The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1895-02-04
CAUSED By THE SALT SEA
Two Of the Olympia's Plates Must
Be Replaced.
ipothecary Flanagan Attempts Suicide
at Mare ISland-keWS From the
Nayy.Yard.

VALLEJO, Feb. 3.-A gang of laborers
have been at work all during the past week
in scraping the hull of the cruiser Olympia
in the drydock at the navy-yard. The star
board side was completed Friday, and
painters commenced giving her a coat of
red lead, which will be followed with a
second coat then by coat of white zinc
and lastly anti-fouling paint will be used.
One of the after plates near the rudder-
post on the starboard side was removed
Saturday afternoon, and will have to be re-
placed on account of its being so badly
pitted Some of the pits were half way
through the plate, and had the cruiser re-
manned in the water another six months,
the holes would have been eaten entirely
through the half-inch plate.
Another of the plates almost directly op-
posite on the port side is also eaten, but
not so badly. The pitting taking place in
these particular spots is said to be due to
the corrosive action of the salt water when
coming in contact with the propeller. To
obviate this trouble in the future
workmen are now engaged in putting zinc
sheets on the shaft-sleeve stays to draw
the corrosive action to it.
as soon as the cruiser goes out of the dock.
Most of the crew are now at the island, on
board of the receiving-ship Independence,
where the greater number will remain I'M
til after the ship leaves the dock. They
will go on board each day and eat and
sleep on the guards" So far no intima-
ton has leaked out what duty she will first
be called upon to do after leaving the yard.
Thomas ]. Flanagan, formerly an
apothecary in the service, having been dis
charged from the receiving-ship Indepen-
dence by reason of expiration of service,
cut his throat this afternoon with pen
knife, though not severely. He was about
to reship Monday morning, but in tenn
porary alteration of mind stuck the knife
into his neck on each side of his windpipe.
Physicians were summoned and they sewed
up the wound. He was taken at once to
the Naval Hospital for treatment. He has
been in the service for great many years
as an apothecary.
The monitor Monterey will be at the
yard the coming week, and as soon as the
Olympia goes out of the dock, which will
be the latter part of the week or the first of
the week following, the monitor will be
taken in to be scraped and painted, that
being all the work required to be done to
her.
A trench is now being dug around the
head of the drydock, where the inner line
of piling is to be driven for holding the
ties for the road-bed for the twenty-foot
track, upon which the big forty-ton crane
is to be run. The driving of the piles was
LriA ~ c.
afternoon some half dozen had been
driven. The piles are forty feet long, and
each pile requires about $50 blows before it
is driven home. There will be fully 700
piles to be driven before sufficient founda-
ton is completed for the track.
The remains of the late Naval Construc-
tor S. w. Armistead were sent East Tues
day for burial at Portsmouth, Va. No
one has yet been assigned to the vacancy as
head of the Department of Construction
and Repair. Naval Constructor w. J.
Baxter is urged for the place.
From Commandment Howison to the low
est man down on the list in the yard the
unjust imputation spread abroad that
some person or persons had robbed the
person of the late Naval Constructor
ArnlSLeaQ OF UIle SUN Ol PloU Is pronounced
to be cruel and unjust to the reputation of
all in the immediate vicinity of where the
accident occurred. An officer in the navy,
the commandant states, was with the con-
structor from the moment of his falling
from the effects of the blow. Others were
there, and all unite in saying that no
money fell from his pockets.
Mrs. r. D. Culls has returned from an
extended visit in the East.
The friends of Pay Clerk H. e. Minkler
will regret to learn of the death of his wife
at New Bedford on the 10th of January
Pay Clerk Minkler was at the yard as
clerk to Pay Inspector George W. Beaman,
general storekeeper, and is now with him
on the armored cruiser New York.
Lieutenant J.. n. Jordan has been de-
tached from the Union Iron Works and
ordered to the dynamite gun vessel Vesu-
vius, to report on the 18th inst.
Lieutenant John B. Blish has been or
dered to the Mohican and the orders of
Lieutenant j. L. 7. Halpin to the Mohican
have been revoked.
Mrs. Captain H. L. Howison, wife of the
commandant of the yard and station, will
give delightful afternoon tea during the
coming week, at their residence on the