Naval Professional Papers Volume 16 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ...splendidly; that the outer bottom is considerably injured--or rather I will not say considerably injured, but there are injuries to the outer bottom all along the length of the ship. I withdraw the word considerably, . and say that the bottom is broken through to a certain extent, but that the defect can be made good very easily and in a very short time, and the ship appears to have never been in the least danger of having water admitted into the ship proper--that is, inside the inner bottom. One other word as to " armored tonnage" and the small vessels to which Captain Noel has referred, and about which Mr. Samuda has just spoken. We have had a great many discussions here of importance on this subject, and my own views are quite in accordance with theirs, so far as they are worth anything. But there are very large demands made by Parliament--very rightly, no doubt--for armored tonnage, and these vessels not being armored, strictly speaking, do not count. So long as the strong demands are formulated for armored tonnage, and the navy estimates remain where they are, the chance of getting these most important vessels is extremely remote. Mr. W. H. White. My lord, I wish first of all to join in the expression of thanks to Captain Noel for so fairly giving us his views. I would like to add, that I sincerely wish we had had the opportunity of having one or more papers from other naval officers, because then we should have had illustrated very forcibly, what is the fact, that different naval officers have very different opinions on the same points as affecting the management and efficiency of ships. From the nature of the problem, as Sir Edward Reed has suggested, that is inevitable, and I think it is quite proper; but speaking generally, and...