this drawback, paddle wheel
men-of-war were being built between 1840 and 1850. Our own navy had of
these two large and powerful vessels, sisters, the _Missouri_ and the
_Mississippi_. Singularly enough, both met the same end, by fire; the
_Missouri_ being burned in the Bay of Gibraltar in 1843, the
_Mississippi_ in the river whence she took her name, in the course of
Farragut's passage of the batteries at Port Hudson in 1863. This
engagement marked the end of the admiral's achievements in the river,
throughout which, beginning with the passage of the forts and the
capture of New Orleans, the _Mississippi_ had done good work. At the
time of her destruction, the present Admiral Dewey was her first
lieutenant. Besides these two we had the _Susquehanna_, "paddle-wheel
steam-frigate," which also served manfully through the war, and was in
commission after it. It was she that carried General Sherman on his
mission to Mexico in 1866. As usual, the principal European navies had
built many more of these vessels; that is, had adopted improvements
more readily than we did. During my first cruise after graduation, on
the coast of Brazil, 1859-61, the British squadron there was composed
chiefly of paddlers; the flag-ship _Leopard_ being one. As I remember,
there was only one screw-steamer, the sloop-of-war _Curacao_.

By that time, however, the paddlers were only survivals; but it may be
noted, in passing, with reference to the cry of obsolescence so
readily raised in our day, that these survivals did yeoman service in
the War of Secession. It is possible to be too quick in discarding, as
well as too slow in adopting. By 1850 the screw had made good its
position; and the difficulty which had impeded the progress of steam
in men-of-war disappeared when it became possible to place all
machinery below water. There were, however, many improvements still to
come, before it could be frankly and fully accepted as the sole motive
power. It is not well to let go with one hand till sure of your grip
with the other. So in the early days of electric lighting prudent
steamship companies kept their oil-lamps trimmed and filled in the
brackets alongside of the electric globes. Apart from the problem
experienced by the average man--and governments are almost always
averages in adjusting his action to novel conditions, the science of
steam-enginery was still very backward. Notably, the expenditure of
coal was excessive; to produce a given result in