fact that public opinion was prepared for the appointment of such a board by the writings of naval officers on naval matters before it came into existence, and, although the ships it recommended were not built, its statement that new ships were imperatively needed received respectful consideration. The Navy Department had been smirched, but the honor, integrity, and ability of the personnel of the navy had never been doubted for a moment. In eight years our force afloat descended from the highest place to the lowest, in spite of the remonstrances of the naval officers; but they were not wholly disheartened. They continued their appeals to the public, using the pen as vigorously and efficiently as they have always used gun and sword, and at the end of another period of eight years they turned the tide. As a result of the Rodgers report, Congress, in the following year (1882) inserted this paragraph in the naval appropriation bill approved on August 5th : Any portion of said sum not required for the purposes aforesaid (in the general uses of the Bureau of Construction and Repair) may be applied toward the construction of two steam cruising vessels of war, which are hereby authorized, at a total cost, when fully completed, not to exceed the amount estimated by the late Naval Advisory Board for such vessels, the same to be constructed of steel, of domestic manufacture. One of said vessels shall be of not less than 5,000, nor more than 6,000 tons displacement, and shall have the highest attainable speed. One of said vessels shall be of not less than 4,300, nor more than 4,700 tons displacement.” It was also provided that the vessels should have full sail-power. The Secretary of the Navy was directed by the same act to appoint a naval advisory board of five naval officers "without reference to rank, and with reference only to character, experience, knowledge, and skill, and two persons of established reputation and standing, as experts in naval and marine construction, to be selected from civil life." Further than that the Secretary was directed to advertise for models and plans to be submitted by anyone, practically, and last of all was a paragraph saying that any sum left over from the appropriation for the Bureau of Steam Engineering might be applied to building engines for the ships so authorized. In this grudging fashion-never in the history of our nation was a great work undertaken more grudgingly we prepared to build the new navy. Meantime Mr. William E. Chandler had become Secretary of the Navy. By his appoint ment Commodore R. W. Shufeldt, Chief Engineer Alexander Henderson, Commander J. A. Howell, Lieutenant Edward Very, and Naval Constructor F. L. Fernald, with Messrs. Henry Steers, ship architect, and Miers Coryell, Marine Engineer, were organized as the Advisory Board. Assistant Naval Constructor F. T. Bowles was detailed as Secretary, while Passed Assistant Engineer C. R. Roelker, and Assistant Engineer H. P. Norton, were ordered to give their services in the actual work of designing ships and machinery. Assistant Naval Constructor Richard Gatewood, of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, was also employed. The work of preparing plans for a new navy worthy of the nation, that was given to these gentlemen, was a task the magnitude of which has never been properly appreciated. It was not alone that without real experience in modern war-ship building they were expected to turn out something superior to all that the unbroken activity of European nations had produced; they had to do their work under the carping criticism of a people ignorant of the subject in hand, grudging in the matter of granting funds, and strongly suspicious of the honesty of the administration that was to give out the contracts. The underhanded and dishonest work done in the building previously |