The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1898-11-10
WASHINGTON.
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, Nov.

Gen. Greely, Chief Signal officer of
the army, is very particular in all his
public utterances to speak in high
terms of Secretary Alger, and other
officials who had anything to do with
the direction of the war, but in
speech to a church club he let the
cat out of the bag by saying that one
of the principal reasons why the Sig
nal Corps operated SO successfully dur
ing the war with Spain was that it had
ship of its own, chartered in the
name of a. private individual, and not
subject to control of the army or navy.
They are repeating story in army
and navy circles about how Gen.
Shafter tried to bluff Lieut.. w. H.
Stayton, commanding U. S. S. Aliene,
who had charge of the assignment of
positions for anchorage, Tor sanitary
inspection, to the toopships which
brought Skaters men from Santiago
to Montauk. When the ship which
brought Gen. Shafter was sighted off
Montauk Point, Lieut.. Stayton put
out in his boat and ordered her to
heave to. The only reply he got was
an order to get out of the way or be
sunk. Lieut.. Stayton then ordered
the Captain to stop or he would fire
shot through his ship. That's where
Shafter made his bluff. 81 am Gen.
Shafter, and l am not going to stop
for anybody he yelled, and then
asked Who are you, anyway ?"
81 am Lieut., Stayton, of the Navy"
replied that officer. 'sand am directed
by the Secretary of the Navy to see
that no vessel lands passengers with
out having been certified by the health
authorities, and l order you to heave
to, under penalty of a shot" Shatter
then retired, leaving the Captain of
the ship to apologize, and to ask
Lieut.. Stayton where he should
anchor pending the medical inspec-
ton.
1t is evident to every body that the
bureau chiefs Of the Navy Department
are not friendly to Lieut.. Hobson,
He was ordered to Washington to
tell board, composed of these chiefs,
the present status of the wrecking
work that is being done upon the
sunken warships of Cervera, and to
present his recommendations as to
what should be done. Hobson made
a long statement, showing what had
been done and expressing confidence
that if he was allowed to have his way
he could save three more of those
vessels-the Colon, the Vizcaya, and
the Mercedes-and the Collier Merri-
mac, sunk by him. incidentally he
recommended that the contract under
which private wrecking company is
being paid $500 a day be annulled
and all the work done by the govern
ment. Hobson also said that he was
disposed, if the department refused
to furnish the money to continue the
work of trying to save these vessels,
to appeal to the people for contrlDu-
tions for that purpose. The board
will recommend that none of Ho1son's
recommendations be adopted: that
work on the Vlzcaya and Colon be
abandoned and that the Merrimac be
dynamited instead of raised. In add-
ton to this turn down, Hobson has
been told that it will be considered
Characterization" if he attempts to
do anything contrary to the recon-
mendations ofthe borrd of chiefs To
show how real experts regard Hob
sons assertion that the Colon and
Vizcaya can be saved it may be men
toned that Swedish wrecking Co.,
the largest in the world, has offered
to undertake the raising of both ships,
this government not to pay a cent un-
less they are raised.