miles travelled, or
speed attained, much more had to be burned than now, a condition to
which contributed also the lack of rigidity in the wooden hulls, which
still held their ground. Sails were very expensive articles, as I
heard said by an accomplished officer of the olden days; but they were
less costly than coal. Steam therefore was accepted at the first only
as an accessory, for emergencies. It was too evident for question that
in battle a vessel independent of the wind would have an unqualified
advantage over one dependent; though an early acquaintance of mine, a
sailmaker in the navy, a man of unusual intelligence and tried
courage, used to maintain that steam would never prevail. Small
steamers, he contended, would accompany sailing fleets, to tow vessels
becalmed, or disabled in battle; a most entertaining instance of
professional prepossession. What would be his reflections, had he
survived till this year of grace, to see only six sailmakers on the
active list of the navy, the last one appointed in 1888, and not one
of them afloat. Likewise, in breasting the continuous head-winds which
mark some ocean districts, or traversing the calms of others, there
would be gain; but for the most part sailing, it was thought, was
sufficiently expeditious, decidedly cheaper, and more generally
reliable; for steamers "broke down." Admiral Baudin; a French veteran
of the Napoleonic period, was very sarcastic over the uncertainties of
action of the steamers accompanying his sailing frigates, when he
attacked Fort San Juan de Ulloa, off Vera Cruz in 1839; and since
writing these words I have come across the following quotation, of
several years later, from the London _Guardian_, which is republishing
some of its older news under the title "'Tis Sixty Years Since."

"Naval manoeuvres in 1846. The Squadron of Evolution is one of the
topics of the present week (June 10, 1846). Its arrival in the
Cove of Cork, after a cruise which has tested by every variety of
weather the sailing qualities of the vessels, has furnished the
world with a few particulars of its doings, and with some
materials for speculating on the problems it was sent out to
solve. The result, as far as it goes, is certainly unfavorable to
the exclusive prevalence of steam agency in naval warfare. Sailing
ships, it is seen, can do things which steamers, as at present
constructed, cannot accomplish. They can keep the sea when