The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-03
AFAST TRIP BY THE COLUMBIA.
SHE MAKES THE RUN HOME JUST
INSIDE SEVEN DAYS.

Her Average Hourly Speed 1883.
Her Hest Hourly Run 2O.OO-Her
Hest Four Hour Hun $3.50 Knots.
The Course sailed 3,II2 knots.
Next 10 the Minneapolis She IL the
Fastest Wnrship of Her Glass
Ahoat.
New York, Aug. 2.-The United States
commerce destroyer. Columbia. next 10
the Minneapolis, the fastest warship Of
her class aioat. arrived here to-day from
her race against time across the Atlantic.
No warship ever built crossed the ocean
in the same time. These are the princi-
pal figures:
Times from the Needles. Isle of Wight.
TO Sandy Hook lightship. six day. twenty
three hours. forty-nine minutes. Course.
3.ll2 knots Average hourly speed, 1858.
Best hourly run, 2060. Best four hour run.
5000 The daily runs were from p. m. of
July 26. at the Needles. to noon of the fol-
lowing day, 4o5 knots, and to noon of each
succeeding day, 467, 47o 457. 455, 453 and 4o5,
to Sandy Hook lightship at S:l9 a. m. to-
day.
a storm threatened. The wind was south
west-bywest; heavy seas came over the
bows and for four hours the speed was re-
duced to eight knots an hour. In the
evening of the same day in latitude 1905,
longitude 4s.20 the Columbia ran near an
iceberg, which was about 100 yards long,
100 yards wide and 45 feet high.
east of Sand Hook, only slowing up suf-
iciently for the purpose. She passed quar-
antine shortly before noon, reporting all
well on board and dropped anchor in the
North river less than an hour later.
Her four great tunnels were covered
with salt crystals, where they were not
black with smoke. SCOT covered the up
per structure and her sides were smeared
and streaked with rust; her decks We're
covered with coal dust ana cinders. and,
altogether. she looked as though an
early securing at the navy yard would be
the best thing for her.
Capt. George w. Sumner said to a re-
porter: II consider her run across very
successful. We came under natural
| draught. IT was a smooth run, though
we had a little rough weather. We slowed
down only once before head seas We
met some fog but went through 1t at
| three screws. The winds were varying
but westerly generally. We had on what
we call battle matches throughout, MAX
| ing us water-tight forward. The vessel
/ was somewhat down at the head when
| we started, despite the fact that we had
/ our trimming tanks eft filled. This Is
| because of the natural trim when her
| bunkers are full She Is a good boat
/ though. The roll was only 19 degrees to
/ starboard and II to port She has rolled,
/ however, from 35 to 81 degrees"
! The coal consumption, the captain said,
varied from 200 to 230 tons day, about one
! half that used by the Cunarder Lucania
in her trips from Liverpool over a course
of about 3,0S2 knots, whose best average
| speed on a record trip was q. 80. The
| Columbia had the best coal obtainable at
| Southampton. 1t is that used by the
/ American line and comes from the Dow
| lais Merkhyr mines. While her bunker
/ capacity Is only 1900 tons. Capt. Sumner
! took in 1,975 tons, filling the bunkers and
/ utilizing the wing passages, fire rooms
/ and even the decks, where forty tons were
stored under the superstructure. Thus
! freighted with fuel she drew twenty-six
/ feet four inches forward and twenty-five
| feet seven inches aft, an unfortunate trim,
/ but unavoidable. Her fire room force was
| twelve short and that number were taken
| from volunteers Of the deck crew, making
| up the fun complement Of 1876. In addi-
! tion, forty-five men from the deck force
| and three petty officers were transferred
! to the engineers department to assist in
! carrying coal. They worked night and
| day and though fatigued, none gave out.
| The plan to speed the vessel under forced
| draught during the last twenty-four hours
| was abandoned as impracticabe. While
/ there was 300 tons of coal left when the
| vessel dropped anchor in the North river,
what was left at the expiration of the fifth
day was at the ends and could not be
! moved sufficiently fast to feed the fires for
| such a run II it could have been done,
| Capt Sumner said il would have short
/ ened the time Of the voyage three hours
and brought the Columbia's average up to
| about nineteen knots. THE ex-
perience shows" said Capt Sumner,
| "the ability of the Columbia to make an
| extraordinary run and sufficiently demon
| strates what it was intended it should +"
Chief Engineer w. II. Harris said:
"There was not a hitch in the engines
| at any time Of any character They were
| not stopped from the time of leaving the
| Needles until we reached quarantine"
The Hamburg American line steamer
| Augusta Victoria, from Hamburg and
| SOUTHAMPTON via Cherbourg, followed the
| Columbia in, arriving off the hook al 1850
| a. m. The distance covered by the Au-
| gusta Victoria from Cherbourg was 1854
| knots, and her time Of passage six days,
| 20 hours and 20 minutes The average
| speed Of the Hamburg steamer on this trip
was 1854 knots per hour.
The st. Louis, of the American line, left
| Southampton the day after the Columbia
passing the Needles at 1:40 D. m or 23
hours and 10 minutes later She is expect
ed to arrive early this morning