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10
Unarmoured Ships.
the gunboats of the 'Coquette' class, of 400 tons and 60 horse-power, and the sloops of the 'Arab' class, 600 tons, and the 'Daring' class, 900 tons. All these vessels had an average speed of 9½ to 10 knots. He pointed out that the relative cost of these several types was as 4, 7½, and 9 respectively, and that they were perfectly adapted for the various duties incidental to general foreign service. When, however, it became necessary to provide for an increase of speed to 13 knots—the lowest speed admissible in ships intended to protect commerce and destroy privateers—the displacement must be doubled, the horse-power trebled, and the cost of the vessels increased in the proportion of 21½ to 9. All this had actually been done in the 'Magicienne' class. Now, the question he asked was 'whether we were justified in going beyond the dimensions of the "Magicienne," and whether, in the "Rover" and "Bacchante" classes, there had not been some sacrifice of the just balance of good qualities, reckoning moderate cost as one of them, in aiming at too high a speed? It is always difficult,' he said, "to content one's self with a working speed, which, we may be satisfied, is on the whole the best, so long as a foreign power possesses ships of a similar class with higher speed. There are always people who are willing to insist upon the enormous superiority of even a slight excess of speed.' Mr. Barnaby believed 'there was a great tendency to exaggeration in that respect, and that a maritime war would show that working speeds of over 12 to
