Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-07-14
AT REST.

the dolphin" come up to the specimen
tions and the requirements OF the con-
tract. Aside from this the vessel was not
completed within the time specified,
the contract requiring that the Dol
phin " should be completed within al
year, having been signed by Mr..
Roach July %, 1888. Republican papers
have sought to shift the responsibility
for the failure of the Dolphin" from Mr..
Roach to. the Advisory Board or to Sec
retary Whitney, but it cannot be done.
The responsibility for the failure Of the
Dolphin" and the professional ignomin-
ious consequent theron, must rest upon
Mr.. Roach. In 1882 Mr.. Roach was be-
fore a Congressional committee on ship
building, and in his testimony given be-
fore the committee February I'd, of that
year, he said, regarding himself and the
building of ships:
NIf merchant comes to me and says that
he wants ship of such and such speed
under conditions which think will not per-
NIT me to get that speed, / tell him that l
will not build the ship in that way; that
such and such changes must be made. In
like manner would have the builders criti-
else the plans of the Navy Department, say
ing,s We do not think that is quite right.
You WArt more power, or you want little
more beam to carry this weight. -'t'
eff the plans, as prepared by the Navy
Department, are defective in any respect,
let the practical builders of the country sug-
pest changes, and in that way YOU would se-
Akol of sy,1o n,of
both the Navy Department and the outside
builders. Then when the plan is finally
determined upon, make your contract and
throw upon the contractor all the RESPONSE
bility that he would have to bear if he were
dealing,with- merchant In this way you
will pet your ships built by outside con-
tractors and at the same time get the full
benefit of the talent of the Department.
One would naturally infer from this
that Mr.. Roach would not build boat
that he did not approve in every particu-
lar, no matter by whom the specifications
were made nor for whom it was to be
built. When the Dolphin" had failed
in her trial trips, Mr.. Roach, in explana-
ton thereof and doubtless with view to
shifting from bis own shoulders the re-
sponsibility for her failures, on June 20,
1885, said:
Gas to power and speed, the Advisory
Board, under whose direct supervision the
Dolphin" was constructed, made their own
plans, leaving no discretion to me in the
selection of the material Not even a nut
could be altered in the vessel without the
consent of the Board, which assumed all re-
spoRsibilty except as to workmanship.
There is not a single pound of steel in the
vessel that was not passed upon by the Ad-
visory Board and its officers. The whole
vessel was built under the most rigid super
vision of the Board. The contract required
q trial to be made of the ship when finished.
The trial took place under the immediate
supervision of the Board, which made a re-
port thereon March 10th. That report was
disapproved by the Secretary of the Navy,
but has never been published"
3 When before the Congressional com
rnittee, Mr.. Roach was far more anxious to
protect the Government in the matter of
payments than himself, and said:
sThen; as a safeguard, / would hold large
amounts of the money back until the con-
tractor had performed his contract, and on
this plan and with these projections do not
see why you will not be perfectly safe; but if
you adopt any other plan the whole thing
will be a matter of experiment. and if any
thing goes wrong, as something certainly
will. nobody will be accountable. As fur
ther incentive to the contractor to do his
work faithfully, / would deduct so much
from the contract price for every knot that
the ship fell behind the specified speed, and
for every knot that she went beyond it /
would be willing to pay something extra.
These are my views as to the proper policy
to be pursued in building your new navy"
In explaining his boats failure when
speaking on the question Of payment he
said:
"The contract called for payments in in
stalments according to the progress in the
construction of the vessel. The reserves
were to be paid upon the acceptance of the
ship. The Advisory Board, which under the
law is the sole authority possessing power to
pass upon the vessel, made its report to the
Secretary of the Navy on March 10, RECON-
mending the acceptance of the ship. This
report was disapproved by the Secretary of
the Navy, but it has never been published"
When giving his views to the COM
mittee Mr. Roach was very solicitous
concerning the matter of speed, inferring
that if he were to build any boats they
would possess this most desirable quality
in a modern dispatch vessel. Here are
his views in 1892
II think l have seen in the report of the
Advisory Board certain statements in regard
to speed, but have facts and figures in my
possession showing that England is now
building ships of eighteen knots speed.
That is looking TO the future. | think that
IL -.
fifteen knots speed, and that portion of
your feet should have a speed of eighteen
knots. And when l speak of speed do not
mean speed according to the English stand
ard. Their plan IS to take the speed of the
vessel in rInning measured mile and count
that the speed. But the speed mean IS the
average speed of the ship in ordinary fair
weather, and she must be able to keep it up
for twenty-four hours if necessary. Twenty
four hours is about as long as you want to
chase an enemy or run away from him; if
you do not succeed in that time you may as
we'll give the thing up.
1.-The niost economical policy that can be
pursued with regard TO a steamship is TO put
ample power in her, and when you do not
want TO use that power the economy of coal
in a ship that make fifteen or sixteen knots
when she is reduced to twelve knots will be
almost as great as you could get IN a twelve
knot ship that had to be forced. Therefore,
you do not, in fact, lose much IN the con-
sumption of fuel, and think can convince
Won that ship such as have spoken of here
can be kept at sea as a naval ship for ninety
days with her own coal, using high speed
only when chasing an enemy.
In.his explanation hevery much modi-
fed his views on this question:
''No speed was specified in the original
contract. The only condition imposed was
that the vessel should have 2,30O horse
mower. The boiler originates the power and
the engines convey it. AT the first trial the
power fell short about5 per cent. and on the
ie,evt frial IL was only III per cent. less than
,-e0T,ireCi IN the contract. There was clause
;f tISe cCastract that if the deficiency in the
,,oSter was not caused by the boiler or the
aengines the vessel was TO be accepted