HC Deb 17 May 1860 vol 158 cc1413-21
SIR FREDERIC SMITH

said, he rose to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, If he has any objection to discontinue the breaking up of the defective Gunboats until a full opportunity shall have been afforded for thoroughly examining into their state under the direction of a Select Committee, should it be appointed? A Motion of his own in reference to these gunboats had been postponed until the following Tuesday; and if it were true, as had been stated, that such boats were in the course of being broken up, then his Motion would fall to the ground. The breaking them up would get rid of one great menus of forwarding a prosecution should such a step be deemed necessary, and he was, therefore, very desirous that the Government should give orders to suspend any attempt to break up any of these vessels or to repair or alter those which were not in so bad a slate, in order that a Committee might have the means of ascertaining where the fault lay, and to what extent the injury had gone. The other evening the noble Lord the Secretary to the Admiralty was asked to name the contractors by whom the boats were built—a question which he, with his usual good taste and judgment, declined to answer. But since then the respectable firm of the Messrs. Green had come forward and publicly stated in the newspapers that they were the constructors of a largo number of the boats stated to be imperfect; and they admitted the use of unseasoned timber, and, to a certain extent, that of short bolts. If their statement was as correct as he hoped it was, with respect to the extent to which short bolts had been used, the mischief was not so great as had been imagined. The letter of Messrs. Green gave the strongest reason why there should be a Committee of Inquiry, and why the work of demolishing the boats should not be further proceeded with. They said:— As to the vessels being defective, we are not surprised, as many of them were built of unseasoned timber, although the best that could be got at the time, and the air excluded when they were hove up out of the water at Haslar, instead of having a plank taken out fore and aft for ventilation, which ought to have been done. Any man who knew anything about ships would see the force of this observation. They then proceeded:— With regard to the short bolts, we beg to state that during the progress of the work we were pushed very hard by the Admiralty to complete our contract, and even threatened with legal proceedings if behind time, which compelled us to employ a largo number of strange shipwrights, who worked very often night and day, and it would, therefore, be impossible for us or the Government inspector to be answerable that every bolt was properly driven. It is admitted by the Admiralty, in their report, that 2,202 bolts were properly driven through; and we maintain, as shipbuilders, that planks fastened with one through bolt in every other timber, with a short one between, are quite sufficient to secure the safety of any vessel of war. Lloyd's require one through bolt and one short bolt in every butt, and not less than half of the trenails to be driven through, in building their highest class ships, calculated to carry heavy cargoes; and, should the ship be copper-fastened, they require only one half of the bolts to be through bolts, and all the rest short holts. We complain of the Admiralty for not giving the contractors longer time to build these vessels, and for not having a larger staff of inspectors to superintend the work, and also for not taking proper care of them after they were duly delivered up into the charge of their authorities, according to contract, with the necessary certificates. He thought that those allegations were matters for inquiry, and therefore he was anxious that the best evidence in the case—that of the boats themselves—should not be put out of the way. He hoped the noble Lord would be able to give him the assurance that the destruction of these boats would be immediately stopped.

SIR JAMES ELPHINSTONE

said, he had hitherto forborne to offer his opinion upon this subject, for he lad hoped that the matter would take some tangible form, and the question have been put on a footing which would be productive of some advantage to the country. These vessels were defective in every possible form; and as they formed a species of defence which had become of the very greatest importance to this country, he thought that if his hon. Friend persevered in his Motion for a Committee of Inquiry into their state, he ought also to add that that Committee should inquire into the whole question us to how that arm of the public service could be best supplied. He would not on that occasion enter into the personal question. It was necessary, during the Russian war, to construct a force of gunboats speedily, and, as the means of providing seasoned timber was wanting, the Government was compelled to take what they could get, and they built certain vessels of a new description, which, to some extent, answered their purpose. Having said this he had said all he could in their favour; and he would add that he thought that the much more sagacious course would have been for the Government, at the end of the war, to have dispensed with these vessels altogether, and to have directed that vessels of a more suitable character should be constructed. There were one hundred and fifty of these gunboats, and they constituted a description of force and a means of defence which were rendered requisite by the preparations going on elsewhere. But the existing gunboats could neither steam nor sail. They could not carry their guns in heavy weather, and they were incapable of moving from one point of the coast to the other, when they were required. If he supported this assertion, he thought it clear that one great object of the Committee should be to inquire and ascertain what a gunboat really ought to be. A friend of his, a short time ago, fitted out a gunboat for a distant colony, and the gentleman to whom he alluded being an officer of great intelligence, he (Sir J. Elphinstone) asked him to let him know what were the performances of his vessel. The communication he received was the following:— I can sum up the good qualities in one short sentence—she is an excellent seaboat and stays well; beyond this, I cannot add a word in her praise; and her defects would fill a sheet of foolscap. She will neither sail nor steam, and draws eight feet six; maximum speed about five-and-half—we once obtained seven and eight, with a gale on the quarter. She cannot steam under any circumstances for more than twenty-four hours without stopping to 'sweep tubes,' and with any head breeze or sea her rate may be represented by the minus quantity. She cannot generate steam sufficient to maintain a regular speed of five knots even for more than six hours at a time. She leaks like a sieve. So badly were the boards under the stoke-hole plates fitted that the ashes readily found their way into the bilges, choked the pumps, and continually, on our passage out, obliged us to stop, when under steam, to take them to pieces. The suction pipes of these pumps were so miraculously placed as to be totally unserviceable except the ship was on an exactly even line. These two defects have been remedied at Rio, at an expense of £37, which might have been done in a home yard for £5. Sic transit argentum Angliœ. Moral—which fully accounts for the income tax. The magazine has generally from one to two inches of water in it, and the bilges, notwithstanding the most careful attention, stink to such a Thames-like degree as fairly to drive me a wanderer and a fugitive from my cabin, the paint in which was turned in a few hours from white to a slimy looking chocolate. On the passage out I was obliged to sling and sleep under the mizen boom in fine weather; and in foul I used to draw my waterproof around me and doze for the night in a chair. As for my cabin, I never went near it—could not—except to dress in a morning or bolt my meals. Everything I had in it has been completely spoiled, stock and clothes. One-half the ship's company only can sling their hammocks, the other spend the night in crawling on to bins and rolling off again. This was an account of a gunboat on service, making her way to the point where she was to defend the honour of the country. He would give the House another instance. He was on board one of Her Majesty's ships at Spithead last week, and when he left the ship the wind was blowing fresh from the cast. To come on shore he availed himself of one of these gunboats, and they arrived in safety opposite South Sea Castle. The tide was running to the eastward at about four knots, and, as had said, the wind was blowing half a gale from the east. With a handy vessel, without steam at all, the wind would have carried her over the tide. But this vessel, with all the steam she could muster, could not stem the tide, and after all kinds of efforts she got on the top of one of the buoys and could not get clear of it. At last, after sticking for twenty-five minutes in one place, with all the ladies and gentlemen looking at them from the Esplanade, they were obliged to land in small boats. He went down to the beach an hour or two afterwards, and the gunboat was still in the same place, and there was no difference, except that they had let go her anchor because she could not stem the tide. He inquired whether the boat was inferior to the rest of her class, and the answer he got was that this particular vessel was one of Her Majesty's advanced steam reserve, the Beaver, and that she was understood to be so efficient that she was used for the purpose of taking the officers backwards and forwards. He would appeal to his hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Devonport (Sir Michael Seymour), if he were present, to say whether, in transporting these gunboats from Hong Kong to the Nore last year, he was not obliged to take the guns out of them. One of these gunboats, thus not having a gun on board, but only two howitzers to defend herself, was attacked by three or four piratical vessels, and only saved by the extreme gallantry of the young lieutenant who commanded her. The mistake made by the Admiralty was in not selling these vessels out of the service at the close of the Russian war. They would have made very good coasters, and their engines, being high pressure, might have answered very well for thrashing corn. Instead of doing that, however, the mischief had been perpetuated by the creation of that most extraordinary establishment, the gunboat stable at Haslar. There were forty or fifty gunboats there laid up in a row like horses in a stable, dependent for the means of getting them afloat on a very complicated screw, and the slightest derangement of that machinery would lock them up, so that they might as well be in Winchester Gaol. Such was the strange contrivance of a First Lord of the Admiralty to keep these useless vessels; but the precaution of removing a plank from the bow, and another from the stern of each vessel, to secure internal ventilation was omitted; the timbers were neither kyanized nor subjected to any process to prevent the growth of fungus, and so they had rapidly decayed. Every naval man must perceive the absurdity of the course that had been adopted. He, therefore, recommended the House to institute an inquiry into the whole subject of small vessels, for that was an arm of our navy which, in future was, would be of the greatest advantage if it were properly cared for. His opinion was that the form of these vessels should be entirely altered. In the next war an Armstrong gun might he put aboard each of the penny steamboats on our river; he would undertake in a forenoon to fit one of those boats for the purpose. We should then have vessels of the highest speed under steam carrying guns which could throw shot or shell an immense distance; and those vessels moving with great rapidity, and being painted with a tint which could not be distinguished from the colour of the water a thousand yards off, it would be very difficult to hit them. Such should be the vessels to which we might confide the defence of our shores, and not to those miserable things of which he had given no exaggerated description, and which would be certain to fail us in the hour of need.

LORD CLARENCE PAGET

said, his hon. and gallant Friend had given them a very graphic description of the defects of the gunboats, and he (Lord C. Paget) was not going to attempt to defend them or to state that they were perfect in all respects. But the best proof he could give that these gunboats were not thought to be perfect by the Admiralty was that the gunboats now in course of construction were built of a very superior form, and would carry a very superior armament to that of the gunboats which had been built at the time which had been alluded to. He agreed with his hon. Friend in what he thought as to the lamentable exposé which had happened at Portsmouth. With respect to these vessels, all he could say was that the Government was not in the act of breaking them up, and this applied particularly to those which were alluded to in the Motion. The moment in which the Admiralty found the very defective state in which they were, they ordered them to be loft in that state, so as to allow the contractors to sec their state, and also with a view to ulterior measures, if any should be adopted. As to the mortar boats at Chatham, he apprehended that it was too late to prevent their being broken up, for by this time the work was in a very forward state; but with regard to the other vessels, no doubt the Admiralty would leave them as they were until it was ascertained what course should be pursued.

SIR CHARLES NAPIER

said, he fully concurred in the opinion that this was a subject which could not be too often discussed. It was a most important question, for on it depended the lives of our seamen and the defences of the country. He did not blame the Admiralty for having built the gunboats, because they were urgently demanded at a period of emergency. But, as to the manner in which they had been built, Mr. Green had let the "cat out of the bag," and it appeared that the Admiralty were as much to blame as the contractors. Mr. Green alleged that the Admiralty did not provide a sufficient number of inspectors to look after the contractors, although, as the work was carried on during the night, instead of fewer there should have been more of these officers in attendance than usual. The hon. and gallant Member for Portsmouth had said very truly that these gunboats were unfit for any service but that for which they were originally intended—to make short voyages, not far from our own shores, and to act on an enemy's coast. If we were to go on building these small craft, we ought to build a very different sort of vessel. He hardly thought it would he safe to trust so important a matter in the hands of the Admiralty as at present constituted, seeing that their previous efforts had proved such complete failures. How could it be otherwise in a department ruled by a civilian, who knew nothing whatever about naval matters, with a Board appointed chiefly for political reasons, and with but little regard to professional merit? He could hardly recollect single naval man of eminence and distinguished talent who had ever had a seat at the Board of Admiralty. Sir Thomas Hardy was the best of them. [An hon. MEMBER: Sir George Cockburn.] Well, he owned Sir George Cockburn was a distinguished officer; but during the whole eighteen years that he was at the Admiralty scarcely a single improvement took place. In the War Department there were the Adjutant General, the Quartermaster General, and their respective deputies, who could be employed to inquire into anything that went wrong and prepare a report on the subject. But the services of no similar officers were at the disposal of the Admiralty, although in the case of the recent mutinies they would have been found of great value. When the Admiralty wished to make an inquiry into any irregularity on the spot where it occurred, so many of their Lordships went down in their yacht, which was very beautifully fitted up and well stocked with wine, and enjoyed themselves as though they were a mere party of pleasure. He would suggest that the offices of Rear Admiral and Vice Admiral of England should no longer be allowed to remain sinecures. The Senior Lord of the Admiralty ought to fill the office of Rear Admiral, and the next Lord that of the Vice Admiral. They could then visit the dockyards, inspect the ships and the works, and examine everything for themselves. They might then, perhaps, be able to instil some sound ideas into the head of a non-professional First Lord. He was aware that civilians were in the habit of retorting that the business of the Admiralty had never been conducted more efficiently when a sailor was at the head of it. The Administration of Lord St. Vincent had been subjected to a good deal of criticism. Now, Lord St. Vincent entered upon the duties of First Lord at a time when the fleet was in a deplorable state, but he succeeded in re-establishing discipline. He wished we had another like him to re-establish discipline now, for it bad almost disappeared in our navy. He feared that as long as the navy was governed as at present no true economy would over be secured. It was startling to look back on the various classes of vessels which, after having been constructed at great cost had been abandoned as useless. First there were the notorious "Forty Thieves," and then the "donkeys," which wore made use of when the frigates were found to be failures. Lord Spencer's gunboats, called after his dogs, came next, followed in succession by Sir W. Symonds's vessels, the iron vessels and the gunboats, which he agreed with his gallant Friend opposite had better be broken up. The slip at Haslar was invented by a civil Lord of the Admiralty, who did not, it was said, consult his Board at all on the subject, and his gallant Friend had shown them what sort of a job he bad made of it, and how quickly the 70 vessels hauled up there had gone to decay. There really ought to be a Committee of Inquiry into the whole question of the government of the navy.

ADMIRAL WALCOTT

I have refrained from taking any part in the discussion upon the defective state of the gunboats, because my noble Friend the Secretary to the Admiralty has acted in my belief with the greatest fairness. He has promised that every effort to bring the builders of the unseaworthy vessels to punishment will be made by the Admiralty, and, should they fail in doing this, that he himself would move for a Committee of inquiry. No man could do more than this. I think the noble Lord has acted with propriety in withholding the names of the contractors who built the defective vessels, pending the conclusion of the examination into the condition of the greater number. We must bear in mind that these gunboats were required during a great emergency, when it was indispensable that no time should be lost in their construction; the contracts were offered, in the first instance, at £20 a ton; the contractors avowed that it was impossible to find seasoned wood, the Admiralty were apprized of the fact, and, if the Board was satisfied, upon inquiry, with this statement, they were justified under the extreme exigencies of the occasion, in directing that kind of timber to be employed. Still it is, apparently, an extraordinary fact that all the large private yards could not supply a sufficient amount of seasoned wood to build one hundred such vessels; in that case the Admiralty would be justly censured if it had not insisted on its employment at any cost. The honour and reputation of the country, and the lives of officers and men might have been endangered owing to the defective construction of these vessels, I, therefore, cannot command language sufficiently strong to express my abhorrence of the manner in which these gunboats were launched for service. The contractors, in their defence, plead the shortness of time allowed by the Government for the completion of these vessels, and the necessity laid upon them of employing shipwrights with whom they were unacquainted, and whoso honesty and character they were unable to rely. I cannot believe that the contractors were themselves guilty in the face of knowing that their reputation was at stake, and that one day the truth would be elicited. Any miscreant with a chisel and hammer could cut off the bolt-ends in the dead of the night without fear of detection, and dispose of the metal to the marine store dealers. I will not breathe one word of censure against any man without previous inquiry, and I understand the Admiralty has instituted proceedings of that nature to discover the persons worthy of blame, which, I am afraid, will be a task of extreme difficulty. All the Government yards were at the period actively engaged in preparing vessels for sea, when the war was at its height, and I cannot believe that it was in the power of the Surveyor of the Navy to send two or three persons to each of the private yards to oversee the works during their progress. I always believed that these gunboats would prove of no value, and I have some consolation in thinking that now they will give place to a superior class of vessels.