The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-08-03

NEW YORK, Aug. 2-The United
States cruiser Columbia was sighted
from Sandy Hook at $50 this morning.
The Columbia sailed from Southamp-
ton, England, at 1890 Friday after
noon, July 18th, leaving the Needles at
u o'clock.
The Columbia reached quarantine at
l: 80 a. m. Her log gives from the
Needles to Sandy Hook light ship six
days, twenty-three hours and forty
nine minutes. The total distance is
3,1O9 knots, and the average speed 1881
knots.
The Southampton record held by the
American liner New York is six days,
seven hours and seventeen minutes.
The Columbia in her official four
hours trial trip in November, 1S93
averaged 22.S1 knots an hour and at
tanned a maximum of 25.3O knots.
During the entire passage the cruiser
was run under natural draught. Thir-
ty-six hours of fog were experienced
on the voyage during which the cruis-
er steamed at her usual speed Mod
crate winds and weather were en-
ocean. At quarantine the Columbia was
boarded by the health officer and the
surgeon reporting all well, the cruiser
proceeded up the bay.
To an Associated Press reporter who
boarded the cruiser when she came to
anchor in North river Captain Sumner
said he was very much pleased with
the vessels behavior on her trans-At-
lantic speed test and that the time oc-
cupied in crossing from the Needles to
Sandy Hook was six days, twenty
three hours and forty-nine minutes.
Captain Sumner said: The run was
a very sccessful one, all things con-
sidered. We left the Needles a p.
m. a week ago today and throughout
the trip we only used natural draught
Once in heavy weather we slowed
down for four hours to a speed of
eight knots. We encountered a fog
which lasted twenty-siX hours, but we
ran at full speed through it. We
worked our three screws and eight
main boilers were all working and our
coal consumption averaged from 200 to
230 tons per day. We had the best
coal that we could get and it is the
same as that used on the American
line steamships. Had we been able to
run under forced draught for twenty
four hours we most certainly would
have done three hours better. How
ever, 1 am satisfied that the cruiser
has proven her capacity of making eX
traordinary runs when necessary. The
full complement of the fire room is 1876
men, but we were twelve short of that
number. To make up this deficiency
we secured a dozen volunteers from
the deck. We had some bad weather,
as you can see by our smoke stacks
we threw a lot of spray. We shipped
no water, however, as we had all our
battle matches down forward of the
pilot house."
When asked about injury to the
ships plate while on the dry dock on
the other side, the captain passed the
matter off, saying, "Oh, that was mo-
thing of any consequence. The ship is
all right, as you can readily see from
the trip just finished"
The eight main boilers and three
main engines were used. On account
of the injuries sustained by the
Columbia when she was locked in
Southampton the steam pressure was
limited to 140 pounds. The coal al
loWance was set at 200 tons a day.
At 12:10 Saturday a tube blew out in
one of the boilers. An attempt was
made to stop the leak in the usual
manner with a wooden plug, but the
pressure was so great that the plug
would not stay in place. At $3.50 a. m.
the fires were therefore hauled from
the boiler. it's safety valves opened
and the boilers shut off from the
steam pipe. The effect on the ship of
thus losing one boiler was marked.
The revolutions fell from JOG to 81
per minute and the speed from 1856
to 1888 knots. The leak was re-
paired at 6:45 a. m. For the succeed
ing four hours the average revolu-
lions increased 104 per minute and
the speed to 1875 knots.
This was the only serious trouble
caused by leaky tubes. Two others
blew out but were plugged without
much trouble. While the instructions
from the navy department were to
run the Columbia under forced
draught on the last day, Captain
Sumner was unable to comply with
that order for the same reason that
it was impossible to pass the coal
from the wing passage into the bunk
ers fast enough. Only one man. could
work at a time in a wing passage and
coal had to be trollied there to the
bunkers.