A naval advisory board was appointed which, in 1881, recommended that thirty-eight armoured cruisers should be built, of which eighteen should be of steel and twenty of wood, besides several other vessels. An influential minority of the board objected to steel lest it should be imported instead of being manufactured in the United States. But in 1882 a House of Representatives committee decided upon steel, not only as the best but as the only proper material for the construction of war vessels. The committee, cautious but determined, recommended the building of two 15-knot cruisers, four 14-knot cruisers, and one steel ram. The advisory board desired five rams, but one was tried as an experiment. This was the _Katahdin_, and she was a failure and the experiment was never repeated. Congress in 1883 decided on two cruisers, not six, of which one should be between 5,000 and 6,000 tons displacement and have the highest attainable speed, and the other of between 4,000 and 4,300 tons displacement; and both were to have full sail power and full steam power. But as no money was voted the ships did not appear. Another naval advisory board recommended the construction of a 4,000-ton vessel and three of about 2,500 tons, all of steel, and a smaller iron despatch boat. Congress in March, 1883, adopted the programme, eliminating only one of the smaller cruisers, and this time voted an appropriation. [Illustration: U.S. RAM “KATAHDIN.”] The _Chicago_ was the largest of these vessels; the other three were the _Boston_, _Atlanta_ and _Dolphin_. They were built of American materials, and were the first vessels of the modern American navy. The _Chicago_, besides being a twin-screw vessel, had engines which recalled the type installed in the famous Stevens battery. The advocates of the old order adopted with alacrity the role of Job’s comforters, and predicted with as much cheerfulness as the role would allow, the absolute failure of the new vessels. The _Chicago’s_ designed displacement was 4,500 tons, her engines, gave her a sea-speed of fourteen knots, and she was armed with four 8-inch, eight 6-inch, and two 5-inch breech-loading rifled guns. The _Atlanta_ and _Boston_, each of 3,000 tons displacement and speed of thirteen knots, carried two 8-inch and six 6-inch guns. The _Dolphin_, of 1,500 tons and fifteen knots, the despatch boat, was given one 6-inch gun. All four vessels had secondary batteries of smaller guns. The three cruisers at their trials attained sixteen knots or over.