Not long since I was blamed for not building more of the
turret vessels; just now the same persons and papers abuse me for building so
many. There is like inconsistency in regard to ordnance. I am attacked for not
having more vessels before Wilmington, Mobile, and other places and thus making
the blockade completely effective, and accused of neglect and indifference for
not sending off twenty ships to hunt up the Alabama. Webb has just completed a
frigate for the Italians, and I am found fault with because so skillful a
mechanic as Webb is not employed by the Government, when he is building a large
and more powerful vessel, the Dunderberg, for us. I have reason to believe that
Webb himself is implicated in this assault on the Department, in order to help
himself. He is a skillful builder and quite as skillful an intriguer. I would
not deprive him of any credit, but I cannot award him any superiority over
Lenthall or Delano as a naval constructor.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 499
No comments:
Post a Comment