empire]
ADMIRALTY
ADMINISTRATION
Admiralty, after the naval manoeuvres of 1888, had directed three admirals—Sir William Dowell, Sir R. Vesey Hamilton, and Sir F. Richards—to furnish a report. They arrived at the following conclusion : “It will not be found practicable to maintain an effective blockade of an enemy’s squadrons in strongly fortified ports by keeping the main body of the fleet off the port to be blockaded, without the blockading battleships being in the proportion of at least five to three to allow a sufficient margin for casualties, to which the enemy’s vessels in a secure harbour would not be exposed, and the necessary periodical absence of a portion of the blockading squadron for the purpose of replenishing fuel, making good defects, Ac. A still larger proportion might be necessary if the area to be covered by the blockaders was extensive.” It may be said that this report was at the base of the Naval Defence Act programme and of those which have followed it, and it has constantly been appealed to by writers and speakers, though it is a question whether recent developments of foreign navies do not indicate the necessity of a larger proportion of British ships. The Naval Defence Act, 1889, 52 Yict. cap. 8, being “an Act to make further provision for naval defence and defray the expenses thereof,” marked the beginning of a larger conception on the part of the Government and the Admiralty of the needs of the British empire, and it may be said to have formed the practical beginning of the existing efficient navy. Ships were in existence—the Admiral class, for example—-of an earlier date, but it is nevertheless true that the vessels put in hand under the Naval Defence Act marked a real beginning. The preamble of the Act was as follows : “ It is expedient that a sum not exceeding A21,000,000 be granted for the purpose of building, arming, equipping, and completing for sea vessels of Her Majesty’s navy; and that it is expedient that a sum not exceeding <£10,000,000 be issued out of the consolidated fund in seven years, ending the 31st of March 1896 ; and that a sum not exceeding £11,000,000 be issued out of the moneys to be provided by Parliament for the naval service during the financial years ending the 31st of March 1894.” A subsequent 'measure supplemented the Act of 1889, and was described as the Naval Defence Act 1893, 56 & 57 Yict. cap. 45 : “ An Act to make further provision for the completion and equipment of ships under the Naval Defence Act 1889, and to amend that Act,” and the new provision made was for a grant of moneys not exceeding £1,350,000. The programme of the Naval Defence Act was for the building of ten battleships, of which eight were of the first class, and displaced 14,150 tons, while two, which were then described as of the second class, but are now ranked of the first, were of 10,500 tons. The eight larger battleships built under the Act were the Royal Sovereign, Empress of India, Hood, Ramillies, Repulse, Resolution, Revenge, and Royal Oak, and the two smaller ships the Centurion and Barjleur. These are all ships of high freeboard, the larger ones with four 13‘5-inch and the smaller with as many 10-inch guns in their barbettes, and in the matter of protection they marked a great advance upon their predecessors. The Naval Defence Act also provided for the building of nine first-class cruisers—the Royal Arthur and the Crescent (7700 tons), and the Edgar, Endymion, Gibraltar, Grafton, Hawke, St. George, and Theseus, as wdll as thirty-three second-class cruisers. The second-class cruisers were to be of 3400 tons, but before the programmes could be carried out the dimensions of several of them were increased to 4360 tons. The end of the financial year 1894-95 saw the completion of five second-class cruisers and four torpedo gunboats, which brought to an end the work provided for under the Naval Defence Act. The vessels were soon completed for sea,
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and most of them were commissioned for the manoeuvres of 1895. The limit of five years, which had originally been fixed for the completion of these vessels, had been somewhat exceeded. Meanwhile provision had been made in the programme of 1892-93 for the laying down of the battleship Renown. displacing 12,350 tons and lying midway Naval probetween the Royal Sovereign and Centurion grammes, classes, as well as for certain destroyers and tS92-l902. other torpedo craft. It was on 23rd June 1893, off the coast of Tripoli, Syria, that the lamentable catastrophe occurred in which the Victoria, flagship of Sir George Tryon, commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, was lost through collision with the Camperdoivn. This incident, combined with a strong feeling that after the close of the principal work of the Naval Defence Act no adequate provision had been made, caused Earl Spencer, then First Lord of the Admiralty, to introduce a new programme. In December 1893 Sir William Harcourt had told the House of Commons that the professional advisers of the Admiralty—meaning the Naval Lords—were of opinion that the navy was in a satisfactory state, and that its supremacy was for the moment absolute, and added i that he would undertake to say that the “ superiority of 1 the British navy was never so great as it is now.” It was I commonly believed that the Naval Lords thereupon resolved to resign, but two days later Sir William Harcourt made - a statement which modified the impression he had given. The agitation of that time materially strengthened the hands of Lord Spencer, and the programme of 1893-94 provided for the laying down of two new battleships—the Majestic and Magnificent — of 14,900 tons, afterwardvS first and second flagships of the Channel squadron, as well as three second-class cruisers—the Talbot, Eclipse, and I Minerva—and two sloops. Two first-class cruisers—the Powerful and Terrible — belong to the same year, and after being deferred were given out to contract in December 1893. They were the first large vessels of the British fleet to be provided with water-tube boilers, these being of the Belleville type. The shipbuilding programme of 1894-95 included seven battleships, six cruisers of the second class, and two sloops. The battleships were 1 of the Majestic class, and received the names of Prince George, Victorious, Ccesar, Hannibal, Illustrious, Jupiter, and Mars (14,900 tons). The second-class cruisers were the Venus, Diana, Dido, Isis, Juno, and Doris, displacing 5600 tons. All these were built by contract, as was the case with two of the battleships of that year. The shipbuilding work put in hand under this programme gave full occupation to the building yards, and the constructive scheme embodied in the estimates of 1895-96 did not include any battleships. There were four firstclass protected cruisers of 11,000 tons, resembling in various ways the Powerful and Royal Arthur classes— the Diadem, Andromeda, Europa, and Niobe—all provided with Belleville boilers, and calculated for a speed of 20‘5 knots; four second-class cruisers of 5750 tons— the Arrogant, Furious, Gladiator, and Vindictive; two third-class cruisers of 2135 tons—the Pelorus and Proserpine ; and twenty torpedo-boat destroyers. The work conducted under the programme so far described was carried out with great rapidity. The Majestic and Magnificent, built respectively at Portsmouth and Chatham, were commissioned within twenty-two and twenty-four months from the laying of the keel, thus surpassing all previous records, and the Prince George at Portsmouth and the Victorious at Chatham maintained this rapidity of construction. Moreover the progress made with these vessels did not interfere with the maintenance of the progress intended either on new shipbuilding or in keeping up the
