We like to dwell upon the romance of our Cape Horn Fleet; and what Donald McKay, master builder of ships at East Boston, did to win fame there should never fade as long as American love of the sea exists. As a crowning accomplishment, when the rush to California was over, there followed from McKay’s shipyard that famous fleet of British- owned clipper ships he built for James Baines & Company, of Liverpool, for their Australian Black Ball Line—Lightning, Champion of the Seas, James Baines, Donald McKay, Commodore Perry, and Japan. Those wonderful ships, having made world records and rehabilitated Great Britain as Mistress of the Sea, gave this New England shipbuilder a reputation and standing in England unapproached by any American at that time, when her ships and shipping interests were paramount, as they have ever been with the English people.
When the British mail steamer Trent, steaming through the Bahama Channel on November 8, 1861, was stopped by a United States war vessel and the Confederate Commissioners, Mason and Slidell, found on board, were seized and taken to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, that seizure created the greatest excitement in England, where the members of the government were either actively hostile to the Northern States or coldly indifferent, and threats of war were freely made. Donald McKay was in London at the time, and on December 6, 1861, he sent a long communication to the powerful Star and Dial of London, which was published, copied, and widely commented upon throughout the United Kingdom. In it he corrected some of the misstatements being bandied about in the English press, frankly set out the naval strength of the Northern States, and warned the trouble breeders what might follow in case war should break out. And having been permitted to inspect all the Royal Dockyards and the principal private shipyards in the Kingdom, also those of France, Russia, Denmark, and Prussia, he was recognized by officialdom on both sides of the Atlantic as the best-informed American in the naval affairs of Europe. Hence, when he wrote The American Navy as Compared with the English, he was able to set forth most comprehensively the respective power and merits of both naval forces as follows:
In the last few days of excitement, the English Press has brought to light so many erroneous statements with regard to American Naval affairs, and has underrated our power to sustain a Maritime War to such an extent, that it seems to be high time to contradict some, at least, of the grossest misstatements, made evidently with the intention to mislead the English people to precipitate an assault upon a hitherto Friendly Power, by representing that such a course might be adopted by England without any danger to herself.1 To prove the utter fallacy of such reasoning becomes now the duty of every well-wisher of these two great nations.
Editor’s Note.—In a forenote with the article the author states: “It was Donald McKay, America’s foremost clipper ship builder, who, when bellicose conditions in England were rife, kept Great Britain from joining with the South in our Civil War. Returning to America, he won President Lincoln’s commendation by his open and frank way of imparting information to the American public in A Review of Our Navy.”
1 Italics in quotations used in this article are by the author.
Having been extensively engaged in shipbuilding, and being, consequently, intimately acquainted with the resources of our country for creating a powerful fleet on a sudden emergency, I may hope that you will excuse my request to grant a place in your highly esteemed paper to the following observations, written with the most friendly feelings toward England:
It has been frequently asserted that Americans like to pick a quarrel with England. The best refutation of this broad assertion may be found by citing the small attention which we have chosen to give to our Navy. It has always been regarded by Americans as so much money thrown away to keep a large number of armed vessels, above what was absolutely necessary for the protection of our Commercial Marine; and though nothing better than that could prove our friendly intentions toward all foreign nations, we are taunted now for our neglect in this respect. But though we do not possess at present a very large Navy, it does not prove by any means that we are not able to create, in an incredibly short time, a powerful Navy; and we can do so in less time than any other nation in the world, for we possess all the materials necessary for the construction of the largest and strongest war-ships—timber and iron—in the greatest abundance. And we have a sufficient number of the most skilful shipwrights and artisans to build a fleet of a thousand large men-of-war at the same time, and more than the necessary number of seamen to man such a fleet.
The statement given by the Times2 on the 4th of December, 1861, with regard to the number of ships composing our Navy at the present time, is very incomplete. Within the last two months there have been launched, fitted and equipped in our Naval and Mercantile Shipyards, ten (10) screw steam sloops-of-war and twenty-five (25) screw gunboats, of a size and with an armament never hitherto attempted in any of the Navies of Europe. They are, in regard to speed and power of artillery, more than a match for the sloops-of-war of European fleets; and the next few months will see three score more of this efficient class of vessels launched and ready for action.
The Merchant steamers, chartered and armed by our Government with from three to twenty heavy guns each, amount to over one hundred and twenty, and many of them are, in regard to their equipments, equal to any regular men-of-war ships; but in regard to strength of scantlings and in speed, infinitely their superiors. Many more of our commercial steamers are capable of receiving a powerful armament; and though much has been said, in this and other countries, about the uselessness of arming merchant vessels, any aggressor upon our country would find, to his great dismay, that such ideas have been pronounced more out of partiality to the Navy than with good reason.
2 During our Civil War, the London Times, then perhaps the most powerful news disseminating medium in the world, displayed strong hostility to the Northern States.
There are at least five hundred clipper ships, of from 1,000 to 3,500 tons each, which have a sufficient capacity and stability to receive an armament of from twenty to fifty of the heaviest guns. Six weeks would be sufficient to transform the greater part of these clipper ships into men-of-war. A large number of the same are, by their fine shape and large dimensions, very well adapted to be transformed into screw-frigates of from 36 to 50 guns.
Five hundred, or even more, fast-sailing brigs and barques can be transformed into so many men-of-war vessels, of from eight to thirty guns; and more than a thousand of our large coasting schooners can be armed with three to five guns each.
It will require a good number of large and strong brooms to sweep such a fleet from the ocean—as has been so often asserted could be done by the English Navy, in less than a month’s time. We are not deficient in talent for bragging, but even a Yankee would not dare to go to this limit. We are a little boastful, and, perhaps, a little overbearing; but our (English) Cousins ought to take that rather good-humouredly, as we both inherited this little deficiency from our common fathers.
So much for the Naval Force which can be made immediately available for the defence of our country. Our facilities for building a New Fleet are greater than those of any of the great European Naval Powers—I think even, I may safely assert, greater than all of them combined!
He then made clear that there were many shipyards in the United States, like his own, “one of medium extent,” which had built, launched, and equipped in 14 months, during the years 1853 and 1854, eleven of the largest class of clipper ships, with a burden of about 40,000 tons, some of which were well known in the English service in the transportation of troops to and from India and the Crimea. He further pointed out the large existing tonnage of the American Merchant Marine, 2,546,237 tons of seagoing ships in the year 1860; the ability of our naval dockyards to “turn out sixty of the largest class of warships in one year”; and those conditions in America which tended to reduce the cost of building a war fleet to one-half that of any other country.
Our facilities for casting guns are superior to those of other countries, and though we possess no Armstrong guns, we possess, in the lately turned-out rifled Dahlgren guns, a weapon which we consider, for accuracy of aim and destructive effects, if not even for range, infinitely its superior. The latest experiments at Shoeburyness do not seem to confirm at all that the far-famed Armstrong gun possesses any great powers to destroy iron-plated vessels, while the rifled Dahlgren has easily shattered to pieces a proof-butt coated with 6-inch plates, instead of 4½-inch ones.
And then he prophesied:
In case our country should be involved in a Naval War, new engines of war will see the daylight, such as the world never dreamt of, and ironcased ships will be met with destructive agents against whom an iron casing, be it even ten inches thick, will prove unavailable.3
3 Donald McKay was one of the earliest advocates of armored vessels and turret mountings for guns.
He concludes thus:
I will only add that I have made this statement not out of any feeling of animosity, but merely with the intention to show the resources of the United States of America for carrying on a defensive war, and to show that whatever the ultimate result of an aggressive war on our country may be—hundreds of ships, and many thousands of men will have gone to the bottom of the sea before its end will have arrived. A War between England and the United States would prove the greatest calamity the world has ever seen, and, therefore, let us pray that the leading men of both countries may not rule their actions by a misplaced pride, jealousy or animosity, but by the true interest of their respective countries. Nobody can foresee how many more nations might be drawn into such a conflict, and when the fury of the war would stop, if it had once begun to rage.
Promptly upon his return home from England, Donald McKay put his shipyard into readiness to build naval vessels, and among those he constructed were the iron side-wheel gunboat Ashuelot, the ironclad monitor Nausett, and the wooden propeller gunboats Trefoil and Yucca. Once again he took up the cudgels in defense of our naval authorities, for erroneous statements were being put forth by many writers in the American press who evidently knew but little whereof they affirmed, and McKay’s efforts to strengthen the arms of our government created favorable comment upon all sides.
Before the commencement of the war, he had communicated, in a condensed form, the result of his observations to the New York Commercial Bulletin and to other papers in the United States. The letters embodying his views were copied extensively. When war broke out they were referred to by naval writers in complimentary terms, and some of his suggestions were adopted by the United States Navy. With especial reference to his knowledge of the strength of England and France upon the ocean, he advised:
I saw that these powers respected nothing but force, and I know that if we desire to prevent foreign intervention in our affairs, our Navy must be largely increased.
I refer to these facts at this time, to show that when I write of Naval Affairs, I write of that which I know, and which will stand the test of fair-minded scrutiny. Nothing is easier than to find fault, and I can state from my own experience, that with all my care, I never yet built a vessel that came up to my own ideal; I saw something in each ship which I desired to improve. But I should have felt unfairly dealt with if my ships had been judged by their blemishes rather than by their merits. The same rule I propose to apply to a review of our Naval Affairs, that those interested may see what has been done, and is still doing by the Navy Department.
Mr. McKay then continued with this complete detailed description of our Civil War naval forces and dwelt interestingly upon the conditions prevailing at that critical period:
At the breaking out of the Rebellion, the Navy of the United States consisted of the following steamers, namely: The screw frigates Merrimack, Wabash, Minnesota, Roanoke, and Colorado, of about 3,350 tons each; of the large screw sloop Niagara, of 4,582 tons; of the first class screw sloops Richmond, Brooklyn, San Jacinto, Hartford, Pensacola4 and Lancaster, of about 2,000 tons each; of the second-class sloops Pawnee, Iroquois, Wyoming, Mohican, and Dacotah, of about 1,070 tons each; of the third-class sloops Narragansett and Seminole, of about 850 tons each; of the first-class paddle-wheel sloops Susquehanna and Powhattan, of about 2,430 tons; the Mississippi, of 1,692 tons; and the Saranac, of 1,446 tons; and of the small paddle-wheel steamers Michigan, Saginaw, and Spitfire, of about 470 tons each; making a total of twenty- five steamers and 49,700 tons.
Such was the steam navy with which the administration began the task of rigorously blockading 3,600 miles of the most difficult coast in the world, against the fastest and best steamers that the shops of England could produce, built exclusively for speed and blockade running at the particular localities; in addition to which the oceans of the world were to be kept free of the steamers called “Confederate Cruisers,” but which were, in reality, English pirates, being built in England, equipped with English guns and manned by English crews, whose purpose was not to fight our cruisers as war vessels, but to plunder our sailing merchant ships, and to keep out of the path of our war steamers.
4 She proved a total failure and her machinery had to be removed.
In this pressing emergency the Department did all that could possibly be done. It purchased every merchant steamer that could be converted into a blockading vessel or war cruiser, and the United States Navy at this moment contains every merchant steamer of any size or excellence that has been built in the country. It set at work every steam engine factory in the land, that could produce marine machinery. It considered all plans offered for armoring vessels, and tried many. It instituted experiments in machinery, in ordnance, and in armor-plating. It rapidly covered the Mississippi and its tributary waters with an immense inland fleet, many of which were armored, and which sweeping the Rebels from these waters, have been an indispensable element to our holding the whole interior of the country, as it gives us the exclusive command of its water highways. It lined the Atlantic coast with such a blockading fleet as the world never witnessed before, and has practically closed the rebellious district to the world; the few vessels which succeeded in running the blockade being too small to carry cargo sufficient to give aid of any consequence. The Rebels have not been able to import even drugs enough to supply the medical department of their Army.
There are now in the United States Navy, in active service, five hundred and fifty-eight steamers, with an aggregate tonnage of 408,000 tons, against the original twenty-five steamers and 49,700 tons with which the war commenced. Of this number, two hundred steamers, with an aggregate of 241,000 tons have been built by the Navy Department.
In no country, and with such limited means, and under such difficult circumstances, has there ever been put afloat in the same time, such immense Naval armaments. In no place has there been any failure, but wherever the Naval forces moved victory followed. The Rebel coast has been held with a grasp of iron and nearly hermetically sealed. The pirates of the enemy have been followed around the world, and captured wherever they could be found, and the internal navigation and command of this vast country has been kept open and in the hands of the Government.
When President Lincoln had finished reading that part of the foregoing statement, imparting information to the American public concerning naval matters in which they were much interested, he remarked: “That’s the way to appeal to the intelligence of our people; Donald McKay tells them honestly and well what the Navy Department has done during this war.”
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Of seas, skips are the grace.—Old Greek Hymn.