THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE NA HIES.

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LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIP OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

the chief element of naval strength of the United States . This reliance ofthe Government upon its large frigates would seem to have been wellgrounded, and if a war had arisen with a maritime enemy supplied withvessels of the same general type, they would have given a good account ofthemselves. In the civil war, however, the enemy had no ordinary vessels ofwar to be met and conquered in ocean duels, and the waters upon his coastat points vulnerable to naval attack were too shallow to admit the frigates.Hence none of them performed any service at all proportionate to their sizeand cost of maintenance, except in two or three isolated cases of bombard-ment, as at Hatteras Inlet, Port Royal, and Fort Fisher.

Of a much more useful type for general service were the twelve screwsloops-of-war built in 1858. There were five of these of the first class, amongthem the Hartford, Brooklyn, and Richmond, which gave and took so manyheavy blows while fighting in Farragut’s West Gulf Squadron. Hardly lessimportant were the sloops of the second class, of which the Iroquois andDacotah were the largest and most typical examples. To the same groupbelonged the Pawnee, a vessel of peculiar construction, whose constant servicewas hardly surpassed in efficiency and importance by any other ship of hersize on the Atlantic coast. Besides the sloops, there were a few othersteamers of miscellaneous dimensions and character, some of which hadbeen purchased and altered for naval use; and these comprised all thatthe Government had secured toward the creation of a modern steam fleet.

The normal strength of the United States navy, if it is to be a navy at all,cannot be figured at much less than from 80 to 100 vessels, and this was thenumber in 1861. But of the actual total of 90, as shown by the navy list,50 were sailing ships,—line-of-battle ships, frigates, sloops, and brigs,—which,