From  a  knowledge  of  the  cost  of  works  hitherto  completed  or  in  progress,
and  of  the  wonts  at  the  respective  yards  for  the  proper  preservation  of  materials,
and  for  extending  the  means  for  building,  preserving,  repairing,  atad  eqwpping


MILITABT  AND  NAVAL    DEPESCES.  73

Tttich,  they  are  satUfied,  however,  that  the  pnblic  interests  would  be  greatly
promoted,  and,  in  fact,  absolutely  require  an  average  annual  expenditure  of
>JOO,000  for  years  to  come  upon  the  different  yarda.
Iq  Xew  York  the  noceasity  for  a,  dry  dotk  is  severely  felt  already,  and  its
imprtance  will  increase  with  any  increase  of  the  navy.  This,  with  .its  de-
pcndrncici',  will  require  nearly  a  million  of  dollars.  At  Pensjicola,  whieh  nature
U*  ili'^j'piated  as  one  of  tlie  naval  keys  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  of  the  im-
mcDPC  commerce  of  the  valley  of  the  Miesiesippi,  large  ex^ienditures  will  be
DKC'Syary  to  secure  adequate  means  for  repairing  and  subsisting  a  naval  force
npon  that  station,  and  thus  prevent  the  many  evils  which  would  bo  severely
filt  in  &  state  of  war,  if  the  vessels  were  obliged  to  resort  to  the  Atlantic  ports
for  ordinary  repairs  or  supplies  of  any  kind.  In  other  yards  there  are  objects
of  grest  and  urgent  importance.
Gciiemlly  the  proposed  arrangements  for  the  preservation  of  all  materials
and  vessels  should  precede  their  collection  or  construction.  Whikt,  therefore,
ihc  board  propose  $500,000  as  the  average  annual  appropriation,  until  tlic  yards
fbrniH  he  placed  in  proper  order,  they  would  also  state  that  appropriations  of
e7IW,000,  annnally,  for  the  next  four  or  five  years,  and  a  leas  anmthau  S.'>00,000
tfterwards,  would,  in  tbcir  opinion,  be  most  judicious.
