign 
 trade in the following particulars : 
 
 THREE MONTHS' EXTRA WAGES. 
 
 Under old laws enacted at a time when the sailors of our 
 merchant marine were all American, and not, as now, 
 ninety per cent, foreigners ; when shipping agreements were 
 for the round voyage, and not as now, generally from port 
 to port ; and when the means of communication abroad with 
 the ports of the United States were infrequent and dilatory, 
 an American vessel from which a seaman is discharged by a 
 United States Consul is practically required to pay such sea- 
 man three months' extra wages, two-thirds of which go to 
 the seaman and one-third to the Government. The facts 
 brought to the attention of your committee by a large num- 
 ber of ship-owners, masters, and others made it clear that 
 what was formerly a wise law, rarely appealed to by any 
 sailor, has now, in the changed condition of our foreign trade, 
 become a serious burden on American vessels and a positive 
 injury to the morals of the crews. The burden consists 
 not simply in the large amount of money exacted, but also, 
 and more injuriously, in the annoying delays and contentions 
 arising from hearings before consuls and consular officers. 
 Your committee recommend that the law be so modified 
 as to provide that the vessel shall pay one month's wages, or 
 provide adequate employment on a returning vessel, or pro- 
 vide a passage home to a seaman discharged from an Amer- 
 can vessel in a foreign port. When a seaman is injured in 
 the line of duty or contracts disease in consequence of want 
 of proper provision on shipboard, the vessel is only to be 
 responsible for the payment of all the expenses of sickness 
 and medical attendance. When a seaman is discharged by 
 the United States Consul in the port which he expressly con- 
 tracted should be the end of his service, there is no reason 
 why the consular officer should exact extra wages from the
 
 APPENDIX. 201 
 
 vessel under any pretext. When a seaman is discharged by 
 the Consul, on the application of the former, there seems no 
 just ground for requiring the vessel to pay extra wages except 
 the causes named in the bill proposed, and in no other case 
 ought the Consul to have power to exact extra wages or 
 charges from a vessel. To give every consular officer many 
 of them foreigners authority to impose such a charge upon 
 a vessel whenever a discharge is granted to a seaman " in 
 accordance with the general principles or usages of maritime 
 law," as arbitrarily construed by such official, without the 
 right of appeal, as section 4580 of the Revised Statutes of 
 the United States now does, is to put an improper power 
 into the hands of men who may have an interest in the de- 
 cision, and many of whom in the smallef and more remote 
 ports are unfitted to exercise so broad a discretion. No other 
 government imposes such a burden on its merchant marine, 
 and the imposition of it on ours works in practice a seri- 
 ous discrimination against American vessels. In reporting 
 amendments of our laws in this direction your committee 
 have followed the English law, which does justice to the 
 vessel and at the same time amply protects the seamen. 
 
 The law (section 4578, Revised Statutes) as it now stands 
 compels every American vessel to convey wrecked, disabled, 
 or destitute American sailors from a foreign port to the 
 United States on request of a United States Consul, and al- 
 lows not exceeding $10 for this service. This may be suffi- 
 cient for the care, transportation, and rations of a disabled 
 sailor on a voyage of a few days, but for a long voyage im- 
 poses a serious loss on the vessel. Your committee recom- 
 mend an amendment of this law, authorizing the collector of 
 the port in the United States where the seaman is landed to 
 pay additional compensation, not to exceed fifty cents per 
 day, in cases where the length of the voyage requires. 
 
 Your committee further recommend a prohibition of the 
 payment of advance wages or giving advance notes on the 
 shipment of seamen. As is well known, these advance wages 
 almost uniformly go to the sailor's landlord, who is thus en-
 
 202 APPENDIX. 
 
 abled to strip the seaman not only of the wages already 
 earned and paid, but also of the wages which he is yet to 
 earn ; worse still, it is the fund from which the blood-money 
 system and other evils come that are a shame to civilization. 
 A report made to the House of Representatives by the Com- 
 mittee of Commerce at the first session of the Forty-seventh 
 Congress, presents the necessity of this legislation so clearly 
 that we need not pursue the subject further. The law (sec- 
 tion 4131, Revised Statutes) requires that not only the mas- 
 ter or captain, but also all other officers of an American ves- 
 sel, shall under all circumstances be citizens of the United 
 States. This is wise as to the master, but it has been re- 
 presented to your committee that cases frequently arise in 
 which one of the mates dies or is disabled, when it is neces- 
 sary to supply his place with an experienced foreign seaman. 
 Your committee is of the opinion that no useful end is ad- 
 vanced by a requirement which fetters an American vessel 
 in the foreign trade, and therefore recommends the modifica- 
 tion of the laws so as to apply only to captains and masters. 
 Under existing law the liability of a part owner of a vessel 
 is that of a partner and therefore unlimited. The English 
 law limits the liability of a part owner of a vessel to the pro- 
 portion of any and all debts and liabilities that his individual 
 share of the vessel bears to the whole, on the ground that as 
 the business of a vessel must necessarily be committed to an 
 agent removed from his principals, as in a corporation, it is 
 just that the part owner should be^equired as a shareholder 
 rather than as a partner. As it appears to your committee 
 that our law bears too heavily on the part owner of a vessel 
 and discourages investments in vessel property, your com- 
 mittee recommend the adoption of substantially the English 
 principle of limited liability. The excellent marine hospital 
 service in the United States is supported by a tax of forty 
 cents per month on each seaman in both foreign and coast- 
 wise marine (section 4585, Revised Statutes), which is paid 
 by the vessel and deducted from the seaman's wages. Be- 
 fore 1871 this tax was twenty cents per month. As the in-
 
 APPENDIX. 203 
 
 direct effect of this tax is to give English vessels, which are 
 not required to pay a hospital tax, an advantage in hiring 
 seamen, if it does not increase the wages of seamen on Amer- 
 ican vessels, your committee recommend the reduction of 
 the tax to the former limit of twenty cents. 
 
 Your committee recommend the abolition of the tonnage 
 tax as to vessels engaged in trade with the Dominion of 
 Canada. The law now practically exempts from this tax a 
 large portion of the vessels engaged in this trade on the 
 lakes, and inasmuch as the trade is in the nature of a coast- 
 wise trade and carried on in direct competition with railroads, 
 justice seems to require that the exemption be made general 
 so far as the trade with Canada is concerned. 
 
 Under the laws consular officers are paid from the fund 
 derived from fees exacted from American ships and mer- 
 chants in foreign ports. Indeed, in 1882, not only was 
 our consular service, costing $889,840, paid from these 
 fees, but also $51,018 surplus was left in the Treasury for 
 application to other government expenses. About $100,000 
 of these fees came from American shipping. In the same 
 period England appropriated over $1,000,000 from her 
 Treasury for the support of her consular service, which is 
 maintained in every port of the world mainly to extend 
 British commerce and aid British shipping. The charges 
 imposed by the British consular officers on English vessels 
 are very small. 
 
 Your committee think it would be wise to abolish all fees 
 for services to American vessels and sailors, even if this in- 
 volves a slight charge on the Treasury for the maintenance 
 of our consular system for the present and until a system of 
 paying all consular officers by salaries can be arranged. If 
 thought proper, such officers, when paid in whole or in part 
 by fees, may be required to make a detailed report to the 
 State Department of service performed to American vessels 
 and sailors, with the fees heretofore allowed for such ser- 
 vices, and be allowed from the Treasury the same amount 
 which they would have received under the fee system.
 
 204 APPENDIX. 
 
 Our laws authorize the importation in bond free of duty 
 of all materials needed for the repair of vessels engaged in 
 the foreign carrying trade, but they make no provision for a 
 similar rebate of duty on ships' supplies of vessels engaged 
 in such foreign trade as do the English laws. Your com- 
 mittee recommend an amendment of section 2514 so as 
 cover ships' supplies as well as materials for repairs. 
 
 The law as it exists (section 3976, R. S.) compels the 
 master of every American vessel engaged in the foreign 
 trade to carry such United States mails as may be tendered 
 him by the Post-office Department, and allows him as 
 compensation for such service a sum not exceeding two 
 cents per letter carried. In no case is this an adequate 
 compensation and in some instances it does not pay the cost 
 to the vessel of delivering the mails at the post-office in the 
 port of arrival. The pay to United States vessels in the for- 
 eign trade for transporting the mails in 1880 was only T.\ cents 
 per mile, while at the same time the steamers on our coast 
 which contracted to carry the mails received 57^ cents per 
 mile for the mail service. The contrast between our inade- 
 quate mail pay to American vessels engaged in the foreign 
 trade and the very liberal mail pay given by Great Britain 
 to her steamship lines only serves to show more clearly the 
 injustice and unwisdom of our policy. Since 1840 England 
 has paid -more than $250,000,000 for mail service, with the 
 deliberate purpose of establishing and maintaining steam- 
 ship lines to connect the United Kingdom with all parts of 
 the world. In one year she has paid about $3,000,000 to her 
 steamship lines for mail service, which was $1,641,300 more 
 than she received from mail matter transported by them. 
 
 As this subject is before the Postal Committee of both 
 the Senate and the House, we .refrain from reporting any 
 legislation, but unanimously recommend such a modification 
 of our laws as will give fair compensation to American ves- 
 sels in the foreign trade which may carry our mails, and 
 adequate pay for mail service to American steamship lines 
 that are already or may be hereafter established.
 
 APPENDIX. 205 
 
 TAXATION OF VESSELS BY STATE AUTHORITY. 
 
 There is no one thing that has had more to do in render- 
 ing it difficult to sail an American vessel in competition 
 with an English steamship than the different system of tax- 
 ation of shipping as well as other invested capital in the two 
 countries. The English system of taxation is on incomes ; 
 ours on the value of the property. For example, a steam- 
 ship valued at $500,000 and earning eight per cent, net, or 
 $40,000 annually, would pay in England an income tax of 
 about two per cent., or only $800. A similar steamship, 
 under the laws of every State but Massachusetts and New. 
 York (which have recently exempted vessels from local tax- 
 ation engaged in the foreign trade), and possibly Pennsyl- 
 vania, would pay a tax of about two per cent, on the value, or 
 $10,000. Thus in the single item of taxation the steamship 
 under the English flag would have every year an advantage 
 oT $9,200, which in so close a business as the foreign carry- 
 ing trade would of itself be enough to make it impossible to 
 sail an American steamship in competition with an English 
 rival. 
 
 Your committee are unanimously of the opinion that it is of 
 vital importance to the revival of the American foreign car- 
 rying trade that this difficulty should be removed either by 
 State or federal legislation. 
 
 Your committee think that the element of local taxation 
 enters so largely into the solution of the problem of sailing 
 American vessels, that it is incumbent on Congress to exer- 
 cise the power of regulating commerce, which it possesses 
 under the constitution, to the extent of prohibiting State 
 and municipal taxation of vessels engaged in the foreign 
 trade. 
 
 BUREAU OF COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION. 
 
 The English merchant marine and English commerce 
 have been greatly aided by the watchful supervision and 
 regulations of the British Board of Trade, whose president
 
 206 APPENDIX. 
 
 is a member of the Cabinet. In the executive department 
 of our Government we have no board or bureau with similar 
 duties and power, and none which is required by law to even 
 keep a watchful eye over the interests of our shipping, except 
 for purposes of collecting the revenues. Whether it would 
 not be wise to establish in the Treasury Department a Bu- 
 reau or Board of Commerce and Navigation, of which the 
 Secretary of the Treasury should be the official head, with 
 powers and duties in some respects akin to those of the 
 British Board of Trade, is already under consideration by 
 the Committees on Commerce of the Senate and House, 
 and will undoubtedly receive the attention it deserves. 
 
 It is unnecessary for your committee to dwell on the great 
 importance of any and all legislative measures that will tend 
 to a revival of the American foreign carrying trade and a 
 restoration of the American flag to a position on the ocean 
 commensurate with our population, wealth, and rank in the 
 family of nations. 
 
 The problem presented to Congress involves interests of 
 exceptional importance ; the great agricultural interests of 
 the West and South are especially concerned. To-day at 
 least eighty-five per cent of their products exported to 
 other countries depend on foreign vessels, mainly English, 
 for transportation ; and unless something is speedily done 
 to relieve American shipping engaged in the foreign trade, 
 our dependence on English ocean steamers will be com- 
 plete. This places our commerce at the mercy of England. 
 In case of war between that country and another power able 
 to put cruisers on the ocean, American farmers and Ameri- 
 can people as a whole would suffer nearly as much as the 
 belligerents by having their exports and imports in British 
 bottoms liable to capture and confiscation. In its material 
 aspects the shipping problem is national and in no sense 
 local. 
 
 It is more than a business question. It is one which 
 affects our rank and influence as a nation. A nation is 
 known and felt outside of its own boundaries more by the
 
 APPENDIX. 207 
 
 flag which floats at the masthead of its merchant marina 
 than by anything else. It is difficult to conceive the loss 
 which we suffer, not only in national prestige, but also in 
 commercial importance, by the infrequency with which 
 American vessels appear in foreign ports. 
 
 The problem concerns our national independence and 
 safety. In modern times the seal of power of every nation 
 is on the rocking waves as well as on the solid land. The 
 naval power of every country will in the long run be pro- 
 portionate to its merchant marine. In building up our 
 foreign carrying trade, therefore, we strengthen the defences 
 of the nation and give new security to our Republic. 
 
 While some of the members of your committee do not 
 concur in all the statements and reasonings of the fore- 
 going report, and would recommend additional legislation, 
 yet all concur in recommending the passage of the accom- 
 panying bill. 
 
 O. D. CONGER, Chairman. 
 
 WARNER MILLER. 
 
 G. G. VEST. 
 
 H. J. PAGE. 
 
 GEORGE M. ROBESON. 
 
 NELSON DINGLEY, JR. 
 
 ROBERT M. MCLANE. 
 
 S. S. Cox.
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 THE REVIVAL OF THE AMERICAN CARRYING TRADE. 
 AN ANSWER TO THE QUESTIONS OF THE JOINT 
 COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS, APPOINTED TO INQUIRE 
 INTO THE CONDITION AND WANTS OF AMERICAN 
 SHIP-BUILDING AND SHIP-OWNING INTERESTS. 
 
 By JOHN CODMAN. 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN : 
 
 Although I have not seen the text of the joint resolution 
 authorizing the appointment of your committee, it is grati- 
 fying to be able to infer from the circular I have the honor 
 to receive from you, that you have been delegated to con- 
 sider two separate and distinct questions which Congress 
 has heretofore regarded as united. Ship-building is one 
 industry, ship-owning is another. It is desirable that our 
 country should have both ; but if we cannot have the for- 
 mer, you will admit that it is folly to deprive ourselves of 
 the latter. 
 
 Your first question is : 
 
 Why cannot this country build iron, steel, or wooden ves- 
 sels as well and as cheaply as tJiey are built in Scotland, 
 England, or other countries ? 
 
 ANSWER. We can and do build wooden vessels as well 
 and as cheaply as vessels of a good quality are built else- 
 where, and cheaper than they can be built in Great Britain. 
 It was for this very reason, in days before the era of exten- 
 sive iron ship-building, that England repealed her navigation 
 laws, which were then similar to our own, in order that her 
 people might still have their share of the carrying trade,
 
 APPENDIX. 2O9 
 
 even if they could not compete in ship-building ; an exam, 
 pie that now, when circumstances are reversed, we would 
 do well to imitate. In wooden ship-building the proportion 
 of cost in material as compared with labor is far greater 
 than in iron ship-building. The cost of plant is infinitely 
 less, and the cheapness of the wood compensates for the 
 difference of labor. Finally, this part of the question may 
 be set at rest by considering the small demand there is now 
 for wooden ships for the great purposes of ocean commerce. 
 
 We cannot build iron and steel vessels as well as they are 
 built elsewhere, partly because competition is wanting. We 
 need abundant foreign as well as the extremely limited home 
 competition that we have, in order to arouse the talent and 
 energy of our own ship-builders. 
 
 We cannot build ships as cheaply for reasons that the 
 ship-builders themselves assign. Mr. Roach has repeatedly 
 stated that 90 per cent, of the cost of an iron steamship is 
 labor, and he has printed a table in one of his pamphlets 
 going to show that the cost of labor in this country is double 
 the cost of labor in Scotland. The following schedule, in- 
 tended as an argument for protection, from a recent num- 
 ber of Our Continent, purports to corroborate his statement 
 in the latter respect. If both assumptions are strictly true, 
 your question is abundantly answered. 
 
 " COST OF SHIP-BUILDING IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 
 
 " In a ship-yard, to build an iron ship, thirty-six classes 
 of mechanics are employed, and these handle the raw ma- 
 terial after it is made into shape. Let them be divided, for 
 brevity's sake, into five departments, viz.: Ship-yard de- 
 partment, with fourteen different grades of employment ; 
 steam-engine department, numbering seven grades ; boiler 
 department, seven ; iron and brass foundry department, 
 four grades each. In the first department the highest wages 
 paid go to the shipsmith, and the lowest to the rivet boys. 
 In the United States the shipsmith receives, per week,
 
 2 tO APPENDIX. 
 
 $15.95 5 m England $6.05 ; the rivet boy here gets $3.30, 
 and abroad, $1.69. In the steam-engine department the 
 draughtsman with us receives $19.80; in England he has 
 $8.22. A helper in this department in this country gets 
 $8.80; in England and in Scotland, $3.87. In the boiler 
 department in the United States a flange-turner gets $16.50; 
 the same man abroad gets $6.20. A loam moulder in the 
 iron foundry here gets $16.50; in England, $6.50. Brass- 
 moulders with us receive $14.30, and in England $6. 15. The 
 total week's wages of thirty -six men in England would be 
 $192.60, while in the United States their wages would be 
 $406.01. In a ship-yard, in good times, both here and in 
 England, which might employ 2,000 men, they would receive 
 in that case with us $22,540, and in England or on the 
 Clyde only $10,700." 
 
 Of the cost of a $500,000 steamship, according to Mr. 
 Roach's estimate, $450,000 would be for labor in England. 
 The same labor here would cost $900,000 ! A manifest ab- 
 surdity, and yet a logical deduction." Both statements are 
 greatly exaggerated, while there is truth enough in them to 
 meet your question. I once examined the books of Messrs. 
 Denny and Co., the builders of the Parthia, Cunard's steam- 
 ship of 3,000 tons, at Dumbarton, Scotland. Her cost was 
 about ,100,000 ($500,000). 
 
 There was 162,500 days' work done upon her, in which I 
 do not include the manufacture of the iron from the pig, nor 
 the making of the sailcloth, ropes, etc., but given the plates, 
 angle iron, canvas, cordage, and all other materials as they 
 come from the makers' hands ready to go into the compo- 
 sition of the ship. 
 
 At that time there was about a dollar in gold difference 
 per day between the average Scotch and average American 
 wages. Both have since increased, but the ratio of differ- 
 ence holds good. Of course, on account of our tariff, the 
 iron as well as all other materials, excepting the wood used, 
 cost considerably more here than in Scotland. But that is
 
 APPENDIX. 211 
 
 a matter of comparatively small account. There was only 
 about 1,750 tons' weight of iron in that ship, and a few dol- 
 lars' difference in its cost is a mere bagatelle when merged 
 in $500,000. 
 
 Not considering it at all, then, the cost of such a ship if 
 built here would be $162,500 more than if built in Scotland, 
 besides which if the difference in cost of the iron ab initio, 
 before it was wrought into plates, boiler iron, and angle iron, 
 should be taken into account, it would amount to a great 
 deal more. But putting the lowest estimate of difference, 
 these figures show that it is more than 30 per cent. Yet in 
 the face of his own superabundant calculations, and these 
 more moderate ones, Mr. Roach has frequently stated that 
 the difference in the whole cost of building a ship is only 
 ten per cent. ! 
 
 The only reply that has been made to this damaging sum- 
 ming up is that all the difference in the cost of ship-building, 
 excepting about 10 per cent., is overcome by the superiority 
 of American workmanship, the advantages of American 
 iron, and improvements in American machinery. As to 
 the first, it is well to bear in mind that it comes from a gen- 
 tleman of Irish birth and raising, and that nearly all his 
 employes are Irishmen or Scotchmen, many of them im- 
 ported from the ship-yards of Great Britain. As for the 
 superiority of American machinery, it is well to remember 
 that in Great Britain there is neither a tariff on American 
 iron nor on American ideas. If our iron would serve their 
 purpose better than their own, the astute Scotsmen would 
 surely import it, and where, in consequence of the competi- 
 tion among themselves, every labor-saving invention is 
 eagerly adopted, we may be sure that no false national 
 pride would prevent its introduction, even if it came from 
 the Delaware. 
 
 One curious inconsistency is seen in the complaints of 
 our ship-builders, who assert that there is only 10 per cent, 
 against them, and at the same time deprecate the importa- 
 tion of free ships, the effect of which, as they say, very
 
 212 APPENDIX. 
 
 possibly with truth, would be to advance the price in Scot- 
 land 20 per cent. If they are correct in both premises, 
 manifestly the American ship-builder would have an advan- 
 tage over the Scotsman of 10 per cent., and again neither 
 British law nor British pride would prevent Englishmen 
 from supplying their necessities in the cheapest market, as 
 they now do when they require wooden ships. 
 
 SECOND. If we had such vessels "without cost to us, cotild 
 they be run by us in competition with those of other countries 
 who build their own vessels and run them with their own 
 officers and crews, without a modification or repeal of exist- 
 ing laws f 
 
 ANSWER. I have to presume that this question is seri- 
 ously put. When wooden sailing vessels were the carriers 
 of the world, I have already shown that England so feared 
 our competition that she repealed her restrictive navigation 
 laws. We competed with her then in sailing ships under 
 the same domestic disabilities that we now bear. I am not 
 aware that our tonnage dues, which are the same as those 
 levied on foreign vessels, were less "then than now. We 
 were obliged to pay duties on our stores and shipchandlery 
 under various tariffs, all of them bad enough, though per- 
 haps not quite so outrageous as the present imposition. We 
 paid our captains and officers higher wages than other na- 
 tions paid theirs, and we fed our ships' companies better. 
 As to sailors, to the shame of a nation that engaged in a 
 civil war for the freedom of Southern negroes, they are 
 white slaves, everywhere bought of landlords in our sea- 
 ports, who sell these chattels for the highest prices they can 
 get to American and foreign vessels alike. So there is no 
 difference there. As to taxation, in some States, notably 
 New York and Massachusetts, we are better off now than 
 we have ever been, for these States have passed laws ex- 
 empting their shipping from taxation as personal property. 
 In England it is not taxed as personal property, but its 
 profits come under the income tax, which does not exist 
 with us.
 
 APPENDIX. 213 
 
 Our consular system is disgraceful. It always has been 
 disgraceful, but it is no more so now than it ever was. It 
 cannot be otherwise without an application of civil service 
 reform, with continuance in office dependent on fitness and 
 merit, and the payment of consular salaries out of the na- 
 tional treasury instead of out of the pockets of ship-owners. 
 As to port dues and pilotage, embraced in the succeeding 
 question, but forming also a part of the answer to this, they 
 are no more than foreigners pay. 
 
 Lastly, in the days of wooden sailing ships, when we com- 
 peted so advantageously with England, nobody proposed 
 to give us ships. Like Englishmen, we were obliged to buy 
 them. Therein is precisely the advantage that all foreigners 
 have of us now. They can buy ships anywhere with their 
 own money ; we cannot. The ships would certainly be 
 handsome presents if a generous government would give them 
 to us. The interest, 6 per cent., and insurance, 7 per cent., 
 on a steamship valued at $500,000 would amount to a sav- 
 ing of $65,000 annually, a sum large enough to pay all her 
 port charges, pilotage, etc., at home, and leave a consider- 
 able residue for the benefit of our consuls abroad. But as 
 this liberal offer is not likely to be made, we will be con- 
 tented to pay our own bills. 
 
 Still, it would be desirable to have these petty charges 
 modified. I have only intended to show that they are not 
 the main impediments to our success. 
 
 I have demonstrated that we should be the gainers of 
 $65,000 annually on every $500,000 ship which some fairy 
 may be supposed to give us. Let us see how much we 
 should save If we acquired the ship in England without 
 supernatural aid. 
 
 Such a ship would cost here $650,000. The yearly inter- 
 est and insurance on the excess of $150,000 is 13 per cent. 
 The wear and tear and depreciation on an iron steamship is 
 yearly at least 7 per cent. Therefore it would be 7 per 
 cent, on this excess, making in all 20 per cent, on the 
 $150,000, which would be $30,000.
 
 214 APPENDIX. 
 
 Now, that amount, although less than half of the $65,000 
 we should gain in your supposed case, is still much more 
 than enough in this real case to cover all the extra charges 
 to which we are subjected, and of which so much complaint 
 is made. 
 
 THIRD. What modifications of existing laws or -what new 
 laws are required to remove discriminations against and 
 burdens upon our shipping and ship-owning interests, suck 
 as customs dues, port dues, consular charges, pilotage, ton- 
 nage, and other dues, etc. ? 
 
 ANSWER. I have already considered a part of this ques- 
 tion. Please read sections 4131, 4132, 4133, 4134, 4135, 
 4142, 4143, 4163, 4165, 4172, of our navigation laws, and 
 tell us if in the maritime code of any other nation anything 
 can be found more barbarous and stultifying. What better 
 can be done than to repeal them ? 
 
 FOURTH. Compare the laws of other countries with our 
 own with a view to their effect upon our and their shipping 
 and ship-owning interests. 
 
 ANSWER. To institute a minute comparison would be 
 tedious and superfluous. In general, the laws of other 
 countries give freedom to the carrying trade. Ours bind it 
 in chains. 
 
 FIFTH. Shottld our navigation laws be repealed or modi- 
 fied, and if modified, wherein and for what purpose ? 
 
 ANSWER. Yes, for the good of the whole country they 
 should be absolutely repealed ; but if ship-building for the 
 coasting trade is still to be protected at the cost of the com- 
 munity, they should be merely so modified as to leave that 
 virtually intact. 
 
 SIXTH. What is the cost of the component materials of 
 iron, steel, or wooden vessels in other countries and our own ? 
 
 ANSWER. In general, the freight and duties added to 
 their cost abroad will, with a small percentage of profit, in- 
 dicate their price in this country. 
 
 SEVENTH. What would be the effect of a rebate on any or 
 all such materials f
 
 APPENDIX. 215 
 
 ANSWER. It would, if ships were imported free, give the 
 domestic ship-builder an opportunity to compete if he 
 could ; but there is no more reason why there should be a 
 rebate on parts of a ship than on a ship herself. Let both 
 be made free. 
 
 EIGHTH. Present any other statements connected 'with the 
 cause of the decline of the American foreign carrying trade 
 and what remedies can be applied by legislation. 
 
 ANSWER. The sole reason for the decline of our carrying 
 trade is the neglect of our Government to pursue the same 
 liberal policy that other nations have adopted. No farmer 
 can cultivate his ground as cheaply as his neighbor, unless he 
 can have his implements of husbandry on as favorable terms. 
 Let him make them if he can. If he cannot do so econom- 
 ically he must buy them, or his farm will not be a success. 
 
 Of all propositions for the restoration of our general car- 
 rying trade, the subsidy scheme would be the most ineffec- 
 tual. It never has been adopted by any other nation for 
 that purpose. It must be apparent to any unprejudiced 
 mind that while subsidies may be needed for mail service, 
 and for mail service only, the subsidized lines tend to pre- 
 ven^the business of private merchantmen by their ability to 
 run them off. Subsidies are, therefore, for individual bene- 
 fit, and necessarily opposed to the benefit of the public. 
 
 The means I would propose for the desired object are the 
 same that I suggested to the Congressional Committee ap- 
 pointed in 1869, and have steadily adhered to from that 
 time. They are as follows : 
 
 ist. The admission to American register of all vessels of 
 over 3,000 tons. 
 
 ad. The admission of all materials to be used in the con- 
 struction and repairs of vessels of over 3,000 tons, duty free. 
 
 3d. Exemption from taxation, local and national, on all 
 vessels engaged in the foreign trade. 
 
 4th. Permission for all American vessels in the foreign 
 trade to take their stores and shipchandlery out of bond 
 duty free.
 
 2l6 APPENDIX. 
 
 5th. A general revision of our laws relating to seamen, and 
 also of those regulating consular service, so that the charges 
 which now weigh in any degree on American shipping at 
 home and in foreign ports may be diminished, and made to 
 accord as far as possible with those imposed under the Eng- 
 lish system. 
 
 I have suggested a limited tonnage which will not materi- 
 ally interfere with the coasting trade, rather than the admis- 
 sion of ships to be used in the foreign trade exclusively. 
 
 The reason is that no Americans would wish to own ships 
 whose voyages they could not control. If they could not use 
 them when they desired to do so in the coasting trade, they 
 would prefer to own them as they own them now under the 
 British flag, because it is more economical, and they are pro- 
 tected by a more efficient navy than ours. 
 
 In conclusion, I am sorry to express the opinion that, do 
 what Congress will in the way of removing our burdens, even 
 to the extent of granting absolute freedom and copying our 
 navigation laws in all respects after those of England, meas- 
 ures that would have been eminently -successful in the out- 
 set, the restoration of our carrying trade will be a labor of 
 years. We have lost our prestige and experience ; we are 
 no longer a maritime nation ; our ship-owners have been 
 wearied and disgusted ; they have gone into other business, 
 forced by their Government to abandon their old calling. 
 And the way back under the most hopeful conditions must 
 be uphill and slow. Our ship-masters, the pride of the ocean 
 in the old packet days, are dead, and they have no succes- 
 sors. Congress, by its supine neglect, has all this for which 
 to answer. While it has lent a listening ear to bounty and 
 subsidy seekers intent only on personal gain, its committees 
 have never been willing to report a free ship bill, nor has 
 the Senate, or the House, allowed the subject to be other- 
 wise than incidentally debated. 
 
 These, gentlemen, are sober truths, and I appeal to you 
 now to rectify the errors of the past so far as it is in your 
 power.
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. 
 H. R. 7061. 
 
 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. January 13, 
 1883. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Com- 
 merce February 23, 1883. Reported by Mr. Vest with amend- 
 ments, viz. : Omit the parts struck through and insert the 
 parts printed in italics. 
 
 An Act to remove certain burdens on the American mer- 
 chant marine, to encourage the American foreign carry- 
 ing trade, and to amend the laws relating to the ship- 
 ment and discharge of seamen. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
 of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
 That section forty-one hundred and thirty-one of the Revised 
 Statutes be amended so as to read as follows : 
 
 " SEC. 4131. Vessels registered pursuant to law, and no 
 others, except such as shall be duly qualified according to 
 law for carrying on the coast trade and fisheries, or one 
 of them, shall be deemed vessels of the United States, and 
 entitled to the benefits and privileges appertaining to such 
 vessels ; but they shall not enjoy the same longer than they 
 shall continue to be wholly owned by citizens and to be com- 
 manded by a citizen of the United States." 
 
 SEC. 2. That section forty-two hundred and nineteen of 
 the Revised Statutes be amended by striking out the follow-
 
 2l8 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing words in the last clause : " And any vessel any officer 
 of which shall not be a citizen of the United States shall pay 
 a tax of fifty cents per ton." 
 
 SEC. 3. That section forty-five hundred and eighty of the 
 Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4580. Upon the application of any seaman to a 
 consular officer for a discharge, if it appears to such officer 
 that said seaman is entitled to his discharge under any act 
 of Congress or according to the general principles or usages 
 of maritime law as recognized in the United States, the offi- 
 cer shall discharge said seaman, and require from the mas- 
 ter of said vessel, before such discharge shall be made, pay- 
 ment of the wages which may then be due said seaman. 
 When a seaman is discharged by reason of inability to per- 
 form his duties, whether in consequence of illness or other 
 causes, the master shall be required to pay him only the 
 wages due at the time of discharge. But if any seaman is 
 discharged in consequence of any hurt or injury received 
 while in the service of the ship, or illness caused by a 
 want of such food, water, accommodations, medicines, or 
 anti-scorbutics as are required by law, the master shall be 
 required to pay the expense of providing the necessary sur- 
 gical and medical advice, with attendance and medicines, 
 until said seaman is cured, or dies, or is brought back to 
 some port in the United States." 
 
 SEC. 4. That section forty-five nundred and eighty-three 
 of the Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " Sec. 4583. No payment of extra wages shall be re- 
 quired, upon the discharge of any seaman in a foreign 
 country upon the termination of his agreement, or by his 
 own request, or in cases where vessels are wrecked or 
 stranded, or condemned as unfit for service. If any consu- 
 lar officer, upon the complaint of any seaman that he has 
 fulfilled his contract, or that the voyage is continued con- 
 trary to his agreement, is satisfied that the contract has 
 expired, or that the voyage has not been continued by cir-
 
 APPENDIX. 219 
 
 cumstances within the control of the master, he shall dis- 
 charge the mariner; but in case the consular officer shall 
 be satisfied that the master has designedly continued the 
 voyage, he shall require from said master the payment of 
 one month's extra pay over and above the wages due at the 
 time of discharge ; but in case the master of the vessel 
 shall provide said seaman with adequate employment on 
 board some other ship bound to the port at which he was 
 originally shipped, or to some other port, as may be agreed 
 upon by him, or furnish the means of sending him back to 
 such port, or provide him with a passage home, or deposit 
 with the consular officer such a sum of money as is by such 
 officer deemed sufficient to defray the expenses of his sub- 
 sistence and passage home, then no payment of extra wages 
 shall be required." 
 
 SEC. 5. That section forty-five hundred and eighty-two 
 of the Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as 
 follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4582. Whenever a vessel belonging to a citizen of 
 the United States is sold in a foreign country, and her 
 company discharged, it shall be the duty of the master to 
 produce to the consul or officer the certified list of his 
 ship's company, and also the shipping articles, and to pay 
 to said consul or officer for every seaman so discharged one 
 month's pay over and above the wages which may then be 
 due to such seaman ; but in case the master of the vessel 
 so sold shall provide such seaman with adequate employ- 
 ment on board some other ship bound to the port at which 
 he was originally shipped, or to such other port as may be 
 agreed upon by him, or furnish the means of sending him 
 back to such port, or provide him with a passage home, or 
 deposit with the consular officer such a sum of money as is 
 by such officer deemed sufficient to defray the expenses of 
 his subsistence and passage home, then no payment of 
 extra wages shall be required." 
 
 SEC. 6. That section forty-six hundred of the Revised 
 Statutes be amended so as to read as follows :
 
 22O APPENDIX. 
 
 " Sec. 4600. It shall be the duty of consular officers to 
 reclaim deserters and discountenance insubordination by 
 every means within their power, and where the local authori- 
 ties can be usefully employed for that purpose, to lend their 
 aid and use their exertions to that end in the most effectual 
 manner. In all cases where deserters are apprehended 
 consular officers shall inquire into the facts ; and if he is 
 satisfied that the desertion was caused by unusual or cruel 
 treatment, the seaman shall be discharged, and receive in 
 addition to his wages to the time of his discharge, one 
 month's pay, or the master shall provide him with adequate 
 employment on board some other ship bound to the port at 
 which he was originally shipped, or to such other port as 
 may be agreed upon by him, or furnish the means of send- 
 ing him back to such port, or provide him with a passage, 
 home, or deposit with the consular officer such a sum of 
 money as is by such officer deemed sufficient to defray the 
 expenses of his subsistence and passage home. And the 
 officer discharging him shall enter upon the crew-list and 
 shipping-articles the cause of discharge and the particulars 
 in which the cruelty or unusual treatment consisted, and 
 the facts as to his discharge, or re-engagement, as the case 
 may be, and subscribe his name thereto officially." 
 
 SEC. 7. That section forty-five hundred and eighty-one 
 of the Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 " Sec. 4581. That if any consular officer, when dis- 
 charging any seaman, shall neglect to require the pay- 
 ment of and collect the extra wages and charges required 
 to be paid in the case of the discharge of any seaman, 
 he shall be accountable to such seaman to the full amount 
 thereof ; and if any seaman shall, after his discharge, have 
 incurred any expense for board or oilier necessaries at the 
 place of his discharge, before shipping again, such expense 
 shall be paid out of the wages to which he shall be entitled, 
 which shall be retained for that purpose, and the balance 
 only paid over to him."
 
 APPENDIX. 221 
 
 SEC. 8. That section forty-five hundred and eighty-four 
 of the Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as follows: 
 
 " Sec. 4584. Whenever any consular officer, upon the 
 discharge of any seaman, receives the wages due to said 
 seaman, he shall at once pay the same to the said seaman, 
 except as provided by section forty-five hundred and eighty- 
 one of the Revised Statutes." 
 
 SEC. 9. That section forty-five hundred and seventy- 
 eight of the Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as 
 follows : 
 
 " Sec. 4578. All masters of vessels belonging to citizens 
 of the United States and bound to some port of the same, 
 are required to take such destitute seaman on board their 
 vessels, at the request of the consuls, vice-consuls, com- 
 mercial agents, or vice-commercial agents, respectively, 
 and to transport them to the port in the United States to 
 which such vessel may be bound, on such terms, not ex- 
 ceeding ten dollars for each person, as may be agreed be- 
 tween the master and the consul or officer. But for long 
 voyages and peculiar disabled condition of such seamen, 
 there shall be allowed to the master or owner of such vessel 
 such reasonable compensation, not to exceed thirty cents 
 per day, in addition to the allowances herein provided, as 
 shall be deemed equitable by the collector of the port in 
 the United States which the vessel may first reach, the same 
 to be paid under such regulations as may be prescribed by 
 the Secretary of the Treasury. Every such master who re- 
 fuses the same, on the request or order of such consul or 
 officer, shall be liable to the United States in a penalty of 
 one hundred dollars for each seaman so refused. The cer- 
 tificate of any such consul or officer, given under his hand 
 and official seal, shall be presumptive evidence of such 
 refusal in any court of law having jurisdiction for the re- 
 covery of the penalty. No master of any vessel shall, how- 
 ever, be obliged to take a greater number than two men to 
 every one hundred tons burden of the vessel on any one 
 voyage."
 
 222 APPENDIX. 
 
 SEC. 10. That no fees shall hereafter be charged by any 
 consular officer for any certificate, manifest, or other official 
 service to American vessels engaged in the foreign trade, or 
 to the owners, officers, or seamen of such vessels. Con- 
 sular officers who are now paid in whole or in part by fees 
 shall make a detailed report to the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury of the services performed in accordance with this sec- 
 tion, with the fees heretofore allowed in such cases, and 
 shall be entitled to receive the amount thereof in the same 
 manner as is provided by law in case of other compensation 
 payable by the United States. 
 
 SEC. ii. That it shall be, and is hereby, made unlawful 
 in any case to pay any seaman wages in advance of the time 
 when he has actually earned the same, or to pay such ad- 
 vance wages to any other person, or to pay any person any 
 remuneration for the shipment of seamen. Any person 
 paying such advance wages or such remuneration shall be 
 deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall 
 be punished by a fine not less than four times the amount 
 of the wages so advanced or remuneration so paid, and may 
 be also imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months, 
 at the discretion of the court. The payment of such ad- 
 vance wages or remuneration shall in no case absolve the 
 steamer, ship, or vessel, or the master or owner thereof, 
 from full payment of wages after the same shall have been 
 actually earned, and shall be no defence to a libel, suit, or 
 action for the recovery of such wages : Provided, That this 
 section shall not apply to such fees as by any law of the 
 United States may be collected by any shipping commis- 
 sioner or other officer of the United States for the shipment 
 of seamen : And provided further, That this section shall 
 not apply to vessels engaged in the whaling business. This 
 section shall apply as well to foreign vessels as to vessels of 
 the United States ; and any foreign vessel the master, 
 owner, consignee, or agent of which has violated this sec- 
 tion, or induced or connived at its violation, shall be refused 
 a clearance from any port of the United States. It shall be
 
 APPENDIX. 223 
 
 lawful, however, for any seaman to stipulate in his shipping 
 agreement for the allotment of any portion of the wages 
 which he may earn to his wife, father, mother, grandfather, 
 grandmother, child, grandchild, brother, or sister, or to any 
 savings bank for the benefit of such seaman, and to no 
 other person or corporation. 
 
 SEC. 12. That every vessel mentioned in the preceding 
 section shall also be provided with a slop-chest, which shall 
 contain a complement of clothing for the intended voy- 
 age for each seaman employed, including boots or shoes, 
 hats or caps, under clothing and outer clothing, oiled cloth- 
 ing, and everything necessary for the wear of a seaman ; 
 also a full supply of tobacco and blankets. Any of the con- 
 tents of the slop-chest shall be sold, from time to time, to 
 any or every seaman applying therefor, for his own use, at 
 a profit not exceeding twenty-five per centum of the reason- 
 able wholesale value of the same at the port at which the 
 voyage commenced. 
 
 SEC. 13. That all masters and owners of vessels shall 
 have the right to ship and pay off the men they employ, and 
 that all laws or parts of laws requiring the payment of any 
 remuneration to the shipping commission for the shipment 
 of seamen, if shipped by said masters or owners, be, and 
 the same are hereby repealed : Provided, That the duties 
 performed by the shipping commissioner at home ports shall 
 be performed by the collector of the several ports of the 
 United States, and that no fee shall be charged for said 
 services. 
 
 Sec. 14. That section twenty-five hundred and fourteen 
 of the Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "Sec. 2514. That all materials of foreign production to be 
 manufactured in this country into articles needed for, and 
 used in the construction, equipment, repairs, or supplies of 
 American vessels employed, or to be employed, exclusively 
 in the foreign trade, including the trade between the Atlan- 
 tic ports and Pacific ports of the United States, may be
 
 224 APPENDIX. 
 
 withdrawn from bonded warehouse free of duty, under such 
 regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe ; 
 and if the duty shall have been already paid upon such ma- 
 terial so used the same shall be refunded and repaid to the 
 owner or owners of such vessels so using them or to their 
 legal representatives." 
 
 SEC. 15. That in lieu of all duties on tonnage, including 
 light money, now imposed by law, a duty of six cents per 
 ton is hereby imposed at each entry on all vessels which 
 shall be entered in the United States from the West India 
 Islands, or from any port or place in the Republic of Mexico, 
 or from any port or place south of Mexico, down to and in- 
 cluding Aspinwall and Panama, or from any port or place 
 in the Dominion of Canada ; and a duty of twelve cents per 
 ton is hereby imposed at each entry on all vessels which 
 shall be entered in the United States from any other foreign 
 port : Provided, That nothing in this section shall be con- 
 strued to repeal section twenty-seven hundred and ninety- 
 three of the Revised Statutes : And provided also, That the 
 aggregate duty imposed under this section in any one year 
 upon any vessel engaged in no other foreign trade than the 
 trade between the United States and the Dominion of Can- 
 ada, or the Republic of Mexico, or any ports or places south 
 of Mexico, down to and including Aspinwall and Panama, 
 or any ports or places in the West India Islands, shall not 
 exceed thirty cents per ton. 
 
 SEC. 1 6. That instead of the assessment of forty cents 
 per month upon seamen engaged in the foreign carrying 
 trade, authorized by sections forty-five hundred and eighty- 
 five, and forty-five hundred and eighty-seven of the Re- 
 vised Statutes of the United States, there shall hereafter be 
 assessed and collected twenty cents. 
 
 SEC. 17. That the individual liability of a ship-owner 
 shall be limited to the proportion of any or all debts and 
 liabilities that his individual share of the vessel bears to the 
 whole ; and the aggregate liabilities of all the owners of a 
 vessel on account of the same shall not exceed the value of
 
 APPENDIX. 225 
 
 such vessels : Provided, That this provision shall not affect 
 the liability of any owner incurred previous to the passage 
 of this act, nor prevent any claimant from joining all the 
 owners in one action ; nor shall the same apply to wages 
 due to persons employed by said ship-owners. 
 
 SEC. 1 8. That when a steam or sailing vessel is built in 
 the United States for foreign account, wholly or partly of 
 foreign materials, on which import duties have been paid, 
 there shall be allowed on such vessel, when exported, a 
 drawback equal in amount to the duty paid on such mate- 
 rials, to be ascertained under such regulations as may be 
 prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. Ten per cen- 
 tum of the amount of such drawback so allowed shall, how- 
 ever, be retained for the use of the United States by the 
 collector paying the same. 
 
 SEC. 19. Whenever any fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, 
 or charge arising under the laws relating to vessels or sea- 
 men has been paid under protest to any collector of cus- 
 toms or consular officer, and application has been made 
 within one year from such payment of the refunding or re- 
 mission of the same, the Secretary of the Treasury, if on 
 investigation he finds that such fine, penalty, forfeiture, ex- 
 action, or charge was illegally, improperly, or excessively 
 imposed, shall have the power, either before or after the 
 same has been covered into the Treasury, to refund so 
 much of such fine, penalty, forfeiture, exaction, or charge 
 as he may think proper, from any moneys in the Treasury 
 not otherwise appropriated. 
 
 SEC. 20. That Section twenty-nine hundred and sixty-six 
 of the Revised Statutes be amended by striking out the 
 words " propelled in whole or in part by steam ; " so that 
 said section as amended shall read as follows : 
 
 " Sec. 2966. When merchandise shall be imported into 
 any port of the United States from any foreign country in 
 vessels, and it shall appear by the bills of lading that the 
 merchandise so imported is to be delivered immediately 
 after the entry of the vessel, the collector of such port may 
 IS
 
 226 APPENDIX. 
 
 take possession of such merchandise and deposit the same 
 in bonded warehouse ; and when it does not appear by the 
 bills of lading that the merchandise so imported is to be 
 immediately delivered, the collector of the customs may 
 take possession of the same and deposit it in bonded ware- 
 house, at the request of the owner, master, or consignee 
 of the vessel, on three days' notice to such collector after 
 the entry of the vessel." 
 
 SEC. 21. That section twenty-eight hundred and seventy- 
 two of the Revised Statutes be amended by adding thereto 
 the following : 
 
 " When the license to unload between the setting and 
 rising of the sun is granted to a sailing vessel under this 
 section, a fixed, uniform, and reasonable compensation may 
 be allowed to the inspector or inspectors for service be- 
 tween the setting and rising of the sun, under such regula- 
 tions as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, to be 
 received by the collector from the master, owner, or con- 
 signee of the vessel, and to be paid by him to the inspector 
 or inspectors." 
 
 Sec. 22. That section thirty -nine hundred and seventy - 
 six of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and all 
 other compulsory laws and parts of laws that oblige Amer- 
 ican vessels to carry the mails of the United States arbitrarily , 
 or that prevent the clearance of vessels until they shall have 
 taken mail matter on board, be, and the same are hereby, re- 
 pealed ; and that section four thousand and nine of the Re- 
 vised Statutes of the United States be, and is hereby, 
 amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows, to wit : 
 
 " Sec. 4009. For transporting the mails of the United 
 States between any port of the United States and any foreign 
 port, or between ports of the Atlantic and ports in the 
 Pacific, touching at any foreign port, a sum not exceeding 
 one dollar per mile, on the trip each way, of actual nautical 
 miles travelled between terminal points, for each trip ac- 
 tually made y but such service shall be performed only under
 
 APPENDIX. 227 
 
 contract entered into by the Postmaster-General, after legal 
 advertisement, with the lowest responsible bidder, and the ag- 
 gregate amount to be expended for such service shall not ex- 
 ceed one million five hundred thousand dollars per annum. 
 The ships with which such contracts shall be made shall be 
 ships of American registry only, and contracts shall be for a 
 term of not less than four years j and the general latvs regu- 
 lating the transportation of inland mails shall be applicable 
 to such contracts, except as herein provided. And all vessels 
 engaged in such contracts shall in time of war be subject to 
 purchase or charter by the United States at reasonable rates ; 
 and all foreign vessels or sailing vessels carrying the mails 
 of the United States may be allowed a sum not exceeding 
 the sea postage now allowed by law" 
 
 SEC. 23. That all acts and parts of acts in conflict with 
 this act are hereby repealed. 
 
 Passed the House of Representatives January 12, 1883. 
 
 Attest : EWD. McPHERSON, Clerk.
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 NEW YORK, February 11, 1882. 
 
 LIEUT. CHARLES BELKNAP, U.S.N., 
 
 Secretary U. S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, Md, : 
 
 SIR The undersigned having been requested to serve as 
 Judges to determine to whom shall be awarded the gold medal 
 and prize offered by the Naval Institute for the best essay on 
 the subject " Our Merchant Marine : the Causes of its De- 
 cline, and the Means to be taken for its Revival," have ex- 
 amined eleven essays submitted in competition. Many of 
 them have much merit ; but on a subject of the broad his- 
 torical and practical nature of that submitted for competi- 
 tion, it will not be understood that in indicating any of 
 them, the undersigned adopt as their own the entirety of 
 the views therein presented, or the completeness of their 
 conclusions either as to the causes of decline or the means 
 for revival. They are prepared, however, to designate the 
 essay under the motto "AY/ clarius aquis" l as combining 
 the most merit, and as worthy of the prize. 
 
 In accordance with the request that if there be another 
 essay, or others, worthy of honorable mention, it be desig- 
 nated, or if more than one, they be mentioned in the order 
 of merit, the undersigned designate the essay bearing the 
 
 1 The essay designated by this motto forms that portion of the 
 " Question of Ships " which treats of the restoration of the Merchant 
 Marine, and was written by the Author.
 
 APPENDIX. 229 
 
 motto "Mais ilfaut cultiver notre jardin" as second in the 
 order of merit, and they further mention those bearing the 
 respective mottoes " Causa latet, vis est notissima" and 
 " Spero meliora " as worthy of honorable mention, without, 
 however, being entirely agreed as to their comparative merits. 
 
 We are, sir, very respectfully yours, 
 
 HAMILTON FISH, 
 A. A. LOW, 
 J. D. JONES.
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 Lord Lawrence 
 
 BY 
 
 R. BOSWORTH SMITH, M.A., 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE ; ASSISTANT MASTER AT HARROW 
 
 SCHOOL. 
 
 With Maps and Portraits, 2 vols,, 8vo, $5.OO. 
 
 "As a biography, the work is an inthralling one, rich in 
 anecdotes and incidents of Lord Lawrence's tempestuous nature 
 and beneficent career that bring into bold relief his strongly- 
 marked and almost colossal individuality, and rich also in in- 
 stances of his courage, his fortitude, his perseverance, his self- 
 control, his magnanimity, and in the details of the splendid 
 results of his masterful and masterly policy. . . . We know 
 of no work on India to which the reader can refer with so great 
 certainty for full and dispassionate information relative to the 
 government of the country, the characteristics of its people, and 
 the fateful events of the forty eventful years of Lord Lawrence's 
 Indian career." Harper's Magazine. 
 
 11 John Lawrence, the name by which the late Viceroy of India 
 will always be best known, has been fortunate in his biographer, 
 Mr. Bosworth Smith, who is an accomplished writer and a faith- 
 ful, unflinching admirer of his hero. He has produced an enter- 
 taining as well as a valuable book ; the general reader will 
 certainly find it attractive ; the student of recent history will 
 discover in its pages matters of deep interest to him." London 
 Daily Telegraph. 
 
 *#* For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, upon receipt of price, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
 
 NOW COMPLETE. 
 
 In three volumes, JL2mo, with Maps and Plans. 
 
 THE 
 
 Navy m the Civil War 
 
 npHE WORK OF THE NAVY in the suppression of the Rebellion was 
 -* certainly not less remarkable than that of the Army. The same 
 forces which developed from our volunteers some of the finest bodies of 
 soldiers in military history, were shown quite as wonderfully in the creation 
 of a Navy, which was to cope for the first time with the problems of modern 
 warfare. 
 
 The facts that the Civil War was the first great conflict in which steam 
 was the motive power of ships ; that it was marked by the introduction of 
 the ironclad ; and that it saw, for the first time, the attempt to blockade 
 such a vast length of hostile coast will make it an epoch for the techinal 
 student everywhere. 
 
 But while the Army has been fortunate in the number and character of 
 those who have contributed to its written history, the Navy has been com- 
 paratively without annalists. During a recent course of publications on 
 the military operations of the war, the publishers were in constant receipt 
 of letters pointing out this fact, and expressing the wish that a complete 
 naval history of the four years might be written by competent hands. An 
 effort made in this direction resulted in the cordial adoption and carrying 
 out of plans by which Messrs. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS are 
 enabled to announce the completion of a work of the highest authority and 
 interest, giving the whole narrative of Naval Operations from 1861 to 1865. 
 
 I. THE BLOCKADE AND THE CRUISERS. By Pro- 
 fessor J. RUSSELL SOLEY, U. S. Navy. 
 
 II. THE ATLANTIC COAST. By Rear-Admiral DANIEL 
 AMMEN, U. S. Navy. 
 
 III. THE GULF AND INLAND WATERS. By Commander 
 
 A. T. MAHAN, U. S. Navy. 
 
 Uniform with "The Campaigns of the Civil War," with maps 
 and diagrams prepared under the direction of the A.uthors. 
 
 Price per Volume, SI.OO. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 
 & 745 Broadway, New York.
 
 THE 
 
 Navy in the Civil War 
 
 I -THE BLOCKADE AND THE CRUISERS. 
 
 By Professor J. RUSSELL SOLEY, U. S. Navy. 
 
 "The book is well arranged, written clearly, without technical terms, 
 and shows great familiarity with the subject. It is marked by thoroughness 
 of preparation, sound judgment, and admirable impartiality. It is a promis- 
 ing beginning of the projected series ; and if the other volumes prove 
 worthy of this, they will make a valuable addition to the Army series, 
 which has proved so useful and popular." Ths Nation. 
 
 II.-THE ATLANTIC COAST. 
 
 By Real-Admiral DANIEL AMMEN, U. S. Navy. 
 
 Admiral Ammen's history of the naval operations on the Atlantic 
 coast, from 1861 to the close of the* war, describes the active work of the 
 navy in attacking the defensive strongholds of the Confederacy from 
 Hampton Roads to Florida Keys. It includes a full account of the long 
 siege of Charleston, and the scarcely less arduous operations against 
 Fort Fisher, the capture of Hatteras Inlet, Roanoke Island and Newbern, 
 and other minor movements along the coast. 
 
 III.-THE GULF AND INLAND WATERS. 
 
 By Commander A. T. MAHAN, U. S. Navy. 
 
 The achievements of the Naval force on the Mississippi and its tributaries, 
 and on the Gulf and the Red River, either independently or in co-oper- 
 ation with the Army, form one of the most thrilling chapters in the history 
 of the Civil War. The exploits of Farragut, Foote and Porter, with their 
 gallant crews and improvised vessels, teem with acts of daring, marvelous 
 escapes, and terrific encounters. Commander Mahan has done full justice 
 to this side of his narrative, but he has given at the same time a record of 
 this part of the war that has greater claims to historic value than any which 
 have preceded it. 
 
 Each One Volume, 1 2mo, with Maps and Plans. 
 
 Price per Volume, SI.OO. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 
 
 743 c0 743 Broadway, New York.
 
 t'JBy Arrangement ^vith tlie Author.! 
 
 The Beat Biography of the Greatest of the Roman*. 
 
 GjBSAR: A SKETCH. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, M.A. 
 
 Library Edition, 8vo, Cloth, Oilt Top, $2.5O. 
 
 POPULAR EDITION (from name plates), 12mo, 75 Cent*. 
 
 Uniform wi'h Popular Edition nf Fronde's History 
 of England, and Short Studies. 
 
 There is no historical writer of oar time who can rival Mr. Fronde in vivid 
 delineation of character, grace and clearness of style and elegant anU solid 
 scholarship. In his Life of Ctesar, all these qualities appear in their fullest 
 perfection, resulting in a fascinating narrative which will be read with keen 
 delight by a multitude of readers, and will enhance, if possible, Mr. Fronde's 
 brilliant reputation. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
 " The book is charmingly written, and, on the whole, wisely written. There are many 
 admirable, really noble, passages ; there are hundreds of pages which few liv'ng men 
 cculd match. * * * The political life of Caesar is explained wilh singular lucidity, 
 and with what seems to us remarkable fairness. The horrible condition of Roman 
 society under the rule of the magnates is painted with startling power ami brilliance of 
 coloring. Atlantic Monthly. 
 
 " Mr. Froude's latest work, " Ciesar," is affluent of his most distinctive traits. 
 Nothing that he has written is more brilliant, more incisive, more interes,iong. * * * 
 He combines into a compact and nervous narrative all that is known of the personal, 
 social, political, and military life of Caesar ; and with his sketch of Caesar, includes other 
 brilliant sketches of the great men, his friends or rivals, who contemporaneously with 
 him formed the principal figures in the Roman world." Harper's Monthly. 
 
 "This book is a most fascinating biography, and is by far the best account of Juliui 
 Caesar to be found in the English language." London Standard. 
 
 " It is the best biography of the greatest of the Romans we have, and it is in somi 
 respects Mr. F rondo's best piece of historical writing." Hartford Courant. 
 
 Mr. Froude has given the public the best of all recent books on the life, characta 
 and career of Julius Caesar." Phila. Eve. Bulletin. 
 
 %* For sale by all booksellers, or will be sent prepaid ', upon 
 receipt of frict, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRTBNER'S SONS, 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW
 
 MESSRS. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 publish, under the general title of 
 
 THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR, 
 
 A Series of volumes, contributed by a number of leading 
 actors in and students of the great conflict of i86i-'65, with 
 a view to bringing together, for the first time, a full and 
 authoritative military history of the suppression of the 
 Rebellion. 
 
 The final and exhaustive form of this great narrative, in which every 
 doubt shall be settled and every detail covered, may be a possibility 
 only of the future. But it is a matter for surprise that twenty years 
 after the beginning of the Rebellion, and when a whole generation 
 has grown up needing such knowledge, there is no authority which is 
 at the same time of the highest rank, intelligible and trustworthy, and 
 to which a reader can turn for any general view of the field. 
 
 The many reports, regimental histories, memoirs, and other materi- 
 als of value for special passages, require, for their intelligent reading, 
 an ability to combine and proportion them which the ordinary reader 
 does not possess. There have been no attempts at general histories 
 which have supplied this satisfactorily to any large part of the public. 
 Undoubtedly there has been no such narrative as would be especially 
 welcome to men of the new generation, and would be valued by a very 
 great class of readers ; and there has seemed to be great danger that 
 the time would be allowed to pass when it would be possible to give 
 to such a work the vividness and accuracy that come from personal 
 recollection. These facts led to the conception of the present work. 
 
 From every department of the Government, from the officers of the 
 army, and from a great number of custodians of records and special infor- 
 mation everywhere, both authors and publishers have received every aid 
 that could be asked in this undertaking ; and in announcing the issue of 
 the work the publishers take this occasion to convey the thanks which 
 the authors have had individual opportunities to express elsewhere. 
 
 The volumes are duodecimos of about 250 pages each, 
 illustrated by maps and plans prepared under the direction 
 of the authors. 
 
 The price of each volume is $1.00. 
 
 The following volumes are now ready : 
 
 I. The Outbreak of Jicbellion. By JOHN G. NICOLAY, 
 Esq., Private Secretary to President Lincoln ; late Consul- 
 General to France, etc. 
 
 A preliminary volume, describing the opening of the war. and covering th* 
 period from the election of Lincoln to the end of the firt battle of Bull Run.
 
 II. From Fort Henry to Corinth. By the Hon. M. 
 F. FORCE, Justice of the Superior Court, Cincinnati!; late 
 Brigadier-General and Bvt. Maj. Gen'l, U.S.V., commanding 
 First Division, I7th Corps: in 1862, Lieut. Colonel of the 
 aoth Ohio, commanding the regiment at Shiloh ; Treasurer of 
 the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. 
 
 The narrative of events in the West from the Summer of 1861 to May, 1862 ; 
 covering the capture of Fts. Henry and Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, etc., etc. 
 
 III. The Peninsula. By ALEXANDER S. WEBB, LL.D., 
 President of the College of the City of New York : Assistant 
 Chief of Artillery, Army of the Potomac, i86i-'6z ; Inspector 
 General Fifth Army Corps; General commanding 2d Div., 
 2d Corps ; Major General Assigned, and Chief of Staff, Army 
 of the Potomac. 
 
 The history of McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, from his appointment to th 
 md of the Seven Days' Fight. 
 
 / V. The Army under Pope. By JOHN C. ROPES, Esq., 
 of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, the Massa- 
 chusetts Historical Society, etc. 
 
 From the appointment of Pope to command the Army of Virginia, to the appoint- 
 ment of McClellau to the general command in September, 1862 
 
 i". The Antfefam and FredericJtsburg. By FRANCIS 
 WINTHROP PALFREY, Bvt. Brigadier Gen'l, U.S.V., and form- 
 erly Colonel 2Oth Mass. Infantry ; Lieut. Col of the 2Oth 
 Massachusetts at the Battle of the Antietam ; Member of 
 the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, of the Massa- 
 chusetts Historical Society, etc. 
 
 From the appointment of McClellan to the general command, September, 1862, to 
 the end of the battle of Fredericksburg. 
 t 
 
 VI. Chancellor sville and Gettysburg. By ABNER 
 DOUBLEDAY, Bvt. Maj. Gen'l, U. S. A., and Maj. Gen'i, 
 U.S.V. ; commanding the First Corps at Gettysburg, etc. 
 
 From the appointment of Hooker, through the campaigns of Chancellorsville and 
 Gettysburg, to the retreat of Lee after the latter battle. 
 
 VII. The Arm?/ of the Cumberland. By HENRY M. 
 CIST, Brevet Brig. Gen'l U.S.V ; A.A.G. on the *taff of 
 Major Gen'l Rosecrans. and afterwards on that of Major Gen'l 
 Thomas ; Corresponding Secretary of the Society of the Army 
 of the Cumberland. 
 
 From the formation of the Army of the Cumberland to the end of the bat'les at 
 Chattanooga, November, 1863.
 
 VIII. The Mississippi. By FRANCIS VINTON GREENE, 
 Lieut, of Engineers, U. S. Army ; late Military Attache to the 
 U. S. Legation in St. Petersburg ; Author of " The Russian 
 Army and its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-78," and of 
 44 Army Life in Russia." 
 
 An account of the operations especially at Viclcsburg and Port Hudson by 
 which the Mississippi River and its shores were restored to the control of the Union. 
 
 IX. Atlanta. By the Hon. JACOB D. Cox, Ex-Governor of 
 Ohio; late Secretary of the Interior of the United States; 
 Major General U. S.V., commanding Twenty-third Corps 
 during the campaigns of Atlanta and the Carolinas, etc. , etc. 
 
 From Sherman's first advance into Georgia in May, 1864, to the beginning of 
 the March to the Sea. 
 
 X. The March to the Sea Franklin and Nashville. 
 
 By the Hon. JACOB D. Cox. 
 
 From the beginning of the March to_ the Sea to the surrender of Johnston- ' 
 including also the operations of Thomas in Tennessee. 
 
 XI. The Shenandoah Valley in 1864. The Cam- 
 paign of Sheridan. By GEORGE E. POND, Esq., Asso- 
 ciate Editor of the Army and Navy Journal. 
 
 XII. The Virginia Campaign of 64 and >65. Tlie 
 Army of the Potomac and 1he Army of the 
 James, By ANDREW A. HUMPHREYS, Brigadier General 
 and Bvt. Major General, U. S. A. ; late Chief of Engineers ; 
 Chief of Stafl", Army of the Potomac, 1863-64 ; commanding 
 Second Corps, i864-'65, etc., etc. 
 
 Statistical Record of the Armies of the United 
 States. By FREDERICK PHISTERER, late Captain U. S. A. 
 
 This Record includes the figures of the quotas and men actually furnished by 
 all States ; a list of all organizations mustered into the U. S. service; the strength 
 of the army at various periods ; its organization in armies, corps, etc.; the divisions 
 of the country into departments, etc.; chronological list of all engagements, with the 
 losses in each ; tabulated statements of all losses in the war, with the causes of 
 death, etc. ; full lists of all general officers, and an immense amount of other valuable 
 statistical matter relating to the War. 
 
 The complete Set, thirteen volumes, in a box. Price, $12.50 
 Single volumes, . . . . . . i.oo 
 
 *** The above looks for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, fost-Jaid t 
 upon, receipt of frice, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
 
 THE 
 
 CAMPAIGNS OF THE CIVIL WAR. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS ON THE SERIES, 
 
 From the CINCINNATI COMMERCIAL. 
 
 " Scribner's Campaigns of the Civil War are probably the ablest and most 
 striking account of the late war that has yet been written. Choosing the flower 
 of military authors, the publishers have assigned to each the task of writing the 
 history of the events he knew most about. Thus, both accuracy and a life-like 
 freshness have been secured." 
 
 From the HARTFORD POST. 
 
 11 No series of books has awakened so much discussion in years as the cam- 
 paign volumes which the New York publishers are now providing for the public. 
 To the veterans who served in the war the works are of the deepest concern and 
 have been read with profound interest." 
 
 From the BOSTON ADVERTISER. 
 
 " We can only call attention here once more to the excellent plan of this new 
 history of the war, and the fidelity and care with which the several writers have 
 performed their tasks. * * * That which has been now done by the authors 
 of ' The Campaigns' will never need to be done again." 
 
 From the UTICA (N. Y.) HERALD. 
 
 "As this series approaches its close the reader is compelled to testify that it 
 has already become the standard history of the war of the rebellion as a whole, 
 and it will be long, if ever, before any rival can supplant it." 
 
 From the N. Y. CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. 
 
 " The altogether admirable series on the ' Campaigns of the Civil War ' draws 
 near completion. We doubt if a better and more evenly sustained series can be 
 found on any subject. More than any other work, this will be the trusted history 
 of our civil war," 
 
 From the New York TRIBUNE. 
 
 "A high degree of editorial tact and intelligence characterizes the execution 
 of Messrs. Scribner's excellent undertaking. The division of the work is judici- 
 ous ; the allotment of topics to the various writers is happy, and cordial co-opera- 
 tion has been secured from recognized authorities, from the Government, from 
 distinguished military officers, and from the custodians of public and private 
 records. To all this we may add that the volumes are convenient in size, beauti- 
 fully printed, and furnished with many clear and simple maps." 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
 
 A NEW AND UNIFORM EDITION. 
 
 GEORGE W. CABLE'S 
 WRITINGS. 
 
 THE GRANDISSIMES: A Story of Creole Life. 
 
 With a frontispiece, "THE CABILDO OF 1883." i volume, I2mo. Price 
 reduced to $1.25. 
 
 Mr. Cable has given this volume a slight revision as regards dialect, 
 wherever and only where it had no humorous value. The dialects of 
 the Creole Ladies, of Raoul Innerarity, and Clemence, remain undisturbed. 
 
 OLD CREOLE DAYS. 
 
 With a frontispiece, "THE CAFE DES EXILES." I volume, I2mo, uniform 
 with The Grandissimes, $1.25. 
 
 POPULAR EDITION OF OLD CREOLE DAYS. 
 
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 Here is an entrancing style. Here is a new field, one full of passion and 
 beauty. Here is a local color, with strong drawing. Here, in this little 
 volume, is life, breath, and blood. The author of this book is an artist, and 
 over such a revelation one maybe permitted strong words." Cincinnati 
 Times. 
 
 For sale by all book-sellers, or sent, post-paid, by the publishers. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 
 
 & j4<-j Broadway, New-York.
 
 JUST PUBLISHED. FROM ADVANCE SHEETS. 
 
 John Bull and His Island 
 
 / vol., i2mo. Paper, 50 cts. Cloth, $1.00. 
 
 'T^HIS witty and incisive book on England, by an anonymous French 
 author, is the sensation of the moment both in Paris and London. 
 
 The British press and public have been compelled to laugh over the admir- 
 able cleverness of the study, even while they protested; and the fairer 
 critics have recognized the striking truth and merit of the more serious 
 criticism which forms no insignificant part of it. 
 
 The volume has reached its twentieth large edition in Paris, while the 
 present authorized translation now published simultaneously in Eng- 
 land and America has been preparing under the supervision of the 
 author ; and the London publishers write that the advance orders have 
 already taken up the large first edition proposed by them. 
 
 " Certainly not in our day has appeared a more bit- 
 ing, comprehensive, and clever satire than this anony- 
 mous French account of England. The author must 
 have acquired his wonderful familiarity with Great 
 Britain by a long and observant residence within her 
 borders, and the shrewdness with which he puts his 
 finger upon the weak spots of the English character is 
 little short of marvelous. Either because he is shrewd 
 enough to understand that an admixture of praise 
 makes more effective his satire, or and we believe 
 the latter from genuine admiration, he has much to 
 say that is good of both people and island. * * It is 
 certainly not to be wondered that the volume has pro- 
 duced a profound sensation in London; and it will 
 undoubtedly be widely read in this country. Enemies 
 of England will read it with wicked glee ; her friends 
 with a mixture of pride and humiliation ; nobody, we 
 apprehend, with indifference." Boston Advertiser. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 
 
 Publishers, New-York.
 
 E 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 
 
 Series 9482
 
 A 000 720 509 9