the colonial yards. Notwithstanding this great shipwright strength, and the efforts exacted from them, the Admiralty was obliged to seek every possible assistance from the private shipbuilders,[1] and to these persons Admiral Martin maintained protection was due, considering how much they had done for the country when we had enemies to deal with in every quarter.
I need not dwell upon all the other points of Admiral Martin's evidence; but that which relates to the merchant service and manning the navy must not be omitted.
Importance of keeping up the merchant navy. If the Navigation Laws were done away, Admiral Martin believed, the shipowner who would go to foreign countries for cheap ships would, from the same motive, take foreign seamen, such as Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, or Dutchmen, who would be content with small wages and a cheap scale of dietary. In this way, a large number of British seamen would be deprived of the employment they now enjoyed owing mainly to the Navigation Laws; and, in such a case, the naval service must suffer in proportion, especially, when, in time of war, seamen are most urgently required. It had been said, and it was a "marvellous assertion," that the merchant service contributes so little towards the supply of the navy—that, so far as concerned this point, there need be
- ↑ The first ship of the line built by contract was in 1755, when Messrs. Wells built the Elizabeth, of 74 guns; and, since that time, private shipbuilders have contributed greatly to the public wants. They built and repaired (chiefly in the last war) 93 sail of line-of-battle ships, and 466 frigates and smaller vessels, making a total of 559 vessels of war. In the last war Napoleon I. had as building ports, Venice, Genoa, Toulon, Rochefort, L'Orient, Cherbourg, Antwerp, and, practically also, all the ports of Holland.
