The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-12-22
UNITED STATES NAVY.
Summary of the Annual Report OF
Secretary Whitney.

Summary of the Annual Report OF
Secretary Whitney.
Secretary Whitney, in his annual report
apain refers to the necessity of a reorganl-
cation of the Navy Department, and
urges the rassage of the bill now on the
House calendar. In the mean time, he
saws. he has exercised whatever power was
possessed by the Secretary toward bringing
about necessary changes. This power is linz
tied to the distribution of the functions and
business of the department among the exist
ing bureaus and he has so far dealt only
with the duty, which seemed to be lmpera-
tive, of consolidating, as far as possible, IN
one bureau the general purchases OF
the department., the care and custody
of stores, and creating there a system
of bookkeeping by which responsibility
for the care and disposition of the property
should be hal With this object in view,
on June IL, 1856, he issued an order
constituting three officers board to taNe
an inventory of all the stores and material
at the various navy yards ana
naval stations under cognizance OF the
various bureaus of the department Ihe
work imposed upon the Board was found to
be extremely difficult and laborious, and has
not vet been completed but the result OF
the err injuries has forcibly illustrated the
necessity for better and more improved
system.
With respect to the additional new cruisers
the report says:
The experience of the department in its
first attempt at the creation of modern YES
sells of war has been such as to excite the
greatest concern and disappointment. An
examination of the facts with reference to
them demonstrated that an entirely new de-
parture was necessary in undertaking further
similar construction. The one characteristic
which an unarmored cruiser must
possess is great speed. This is determined by
the function which she is expected to per-
form in modern warfare. She is '.com-
merce destroyer" She must be able to es-
cape from ironclads, and outrun, so as to
overhaul, merchantmen. II slower than iron
clads she could not keep the sea, and If
slower than merchantmen she might as well
stay in Port.
'When the Dolphin, Boston, Atlanta and
Chicago were projected and the contracts for
their construction entered into, it was we'll
known what speed ought to be attained, and
what weight and character of machinery per
ton of displacement was necessary to obtain
it. Commercial vessels had at that time at
tained speeds ranging between ten and nine
teen knots, and cruisers were being built In
other countries, or had already been built,
attaining the same speed"
Ile S1CTetdTy Guou SOLllpefl IuC DOiPAAu
and Atlanta, which have both been COM
pleted, and had their trial trips, with similar
vessels built contemporaueously by other
nations, AMI declares that the results
were unfavorable to the two vessels
named both in indicated horse power
and speed.
In considering the matter of constructing
the additional vessels authorized by Con-
gress in March, 1885, the Secretary says he
decided to exhaust every effort to avail
himself of the most advanced thought
and knowledge attained by our own
and other countries upon the subject,
believing it to he the true policy to
gather such information from every quarter,
and at the same time to depend entirely upon
our own resources for the construction of our
vessels.
The estimates for 1855 aggregate So, ,925,-
71S, against appropriations aggregating Sl7,-
256,0l4 for 1881 Included in the estimates
are the following items: Increase of navy,
S5,50J,0J0; yards and docks, S3,30S,9Gl; j;
batteries of new type for six vessels,
$4,000; secondary batteries and mod
ern small arms, S20a,7 construc-
tion and repair, Sl,T00, 900; ordnance
and ordnance materials, S150,000; land for
proving ground, $4,000 "For the first time
in many ye2rs, the Secretary says, ''the ordi
nary expenditures of the department have
been kept within tn, appropriations. For
the year ending June 80, 1886, there was
surplus on hand of $3.50. .125.