Book Description

Excerpt from Colburn's United Service Magazine, and Naval and Military Journal, Vol. 3: 1878 It is interesting to notice how an impartial spectator like Mr. King regards the question of the relative importance and standing of European navies. Englishmen are apt to assert that at the present time we stand unrivalled, but their opinion may be treated as partial and prejudiced; and pessimists are not wanting who assert that our superiority is more apparent than real, although these prophets of evil have been comparatively silent of late, in view of the magnificent demonstration that has been made of our naval force. Almost the first words in Mr. King's introduc tion sufficiently indicate his Opinions. He says: England is in the forefront as the leader and model of all European naval powers. In London may be found naval attaches of nearly every important nation watching and studying with ceaseless vigilance the principles and science of naval architecture and engineering, especially the newer and later inventions, the experiments in artil lery practice, and the progress made every year in the science of warfare. Further on he adds: It may confidently be asserted that never since the application of steam propulsion to ships of war has the British Navy been relatively so strong as at the present time. Holding these views as the result of a careful personal investigation, it is not surprising to find that Mr. King spent a large part of his time in England, or that he devotes more than one-half of his space to English ships and English naval admini stration. Coming from so competent and well-informed a critic, it is satisfactory to find this conclusion reached as the result of a searching enquiry. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.