With the exception of two vessels of the _Alert_ class built of iron, we had nothing but wooden hulls. We had continued to build in perishable material, requiring large sums to be spent in repairs, and ignoring the manufactures of the country which could have been aided in their development by the contrary course. We permitted the age of steel to reach its zenith without indicating that we were aware of its presence. In these ships, with the exception of a few converted rifles of 8-inch calibre, our armaments consist of smooth-bore cast-iron guns which have composed our batteries for thirty years. These are now to be discarded, and their places to be filled with modern steel cannons. Torpedoes, movable torpedoes, of which we know nothing practically, are to be brought to the front, and are to form part of our equipment. Torpedo-boats are to be brought into use, and details innumerable are now to be studied and worked out. Conceive, then, a high-powered steamer with a minimum of canvas, built of steel, armed with modern steel artillery, and a secondary battery of Hotchkiss guns, fitted for launching movable torpedoes, with protective deck over boilers and engines, divided into many water-tight compartments giving protection to buoyancy, and compare such a ship with the old type of the United States cruiser, and an idea may be formed of the violence of the transition through which we had to pass. And there was nothing intermediate to break the suddenness of this change; there was no connecting link. The structure of to-day was placed in direct contrast with that of twenty-five years ago. This is the position in which we stood, and we could only accept a situation from which there was no escape. From all appearances the navy is now to be given an opportunity of asserting itself, and the steps already taken to remedy the existing state of things can be stated in a few words. The origin of the effort dates from June, 1881, when the first Advisory Board was appointed to consider and to report on the need of appropriate vessels for the navy. This Board, in its report of November 7, 1881, decided that the United States navy should consist of seventy unarmored cruisers of steel; it reported that there were thirty-two vessels in the navy fit for service as cruisers, and it indicated the character of the new vessels to be built. This Board confined itself to the consideration of unarmored vessels, as it did not consider that the orders under which it acted required that it should discuss the subject of armored ships, though it expressed the opinion that such vessels were indispensable in time of war. Some time elapsed before any practical results followed from the action of this Board, but in an act of Congress approved March 3, 1883, the construction of three steam-cruisers and a despatch-boat was authorized. These vessels, the _Chicago_, _Boston_, _Atlanta_, and _Dolphin_, are, with the exception of the _Chicago_, now in commission.