France and England on the Sea

Feilding Star, Volume VIII, Issue 52, 12 October 1886, Page 4

France and England on the Sea

The San Francisco Call says: — *• France iscoming to the front as a rival of England in steam navigation. The new French liner La Bourgogne has nil Je atrial trip across the tl . . tic, and comparing her passage with that of the Etruris, the crack Ounardar, mak- | ing allowance for difference in sailiug i distances, the French ship is only five and a-half hours behind the English. The officers of La Bourgogne say that she. will completely eclipse her iuitial performances when her engines get into better order. La Bourgogne is so built and fitted that she van be converted into a war -vessel at | short notice. Many English steamers - are; so, built and the adoption of a system of Government subsidy conditioned on like construction, is now agitated in this country. It would result in ' naval militia' ready for quick conversion to wai-like purposes. Fiance ha* neve? {lagged behind in liaval design aiid construction. Even when England was sweeping the French Navy from the seas in the early part of this century, it was admitted that French hulls were as good models as were those of England. The ■ English were the better riggers and sailors by nature and training. There has always been a suspicion among naval experts that the introduction _of steam ironclads, etc., threatened British naval supremacy. The reduction, of naval warfare to a sci« ntncanJ mechanical problem tended to put the French miUekii on an equal footing with the dashing British tar. There may "be t reasons for the suspicion. Sir Edwin Eeed, the noted English naval constructor, in a recent magazine article c impared British and French ironlads, to the disadvantage of the former. The French fleet presses closely upon that of England in size and i ffi ien :y . France lacks the colonial system of England to foster her mercantile marine, but she is reaching O it with her steam lines for the trade pf tMe world, andiuiproying her ships and maritime methods. So far as war-veßsela are concerned, the attention of England has been aroused to J ijie iidyanceb made, by her Continental noiel bour, which may result in improving her own fleet."