SIR FREDERIC SMITHsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether there is any truth in the report that the Admiralty intend to build an iron-cased ship of war at Pembroke? He believed the statement would turn out to be entirely a mistake, the Government having pledged themselves to build only one iron ship at Chatham, in order to ascertain whether the prices of the contractors were fair and reasonable. That experiment, he believed, was very satisfactory, but he hoped they would not incur the expense of putting up the plant necessary for iron ship-building at the different dockyards.
§ MR. WHITBREADsaid, the matter had been already explained by his noble Friend the Secretary of the Admiralty. There were five wooden vessels being built at the different dockyards, which, including that building at Pembroke, it was proposed should be cased with iron. But this was not to be confounded with any intention on the part of the Government, against which a strong opinion had been expressed in a recent debate, to embark in a large system of iron ship-building. These were wooden ships to be cased with iron—they were not iron ships. The Achilles, building at Chatham, was an iron ship.
MR. G. L. PHILLIPSthought it extremely inconvenient, on going into Committee of Supply, to raise these questions of detail, which belonged specially to the province of the Admiralty. This was an executive question, and he hoped therefore the Admiralty would maintain a firm front, and not give way to the representations of Members connected with the dockyards, advocating the interests of their own constituents.