NOT JUST A JOKE

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 October 1939, Page 12

NOT JUST A JOKE

SWISS ONCE HAD A NAVY. There is no reason to doubt the former existence of a Swiss Navy, writes a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian,’ ’although it is a good many years since Switzerland was entitled to rank as a naval Power. The fact is that the Swiss Navy was formed during the sixteenth century for work on the Lake of Geneva and reached unite a reasonable strength in succeeding years. Not only did it beast a full admiral, but even had its own dockyard and training school for officers, The Swiss Navy was eventually dispersed in 1753. Since those times, it may be noted, the Swiss have continued to interest themselves in nautical matters, and quite a number of small vessels have been built for owners in that country during the last few' years- One of the old Thames “penny steamboats” was sent out to Lake Geneva when the London County Council river service ended in 1909. and she is probably still in active service there. The passage of years has made the old Swiss Navy and its admiral a stock joke in some quarters. like- Wigan pier, yet both the Swiss admiral and Wigan pier actually existed, and neither were considered, particularly amusing in their day. As for the Papal Navy, another correspondent offers its history in some detail. A pamphlet in the Admiralty Library of the fifteenth century, he writes, makes allusion to the “Papal gallevs” as “being, in existence in A.D. *728 or earlier.” Through the many centuries we get glimpses of the Papal galleys and stbreships in the Levant waters, as in A.D. 132.1 Bishop Jordanus asks for a "pantcllarii', (Ihrcc-dec.ked galley) to gpard the storeships from Alexandria.”

Admiral Blain in 1654 records a “Papal galley bringing him a present' from the Pope as he lay in the roadstead at MeSsina,” and in 1796 Pope Pius VII. was requested by Napoleon I to use the Papal Fleet “in clearing’ from all Papal ports ships of nations j hostile to France.” i In the earlier nineteenth century we ; find the Papal Fleet under its own. Cardinal Admiral based on Ancona, ! and in 1853 there is a record of Great’ Britain and the Holy See reaching an • agreement that the ships of each nation should have “national, treat-; ment” in each other’s ports, thereby j indicating that the Papal authority. had a mercantile as well as a naval i squadron. | In 1868 the Papal Fleet consisted } of 13 ships under Admiral Alessandro; Cialdi; there was the Immacolata Concezioire, of 650 tons, 14 knots, and , having eight 18-pounders. San Pietro and Guasco had four guns each, Papin ! and Gitana had two 18-pounders each, and the San Giuseppi had one 24-1 pounder. All these were steamers,} but there were also seven sailing; xebecs and feluccas, all flying the; Papal flag. | Nearly all of the steamers were} built on the Thames, the first-named i at the Thames Ironworks, with en-i gines cast by Seaward and Co., of* Millwall. ! Brassey in his "Voyage of the Sun-1 beams” describes meeting the Im-} macolata, Concezione. After the fall; of the Papal States in IS7O this vessel was sold and renamed the Loire. She j went East, being finally burned by; accident in Manila Harbour in 1907.’ Thus ended the Papal Navy’s last representative. The Papal flag in the early days was a red cross and a red star on white background, but after Jerusalem was taken in the Crusades from the Turks tjie gold and silver flag which the medieval kingdom of Jerusalem used passed to Rome, and thus the “yellow, and white” flag was evolved. ’