The morning call., 1893-11-03
UNDER THE WATER
s,
How Peixoto Will Fight
De MellO.
a NEW ENGINE OF WAR.
Purchase of the Submarine Tor
pedo-Boat PeaCemaker.
SYMPATHY FOR THE REBELS.
Not France, but England and Ger
many VIII Be Apt to Assist
Them.
NEW ENGINE OF WAR.
SYMPATHY FOR THE REBELS.

NEW YORK, Nov 2.-It was admitted
to-day that the steamer Britannia of the
North Atlantic Steamship Company OF Bos-
ton had been sold to Charles R. Flint &
Co. for the Brazilian Government. The
ship is. to be towed here and fitted for her
new service.
The dreams told in yesterdays news
papers of a possible battle between some
Of Admiral Mel0'S fleet and Ell Cid off
Sandy Hook occasioned much ridicule in
maritime circles and the further announce
ment that the purchase of a fleet of tug
boats was contemplated by the Brazilian
revolutionistS could not be confirmed in
any of the towing Offices.
Not 3 day passes, however, without
some addition being reported to the fleet
that President Peixoto of Brazil is organ
iziug here to fight his rebelious admiral.
although many of the reported purchases
do not take place because the owners of
vessels demand too high prices for them.
The latest purchase reported is that of
the submarine torpedo boat Peacemaker.
This boat was designed and built in 1856
by John ?. Holland, and had an official
test in November Of that year. At that
time it succeeded fairly well, and AT later
tests il did even better. 1t would doubt
less be q formidable engine of destruction
in. a harb0r.
1t would be an easy matter to load the
Peacemaker on the deck of either FL Cid or
the Britannia and take her to Brazil and
at close quarters she might do excellent
work. The price paid for the Britannia
was S225, 900. She left Boston to-day for
New York in tow. and it is said that her
armament will consist of four torpedo
tubes, two 33- pound rifles six 6-pounders,
ten l. Founders and several machine guns.
I'll Rio is advertised to sail to New Or
leans on Saturday, thus making it evident
rhat-she will not be sold to Brazil. Offers
were made for her, but were positively re-
fused, and II is now said that an offer has
been made for FL Mar, another of the
Morgan line ships, and that it will prob
ably be accepted.
.'.Tne Tribune Washington special says:
Earest adyioes received from Rio represent
the English as being more pronounced in
their sympathy for Admiral de Mello than
other foreigners. This information SEEM
ingly contradicts the assurances received
at:the State Department from the official
representatives of England that neither
LHdb QdllOU lOI any Ou6 dulUOTlldllFe1y
acting for it is helping the rebel admiral.
And yet to-day dispatches to the state
Department are said to indicate plainly
that Captain Lang. senior English naval
officer at Rio, has openly exhibited upon
several occasions his sym pathy for the in
surgents and their cause. Lang is re-
garded as the most pronounced of all the
foreign naval officers in his sympathies for
De Mello.
The report that the French are support
ing the movements against PeixOto is not
confirmed. On the contrary. it is stated
that the French are observing strict neu-
trality. The Germans as class show un-
mistakable sympathy for Admiral de
Mello, and apparently they do not take
the trouble to conceal their real feelings in
the matter.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2.-Secretary Her.
bert said to-day that there was no truth
whatever in the report that Brazil was
actively negotiating with the United States
for the purchase of its new warships-the
Machiss, Montgomery and Marbehead /;
that the Navy Department was utterly
without power to sell the vessels. and only
Congress could do that. No negotiations
to that end are pending.