Modern ships of warReed, Edward J. (Edward James), Sir
History
Modern ships of war
Reed, Edward J. (Edward James), Sir
Navies; Warships
This review of Turkish naval force bears out the remark with which
I introduced it, and shows that, either from lack of support from
the Western European powers or from some other cause, fighting
superiority in the Black Sea is being effectually abandoned by Turkey
to Russia.
Captain Lord Charles Beresford, R.N., M.P. (now a sea lord of the
Admiralty), who moved for the Admiralty Return to Parliament to which
I have made repeated reference, included Greece among the powers
whose “fleets” were to be reported on; but as Greece has but two
small and weak iron-clads, and they are nearly twenty years old,
and as she has no other at present even under construction, the
pretensions of her “fleet” are scarcely proportional to her political
ambitions. She has but one fast cruiser, the _Admiral Miaulis_,
and she is only a 15-knot vessel, and carries nothing more in the
way of guns than three of six tons and one of five tons. Greece’s
only “torpedo-vessel” steams no more than fourteen knots, and the
Admiralty Return assures Lord Charles Beresford and the world that
she has but twenty-seven torpedo-boats, of which seventeen are
over and ten under one hundred feet in length, and that she is not
building any more. Considering the island interests of Greece and her
situation in the Mediterranean, no one can pronounce her naval force
as excessive, or regard her government as being tempted to any high
heroic policy by her possession of an imposing navy.
I have not mentioned the Spanish or Portuguese “fleets,” nor is it
necessary to do much more than mention them now. Spain has only one
finished iron-clad, of over thirteen and less than fourteen knots
speed, and that is the _Vitoria_, which was launched at Blackwall, on
the Thames, more than twenty years ago. She has thin armor, and could
attempt but little in war. Spain is, however, building a large steel
turret-ship, the _Pelayo_, of 9650 tons, at La Seyne, to carry two
38-ton and two 48-ton guns, with 18-inch armor on a citadel and 19½
on her turrets. She is to steam at sixteen knots. This one ship will,
I presume, when finished, compose the armored “fleet” of Spain—that
country once so great upon the sea. Of unarmored vessels of war Spain
is building several, of which three are to have the advantage of
stout steel decks, and one is to be very fast. It will be well to
assemble these unarmored vessels of fourteen knots and upward in a
table:
TABLE G.—UNARMORED WAR-VESSELS OF SPAIN.
VESSELS OF FOURTEEN KNOTS AND UPWARD, INCLUDING TORPEDO-VESSELS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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