The Rise of the Navy

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 264, 16 May 1888, Page 6

The Rise of the Navy

Tin pionies-ivc augmentation in the ma; of n»i\dl \ps^ols has boon wipid in Oiu.it lint.un. Wlicmi Homy VIII. const meted his Hum \ Oiaeo de iheu, ot 1,000 I,ons, it, u.ib indeed apical amonjj piunue-, toi a \essol ol two 01 three hunched tons was then considered laigc. At l.ho death ot Eli/abcth Mio left tojty-t\so ships, ot 17,000 lon* in all, and 3,346 men; liiLeen of her \osseU bomji 600 tons and upwaids. Fioni this pciiod the tomwitio ot the navy ,-lcadily iticrca.soil. Tlie liis-t really --den t/ilie an;hitoet, Ah l'lunea- Toll, remodelled the navy to pniposo in the lei^ie- ot -James I. and Oh.irlesl. I'revious (,o this Lime the \c*>i->el.s, with theii lotty jtoops and imec.istJcs, had gietilly lusoniblccl Chinese junks. He launched the Hovoiei<;n ot the (Seas, a vessel 132 feet in length, and ot a number of tons exactly eoiTCsponding to the date, 1637, when sho lclt the .shijis. Cromwell found ,i navy of 14 fcwo-dcekers, and lett one of 150 vessels, of which one-third wore linc-oi -battle .ships. Ho was the liisL to lay naval estimates bcloio Parliament, and obtained 11400,000 per annum for tlie serviue, .lames 11. left 108 .ships of the lino, and 65 other \esseld oi 102,000 tons, with 42,000 men. William 111. brought it to 272 ships ol 159,200 tons. Oeorgo JJ. loft, in 1760, 412 . ships, of 321,104 tons. Twonty-two \eais later the na\y had reached 617 vessels, and in 1813 we had the cnormou-< number ot 1,000 vessels, ot which 256 were of the line, measuring 900,000 tons, carrying 146,000 seamonand marines, and costing CJ 8,000,000 per annum to maintain. Hut since the peace of 1815 the number of vessels has gieatly diminished, while a new era of naval construction has been inaugurated, in the seventeenth century a vcs&el of 1,500 tons was considered of onormous

) size. At the end of iho eighteenth, 2,500 1 was the outside limit, whilst there aro now 3 many vessels of 4,000 and 5,000 ton,s, and one or two of even 6,000 tons, while tho lloyal Navy also possess frigates of 6,000 i and upwards. Several of our enormous ) ironclad." have a tonnage of over 10,000 \i tons ; while the Ureat Eastern — of course > a very eveeptional case— has a tonnage of 1 22,500. — J< I rom ' Tlio Sea : Tts Stirring ) Story of Advenliuo, I'cril and Heroism.'