Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-02

Among men-of-war there is absolutely
nothing to compare the Columbia with, as
none of them ever has made such a run,
and none could. not only because they do
not carry the coal, but because they have
not the power.
The Navy Department, however has the
| report of a twenty-four-hour trial of the
| English cruiser Royal Arthur, made in the
Pacific some time ago, and her maximum
| speed for four, hours was only IS knots,
while for the twenty-four hours of the trial
| 1t was only 165 knots. This vessel is off,
cially rated as the same displacement as
| the Columbia. OF the other fast British
! cruisers. none of them has done anything
at all comparable with this performance Of
| the Columbia. In fact, the cruiser Blen-
helm, on which the British plume them
| selves, made only maximum of IA knots
when returning from Halifax, after having
| carried the body Of Sir John Thompson
| there for interment.
1t Marks IN Epoch.
Secretary Tracy, in his annual report
| for the year 1892 said that the administra-
| ton was prepared to rest it's reputation in
naval achievements upon the Columbia, the
Minneapolis. her sister ship. and the bat
| tieship Indiana. The performance of the
| Colum bia, backed by the knowledge that
| the Minneapolis, more lately constructed, is
| even an improvement upon her in speed
| justifes two-thirds of this prediction al
ready"
This was the comment of an expert naval
| officer upon the Columbas record today.
| And he then proceeded to make himself
| this striking prediction: 81 think it safe to
| say that the run of the Columbia, taken in
connection with the fact that by the use of
her forced draft during. twenty-four hours
| she could easily have reduced her time at
| least two hours, will give more concern to
| the British admiralty than any achievement
| that has been accomplished by naval ves-
| sci not under the British flag since the ap-
pearance of the little Monitor in Hampton
Roads, during our last war.
They would much rather see the already
promising navy of the United States in
creased by three Of the finest battleships
afloat than to have 1t possess a flyer such
| as the Columbia. They have 5attleships in
plenty themselves with which they could
corner our own limited fleet of these craft,
but they haveonothing that could capture
the Columbia, which would be free to scour
the seas and infict untold loss upon British
commerce. They have never liked her since
she was christened 1.-THE Pirate in a jok-
ing spirit by ore of our engineers, who had
much to do with executing the details of the
plans for this triple screw ship. With a
painful recollection of the ravages commit
ted by the Alabama they cannot contem-
plate with equanimity the possibility of
what might happen with ship so superior
to her in every way as the Columbia loose
upon the high seas.
An American idea.
1T should not be forgotten, while we are
congratulating ourselves upon the possess
s1on of such ship, that she is really an
American idea. In most of our naval con-
struction We have followed for years in the
wake of Great Britain and France, i'm
proving upon their models, it is true but
still following the general lines. But the
Columbia was wide departure from all
previous patterns 1t was the idea of En-
gineer-in-ehief Melville to equip a ship
with triple screws for high speed and
economy. and our construction bureau gave
its aid to the project by designing what
was then the longest hull and finest lines
OF any naval ship in the world. The good
judgment shown in the combination has
now been established. 1t is true that the
Columbia has been severely criticised by
some naval experts as inefficient as a fight
ing ship. BUT it should be remembered
that she was never calculated to fight
battle ships or armored cruisers; that she
can by her high speed easily keep out of
the way of such craft, and that she ex-
sctly fulnllS her mission as commerce de-
stroyer.'
Newspaper Men Guessed Best,
Several days ago a pool was made at the
Navy Department as to the time it would
take the Columbia to make the run. There
were eighteen entries, including naval cf-
ficers. ship-DuilGers and newspaper men,
and the calculations took a wide range. A
few guessed that the Columbia would ar
rive today, some tomor row, others selected
Sunday and one Individual named Monday
as the time of arrival. Nearly every hour
between the extremes was named. Mr.
Cramp, who built the vessel, was in the
pool. He said she would not be pushed and
would hardly leach Sandy Heck before
noon of Sunday. He was way off, and so
was Secretary Herbert. who said in a re-
cent interview that the vessel would hard
ly arrive before Sunday afternoon
The naval officers fixed on Saturday, and
the newspaper men on Friday. The pool
was won by Mr.. Cal. O'Loughlin Of the
New York Herald, who guessed within
twenty minutes of the actual time con-
sumed.
Mr.. Hood of the Associated Press was
second best, and Mr.. Oulihan of the United
Press was close third.
Mr.. McAdoo's Statement.
Acting Secretary McAdoo made the fol-
lowing statement to Star reporter in re-
gard to the Columbia's performance:
''The department is. of course, very highly
gratified, not only at the performance, but
over the decision to make the test, as there
were many misgivings whether the ship
would be able to do herself justice as
against the fast mail steamers, which are
especially designed. equipped and manned
for making fast time over this particular
ocean route. The department knew that the
Columbia was very faAb ship, and that in
race for life she would fear no rival. but
1t Is exceedingly gratified at this long run
performance and showing as to her coal
endurance
1T will be observed that the ship did not
use at any time forced draught, and that
therefore the voyage was made entirely nm
der normal conditions from beginning to
end. This performance following closely
upon the unusual praine bestowed upon our
ships by the best European critics cannot
out be very gratifying to all Americans.
The Oficinl Time.
The official time Of the Columbia is given
in the following telegram from Commodore
Sicard commanding the New York navy
yard. to Acting Secretary McAdoo:
Columbia. six days, twenty-three hours
and forty-nine minutes from Needles to
Sandy Hook lightship."
AWAITING THE CONTROLLER.
Additional Sugar bounty Claims Held
Up for Mr.. Bowler's Opinion,
The work incident to the payment of