Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-03-25
IN The DRY ToRrueAs.
Fort JenersOn's History and Present Use
fuIness as q Station.

Fort JenersOn's History and Present Use
fuIness as Station.
In these days of possible hostilities
with Spain a special interest attaches
90 the announcement that board Of
navy and army officers is to examine
Fort Jefferson, on Garden Key, in tine
Dry TortEgzzs with view to rehalrili-
tating it ard to founding naval sta
Eion there. There are ten lOw-lying is
lands, partly covered with mangrove
bushes, and the group lies about 100
miles southwest of the end of the Flor
ida mainland.
Unlike nearly or quite all our other
defensive works, Fort Jefferson was not
designed to protect an important city.
1t is perhaps the Q6ost conspicuous er-
ample to be found of our fortifying
a purely strategic position, for Key
West has some intrinsic consequence
as town. In the Dry Tortugas what
we have of value is one of the finest,
most commodioUs and safest harbors
Of the southern coast, and Il is desired
both 10 make it available for ourselves
and to prevent it from being seized
as the sheItering haven and the base
of an enemy.
A round half-century has elapsed
since Fort Jefferson was begun, in 1916,
under President Folk, with Jefferson
Davis as secretary of war. 1t is one
of the largest works in the United
States, covering the greater part of Gar
den Key, and was originally designed.
IF we do not mistake, for about APO
guns, although only part were mount
ed; and it cost about S5,0OO,00O. 1t was
seen then, as now, that an enemy's fleet,
obtaining the harbor of the Dry Tortu-
gas as a base, might control both the
Florida straits and the Yucatan chan
mel. For this reason it has shared
with Key West the reputation of being
the military key of the Gulf of Mexico
During the civil war Fort Jefferson
was used as a military prison, but when,
in the reaction after the war, post after
post on the seaboard lost its garrison,
and was even suffered to fall into de-
cay, Fort jefferson followed this fate.
It attracted attention for a time as the
place of confinement for DIR. Mudd
whose life sentence was RENTED after
his valuable service during the yellow
fever scourge of 1868, when the sur
geons Of the station succumbed. Then
It became, as it is to-day, quarantine
station; and this use of it is, according
to a report made by the inspectOr-gen-
erals department few years ago, an
obstacle to its reoccupation.
In that report it was urged that the
harbor of the Dry Tortugas has been
for years "a tempting and easy prize
for the audacious," and that lowing to
its isolation and accessibility, we might
have lost it at any time during the in
terva1 without knowing, until too late.
that it had passed out of our posses
sion" It's real value as a naval auxili-
airy would have become apparent in the
effort to recapture it.
1t is noticeable that in the list of the
81 principal ports requiring defense.
compiled by the Notifications board OF
1885, the harbor of the Dry Tortugas
is not included. But that is not a point
against it, as even Puget sound was
Tot found in the list. Several years ago
Gen. Howard advised the reoccupation
of Fort Jefferson; and the present move
ment is founded on the desirability of
getting a more sheltered and deeper
harbor than Key West for a naval coal
ing station in that region. The Dry
west, furnish, it is believed, such har-
Dor, and, at all events, on this point the
board will report.
Twenty years or more must have
passed since the garrison of Fort JEFF
ferson, after being reduced in 1870, was
withdrawn altogether. The marine
hospital service, which then took pos
session of it, naturally kept up only
what it's own accommodations needed
and the account given by the army in
speeding officers n few years ago as to
its military condition was discourag-
ing:
Rotten gun carriages, cracked bas'
tions, rusty guns-in fact, general de
eay-were apparent on all sides. The
brick work throughout needed, and still
needs, repairing. All the bastions hac
cracked and settled, and there were
thousands of Iineal feet of cracks III
other parts of the walls. Many of the
classmates leaked, and the moisture had
caused an excessive formation of sta.
lactites. Nearly all the embrasures OF
the two tiers of classmates had been en-
1arged so as nearly to equal in width
the span of the arches. 1t is said that
this mutilation of the fort was done
by the troops during the fever epidemic
of 1868.
1.-THE six wooden platforms for the
15-inch guns in barbette are in ruin:
through decay. The other barbette
platforms are of old pattern, but will
four-inch pintles. Whether they woul'
withstand the shock of full-servict
charges cannot be definitely settled, bu
probably not"
If the Dry Tortugas should be turned
into a naval coaling base, the hosPita
would doubtless be removed and
wharf built. Probably many of th'
buildings could be repaired and mad
useful, both for naval purposes and TO
the artillery garrison that would be sta
tioned there. Fort Jefferson is of tn
old type, as are the guns now mounte'
there; but the condition of 25 ten-incl
guns was found by the inspectors to b
good, and it would be easy to supple
ment the old ordnance by some moder1
high-power guns and mortars, so as t
give the station an adequate defense
y. Y. Sun.
Gave 1t Up
"Papa, don't fishes have legs?"
sEVst,ax- do not - answered mans