The mighty deep

WITH Whales we have reached the highest class among Ocean creatures. Yet it is impossible to end here. Some few pages must be given to those among men who “go down to the Sea in ships,” who “do business in great waters.”

Not that in any sense can Man be reckoned as an inhabitant of the “Mighty Deep.” But thousands of men spend the greater part of their lives upon the Deep; tens of thousands more continually pass and repass over its surface.

In the beginning of history ships became soon a necessity, partly as a means of going from place to place along the coasts or of travelling to other Continents and Islands, and partly for the purpose of catching fish. Those early vessels were crude and ramshackle affairs, from a modern point of view.

Unclothed and woad-stained Britons, ancestors to the Welsh of our day, had their boats, wood-ribbed and skin-covered, or osier-framed and hide-clothed. Rickety constructions at the best. Yet in them half-savage sailors went over the stormy Channels, to Ireland and to France, and even ventured into the Bay of Biscay.

Enterprising Romans, with better ships, did more; and before the close of the First Century they had made their way round Great Britain. No light feat this, in days when lighthouses and buoys existed not; when the geography of sand-banks and rocks was unknown.

The boats in which our Saxon and Viking ancestors came to invade the wild little Island of Britain, though of light structure, were superior to the primitive British skiffs; and in the contest which followed they had the upper hand.

Later on the Danes, with vessels sixty or seventy feet long, built of heavy timbers and rowed by thirty men apiece, proved in their turn too much for Saxon resistance, at a time when the Saxons had become established as the people of the Island.

King Alfred, of noble memory, coming to the throne, found his country a prey to these marauding Danes. He then and there grasped the principle, which still has sway in England’s counsels, that the very existence of Britain as a Nation rests upon the strength of her Navy. With all possible despatch he had a new fleet built, composed of vessels which were for the most part double the size of the largest Danish boats. They were longer, wider, stouter, and were rowed each by from forty to sixty men.

The first Naval battle which followed may be looked upon as a foreshadowing of Trafalgar; for the English boats gained a complete victory over those of the enemy, and thereby England obtained command of the sea.

In those times no clear distinction existed between war-ships and merchant-ships. All were prepared to defend themselves when need arose; and any might be used, either to carry fighting-men, or to convey merchandise.

Not until the reign of Edward I. did a difference grow up, separating those vessels which as a rule kept to more peaceful occupations, merely fighting in self-defence when attacked,—and those vessels which devoted themselves to aggressive warfare. From that date, gradually, the Royal Navy grew into being.

Even in the time of Queen Elizabeth the separating line was not very marked.

There was a Royal Navy, which took its share in repelling the Spanish invasion; and the whole of that Navy in tonnage was far from equalling one huge ship of modern days, the Celtic, White Star Liner.

Of the hundred and ninety-seven vessels, however, which met the vast array of the Armada, only thirty-four were in any sense strictly Men-of-War; and of those thirty-four one alone was over a thousand tons in weight. The remaining hundred and sixty-three were Merchant-ships, fitted up as best they might be for warlike purposes; most of them being under four hundred tons.

But no mistake existed about the way in which these pigmies set to work, like bulldogs, to worry the great Spanish ships.

Century after century the Navy grew, adding in each generation to its size and strength. English sailors found their way hither and thither, in the interests of their country, for war, for exploration, for purposes of trade, discovering unknown lands, penetrating towards the North Pole, mapping out the Ocean.

Other Nations took their part in these explorations, and the honour of finding a New World did not rest with our ancestors. But in more recent days the Lion’s share of research has undoubtedly fallen to the British; and the coast-lines of the world have been surveyed and mapped out chiefly by ships of the British Royal Navy.

Up to the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, all vessels, small or large, moved by means of the wind or by oars.

Then began a change of immense importance, due to the use of steam for carrying ships across the sea, not only with but in the teeth of the wind.

This method took hold and prevailed, though at first very slowly. Even in the present day hosts of merchant-ships still travel by means of sails only, making systematic use of the Trades and other steadfast winds. When time is not a prime consideration, sailing is of course far cheaper than steaming. On the other hand, the carrying power of a steamer is about three times that of a sailing-vessel of the same size, since it can generally perform three journeys in the same time that a sailing-vessel can manage one.

All over the world, in every sea, are thousands upon thousands of ships of every kind and description, night and day speeding onward, each to its destined port. Lines of Passenger-ships regularly plough the main, starting on fixed days, and seldom failing to arrive on fixed days. Merchant ships innumerable follow certain routes, going from country to country over the Ocean, carrying the world’s produce. Mighty Navies of war-vessels, huge in bulk and terrible in possibilities, rest like sleeping leviathans upon the bosom of the deep, or steam from point to point with resistless energy.

All this denotes a wonderful change since the days, when a few roughly-made boats used to creep round the coasts of a few inhabited countries.

Wide though the ocean be, with thousands of miles of water unbroken save by occasional islands, the number of ships now always at sea is so great, that the perils of collisions are much increased. But this, of course, is chiefly in the more frequented routes, not in Ocean’s lonelier wastes.

Definite rules are laid down for the avoidance of collisions. When two vessels meet, each must steer “to the right.” All ships have to carry, after dark, two powerful lights: a green one on the starboard or right side; a red one on the port or left side; and in the case of steamers, a white light also must be seen upon the mast.

The gradual development of ships, in the course of centuries, from rude skin-covered coracles to top-heavy mediæval vessels; from them to the stately Wooden Walls of Old England,—and, lastly, to the massive Ironclads of the Empire; is full of interest. By far the more rapid part of this development was witnessed in the years of the Nineteenth Century.

Perhaps a slight comparison between past and present sizes of ships may be worth giving.

To begin with Passenger Vessels.

In 1829 the Cunard wooden paddle steamers, of about two hundred tons, perhaps from one to two hundred feet in length, carrying sails as well as using steam, and able to advance at the rate of eight knots an hour, were counted good enough for the Atlantic.

By about the middle of the century the same Line had taken to screw-steamers, built of iron, some three hundred and forty feet in length, of four thousand tons burden, and able to get along at the rate of twelve knots.

In 1893 steel-built vessels replaced the iron-built; the length had grown to four hundred and seventy feet; and the speed had increased to seventeen or eighteen knots.

The Celtic, mentioned above, launched in 1901, of over twenty thousand tons, is seven hundred feet in length, and though not equal to many modern ships in speed, can do her seventeen knots with ease.

The same advance was seen in another line of steamers, plying their way to and from the Cape.

Before the middle of the century, ships two hundred feet in length, and going at the rate of seven knots an hour, were reckoned sufficiently up to the mark. Now vessels five hundred feet in length, steaming at a pace of twenty or more knots, are in use. One cannot but question how long it would have taken, under the old régime, to transfer two hundred thousand soldiers from Great Britain to South Africa. Under the new order of things that feat was lately accomplished in less than eight months.

The same steady growth is apparent in Merchant vessels generally—in their gradual increase from small to large, from slow to fast.

Again, the same development is seen in Men-of-War.

Up to the year 1860, twelve or thirteen knots for the best speed of a battleship was regarded as eminently satisfactory. By 1870 this had risen to nearly fifteen knots. There for many years it stood still; but since 1880 the outside speed of battleships has arrived at nineteen knots.

Fast Cruisers have exceeded the Battleships. Up to 1870 they had reached nearly nineteen knots; and since 1880 they have risen to twenty-three knots. These, again, have been excelled by Torpedo Destroyers, which can go at the rate of twenty-six or twenty-seven knots.

Together with increase of speed has come growth in size. A modern fast Cruiser has often from ten to fourteen thousand tons displacement; a modern Battleship from thirteen to fifteen thousand tons.

But the popular notion, that Men-of-War exceed in size and weight all Passenger and Merchant vessels, is a delusion. It arises from a difference in the mode of measurement.

The “tonnage” of a Man-of-War refers to its actual and literal weight. The “tonnage” of a merchant-ship refers to its space for goods or passengers—its “carrying power,” in short. The two can no more be fairly compared by mere figures, than could a measurement by pounds and one by quarts.

Many a first-class merchant or passenger ship actually weighs more and exceeds in length the largest battleship. With the latter, size and space cannot be the principal aim, but rather strength and endurance, with speed.

A vessel lately constructed may have a most important bearing on warships of the future.

This “turbo-motor,” as it is called, with a new kind of engine, has reached the unexampled speed of thirty-four knots an hour; and there seems to be no reason why in time it should not do much more. Such a success threatens to revolutionise the life of ships at sea.

Thus far British ships have been mainly spoken of; and naturally so. Not only because a British subject might be expected to put them first, but because of their enormous preponderance in numbers and tonnage over the ships of all other Nations.

American and German merchant-shipping has, it is true, of late years made huge strides; and the last thing to be done is to underrate their diligence and energy, or to wish them non-success. Yet still we, Children of the Empire which dominates the Ocean, must desire our Empire to hold her own, must strive our utmost to keep ahead of all competitors in the race.

Perhaps not everybody realises how far ahead we have been up to the present day.

Other nations indeed have made great advance. What the future may mean for them and for us, Time alone can show. But as yet they do not seem likely to outstrip us, unless Great Britain grows lazy and lies upon her oars.

In the year 1900, the Merchant Shipping of the whole world, including all vessels of more than one hundred tons, was reckoned to amount in round numbers to over Twenty-eight Thousand Ships, and in burden to over Twenty-nine Millions of Tons.

Of that vast world-fleet Eleven Thousand vessels were British. And since the British ships were, on an average, larger than the foreign ships, it meant that nearly one-half of the tonnage of the whole world’s merchant shipping sailed under the Red Ensign.

To put the matter differently. In 1892 another reckoning was made; the comparison being expressed by numbers, for the Merchant-Navies of several Nations. It stood as follows:—

The Merchant fleet of Italy was taken as slightly over One. Then, in proportion, the French fleet was represented by something over Two; the Norwegian, by the same; the United States, by Three; the German, by something over Three; and the British, by something over Twenty-two! This included the whole tonnage or carrying power of the fleets in question, both sailing and steam-driven vessels.

The figures speak for themselves.

Or, again, let us take all the steam fleets of the world, reckoning only vessels over one hundred tons, and only those used for merchandise; not Men-of-War.

These steam-fleets shall be pictured in our minds or on paper by broad black lines, one-tenth of an inch wide. Now let us see how long such lines would have to be, at two different dates, for a few of the leading fleets.

In the year 1889 they would have been given thus:—

Japanese.—Less than one-tenth of an inch long.

American.—Three and a half tenths of an inch long.

French.—Four and a half tenths of an inch long.

German.—Six and a half tenths of an inch long.

And next, after a great dividing gap—

British.—Fifty-one tenths of an inch, or over five inches long.

Once more, the figures speak for themselves. But this was a good many years ago. Let us have the same plan repeated for the year 1897, or eight years later, noting the advance made in each case.

Here, again, the tonnage of the whole steam-driven fleet of each Nation may be represented by a black line, one-tenth of an inch in width, and varying in length according to the size of the particular fleet. Some changes have taken place in those few years. The Japanese, instead of being quite at the end of the list, rank above the Spanish and the Norwegian; and the Americans have outstripped the French.

The results now stand thus:—

Japanese.—Nearly three-tenths of an inch.

French.—Five-tenths of an inch.

American.—Over five-tenths of an inch.

German.—Over a whole inch, or more than ten-tenths.

And once more, after another big dividing gap:—

British.—About sixty-seven tenths of an inch; or over six inches and a quarter.

We hear a good deal of the rapid growth of the German and American Merchant fleets, and not so much of the growth of our own. Yet certainly we have not stood still.

According to the above comparison, which is taken from an American, not a British report,[12] we have not held our own badly during recent years. British transport has actually grown the most. True, we have merely added sixteen tenths to an already great length; whereas, in the same period, the German fleet, adding three and a half tenths, has nearly doubled itself, and the Japanese, adding about two-tenths, has trebled itself. But a very small amount is easily doubled or trebled; and the nearest is still a long way behind the British total.

This should not be allowed to induce a spirit of over-confidence, which might probably mean in time the tortoises overtaking the hare. And although our Merchant fleet is still almost the double of all other Merchant fleets upon Earth put together, yet the proportionate difference has begun to grow less than it once was. Other countries are straining every nerve in the race; and if Great Britain would keep her present position, this is no time for slackening of effort.

Powerful though our Royal Navy undoubtedly is, it has not that vast preponderance over other Fleets of War which our Merchant Navy has over other Mercantile Fleets.

The aim generally set before Great Britain of late years has been to make and to keep the Royal Navy strong enough to be able to cope with any two other War Navies existing.

But if we had a War Navy proportioned to our Merchant Service, which might seem only reasonable, it would have to be nearly equal in tonnage to all the other fighting Navies in all the world.

Is our present aim high enough, in view of the tremendous interests, the enormous risks, involved?