Chapter V (1)

Armstrong’s—Russian War-ship Construction—Arrival of “Cimbria” at
Bar Harbor—Visit of Wharton Barker to Shipyard—Visit of
Captain Semetschkin and Commission to the Yard—Purchase of
Ships—Newspaper Accounts—Captain Gore-Jones—Mr. Cramp’s account of
Operations—“Europe,” “Asia,” “Africa,” and “Zabiaca”—Popoff and
“Livadia”—Visit to Grand Duke Constantine—Anniversary Banquet in St.
Petersburg of Survivors of “Cimbria” Expedition—Object of Visit to
Russia—Mr. Dunn and Japan—Contract for “Kasagi”—Jubilee Session of
Naval Architects in London—Visit to Russia—Correspondence with Russian
Officials—Visit to Armstrong’s—Japanese War-ship Construction—“Coming
Sea Power”—Correspondence with Russian Official—Invited to
Russia—Asked to bid for War-ships—Our Ministers abroad—Construction of
“Retvizan” and “Variag”—“Maine”

THE old Latin poet Horace introduces his First Book of “Sermons or Satires” by addressing to his great patron, Mæcenas, the question:

“Qui fit, Mæcenas, ut nemo, quam sibi sortem
Seu ratio dederit, seu fors objecerit illa
Contentus vivat? laudet diversa sequentes?”

(“How is it, Mæcenas, that no one lives content with the lot that
endeavor has given to him or that fortune has thrown in his way? but
emulates those following other pursuits?”)

Mr. Cramp reached the condition described by Horace early in the last decade of the nineteenth century. He had exhausted the opportunities of American ship-building, both for war and for commerce. A fleet, not only respectable in number but formidable in type and power,—a fleet embracing battleships, armored cruisers, and protected cruisers,—bore the impress of his art and heralded the distinction of his name. To this compact war-fleet he had added two ocean greyhounds, the first of their type built in the Western hemisphere. In prosecution of all this advancement, if we take the decade from 1885 to 1895, he had multiplied the area of the shipyard by two, and its capacity alike in number and size of steamships and their machinery more than three. In 1889, some people—and among them his own associates in the ownership of the yard—were afraid to undertake the armored cruiser “New York.” Mr. Cramp met this obstruction with radical action, as was his wont in every emergency; and in four years from that time he had laid the keels of Atlantic greyhounds whose register tonnage was more than two thousand tons greater than the total displacement of the “New York.”

Mr. Cramp had long been emulous, some Englishman might say envious, of the wonderful career of Sir William Armstrong and of his marvellous success in securing foreign contracts. On one occasion, returning from a visit to Elswick with a party from the British Institution of Naval Architects, of which he is a member, Mr. Cramp remarked that “Armstrong and his establishment had ceased to be ship-builders in the ordinary acceptation of the term and had become navy-builders. They do not trouble themselves,” he said, “with isolated ships; to all intents and purposes they undertake to build whole navies in bulk for ambitious maritime states in South America and Asia.” At the time of the visit referred to, with exceptions hardly worth mention, the navies of Brazil, Argentine Republic, Chile, Japan, and China had been built, engined, armed, armored, munitioned, equipped, and outfitted at Elswick; and every ship was ready for battle when she finally sailed from Armstrong’s works. In addition to this, Elswick had done a great deal of work for European states, having, at one time or another, contributed in some degree to every European navy, great or small, except those of France and Russia.

To a man of Mr. Cramp’s untiring aspiration and restless ambition, this was a spectacle not to be supinely endured. He therefore determined to see what could be done, and he selected what seemed to him the most promising directions of effort,—Russia and Japan. In dealing with the Russians he had initial advantages. The first was that Russia never had a war-ship, except the nondescript “Livadia,” built in England, though she had been a liberal patron of English engine-builders. The second point of advantage was that in 1878-79 a considerable volume of work had been done by Cramp for the Russian navy, involving conversion of three large merchant steamships into auxiliary cruisers and the construction of one small cruiser.

The history of this interesting event, an event of international importance, is as follows:

In the early part of the year 1878 the North German Lloyd steamer “Cimbria” appeared at Bar Harbor with about sixty Russian officers and about eight hundred men. Their presence at that place created a great sensation. Visitors thronged there; and the officers were entertained at Bangor and also in the neighboring towns. The common sailors, however, who were allowed to go ashore about one hundred and fifty at a time, were cruelly disappointed. They would go along the streets searching for vodka in vain. The Maine law, which was in full force, was something beyond their comprehension. “There is everything in the world here but vodka,” they would say to one another, and even to their officers, when they returned to their ship from shore liberty.

Almost at the same moment when the “Cimbria” arrived in the waters of Maine, Mr. Wharton Barker visited Cramps’ shipyard. The banking concern of Barker Brothers was at that time the representative of the Barings, who were the financial agents of Russia. Mr. Barker informed Mr. Cramp that he was delegated to arrange for the conversion and fitting out of a number of auxiliary cruisers for the Russian navy, and that he had selected the Cramp Company as the professional and mechanical instrumentality for that purpose. He arranged for a visit of a number of Russian officers to the office of the Cramp Company. These officers had come over independent of the “Cimbria,” but arrived about the same time. They were the Committee or Board which had been appointed to decide on all questions that might arise in connection with the naval project mentioned. The head of this Board was Captain Semetschkin, Chief of Staff of the Grand Duke Constantine, who was then General Admiral of the Navy. Besides Captain Semetschkin, the Board consisted of Captain Grippenburg, Captain Avalan, Captain Alexeieff, Captain Loman, Captain Rodionoff, and Naval Constructor Koutaneyoff. This was in 1879. At this writing (1903) Captains Semetschkin and Loman have passed away; Captain Avalan is now Vice-Admiral and Imperial Minister of Marine; Captain Alexeieff, now Vice-Admiral, is also Viceroy of Manchuria; Captain Rodionoff is an Admiral; and Naval Constructor Koutaneykoff is Constructor-in-Chief of the Russian navy.

Upon examination of Cramps’ shipyard, they decided that Mr. Barker’s selection was well judged, and approved his recommendations that the work projected be done there.

The war between Russia and Turkey was still in progress, and there was every indication at that moment of British intervention. The purpose of the Russians was to fit out a small fleet of auxiliary cruisers or commerce destroyers to cruise in the North Atlantic in the route of the great British traffic between the United States and England. Their idea was that the fitting out of such a fleet with its threatening attitude toward their North Atlantic commerce might or would deter the British from armed intervention in behalf of the Turks.

At first the Russians made pretence of great secrecy as to their movements. “Pretence of secrecy” is the only phrase that can adequately express their attitude. On the other hand, the appearance of the “Cimbria” on the coast of Maine at Bar Harbor, filled with Russian naval officers and seamen, was not concealed, but on the other hand ostentatious. It of course instantly attracted the attention of the British Ministry and excited their apprehension as to the possible outcome; apprehension which the stories that for the time being filled the papers of New York and New England certainly did nothing to abate. An examination of the files of the _Evening Star_ and the _North American_ at this time would be interesting reading. The _Evening Star_, May 1, 1878, has an account headed, “_What brings the Russian Steamer to Maine?_” May 2: “_Suspicious Craft._” May 6: “_Suspicious ‘Cimbria’ to leave her Station._” Some accounts “_to stir up the Irish_.” May 8: “_An Account of the ‘egg-eating’ incident_.”

The _North American_, May 13, states that the captain of the “Cimbria” “has said that Russia is preparing to attack Great Britain by sea;” and refers to the disastrous effects on our commerce during the Civil War by the work of the Confederate cruisers which practically drove the American flag from the ocean.

Captain Gore-Jones, the Naval Attaché of the British Legation at Washington, and others visited Bar Harbor at the time the “Cimbria” was there. They made their visit incognito, as they imagined, and they located themselves daily on the landing pier near the Bar Harbor Club House, where all the Russian officers who were aboard the ship landed every day. It happened that one of the officers knew Gore-Jones notwithstanding his disguise. The British Attaché was sitting upon the pier with a slouch hat on his head and a fishing-rod in his hand, intently watching and patiently waiting for a bite, and apparently oblivious to all that was going on except at the other end of his line. When this officer passed him on the pier, he said in very good English, “Captain Gore-Jones, the fish do not seem to be anxious to make acquaintance with you!”

The visit of these officers to the shipyard of course was carried out with a great deal of real secrecy, and arrangements were made to buy three or four fine and up-to-date merchant ships and to transform them into cruisers, and also to build a small new cruiser.

Mr. Cramp first applied to the American Line to buy three of their ships, but the president of the company was too much astonished to give him any satisfaction; or, at least, he was not prepared to act as promptly as the occasion required, and lost the chance of selling the ships, to the most profound disgust of Mr. Thomas A. Scott, of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which corporation had a paramount interest in the ships and wanted to sell them!

The “State of California” was on the stocks at Cramps about ready to launch. This board of officers inspected her. They also looked at the “Columbus,” sailing between New York and Havana, a ship that Cramps had built for Mr. Clyde,—and the “Saratoga,” a ship that had belonged to the Ward Line, built by Mr. Roach for that same trade, and were favorably impressed.

Up to this time the presence of these gentlemen in Philadelphia was not known or suspected; but when the purchases were made, Mr. Barker decided that, while the time had arrived when it was necessary to remove the veil of secrecy, the Cramps should continue to maintain it as to the actual work and its progress.

Mr. Cramp arranged with Mr. Alexander McCleary with this end in view. Mr. McCleary was at that time the principal reporter of the _Evening Star_, and a friend and member of the Harrison Literary Association, to which Mr. Cramp belonged. The whole affair was managed by him most admirably. On May 16 the _North American_ and _Evening Star_ made the first announcement that indicated what the Russians really intended to do. These papers gave an account of the sale of the “State of California,” and that $100,000 was paid on account to A. A. Low & Co., the agents of the Pacific Coast Navigation Company. May 16 was the day of the launch, and on the next day preparations were made to remove the joiner and cabin work, a full account of which appeared in the daily papers.

Mr. Cramp ultimately purchased in addition the steamships “Columbus” and “Saratoga.” These two and the “State of California,” after being converted into auxiliary cruisers, were named the “Europe,” “Asia,” and “Africa.” Then the Russians contracted for a small cruiser which they called the “Zabiaca” (Mischief-maker). This ship was a regularly designed man-of-war of a special type, and at the time of her completion was the fastest cruiser in the world. The four ships were fitted out under the direction of their captains respectively. The commander of the “Europe” was Captain Grippenburg; of the “Asia,” Captain Avalan; of the “Africa,” Captain Alexeieff; and the commander of the new cruiser “Zabiaca” was Captain Loman.

The three ships purchased and converted into commerce destroyers were, so far as internal arrangement and outfit were concerned, altered altogether as to the respective ideas of their commanders, and they all differed very much. They embodied very complete and somewhat ornamental accommodations, and every modern convenience as understood at that time was included in their design.

During these operations the show of secrecy was maintained, but Captain Gore-Jones still zealously endeavored to keep himself and his government _au courant_ with everything that was going on. In pursuit of this duty, he managed on one occasion to get into the shipyard in the disguise of a workman and on the pass or ticket which was then issued for the admission of workingmen. He was, however, soon observed by Captain Avalan of the “Asia,” who at once reported the fact of his presence to the office. Captain Gore-Jones was then politely but firmly ushered out of the shipyard and requested not to enter it again.

This incident of Captain Gore-Jones’s futile attempt to play detective attracted wide attention and much comment. Among the newspaper articles on that subject was one in the columns of the Washington _Sunday Capital_, a journal then having national reputation for wit and humor. The material part of it was as follows:

“Among the ornaments of the Diplomatic Corps is a possible, though
not altogether probable, successor of Nelson. He appears in the
Congressional Directory as Captain Gore-Jones, Naval Attaché of H.
B. M. Legation. Neither one of his two names, viewed separately,
suggest aristocracy. Both viewed together in normal condition are
not calculated to excite suspicion of blue blood. Still, Gore-Jones
is an aristocrat. The hyphen is what does it. For the rest,
Gore-Jones, being an English naval officer, is a Welshman born in
Ireland.

“His duties are supposed to be the observing of things naval in this
country. Being unable to discover a navy, or anything resembling
one, in possession of the United States, it occurred to him that
perhaps he might find here a navy or part of one belonging to some
other power. In fact, it was rumored in the Corps Diplomatique that
Gore-Jones had been notified that he must either find a navy in this
country somewhere and belonging to somebody or lose his job.
Naturally, his first quest would be at our navy-yards (so-called),
but at none of these could he even detect symptoms of naval
intention. All he could find was a few old hawse-holes. He was
informed that these had been accumulated by that jolly old tar, the
rotund Robeson, with the intention of building wooden tubs around
them whenever Grant might happen to run for a third term. He was
also informed that the present reform administration of the
venerable Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana, viewed these hawse-holes
with suspicion. This was because they were hollow; whereas the
venerable reformer believed that everything about a ship should be
solid.

“Despairing of the navy-yards, Gore-Jones turned his attention to
places where merchant-ships were constructed. He heard that the
Cramps, of Philadelphia, were building something that did not look
merchant-like. He resolved to see it. Incidentally, he had heard
rumors that the queer craft at Cramps’ was being paid for along by
instalments of Russian money.

“Trouble was brewing between Russia and England. Aha! At last!
Gore-Jones had struck it rich. Let him unearth this foul conspiracy
to imitate in 1879 the pious example England had set with the
‘Alabama’ in 1863, and he would surely get a star. He might even get
a garter.

“But how? Cramp had views of his own as to private property. He was
not under diplomatic jurisdiction, as were the navy-yards. In fact,
the sign was out at Cramps’, ‘No English need apply!’ This, however,
was rather incentive than obstacle to Gore-Jones. He needn’t be
English. Nature had endowed him with an assortment of mental and
bodily peculiarities, mostly bodily, that adapted him to almost any
nationality. He resolved to be an Irishman. He at once began an
arduous practice of the brogue. First he had to get rid of the
cockney drawl which is enjoined by regulation in the English navy.
Demosthenes is said to have overcome a tendency to stutter by
orating with his mouth full of pebbles. Gore-Jones got rid of the
regulation cockney drawl of the English navy by talking with his
mouth full of Irish whiskey.

“Finally, he considered all preliminary difficulties overcome, and
began a siege of Cramps’ shipyard by regular approaches. Finding it
impregnable to front attack, he resolved to flank it. This he
accomplished by taking possession of an adjoining lumber yard in the
night-time. Early in the morning he entered the fortress by its
sally-port. Success was in his grasp,—almost. It glittered, then it
glimmered, then it fizzled out. There was one peculiarity he
couldn’t overcome. That was his remarkable resemblance in form and
figure to ‘Punch’s’ standard cartoon of ‘John Bull.’ He could smoke
a short, black pipe with the bowl turned down equal to the most
Corkonian Irishman in Fishtown. He could also fairly imitate that
peculiar accent produced by filtering conversation through the
teeth, commonly known as the brogue, particularly when the
conversation was diluted with a mouthful of Irish whiskey. But he
couldn’t escape his shape. One of the Russian officers on duty at
Cramps’, with that keenness characteristic of Napoleon’s ‘scratched
Tartar,’ penetrated all his disguises. Then he was ignominiously
ejected by one of those decrepit men who, when they get too old to
build ships, are usually employed by Cramps’ as watchmen. _Sic
transit gloria mundi._ Exit Gore-Jones. But he will remain with us.
He will hold his job. He deserves to. He has done what no American
has ever been able to do since the collapse of the Rebellion. He has
discovered a navy—an actual, real, live navy—in the United States.
The fact that it is a Russian navy and not an American one,
humiliating as it may be to us, is a huge feather in the cap to him.
We hasten to doff our editorial chapeau to Gore-Jones. We are
confident he will get his star. We fervently hope he may get also
the garter.”

At this point Mr. Cramp’s own narrative of the subsequent proceedings will be more graphic and interesting than any other form of description could be:

“Great activity marked the progress of alterations and fitting out
of the vessels. The yard was filled with men, some working night and
day, and the vessels were all fitted out at a very early date,
considering what had to be done. They were more than rebuilt. Each
ship was fitted out for an admiral and the accommodations for
officers and men were ample. They were full sparred and
square-rigged.

“The indications that the English would join the Sultan at any time
still prevailed at the time the vessels were ready to go to sea.
When the ‘Europe,’ ‘Asia,’ and ‘Africa’ were ready to depart, they
had to go without any guns, because all the loose guns that the
Russians could spare from the navy were mounted on forts, and none
could be appropriated for these ships, so they had to depart without
guns. They expected when they came here to be able to purchase guns
in this country from some of the gun manufacturers, and they were
very much amazed to find that our government had not permitted any
gun factories to exist here. So they had to go without.

“The captains all showed great determination and pluck, but their
going away was not under the conditions usually attending the
departure of war vessels. They expected when they left that England
would openly espouse the cause of Turkey before they arrived at the
other side, and they were all prepared to sink their ships rather
than surrender. They felt that their case was particularly hard and
that their hands were tied, and having no guns they were at the
mercy of the enemy. They could not find much satisfaction of sinking
with their own ships unless they had done some damage to the enemy,
so under the circumstances their sailing was a very sad occasion.

“The ‘Zabiaca’ being a new vessel, it took longer to finish her, and
by the time she was finished the war with Turkey was over, and they
managed to get guns to put aboard her.

“The fitting out of this small fleet of commerce destroyers had the
effect that the Russians originally intended it to have. It deterred
the English from going in with the Sultan. The merchant fleet of
England is too great and too vulnerable to permit their country to
go to war for a trifle. England would suffer more in a war than any
other nation on account of the large number of merchant-men under
her flag; and it was because of the great number of her ships and
the danger and loss from their destruction that made the British
government and its people labor so hard to have our navigation laws
repealed, so that a fictitious sale could be made and the vessels of
their merchant marine could be put under the protection of the
American flag. As two of our statesmen said (Henry C. Carey and
Judge Kelley), ‘As long as our navigation laws remain as they are,
England will be under perpetual bonds of indemnity to keep the peace
with all the small nations in the world, because their
merchant-ships cannot fly to the protection of the American flag.’
In this case the English saw the scheme of the ‘Alabama’ applied to
themselves.

“These vessels went abroad, and most of them became flag-ships on
foreign stations.

“The ‘Europe’ and ‘Africa’ became flag-ships, and the ‘Asia’ was
afterward taken by the Grand Duke Alexis, who made a yacht of her,
and a very handsome one she made. She remains the Grand Duke’s yacht
to this day.

“The rest of the history of this transaction is generally known. The
vessels were fitted out, went to sea, and made their way to Russian
ports without interruption, and a final treaty of peace was effected
through the Congress of European Powers at Berlin. I believe that
the strongest argument the Russian government could offer to
persuade Great Britain against intervention was the fitting out of
these vessels as commerce destroyers in our shipyard.

“The next year during a trip abroad I visited Paris. I found there
Captain Semetschkin, who told me that the Grand Duke Constantine was
in the city and would like to receive me. The captain arranged that
I should call the next morning, and at the same time informed me
that the Grand Duke had given a contract for a new ship, afterward
called the ‘Livadia,’ designed by Admiral Popoff and Dr. Zimmerman,
to be built at the Fairfield Works at Glasgow. Admiral Popoff was a
notable example of that type of man to which, for example, De
Lesseps, and Keely of motor fame, and Eads belong. Such men affect
an almost celestial knowledge in everything they undertake, and that
affectation, coupled with an apparent sincerity of manner,
earnestness of purpose, and unflinching nerve, often enables them to
captivate people of good information on general topics, but
unacquainted with the technique of engineering problems; and who
therefore are unable to detect the cunning charlatanry of such
pretenders.

“Admiral Popoff had fascinated the Grand Duke Constantine with his
peculiar type of war-ship, which was a circular floating turret of
large dimensions that could be revolved by means of her propellers,
so that, porcupine-like, she could present her ‘bristles’ in every
direction to an enemy.

“Quite a number of the Popoff type of floating batteries were built,
and a dry-dock was constructed for their special accommodation when
repairs might be necessary. The ‘Livadia’ was the last production of
Admiral Popoff, who, as I have already remarked, designed her with
the assistance of Dr. Zimmerman, of Holland. She was not circular
like her predecessors, but was oval in shape, the transverse
diameter being almost but not quite equal to the conjugate, and she
was fitted with three screws entirely under the bottom. Captain
Semetschkin informed me that the Grand Duke was much impressed with
this new design, and that nothing could shake his belief in its
success. Being thus forewarned, I could avoid giving him an adverse
criticism in case he brought the subject up by simply exercising a
little diplomacy, as it was not my desire or intention to cross his
predilections in any way. When I called on the Grand Duke at the
Russian Legation, I found him reclining on a sofa, having severely
injured his leg in a fall. He arose as I entered and invited me to
take a seat in front of him. Being full of the subject, he
immediately asked me if I would visit Glasgow soon, and when I
stated that I intended to go there at an early date he gave me a
letter to Captain Goulaieff, Russian Naval Constructor, who he said
had charge of the construction of the new ‘Livadia,’ and that he had
had prepared a working model fifteen feet long with engines complete
as an experiment, and he wanted me to see it.

“I am sure he fully believed in the successful future of this type.
He stated that he was confident that it would revolutionize
merchant-ship as well as war-ship construction, and his enthusiasm
was unbounded in the contemplation of it.

“When he had exhausted the subject, which took some time, in elegant
English and with fascinating fluency of speech, he changed the
subject, and I was subjected to one of the most severe examinations
in naval construction, equipment, and technical practice that I ever
encountered. Of course, there was a change from my attitude of
listener to that of a sort of principal in the conversation that
followed.

“In referring in a complimentary way to the new fleet that we had
turned out,—the outcome of the ‘Cimbria’ expedition,—the Grand Duke
stated that one quality in them that impressed him more than any
other was the large coal carrying capabilities of the vessels, and
he asked me how I explained it. I stated that the models of the
ships were of the best American type with certain improvements of
our own.

“Expressing himself in a complimentary manner as to what we had done
and as to what I said, he then put the question to me with much
‘empressement’ and sympathetic interest of manner: ‘Mr. Cramp, from
what school of naval architecture did you graduate?’

“Fully appreciating all that was involved in the question from his
stand-point and what he considered of paramount importance,—the
necessity of the Technical School for Naval Officials—I was prepared
for the question, and determined that my answer should be apropos;
and that I would not permit myself and my profession to be
disparaged, knowing that in Russia and on the Continent generally
there were no great private shipyards, and that if a naval architect
or ship-builder there did not graduate from a technical school, he
was practically nowhere at that time. Trained as I was in
Philadelphia in a first-class shipyard, surrounded by others of the
same kind and in close contact with New York, which city occupied
the head and front of the ship-building profession in the world, I
felt myself doubly armed and more than confident when my answer came
promptly after the question.

“I said: ‘Your Imperial Highness! when I graduated from my father’s
shipyard as a naval architect and ship-builder, there were no
schools of naval architecture. I belong to that race which created
them!’

“This unexpected answer, and the gravity of my manner, astonished
for an instant the Grand Duke, who glanced at Captain Semetschkin,
and rising to his feet he bowed profoundly to me and sat down.

“The history of the ‘Livadia’ is well known,—encountering a storm in
the Bay of Biscay she was somewhat battered up under the bottom
forward. On account of her peculiar shape and light draught she did
not respond quickly to the motions of a head sea; when her bow was
lifted clear of the water, the following seas would strike the
bottom very severely before she would come down.

“After serving at Sebastopol somewhat under a cloud, she was laid
up; the propeller engines were ultimately put in three new
gun-boats.”

The departure of the “Cimbria” from Russia was a great event there, and all the officers who left Russia on that expedition have continued ever since to meet yearly on March 28 (O. S.), that being the date of their departure from Russia. On March 29, 1898, twenty years afterward, Mr. Cramp happened to be in Russia arranging for the contract between his Company and the Russian government for the construction of the battleship “Retvizan” and the cruiser “Variag.” A committee of officers at the time called and invited him to be present at their annual banquet as a guest. This committee was composed of some of the younger officers who were on the “Cimbria” expedition. They stated that no guest had ever been invited to one of these banquets, but they considered Mr. Cramp’s connection with the fitting out of that fleet entitled him to the distinction of being the only guest they ever had on one of those occasions. He found there Vice-Admiral Avalan, the Assistant of the Minister of Marine and now Minister of Marine,—he had been captain of the “Asia;” Admiral Grippenburg, who had been captain of the “Europe;” and also about thirty of the sixty officers who left on the “Cimbria” on its first voyage. Of those absent, a great many had died, and some, of course, were away. Admiral Alexeieff was in China.

Mr. Cramp had begun his overtures with a view to naval construction for Russia as early as the fall of 1893. During that period the Russian Atlantic fleet was present in our waters to take part in celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’ discovery. The Grand Duke Alexander was an officer in that squadron, which during its stay in our waters was at anchor for some time in the Delaware, and its officers freely visited the shipyard, carefully inspecting and examining all the work then going on. The general result was that they became enthusiastic with regard to the development of the art in this country and with the character of work being done toward the rebuilding of our navy, and they were also profoundly impressed with the facilities of Cramps’ shipyard which might be utilized for increase of the Russian navy. They frankly said, however, that just at that moment it did not seem to be the policy of their government to have important work done for the Russian navy in foreign shipyards. This was, of course, true, for at that time Russia was not building any kind of naval construction more important than torpedo-boat destroyers outside of her own domain. During the following years (1894, 1895, 1896) certain correspondence passed between Mr. Cramp and high officials in the Russian Ministry of Marine; though little progress was made during those years except to call the attention of the Russians in a vivid and forceful manner to the capacities and facilities which he controlled, and to strengthen the _entente cordiale_ which had so long existed between the Russian naval authorities and himself.

At this point it becomes necessary to take up a new branch of the general subject, which is that of foreign work.

While the correspondence with the authorities of the Russian government above referred to was going on, our Minister at Tokio, Mr. Dunn, called the attention of the Japanese government to the fact that their expenditure of vast sums of money on a new navy in England principally, and also in France and Germany on a smaller scale, was well known; and in a diplomatic way he suggested that some of that kind of patronage bestowed upon the ship-building interests in the United States would be extremely gratifying to the American people. He also thought that the popularity of such a project in this country would be made universal if part of the proposed patronage should be awarded to the Atlantic and part to the Pacific coast. Minister Dunn’s suggestion was taken up by the American Trading Company in the Orient, and their joint advocacy of the scheme was crowned with success. Acting upon intimation of such a suggestion, the Cramp Company and the Union Iron Works of San Francisco sent agents to Japan, and when they returned, contracts were made with the Japanese Minister Toru Hoshi, representing the Imperial Government, and the two ship-building companies above mentioned. The ship built by Cramp is now known in the Japanese navy list as the “Kasagi,” and that built by the Union Iron Works of San Francisco as the “Chitose.”

Up to that time the Japanese navy had been built almost exclusively in England, and with unimportant exceptions wholly by Armstrong. Of the vessels which won the naval battles on the Yellow Sea in the Chino-Japanese War of 1894 almost all, with the exception of a few torpedo craft, were built by Armstrong & Company at Elswick.

There was, however, one difficulty in the way of Japanese patronage of American shipyards in the construction of naval vessels. This difficulty soon came to the surface, but was averted by the urgency of diplomatic considerations. It grew out of the fact that the money which Japan was using to augment her navy was that which she realized from the Chinese Indemnity paid under the provisions of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. This indemnity had been furnished by Russia and financed in England or by English capitalists; and it appeared that there was a sort of tacit, if not express, understanding that most of it was to be spent in naval construction, and that the ships which it was to pay for should be built in English shipyards. However, the Japanese naval authorities were extremely desirous of adding one or more American-built ships to their fleet; their idea, from the professional point of view, being that, as they were then about prepared, or had been for some time engaged in preparing, to build ships at home in their own dock-yards, the possession of one or more American-built ships would be of value as samples, models, or object lessons. Finally, after considerable negotiation carried on partly with or through the Japanese Minister at Washington, and partly at head-quarters in Tokio, the Japanese government awarded a contract to Cramp for the construction of a first-class protected cruiser of the highest attainable speed. This contract was signed by Mr. Cramp on behalf of the Company and by Toru Hoshi, the Minister, on behalf of his Majesty, the Emperor of Japan. The vessel, the “Kasagi,” was originally designed to be of about 5000 tons displacement, but was modified to a displacement of about 5500 tons. The guaranty was 17,000 indicated horse-power and twenty-two and one-half (22½) knots speed, to be determined by four runs, two each way over a measured course ten knots long. Upon her completion the ship was taken in charge by the Japanese captain and crew, and upon her arrival home immediately took a conspicuous place in the Japanese navy. Although this vessel gave the most profound satisfaction in every respect, and although she had been built in the United States at a cost that compared quite favorably with relative contract prices elsewhere, the Japanese did not repeat the experiment for reasons already intimated. In fact, all the influence of British diplomacy upon the policy of Japan was successfully employed in securing the maintenance of the British alliance in opposition to the advance of the Russians in the direction of the Pacific and to retain the monopoly that English ship-builders, principally Armstrong, had previously enjoyed, and to prevent or prohibit the construction of any more vessels of war in the United States or in American shipyards.

Mr. Cramp continued his active correspondence with the Russian authorities with constantly increasing prospects of success. So promising had the situation become in the summer of 1897, that Mr. Cramp, who had gone to Europe to attend the Jubilee Session of the British Institution of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, concluded to make a flying visit to St. Petersburg before the meeting. His stay there was not long, only about a week. His object was to survey the ground and to ascertain definitely what prospect there was for the then rumored intention of the Russian government to put forth a large and formidable naval programme during the ensuing winter.

Mr. Cramp returned to England from St. Petersburg, and took part in the many meetings of the Jubilee Session referred to. One of the events of that occasion was a visit to the great Elswick Shipyards and Ordnance Works of Armstrong & Company, which Mr. Cramp himself describes in a private letter as follows:

VISIT TO THE ARMSTRONG WORKS.

“The officers of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine
Engineers of the United States with certain officers of the American
navy were invited to meet the representative Naval Architects and
Marine Engineers of foreign nations and participate in the meetings
of the International Congress of these bodies in London during the
month of July, 1897.

“After various entertainments under the auspices of the Institute
and a visit to and reception by the Queen at Windsor Castle, the
party went to Scotland; after visiting Glasgow and stopping at
Edinburgh, where Sir Andrew Noble and Philip Watt, of the Armstrong
Works, met them; they were to be escorted to the Works in the
afternoon. Feeling sure that a visit of that kind to such a shipyard
with a great crowd and in such limited time would be very
unsatisfactory, and its results necessarily incomplete, I concluded
to go on to Newcastle the night before and make an exhaustive visit
to the works there before the arrival of the large crowd. This being
the greatest shipyard in the world, I desired to examine its new
constructions in progress, with regard to their novelties in device
and design, in my own way and my own time, without being carried
along by a great crowd as in a ‘personally conducted’ tour. I
therefore went on to Newcastle the night previous to the projected
visit. When I arrived at the hotel in Newcastle, I found a Russian
Naval Architect, Mr. Tchernigovsky, in the act of registering, and
had gone there for the same reasons that I had, and we concluded to
go to the works together. When we arrived at the Armstrong Works and
had registered our names and had asked to be conducted through the
works, we found that all the principals had gone to Edinburgh, to
return with visitors, and, after some hesitation on the part of the
official in charge, we were escorted through the works by one of the
clerks.

“We found that there were eighteen war vessels on the stocks! a list
of which was found in the programme of the visit given us in the
afternoon. The destination of the majority of the ships was known,
but not indicated in the programme. Before we left Newcastle, I was
enabled to locate all of the ships.

“We had not gone far in the shipyard before I saw a 7-inch armor
plate suspended on slings ready for hoisting in its place on what
appeared at first to be a high-speed, large protected cruiser, but
on ascending the brow stage we found it to be an armored cruiser of
advanced type and speed and with very heavy armor for that type of
vessel.

“When we asked the young man as to the nationality of the ship he
could not tell, but stated that was one of the ships building on
account of the firm. This was as interesting to Mr. Tchernigovsky as
it was to me, and our examination was rather prolonged, no objection
being made by the young man who escorted us, who not being a
mechanic was indifferent as to our actions. We found before we left
the works that there were two or three battleships of advanced type
and superior model and three or four armored cruisers, whose
destination was unknown to the people at the works outside of the
office. There was one thing that we were sure of, that these ships
were not building by the company for sale, and that there was an
important mystery to be solved.

“By the time we returned to the office, we found that the Edinburgh
crowd had arrived, ready for luncheon, after which the whole party
went through the works; there was but little time to see what was
going on, and the character and the existence of these important
ships entirely escaped the notice of the visitors. There were a
number of Japanese and Chinese officers present with the visitors.

“We had for some time before this visit secured possession in China
of copies of certain plans and specifications for an advanced type
of armored cruiser, and after an examination we found that they were
proposals of the Thames Iron Works for raising a loan and for
building a fleet for the Chinese navy.

“The resemblance between the armored cruisers building and the
Chinese plans was so great, that I am sure the Japanese ships were
made from copies of the Thames Iron Works drawings. The whole scheme
of the Thames Iron Works was excellent and feasible, and the Chinese
lost a fine navy by not accepting the offer.

“I thought that the construction of such an advanced type of war
vessel under the conditions was of sufficient importance to inform
Lieutenant Colwell, our Naval Attaché at the United States Embassy.
When I called on him, he seemed surprised to find that I had made
the ‘discovery;’ and he stated that he had wired a cipher despatch
to Washington describing the ships, and that they were for the
Japanese, and that he had been informed of it by the Chinese Naval
Attaché, who was a very bright man and whose knowledge of the fact
was from an absolutely correct source. Mr. Colwell stated that no
one but the Chinese Attaché and himself was aware of it outside of
the Armstrong’s and the British government. Of course, the last
persons to be suspected of knowing anything about the matter were
the Japanese. Mr. Colwell was well posted as to the object of the
great enterprise.

“It was easy for Armstrong’s to keep a matter of this kind quiet, as
they had built so many war vessels for various countries, and with
eighteen on the stocks they would not be noticed; and, besides, they
were never without one or two vessels under construction for sale.

“The character of the vessels and the information that I gathered
from Mr. Colwell and the Chinese Attaché, and the fact that London
was filled with foreign naval officers, diplomats, and others in
attendance on the festivities, gave me opportunities to secure much
important information as to what was going on behind the scenes. The
Japanese in numbers and importance exceeded the delegates of the
other nationalities that participated in the Naval Architects’
ceremonies, and they were treated in the most obsequious and
deferential manner by all of the British dignitaries, ship-builders,
ordnance and armor makers, dealers in supplies, and the English
people generally.

“Soon after the Armstrong visit I met a Japanese nobleman, Marquis
Ito, or Iendo, at the Lord Mayor’s reception. He was the head and
front of the Japanese contingent, judging from the amount of
adulation that prominent British dignitaries and ship-builders
accorded him. Desiring to be sure of the facts in relation to the
Japanese ships at the Armstrong Works I accosted him with an air of
knowing all about it and as if there was no use of his denying
it,—hurrying along with my description in elaborate detail, giving
him no opportunity to reply,—I said: ‘Oh, Marquis Ito! I have just
examined your very fine ships at the Armstrong Works. They are
superior to anything in any navy, British or any other, and with the
speed of twenty knots and 7-inch armor and excellent model, etc.;’
running along without giving him time to reply until I got out of
breath and stopped.

“During my talk his face was a study. It was impossible to note or
guess at his impressions, and I was extremely doubtful as to the
result; but the fact that we were then building a Japanese war
vessel, the ‘Kasagi,’ led him to believe that I knew something,
particularly as my elaborate description in detail of the qualities
of the ships under construction was correct; so, being sure that I
was thoroughly posted, he made no denial, but bowed smilingly and
with an air of approval. I had no opportunity of discussing the new
fleet with Mr. Tchernigovsky after we left the Armstrong Works, but
from information I subsequently received I was satisfied that his
early visit to Newcastle was not accidental.

“The discovery of the construction of this fleet was the origin of
my article on ‘The Coming Sea Power’ in the _North American Review_
of October, 1897.

“I ascertained while in London, from additional sources not to be
mentioned here, that the construction of these ships was undertaken
in consequence of a secret alliance between Great Britain and Japan
to prevent the United States from securing possession of the
Sandwich Islands and to head off the Russians in the Pacific, etc.

“The great engineering strike in Great Britain during this time
delayed the delivery of the Japanese vessels and the construction of
the great fleet of British ships then under way for two or three
years, and the whole thing fell through because the favorable
opportunity had passed. The delay gave them time to think it over.
And, besides, we were beginning to make a show of naval power. It
was also at this time that the Germans were beginning to show their
practical aspirations in the direction of ‘sea power.’

“The construction of the ships and their object was known also to
Captain Gregorovitch, Russian Naval Attaché in London, and that
probably accounted for the visit of Mr. Tchernigovsky.

“One interesting circumstance in connection with this strike and its
consequences was the fact that under the operations of the strike a
very large number of the best English shipyard workmen and engineers
went to Germany, and became permanently located there in the
shipyards; and while their absence crippled Great Britain, they more
than any other cause advanced the construction of the German navy;
so that while the leaders of the strike in England gained nothing by
it there for the engineers but disaster to themselves and their
country, they were conspicuously instrumental in assisting the most
powerful rival of England.

“It would be an interesting subject for reflection or discussion as
to what might have been the consequences if the strike had not
occurred and the Japanese and British fleets had been finished two
years before they were.

“At the time these fleets were started there existed throughout the
naval world a lull in war-vessel output, particularly so in Russia
and the United States, until some time after the announcement of the
Japanese policy. The Germans had, however, been much in advance in
the way of waking up and realizing the real situation.”

The programme of the visit to the Armstrong Works embraced the following list of war vessels then building there. This programme did not indicate the destination of any of these ships, so far as they were being built for foreign account, and that designation included all of them except one third-class cruiser of 2800 tons displacement building there for the English navy. Therefore the destinations of all war-ships then building at the Armstrong Works which are noted in the margin of the programme are those dropped from other sources of information, all of which turned out to be absolutely true. It should be explained here that the policy of the Armstrong Company in building vessels of war for foreign navies always was to keep their destination secret as long as possible. And here it may be added that Brassey’s “Naval Annual,” the most comprehensive work of its kind that ever existed, did not in its issue for the year 1897 contain the destination of any of these ships building at Armstrong’s for foreign account, and that the same work for the next year did give their destinations based upon the disclosures made by Mr. Cramp in connection with Commander Colwell, our Naval Attaché in London, and the Naval Attaché of the Chinese Legation there. With this explanation, we present a copy of the programme of the visit, with Mr. Cramp’s annotations as noted above.

THROUGH NEW SMITH’S SHOP TO
ELSWICK SHIPYARD.

Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Limited, have now under construction the following vessels of war:

Tons. Speed in For
Knots.

One armored-clad battleship 14,800 18 (Japan.)

One armored-clad battleship 12,200 18 (Japan.)

Two first-class armored cruisers, 9,600 20 (Japan.)
each of

One first-class armored cruiser 8,500 20 Chile.

Two fast protected cruisers 4,500 24 China.

Two fast protected cruisers 4,300 22½ (Japan.)
Portugal.

One fast protected cruiser 4,250 21 Chile.

Two armor-clads 3,800 17 Norway.

Three fast protected cruisers, each 3,450 20 Brazil.
of

One third-class cruiser 2,800 18 England.

One training ship 2,500 14

One torpedo-boat destroyer 300 30

Two first-class armored cruisers, 9,750 20 (Japan.)
contracted for Besides mercantile
vessels at their shipyard at
Walker.

By the end of the year 1897, or rather during this year, besides the ships enumerated above for Japan there were in course of construction elsewhere:

One battleship (“Fuji”), in commission.

One battleship, 14,800 tons, building at Thames Iron Works.

One battleship, 14,800 tons, building at Thompson’s.

One battleship, 10,000 tons, under consideration, the Armstrong Works (contract not signed).

One armored cruiser, 9600 tons, ordered at Vulcan Works.

One armored cruiser, 9600 tons, ordered at St. Nazaire.

Four torpedo-boat destroyers of 30 knots, similar to British destroyers of 30 knots, building at Yarrow.

Four torpedo-boat destroyers of 30 knots, similar to British destroyers of 30 knots, building at Thornycroft.

One torpedo-boat destroyer of 30 knots (?), similar to British destroyers of 30 knots, building at Schichau.

Eight torpedo boats of 90 tons, Schichau.

Four torpedo boats of 90 tons, Normand.

The Japanese battleships are named “Yashima,” “Hatzure,” “Mikasa,” “Asahi,” and “Shikisima.”

The first-class armored cruisers with seven-inch side armor at Armstrong’s were the “Asama,” “Idzumo,” “Iwate,” and “Takima;” at St. Nazaire, France, “Azuma;” and at the Vulcan Iron Works, Stettin, Germany, the “Yakumo.” Five battleships, 6 armored cruisers, and 21 torpedo boats under construction in 1897, in addition to the ships in their own yards.

Soon after his return to America, Mr. Cramp decided that the results of his visits to the Armstrong Works should be given to the public, as there were no obligations of secrecy imposed on him, and particularly as he thought that the United States was, or should be, interested in the matter; besides, he desired to extend the field of the operations of their ship-building works abroad and secure a small portion of the construction of war-ships which England, France, and Germany had monopolized, and for that purpose he prepared a paper, which was printed in the November number of the _North American Review_ for 1897. This paper added a considerable scope of discussion applying directly to the relative naval activity of Russia and Japan, and drawing, or rather pointedly leaving for inference, the conclusion that Russia was not keeping pace with the development of her already great and rapidly growing rival in the Oriental Pacific.

This paper was as follows:

“THE COMING SEA POWER.”

“Most well-informed people have a pretty clear general idea that the
present is an era of unexampled naval activity throughout the
civilized world; that great fleets are building everywhere; that the
ships composing them are of new types, representing the highest
development of naval architecture and the most exquisite refinement
of the art of naval armament. Doubtless, a much smaller number of
persons are aware that a new factor of imposing proportions has come
into the general situation; that the newest member of the family of
civilization is with rapid strides reaching a status of actual and
potential sea power with which the older nations must henceforth
reckon most seriously.

“It is, however, questionable whether any one not intimately
conversant with the current history of modern ship-building, or not
qualified to estimate properly the relative values of actual
armaments, can adequately conceive the vast significance of the
prodigious efforts which this youngest of civilized nations was
then, and still is, successfully putting forth toward the quick and
sure attainment of commanding power on the sea.

“In order to estimate accurately the significance of the current
naval activity of Japan, it is requisite to trace briefly her prior
development as a maritime power.

“The foundation of the Japanese navy was laid by the purchase of the
Confederate ram ‘Stonewall,’ built in France in 1864, surrendered to
the United States in 1865, and shortly afterward sold or given to
Japan. This ship was soon followed by another of somewhat similar
type, built at the Thames Iron Works in 1864-65, now borne on the
Japanese navy list as the ‘Riojo,’ and used as a gunnery and
training ship.

“From that time to the period of the Chinese War the naval growth of
Japan was steady, and, considering her very recent adoption of
Western methods, rapid.