engine, reciprocal and turbine, to the scrap pile, and of the most
notable benefits derived from it has been in the shipping not only in
economy of fuel, but also in the small space they occupy so as to give
more room for cargo and in the almost total absence of vibration, and in
the battleship from their being on the propeller shaft at the stern far
below the water line."

The battleships remain for ten months of the year in the rivers and
harbors, where the officers and men are kept busy dredging, building
levees, wharves and breakwaters, and they take a cruise to different
parts of the earth during the months of December and January, and during
that time engage in gunnery practice. A battery of three-inch caliber
guns is taken on board each battleship for that as the big guns will not
stand continual firing and are only used on special occasions to see if
the gunners have improved. The men are highly pleased with the service
and the majority of them re-enlist. On inquiry I was told that they had
thirty first-class and thirty second-class battleships and that they
kept them always together so that they could strike an enemy with force,
but as they held no people in subjection and had no colonies or outlying
possessions there was at the present time very little danger of war-but
if it should come they were ready to fight and to strike hard. As I left
the navy yard I thought what a pity it was that the people inhabiting
the other countries of the earth were not governed as these people are,
for then there would be no need of battleships and the kindly earth
would slumber lapped in Universal Laws.



CHAPTER IX.