red for coast defence.

The "Iowa," a battle-ship of the first class whose keel was laid in
1893, was launched in March, 1895. She is the largest vessel of the
navy now afloat, her displacement being 11,410 tons, which is over a
thousand tons greater than that of the "Massachusetts," "Indiana," or
"Oregon."

It will be seen that progress toward the building of the new navy of
the United States has been steady since the first move was made in
1882. As a result of this development, the navy now consists, counting
the vessels built and authorized by Congress, prior to 1896, the naval
appropriations bill for that year still pending at this writing, of
about seventy modern ships-of-war. These include eight battle-ships,
six coast-defence steel-clads, two armored cruisers, one armored ram,
thirteen protected cruisers, eighteen gunboats and unprotected
cruisers, and about two dozen torpedo-boats. This fleet gives the
United States sixth place in the list of naval powers, being outranked
in number of vessels by England, France, Russia, Germany, or Italy, in
the order named. A true idea of the comparative fighting strength of
the United States navy is not conveyed, however, by its rank in the
numerical strength of the fleet. The _personnel_ of the navy and the
power of the individual ships must be considered. It is generally
conceded that the United States has the finest fighting men and
vessels in the world. These advantages would, in all probability,
enable us to whip Germany or Italy in a series of naval contests;
therefore, it is thought by naval critics that we really hold fourth
position among the naval powers. England is still a long way ahead of
us, the English navy now numbering nearly five hundred vessels, of
which one hundred and twenty are armored cruisers. But, comparing the
navies ship to ship, the United States fleet, so far as it goes, is
superior even to that of Great Britain. The battle-ships, while
somewhat smaller, are more effective fighters. The English navy has no
armored cruisers as fast or as powerful as the "New York" and
"Brooklyn;" and the commerce-destroyers, "Columbia" and "Minneapolis,"
are the fastest vessels, either of war or peace, that have gone to
sea.

That this new navy of ours will ever have to meet so stern an ordeal
as that through which the sailors of '61 went is wholly improbable. In
multiplying the number and the effectiveness of fighting machines the
nations of the world have seem