ORIGIN OF FAST CRUISERS.
“On account of the heavy loss of our ships captured by the Confederate cruisers, and our failures to capture any of them with the exception of the ‘Alabama,’ which was accidentally discovered and destroyed by the ‘Kearsarge,’ our Navy Department conceived it necessary to have constructed a number of very fast cruisers, faster than any known afloat.
“The Department delegated Messrs. Stimers and Allen, when in the height of their power in their ‘Sub-Department’ in New York, to design and have them constructed.
“Not being naval architects, and not having any naval architect of competent knowledge in connection with their ‘Sub-Department,’ but having an exalted idea of their own abilities not only as naval architects and engineers, and everything else in that direction, they designed some ships of a peculiarly fantastic model, and engines of equally fanciful character which they called, for short, the ‘grasshopper engine.’
“Having the power to design these vessels and contract for them, they invited me to inspect the plans and build two of them.
“On looking over these designs, I began to criticise them, and recommended modifications.
“I was wound up suddenly by the observation that, as they intended to give us two ships and give us what they considered a fair price for them, we must build them exactly as they were designed.
“As the price they offered was high, and feeling that we would practically have our own way with them, provided we adhered to the general type of design, and having no responsibility, we thought that we had better take them and make a handsome sum out of them than to stand out on trifles and fight for glory alone.
“I had commenced at the beginning of the war with criticising the monitors, and our concern got nothing, and the grass might have been growing in our yard if we adhered to that course. So the price was fixed for these ships, and we were about going on, when the fatal contretemps of the launching of the Boston light-draught monitor occurred. The ‘fast cruiser’ contracts of Stimers and Allen were set aside, and a large sum of money saved to the government. The ring was broken. They who had had unlimited power heretofore suddenly found themselves without the power to contract for a dingy.
“This was really a great disappointment to us and several other contractors, because the price they fixed for the cruisers was liberal, and, as they would not listen to suggestions, they were naturally expected to take the responsibility.