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unusual demand for vessels of every description, and had given an extraordinary impulse to ship-building, prudent shipowners soon foresaw that so sudden a rush of prosperity could not long endure without as sudden a revulsion, and "that it was fallacious to suppose that the same demand would continue even while the war lasted."[1]
Nor was it less apparent that the number of vessels engaged by Government exceeded what was actually required for the prosecution of the war, and that, if hostilities continued, the number would be materially reduced as soon as something like an organised system had been established.[2] Such, indeed, proved*
- ↑ Annual circular of W. S. Lindsay & Co. for 1854, quoted in Tooke's 'History of Prices.'
- ↑ When war was declared, the greater portion of the work of engaging transports devolved upon the Civil Lord of the Admiralty; and though, perhaps, few men could have been found more competent for the duty than Captain (now Admiral Sir Alexander) Milne, who then filled that office, it was impossible for any one man to get through the work he was expected to do, especially with the system, or rather want of all system, which then prevailed. From my knowledge of what took place, I have no hesitation in saying that everything relating to the engagement of the requisite number of ships, and to the transport of troops and stores to the Crimea, was a huge chaos; and I fear some serious disaster would have ensued had the pluck and genius of the nation not come to the rescue in the mode of conducting affairs at home, as well as, so far as I could ascertain, in the field of action abroad. At home, there was certainly no organisation, so far as regards the transport service, or, at best, it was of the most imperfect description. Stores were shipped without bills of parcels, and, frequently, without bills of lading; and the current stories, at the time, of the shipload of boots and shoes which lay at anchor in Balaclava harbour unknown to our authorities, while the troops were bootless and shoeless; of the tops of mess tables sent to the Crimea without the legs, and of the guns without carriages, were no exaggerations. The Admiralty, it is true, were responsible for the transport of the troops; but the Civil Lord, by whom it was represented, had no control over shipments by either the Ordnance or by the Medical Departments. A case came under my own knowledge which would be ludicrous were it not melancholy.
