French Navy - 1896 - Dockyards
The central administration drove the machine, the dockyards carried out its orders ; but an excessive system of centralisation (the very opposite of what it ought to be) compelled the departments at Paris to decide a number of questions of detail, the solution of which ought to rest with the dockyard staff. On the other hand, general questions, which it would be useful to concentrate in the same hands, were left to be decided at the different ports.
France possessed five naval dockyards : Toulon, Brest, Cherbourg, Rochefort, and Lorient. Toulon was the most important ; next came Brest and Cherbourg ; Rochefort and Lorient were rivals for the humblest position. All were both building and fitting out yards, but practically only those ships which had been built or been extensively modified at Lorient and Eochefort were fitted out at these ports. Each of the five naval ports was the seat of a high command, which embraced a vast amount of coast, and at the head of which was placed a vice-admiral with the title of maritime prefect and Commander-in-chief of a division of the coast ; but this flag-officer was, at the same time, the actual director of the dockyard where he resided.
His work was overwhelming, because in his hands is concentrated such a multiplicity of business, both of a naval and commercial character - the result of the position occupied by the Navy in France, and the diverse interests which it still directs. At Toulon, Brest and Cherbourg, the Vice- Admiral Prefet Maritime and Commander-in-Chief was assisted by a Rear-Admiral as chief of the staff ; while a second Rear- Admiral, who bears the title of Major-General de la Marine, is responsible for the personnel and ships of the Navy. The latter presided over the committees superintending in the trials of ships.
A brigadier-general, belonging to the troops of the Navy, commanded these troops in each of these five ports, but under the supreme control of the vice-admiral. At Lorient and Rochefort, the duties of the chief of the staff were performed by post-captains ; but all the naval ports, in spite of the small importance of two of them, had practicaly the same establishments and staff - a fact which well exemplified the general spirit of French administration. In each the administration, properly so-called, was directed by a principal clerk (Commissaire-general) ; naval construction, by a director of naval construction ; ordnance, by a colonel ; sanitation, by a director ; financial control, by an inspector-in-chief. In the three principal dockyards post-captains had charge, one of the movement of ships in the basins and harbor, a second of the ships in reserve, a third of the dep6t of the crews of the fleet, i.e., of seamen on shore, a fourth of submarine defences. At Lorient and Rochefort these same duties were entrusted to commanders.
At Brest were situated the Naval College and the Boys' and Marine Apprentices' Schools, as well as the training school of second-class cadets. Lorient possessed the battalion of apprentices for the corps riflemen (fusiliers) who correspond with the marines of the British navy. Toulon was the center of the gunnery and torpedo schools, and of the higher training-school of the navy.
Besides the five dockyards the French Navy had three manufacturing establishments : Ruelle, which was the foundry for coast- battery guns, and where the steel ordnance for service afloat, except the smaller calibers, was put together and completed ; Indret, which was a steam-engine factory ; and Guerigny, where chains, anchors, miscellaneous articles in steel and iron, and even thin plates were manufactured. The existence of Indret and Guerigny had been often threatened, but they had survived owing to the losses which their closing would entail, and the difficulties which would arise from the dispersion of the working population and the interests which had been created by these shops. Euelle is managed by a colonel of marine artillery, Indret and Guerigny by a director of naval construction.
On the 1st January, 1895, the workmen engaged in various departmente in the dockyards numbered 25,693, of whom 20,271 were employed in shipbuilding. Their average wages were 2s.1d. per day. The workmen may be divided into two categories, the established employes, having a right to a pension after 25 years' service, and the supernumeraries, who were engaged or discharged according to the exigencies of the moment. In practice, however, it was found difficult to discharge workmen in considerable numbers, their parliamentary representatives bringing pressure to bear on the Government on their behalf. The Estimates include a not inconsiderable sum for the wages of a mass of moderately-paid functionaries of various kinds. In the various dockyards some 1500 watchmen, police, and firemen were employed, who increase the general expenses of the Navy. There was a tendency to effect a large reduction in the number of these men. The Budget Committees always waged war on them.
The dockyards were no longer anything more than workshops for the fitting out and repair of ships of war. Not only the prepared materials, but also nearly the whole of the propelling machinery and engines of various kinds, which were so numerous in modern warships, being manufactured and supplied by private industry. It was true that an engine-building establishment is maintained for the Navy by the State, but its resources were unequal to the demand. In the same way the private yards shared the work of shipbuilding with the naval dockyards, when the latter had allotted to them as much as they can undertake. It may be added that torpedo-boats were invariably built by private contract.
The establishments which, as a rule, contract for building ships for the Navy, were three in number, viz. : the Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranee, who had their principal establishment at La Seyne, near Toulon, and an important workshop and yard at Graville, near Havre ; the Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire, with building yards at St. Nazaire and Nantes, and workshops for machinery at St. Denis: and the Chantiers de la Gironde, established at Lormont, near Bordeaux. Armor plates were chiefly supplied by private contract, a certain quantity of deck-armor being produced at the Government establishment at Guerigny. In the matter of ordnance, the Navy was less dependent on private industry, which it employed only for the supply of the elements of steel guns, and prefered to finish off the guns itself to ordering them in the finished state from private firms. The carriages and mountings were also invariably constructed by private firms.
The gunpowder used in the French Navy is specially manufactured by the war department, which also supplied the small arms. In the case of the Whitehead torpedoes, a portion were purchased from Fiume, the remainder being manufactured at Toulon.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
