, 1889-11-14
THE NAVAL STATION
Reasons Why Port Townsend
Should be Selected.
Our Harbor the Very Best
Oh the Sound.

| When the Senate committee on Re
| lationS with Canada WAS here last
summer, the members stated very de
cidedly that the Government do not
propose at present To build II navy
yard of construction Oh Puget Sound,
which would he Il work OF many years,
nor do they propose to build war YES
sels here, as it is found more econom-
zeal and expeditions to have such work
! done by contracts with outside parties.
| What may be the determination of the
| Government at some future time about
a navy yard remains to he seen, but for
! the present, all that is contemplated is
the building of Il naval station for re-
pairs and supplies, similar to the naval
station at Esquimalt B. c. This would
| simply require Il dry dock and ware
| houses for marine stores of all kinds.
at is an admitted fact" said Senator
Hale, ''that the military defenses for
! the protection of Puget Sound will be
placed at Point Wilson, Admiralty
Head and MarrOwstOne Point, and
| that the naval squadron will anchor in
| Port Townsend harbor to act in con-
junction with the forts and batteries;
and where our vessels are.we require
the supplies, and not i'll the woods, at
Port Orchard"
| There is one meteorological fact which
seems 10 have escaped the attention of
the naval commission, and that is the
fOgS which at times render the naviga-
ton Of Puget Sound south of Port
| Townsend very hazardous. From the
entrance of Fuca Strait to Port Town
send there are no hidden dangers, and
vessels coming i'll from the ocean can
steer by compass, after passing Cape
Flattery light house and fog signal di-
rect to their anchorage i'll Port Town
send harbor during the densest fog, but
above Port Townsend the navigation
becomes more intricate.
In this region fog may last from half
a day to more than eight days. In dry
seasons fog is more enduring, being
then intensified by the smoke of exist
ing forest fires.
In the fall of 1877 the large ocean
steamer Alaska, bound from Puget
Sound TO Esquimalt for the British Co
lumbia outgoing mail and passengers
for San Francisco, was fog bound thirty
hours at Olympia, and sixteen hours al
Seattle, besides having been navigating
slowly and with circumspection in her
course toward Esquimalt. 1t is very
true that the regular mail steamers
daily crossing to Victoria, navigated by
those exceptionally good pilots, Cap
tain Roberts, of the Olympian, and
Captain Anderson, of the North Pa
eific, run fearlessiy during the densest
of fogs, but the same cannot be said OF
transient steamers and war vessels.
The recent accident to the British wal
steamer Amphion is a case in point.
This magnificent iron clad, n vessel ot
g COO tons displacement, having the
Governor General of Canada and suite
on board, while attempting to steam
from Victoria to New Westminster III
a dense log last week, struck a rock
and came near being total LOGS.
The COlOnist of the 9th says:
"This disaster shows very clearly the
folly of those who talked of removing
the naval station from Esquimalt to
English Bay, harbor only to bl
reached by threading intricate chan.
nels and in which fleet might be i'm
prisoned for days by fog which did
not extend to the open sea. In time ot
war an active enemy could keep SUI
perior force in English Bay like sc
many rats in Il trap. The proposal tC
remove the naval station from splen
did harbor, readily accessible to the
j Straits of Fuca, to bay in an out o
the way corner, fenced out from the
open sea by barriers of islands, sepa
ted by many crooked channels difficult
10 navigate, was one of the most sense
less schemes ever devised by unintelli
gent and short sighted self interest"
We could give many other instances
of disaster to vessels occasioncd by fog,
both in our own waters and those o
British Columbia. The steamship
Mexico has been twice ashore, very
near, if not at the same point, whert
. the Amphion struck, and it has beer
confidently predicted that it was but /
question of time when one of the greai
tea laden steamers from China woulC
come TO grief. The Amphion, how
ever, has solved the problem that it i.
: Esq timalt and not English Bay wher,
the naval station IS best located.
; The remarks of the Colonis: g.
! with equal force t~
= of the Strait. POI
E1squimaIt, Is
from the Uce~
| of lpipCr