There are some facts on this subject which prove the positions here taken. The Collins steamers have been running but six years, and yet their repairs have amounted in all to more than the prime cost of the ships, or to about eighteen per cent. per annum. They were as well and as strongly built originally as any ships in the world, as appears from the report which Commodore M. C. Perry made to the Department regarding them, and from the fine condition of their hulls at the present time. Their depreciation with all of these repairs has not been probably above six per cent. per annum. They will, however, probably depreciate ten per cent. during the next six years, and at the age of twelve or fourteen years be unfit for service. The steamers Washington and Hermann, which had strong hulls, have been run eight years, and are now nearly worthless. Their depreciation has been at least ten per cent. The steamers Georgia and Ohio, which Commodore Perry and other superintending navy agents pronounced to be well-built and powerful steamers, (_See Report Sec. Navy_, 1852,) ran only five years, and were laid aside, and said to be worthless. With all of the repairs put upon these ships, which were admitted to be capable of doing first class war service, as intended, they depreciated probably seventeen per cent.; as it is hardly possible that their old iron would sell for more than fifteen per cent. of their prime cost. These steamers paid much smaller repair bills than the Collins, and were not so well constructed, or at so high a cost. American steamers do not, upon the average, last above ten years; but if they reach twelve or fourteen, they will pay a sum nearly equal to twice their cost, for repairs and substitutions. Nor is this all. The life of a steamer ends when her adaptation to profitable service ceases. She may not be rotten, but may be so slow, or of so antiquated construction, or may burn so much more fuel than more modern competitors, that she can not stand the test of competition.