St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-09-13
BOSTON LETTER.


though they did not arrive until the
last of the week, there were still
enough Knights LETT in town to
make, with the residents here,
crowd of people eager to 90 on
board whenever it was possible.
Although certain vessels of the
Navy have been here occasionally, it
is seven years since fleet, as such,
was here. Now we have had one
division of the North Atlantic Squad
ron, with the Admiral in charge.
There has been some unpleasant,
and apparentlyunc forcriticism,
especially in some OF the New York
papers, on there being only four
boats in the Admiral's fleet, but
there seems no reason to think that
this was other than the result of ac
cident. 1t is necessary to keep one
war vessel in the Cuban waters at
present, and the Cincinnati was sent
to Key West for that purpose, re-
lieving the Atlanta. 1t was expected
that the latter boat would join the
others here. but on her way north it
proved that certain repairs were
necessary and she was put into the
New York yard. The Columbia,
which had also been expected here,
met with the injury in dock in Eng
land, now so famous all over the
country, and she too was unable
to come. This left for the display
here, only the New York, the Mime
apolis, the Raleigh, and the Mont
gomery. OF these the New York is
much the largest and most formid-
able. She acts as the flag ship of the
Admiral, and whenever he is on
board, blue flag with white stars,
flying from her rigging, indicates the
fact.
Three of these boats lay in the
stream, here, just in the line OF the
ferry boats which go over to East
Boston, where they could be easily
seen by thousands of people. The
Raleigh lay at the wharf in the
Charlestown Navy Yard, for some
repairs to be made on her steam
pipes. The boats were open to visit
ors from 1890 a. m. until 3 p. m.
and they were crowded all of the
time. The favorite starting place
was from Long Wharf at the foot OF
State street, and every row boat,
steam launch, and tug reaped har-
vest in carrying visitors out, charging
twenty-five cents each way. To en-
able these people to land easily big
barge was taken out and fastened to
the side of each of the larger vessels.
These were used for landing-stages,
and there would freq uently be as
many as a dozen large steam tugs
clustered around them, with an innu-
merable number of smaller craft,
And how people did swarm on to
these boats. Many of the visitors
were inland people who had never
seen a war ship before and quite
likel Y never would again. They in
tended to learn enough on this trip
to last them all the rest of their lives.
They tramped all over the decks,
went up and down all the stairways
they could find, looked in all the
corners, and asked questions about
everything they saw. Some of them
asked if the search lights were COM
passes, and wanted to know if there
was a barnacle on board. They
poked their fingers cautiously
against the shining sides of the big
guns, and said how awfully fierce
they looked. They climbed the va.
rious iron ladders which give access
to the fighting tops OF the New York,
and, in fact, made such a nuisance OF
themselves there by handling the in
genious mec hanism of the one pounC
Hotchkiss .rapid-6ring guns there
that the captain was finally obliged
to shut them out of these lofty plat
forms entirely. 1t was said, though
it is to be hoped that this is no,
true, that the real reason for his &C
ton was that INSCRIPTIONS relic
hunters stole every piece of these gun
which could be unscrewed or broker
off, or removed in any way.
These fighting tops are one Of tn
formidable features of the larger new
ships. Only the New York, OF thos
here, had them. They are circula
r platforms, three in number, surround
e ing the masts of the ships. A par
: of them are fitted nn with the gun