The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-17

which one is always wise in the ways OF
torpcdOes. These. with the surgeons. sig
nal men, telegraph operators and the Ike,
make up total OF about l,300 regulars
and 400 volunteers, more Of the former,
! fancy. than are gathered at any MILL
tary post I'm the United States. There
is no telegraph line on the island, except
take il for granted that no one In the
United states care very much about the
Bermuda forces They would be hard
nuts to crack. but no one is obliged to
break his teeth on them. Nobody need
feel the least desire to do so except the
United States, Mexico, or the Central
American states and the latter may be
disregardcd in this connection. As mat
ter of fact. the Bermuda outit Is mos
quito TO the United States; and IL is moth
ms else ana intended TO be nothing else.
1T rs for this that the governor genera
Is always "A general of the British army,
and combines the civil and military COM
mand. To is for this that IN the council
which he appoints the army element is
strong, although the military members
are scarcely residents In the ordinary
sense of the word. 1t is for this that for
a hundred years money has been spent
Ike water in Bermuda by the British
military engineers.
Forts hurt no one who stays away from
them. II is rather different with the
British navys North Atlantic squadron,
which makes the point of the fshhook its
headquarters Every winter the squad
ron cruises south to the British West In
dies. Every summer it cruises north to
Halifax Bermuda Is it's permanent sta
ton The past winter, because Of the
Venezuelan Incident. Admiral Erskine's
flag flew here all winter long. and ia
maican water saw 1t not IL flies here
now. There follow il al present five ships.
The flagship, her ma1esty's steamship
Crescent, is a twin screw cruiser OF the
first class, 1900 tons, thirteen guns. The
Tourmaline lis a third-class cruiser of
9. l2O tons, the Cordeia. 1880 tons; the Mo-
hawk 170 TONS and the Buzzard, /, l40
tons. There is also a coast-deIense lur-
ret-ship. the Scorpion. About 5000 tonnage
of small ships are on the West indian
station within call, and there are in Ber-
muda four or five torpedo boats good for
nineteen or twenty knots an hour, be-
sides a receiving ship and other trash.
OF all these the Crescent Is the only craft
Of consequence, and she is not equal to
some of tho crack American cruisers. But
the anchorage would hold as many more
ships the admiralty cared to send here.
Bermuddns point with pride TO the larg-
est-tOatlng dry-dock IN the world, omit
ting to acknowledge with regret that IL Is
only 3Sl feet long and is the largest IN the
world only because the world Is building
its larger docks of other kinds. 1t has
locked a ship of 10000 tons. II. NJ. S. Bel
lerophon, but could not dock a long mod
ern ship of less tonnage, because the pro-
portions have altered so radically This
dock is nearly thirty years old. There are
workshops for repairs on the shore, and
to these visitors are admitted. 1t IS diff
ficult for one not expert TO estimate their
importance, but they seem poky, trivial,
and conservative compared with machine
shops IN the states. There is a notable abb
sence of powerful engines cranes, ard
other labor-saVing devices for handling
heavy casting or mOuldings. Hand labor
and small moulds lathes and trip ham
mers seem to accomplish what work is
done here. To compare IL with some of
the great shlpbuilding yards in Great Bril-
tain would be like comparing a tinker's
kit to an engine factory. 1t Is strictly
place of repair.
The number of sailors IN the British war
ships In Bermuda varies Of course much
more than does the number of soldiers
on shore Probably when the squadron is
all here they may considerably Outnum-
Der the soldiers. There are never less
than 300 or 300 dOckyard labOrers Strike
an average between the two-reglment gar
risons and the smaller ones, and between
the fleets of various sizes, and 1t will
doubtless be fair to put the all-around
average at 900 men, one-tenth as many
as our regular army numbers.
The dockyard is i'm one way a melancholy
sight speaking Of n WantOn sacrifice Of hui
man toll, Much OF the work Of construc-
ton was done by convicts, who heaped up
those great stone walls which time has
rendered obsolete who laid the sea wall
of British granite and put in place the
freestone blocks from Nova Scotia, who
leVeled hills 10 plains and heaped up hills
where none had been, after the manner of
ants. They are dead and gone now, and
their work seems as one looks on It to-day
as pathetic in its Wastefulness as that of
the very coral insects who through un-
counted years reared these Islands from
the sea only to tOpple, at the end, back into
Bermuda. after nearly three hundred
years has never yet fired a gun in a Sc
riOus fight 1T has never been the gage of
battle. II exists only as a nagging men
ace to a nation to whose people a war
upon Great Britain seems now so impos-
slble that nature might herself cry out
uDOn it, powder mutinY against the fuse
and lead sulk in the harmless barrel
John Langdon Heaton.