It appears from this table that the appropriations for the service, during the first fifteen years of the present century, amounted to a little less than ninety millions of dollars per annum; and for the wear and tear of ships, and "the extraordinary expenses in building and repairing ships, &c.," the annual appropriations amounted to near thirty millions.

Our own naval returns are also so imperfect that it is impossible to form any very accurate estimate of the relative cost of construction and repairs of our men-of-war. The following table, compiled from a report of the Secretary of the Navy, in 1841, (Senate Doc. No. 223, 26th Congress,) will afford data for an approximate calculation:—

Name of Ship No. of guns Total cost of building, exclusive of armaments, stores, etc. When completed. Cost of repairs, exclusive of ordnance, etc. Repaired between
Delaware 74 $543,368.00 1820 $354,132.56 1827 and 1838
N. Carolina 74 431,852.00 1825 317,628.92 1824 and 1836
Constitution 44 302,718.84 1797 266,878.34 1833 and 1839
United States 44 299,336.56 1797 571,972.77 1821 and 1841
Brandywine 44 [23]299,218.12 1825 [23]377,665.95 1826 and 1838
Potomac 44 [23]231,013.02 1822 [[23]] 82,597.03 1829 and 1835
Concord 20 115,325.80 1828 72,796.22 1832 and 1840
Falmouth 20 94,093.27 1827 130,015.43 1828 and 1837
John Adams 20 110,670.69 1829 119,641.93 1834 and 1837
Boston 20 91,973.19 1825 189,264.37 1826 and 1840
St. Louis 20 102,461.95 1828 135,458.75 1834 and 1839
Vincennes 20 111,512.79 1826 178,094.81 1830 and 1838
Vandalia 20 90,977.88 1828 59,181.34 1832 and 1834
Lexington 20? 114,622.35 1826 83,386.52 1827 and 1837
Warren 20? 99,410.01 1826 152,596.03 1830 and 1838
Fairfield 20 100,490.35 1826 65,918.26 1831 and 1837
Natches[[24]] 20? 106,232.19 1827 129,969.80 1829 and 1836
Boxer 10 30,697.88 1831 28,780.481834 and 1840
Enterprise 10 27,938.63 1831 20,716.59 1834 and 1840
Grampus10 23,627.42 1821 96,086.361825 and 1840
Dolphin10 38,522.62 1836 15,013.35 1839 and 1840
Shark10 23,627.42 182193,395.84 1824 and 1839

[23]

Returns incomplete.

[24]

Broken up in 1840.

It appears from the above table, that the cost of constructing ships of the line is about $6,600 per gun; of frigates, $6,500 per gun; of smaller vessels of war, a little less than $5,000 per gun: making an average cost of vessels of war to be more than six thousand dollars per gun. And the expense of repairs for these vessels is more than seven per cent. per annum on their first cost.