only by large expenditure of time and fighting. Such were the results of
unpreparedness. It was to the preparation, scanty as it was--to the fine
ships and superior armaments, both too few--that the successes of either
era were due. The frigates and sloops of 1812 were among the finest of
their class to be found anywhere, with powerful batteries and
excellently officered; while in the decade before the Civil War began
there had been built eighteen or twenty new steamships, admirably
efficient for their day, and with armaments of an advanced and powerful
type. Upon these fell the principal brunt of the naval fighting that
ensued. These ships, and particularly those of the Brooklyn class, were
the backbone of Farragut's fleet throughout all his actions, even in the
last at Mobile in 1864. Had there been thrice as many, the work would
have been sooner and therefore more cheaply done; but had the lack of
preparation in 1861 equaled that of 1851 or 1881, it may be questioned
whether any of his successes could have been won.

When Farragut took command of the Brooklyn, ten years had elapsed since
he was last afloat--years pregnant with naval change. He had never
before served in a steamer, except for a very short time in a primitive
one belonging to Porter's Mosquito fleet, in 1823. The changes in the
disposition and handling of the guns had not been radical. They were
still arranged "in broadside," along the two sides of the vessel; nor
were the pivot guns--which, as their name implies, could be pivoted to
one side or the other, according to the position of an enemy--a new
idea. In these matters there had been improvement and development, but
not revolution. But while the mode of placing and handling was
essentially the same, the guns themselves had greatly increased in size
and received important modifications in pattern. The system then in
vogue was that associated with the name of the late Admiral Dahlgren.
The shape of the gun had been made to conform to the strains brought by
the discharge upon its various parts, as determined by careful
experiment; and in place of the 32-pounder, or six-inch gun, which had
been the principal weapon of the earlier ships, the batteries of the new
frigates and sloops were composed chiefly of nine-inch guns, with one or
more pivots of ten- or eleven-inch bore. The shell-shot, whose
destructive effects had excited Farragut's comments in 1838, were now
the recognized type of projectile; and t