A PROBABLE CHANGE IN NAVAL WARFARE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5215, 8 December 1877, Page 1 (Supplement)

A PROBABLE CHANGE IN NAVAL WARFARE.

A recent article in the London Times calls attention to the fact that there is scarcely a single problem of naval equipment and warfare which, under the conditions imposed by the development of modern mechanism and ordnance, can be said to have reached a satisfactory solution. England and the nations of Continental Europe have expended vast sums of money iu reconstructing their navies, aud yet it is by no means certain that the task will not have to be undertaken afresh. Mighty ships have bef n built which -have become obsolete before they are finished, or will not float when they go to sea, aud many prevalent notions of naval construction have been contradicted by the present war between Russia and Turkey. Several engagements in the present war have shown it to be very doubtful after all whether unarmored vessels cannot successfully encounter iron-clads. It has been a favorite prediction that naval operations would be paralyzed by torpedoes, and yet the present war shows that their use may be in a great measure neutralized by vigilance and courange. The experience of actual warfare must always control and correct our theories on this subject, aud the experience of the present war has already enforced the lesson that less reliance should be placed upon mechanical appliances, and more upon the skill and courage of the men who man the vessels. The results of recent naval engagements have suggested, but have not decided, the question as to whether a naval power should build iron-clad monsters or a flotilla of gunboats ; still more whether a converted merchantman, such as the Vesta, which in the Black Sea so distinguished itself recently in repulsing a Turkish iron-clad, 13 not a match for a monitor which has cost the best part of a million sterling. The powerful fleets of England in the Crimean war, of which so much was expected, accomplished very little. In 1870 the French fleet was powerful, while the fleet of Turkish iron-clads, under the command of an able English officer, has achieved no marked success in 1877. All these facts would seem to show that it is by no means certain that we will not have to return to unarmored vessels on account of their superior seaworthiness and capacity for rapid movement and efficient handling. Iron-clads may still be used for harbor and coast defences, but it would appear from recent experience that naval operations upon the high seas may be more readily accomplished with lighter vessels, and success would depend more upon the qualities which brave and skilful seamen would bring to their conduct. It seems probable that in the future as in the past the supremacy of the sea will belong to that nation which can send a fleet as handy and efficient and ready to encounter difficulties and defy danger as that which Nelson commanded at Trafalgar.