Identifier: shorthistoryofam00spea (find matches)
Title: A short history of the American navy
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Spears, John Randolph, 1850-1936 Navy League of the United States
Subjects: United States. Navy
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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edcanal, was seized on the pretence that Honduras had re-fused to pay a debt. British warships were always foundwhere needed to enforce British pretensions. The need ofan American navy, able not only for harbor defence butfor the protection of American interests, at least as faraway as the coasts of Nicaragua, was apparent. In consequence of this need Congress, by the act ofApril 6, 1854, provided for the construction, at as earlya day as practical, of six first-class steam frigates, to beprovided with screw propellers, and armed and equippedfor service. There was an ominous sound in the lastsentence quoted, for service meant war. Later fivesteam sloops were ordered in much the same terms, andthen, as the trouble was not settled, seven more steamsloops were provided for, which ships shall combine theheaviest armament and greatest speed compatible withtheir character and tonnage. The discussions in Congress, particularly that in theSenate on March 3, 1856, show that these warships were
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DEVELOPMENT OF SHIPS AND GUNS IN THE OLD NAVY 77 ordered because war was impending, and that war im-pended because we did not have an adequate navy. The ships were built at as early a day as practical;they were armed with the best guns in the world, and (whenready) they were the ablest fighting ships in the world.Because of the building of these most efficient ships thewar was avoided. Before describing these new frigates and sloops thestory of the navy gun nmst be told. We fought the War of 1812 with ships that carried fortheir most effective guns a smooth-bore cannon with a borebetween five and six inches in diameter, throwing a spher-ical cast-iron ball that weighed twenty-four pounds. Theuse of a 24-pounder on a frigate was a distinct advance inefficiency on the practice of the day. After the war wesubstituted 32-pounders—guns with a bore six inches, ora trifle more, in diameter—for the 24-pounders, and evenour smallest sloops-of-war carried guns of this cahbre.Ships-of-the-li

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