The newspaper Middelburgsche Courantv dated 6 April published an item dated London 1 April reporting that the British Mediterranean Fleet recently was decreased and now just consisting of three ships of the line, three steamboats and some smaller vessels. The opponents of the department considered this strength as too weak considered the worse relationship between Turkey and Egypt.
As a result of the meeting in the House of Commons in which the proposal of Anderson was discussed to prepare merchant steamships for war purposes reported the secretary of the admiralty what the strengths was of the three major European naval powers.
Ships of the line: England 72, France 45, Russia 45
Frigates: England 83, France 55, Russia 10
Sailing vessels: England 236, France 257, Russia 174
Large steam warships: England 37, France 61, Russia 8
Steamboats of <200 hp: England 97, France 57, Russia 24
Anderson said that there were 1,300 British merchant steamships of totally 300,000 tons and totally 100,000 hp.
The edition dated 22 January referred to the newspaper Times which published an item dealing with the insufficient defence of England and how to improve this in such a manner that the population wasn’t afraid anymore for a French invasion and without more costs. The journalist suggested to call all ships of the line from the stations abroad back leaving the frigates and smaller vessels with the task to protect British merchant interests abroad. This measure was enough to scare any foreign country intending to attack England.
