This status and this rank are by no means limited to our own country. Mr. Cramp is as familiar in London as in Philadelphia; as well known in Tokio and St. Petersburg as in New York or Washington.
Undoubtedly, the first impression one will derive from the study of Mr. Cramp’s career and character as mirrored in his acts and his writings is his singleness of purpose, fixity of resolve, and directness of method. These are, in fact, his distinctive traits, and to them, throughout his long and arduous life, all others have been rigorously subordinated. If he appears to be exacting of others, he is yet more so with himself. It is not to be expected that in a life so long, in an experience covering literally the scope of the civilized world, and in a range of endeavor so wide and diversified, all could be plain sailing. On the other hand, few men have encountered more or greater obstacles. No man ever faced them more cheerfully or combated them with more sanguine pluck. If he did not always triumph over them, it was because they were insurmountable, or because those upon whom he relied for a proper share in the sum-total of effort failed him. He himself never left undone anything that a clear head could devise or a resolute will strive for.
But with all his singleness of purpose, fixity of resolve, and directness of method in professional pursuits, Charles H. Cramp, as a member of society at large, is a man of the broadest vision and most comprehensive culture. Intent as he may be upon his work, he “never takes the shop home with him,” as the saying is. He has always possessed the happy faculty of laying down his burdens at the close of each working-day to find mental recreation in social occasions, in general literature, art, and the higher order of social amusements. A clever writer in a magazine sketch of him many years ago said, “Charles H. Cramp knows more about more things than any other man of his time!” Unlike most epigrams, this is true, and in terse fashion it conveys a portrayal of his intellectual make-up. Mastery of the literature of his own profession, rich and varied as it is, forms but a small part of Mr. Cramp’s mental equipment. To all these attainments add the lessons and observations of wide travel and constant association with leading minds and controlling personalities at home and abroad, and the result is a perfectly equipped, all-round man of affairs.
During his whole active career Mr. Cramp has held positions of command. At the age of nineteen he began to direct operations and assume responsibilities; and such status he has maintained for threescore years, with constantly increasing volume of operations and incessantly growing weight of responsibility. But through all he has kept the even tenor of his way, neither elated by triumphs nor depressed by reverses, and guided always by an inflexible integrity and a scrupulous honesty that are proverbial.
CONTENTS
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| Chapt. | Page | |
| I. | Early ship-building in Philadelphia and Colonies—Paul Jones—Joshua Humphreys—Alliance—Truxtun—Embargo—Decade following War of 1815—Rebecca Sims—Inauguration of Packet Lines—Thomas P. Cope—Decay of Eastern Trade in Philadelphia—Auction Sales of Cargoes | [11] |
| II. | Birth—Relatives—High School—Magnetic Observatory—Note on Davidson—Surf-boats for Mexican War—First Propeller Tug Sampson—ship-builders of New York and Philadelphia—Clipper Ships, 1850—Zenith of American Carrying Trade—Crimean War—Cunard Line—Libertador—Armored Ships—Board Appointed to Take Charge of Appropriation to Build Them—Account of New Ironsides—The Monitor—Speech of Bishop Simpson—Sub-Department of Navy—Light-draught Monitors—Sinking of the First—Collapse of Sub-Department—Rebuilding of Yazoo, Tunxis and Others—Miantonomah—Origin of Fast Cruisers—Evolution of Modern Marine Engineering in this Country | [39] |
| III. | Foreign Commerce in 1865—The Clyde and George W. Clyde, and Introduction of Compound Engines—Commerce of 1870—Merchant Marine—Lynch Committee—Mr. Cramp and Committee—Lynch Bill—American Steamship Company—Visit to British Shipyards—John Elder—British Methods—Interchange of Methods—Merchant Marine, Continued—Dingley Bill—Defects—Act of 1891, Providing Registry for Foreign Ships—St. Louis and St. Paul—Extract from Forum—Remarks on Article—Committee of ship-builders and Owners—New Bill Introduced by Frye and Dingley—North Atlantic Traffic Association—New Shipyards—Tactics of North Atlantic Traffic Association—Our Navigation Laws, North American Review—Mr. Whitney—Unfriendly Legislation—Mr. Whitney’s Letter—Effects of Letter—Mr. Cramp’s Letter to Committee of Merchant Marine—International Mercantile Marine | [97] |
| IV. | Condition of Navy after Civil War—Admiral Case’s Fleet—Virginius Scare—Huron, Alert and Ranger—Secretary Hunt—First Advisory Board—Secretary Chandler—Puritan Class—Finished—Steel—Hon. J. B. McCreary and Appropriation Bill for New Navy—Members of Second Naval Advisory Board—Standard for Steel for New Ships Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Dolphin—Secretary Whitney—Beginning of New Navy, by Charles H. Cramp—Baltimore, Charleston and Yorktown—Purchase of Drawings by Navy Department—Commodore Walker—Premium System—Mr. Whitney’s Views—Premiums Paid—Attack on System—Secretary Tracy—War College Paper—Classifying Bids | [154] |
| V. | Armstrongs—Russian war-ship Construction—Arrival of Cimbria at Bar Harbor—Visit of Wharton Barker to Shipyard—Visit of Captain Semetschkin and Commission to the Yard—Purchase of Ships—Newspaper Accounts—Captain Gore-Jones—Mr. Cramp’s Account of Operations—Europe, Asia, Africa and Zabiaca—Popoff and Livadia—Visit to Grand Duke Constantine—Anniversary Banquet in St. Petersburg of Survivors of Cimbria Expedition—Object of Visit to Russia—Mr. Dunn and Japan—Contract for Kasagi—Jubilee Session of Naval Architects in London—Visit to Russia—Correspondence with Russian Officials—Visit to Armstrongs’—Japanese war-ship Construction—Coming Sea Power—Correspondence with Russian Officials—Invited to Russia—Asked to Bid for war-ships—Our Ministers Abroad—Construction of Retvizan and Variag—Maine | [205] |