Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-08-09
A GREAT RUN.
Cruiser Columbia Crosses the
Sea in Seven Days.
UNDER NATURAL DRAUGHT.
The Average Speed During the Voy-
age was i9. al Knots~We Have
the Fastest Fighting Yes
sci In the World.

The United States commerce destroyer Co
lunbia, next to Minneapolis the fastest war
vessel cf her class afioat, arrived at New
York from her race ainst time across tne
Atlantic. NJ warship ever built crossed TN
ocean In the same tine.
These are the principal figures: Time from
the Needles, Isle of Wight, to Sandy Hook
LightshIp, 6 days 20 hours 40 minutes; course,
Sl12 kno;s; average hourly speel. 1S SO; be''
hourly run. 90 so; es: fjur-hour run, 81 o0'
The daily runs were: From P. NJ. OF July
26, at the Needles, to noon OF the following
day. ADS knots, and to noon OF each succeed
ing day, 467, 47O, 457, 455, 453, and 4O5 to
Sandy Hook Lighship at 8 40 A. NJ.
On July 80 at A. NJ, It was squally and
a storm threa ed. The wind was s. w. by
W. heavy sea- came over the bows and for
four hours the speed was reduced to eigh'
knots an hour. In the evening Of the same
day in latitude 46 O5, longitude is. 20, the
Columbia ran near an iceberg, which was
about $50 yards long, 100 yards wide and 4j
feet high.
The Columbia took In pilot 400 miles east
OF Sandy Hook, only slowing up sufficiently
for the purpose She passel Quarantine
shortly before noon, reporting all we on
board, and dropped anchor In the North
river less than an hour later. She looked as
though she ha been doing something with
the elements. Her four great tunnels were
covere with salt crystals where they were
not black with smoke SCOT covered this up
per structure and her sides were smeared and
sLreaked with rust. Her docks were covered
with coal dust aud cinders, and altogether
she looked as though an early securing at
the navy yard would be the best thing fox
her.
A representative OF the Unite Press found
Captain George W. Sumner in his cabin.
II consider her run across v,ry success
fuI, said he. "We came under natural
draugh'. 1t was smooth run, though we
had little rough weather. We slowed down
ouly once before head seas. We met some
fog, brt won't through it at fu speed with
were varying, but westerly generally. We
had on what we cali bate ha.ches throug-
out, making us watei-tight forward. The
vessel was somewhat down at the head when
we started despite the fact that We had our
trimming tank aft filed. This Is ecau'e OF
the natural trim when her bunkers are full.
She is a good boat though The roll was
only 10 degrees 10 starboard and II TO port
She has rolled, however, from 50 to 81"
The coal ption, the Captain said,
variel from 200 to 29) tons day, about one
half that used by the Cunarder Lucania In
her trip. from Liverpool, ovec a course OF
en- record trip was 2 80. The Columbia
had the best coal obtainable at Southampton.
1t is that used by the American Line aud
come, from the Dow ais Merkhyr Mines
While her bunker capacity is only 1850 tons,
Captain Sumner took in 1875 tons, filing the
bunkers and utilizing the wing passages, fire
rooms and even the decks, where 40 tons
were stored under the super.tructure. Thus
forward, and Is fee. inche, af, al unfor-
tunate trim, but unavoidable. Her fire room
force was IL short, aud that number was
taken from volunteers Of the deck crew, max
Ing up the full complement Of 1856 In ad,
dition 45 men from the deck force and three
potty officers were transferred to the en-
gineers' department to asst In carrying
coal. They worked night and day, and
though f.tigued none gave out