But all efforts were unavailing. The War Department, no less than the Navy Department, remained, in appearance, as incredulous as ever. No reasoning, no inducement, could awaken sufficient interest in either to disturb the ‘masterly inactivity’ which was proverbially the bent of both, from the beginning to the end of the war.[80] Meantime the great value of the invention has been demonstrated so as to secure general conviction; and Captain Tucker, commanding Confederate States naval forces afloat on this station, declares, unhesitatingly, that this one machine of war, if finished, would be more effective as a means of defence and offence than nearly all the ironclads here afloat and building—fact of which I am and have been fully assured. Had it been finished and afloat when the enemy's ironclads entered this outer harbor several weeks ago, but few of them, probably, would have escaped. Be that as it may, I trust the Department will have the matter inquired into—at is, the relative value, as war engines, of the “Lee torpedo-ram,” and of the ironclad rams Chicora and Palmetto State, and others of the same class now building in this harbor, to the absorption of all the material and mechanical resources of this section of the country. I cannot express to the War Department in too strong terms my sense of the importance of the question involved, and of its intimate connection with the most effective defence of this position. I do not desire to impose my views, but feel it my duty to urge an immediate investigation, by a mixed board of competent officers, to determine whether it be best for the ends in view to continue to appropriate all the material, and employ all the mechanical labor of the country, in the construction of vessels that are forced to play so unimportant and passive a part as that which Captain Tucker, C. S. N., their commander, officially declares to me must be theirs in the future, as in the past. * * * The Engineer in charge estimates that it will take twenty thousand dollars to pay off existing obligations for workmanship and material, and to complete the vessel, with the exception of floating her. The plating can only be furnished by the naval authorities, who have control of the rolling-mills and all suitable iron; and unless they will agree to divert from the vessels of the class they are building enough plating for the completion of the ram, I may as well give up further hope. Respectfully, your obedient servant,
This text is part of:
But all efforts were unavailing. The War Department, no less than the Navy Department, remained, in appearance, as incredulous as ever. No reasoning, no inducement, could awaken sufficient interest in either to disturb the ‘masterly inactivity’ which was proverbially the bent of both, from the beginning to the end of the war.
1883. Harper. New York.
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