their
appearance on the ocean. Some new arrangement of the propelling
apparatus, and lighter and more powerful machinery, will accomplish this
important end. And then, too, with greatly increased speed, and with a
construction suitable to the new function, the principle of the ram will
be perfected; so that the projectile thrown by the most powerful
ordnance now existing or even conceived will be insignificant compared
with the momentum of a large steamer, going at the rate of thirty or
forty miles an hour, and herself becoming the direct instrument of
destruction to her adversary. Ordnance may possibly be devised which
will throw shot or shell weighing each a thousand pounds; but by the new
principle, which is evidently growing in practicability and favor, the
weight of thousands of tons will be precipitated against vessels of war,
and naval combats will become a conflict of gigantic forces, in
comparison with which the discharge of guns and the momentum of cannon
balls will be little more than the bursting of bubbles.

The exploits of the rebel steamer Alabama, so destructive to our
commerce and so humiliating to our pride as a great naval power,
sufficiently attest the vital importance of the element of speed in
ships of war. Her capacity under steam is beyond that of our best
vessels, and she therefore becomes, at her pleasure, utterly
inaccessible to anything we may send to pursue her. We have built our
steamers strong and heavy; but proportionately slow and clumsy. The
Alabama could not safely encounter any one of them entitled to the name
of a regular cruiser; but she does not intend to risk such a contest,
and, most unfortunately for us, she cannot be compelled to meet it. Of
what real use are all the costly structures of our navy with the
tremendous ordnance which they carry, if this comparatively
insignificant craft can go and come when and where she will, and sail
through and around our fleets without the possibility of being
interrupted? They are perfectly well suited to remain stationary and aid
us in blockading the Southern ports; but the frequent escape of fast
steamers running the blockade, serves still further to demonstrate the
great and palpable deficiency in the speed of our ships of war. We may
start a hundred of our best steamers on the track of the Alabama, and,
without an accident, they can never overtake her. The only alternative
is to accept the lesson which her example teaches, and to surpass