The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-04-28
THE NAVY.
A Busy Week in Movements For Active
Service.

A Busy Week in Movements For Active
Service.
The Ordnance Bureau has assured Sec
retary Long that every demand for guns
for the auxiliaries will be promptly met by
the Washington factory and the private
firms now engaged in manufacturing rapid
fire and secondary battery pieces. There
may be temporary pressure upon the
Bureau for guns of the five and six-inch
caliber, such as are wanted for the large
merchant steamers, but at the present
rate OF progress at both the Government
and private factories, Capt. O'Neil hopes in
three weeks to have on hand a supply to
provide modern batteries for every vessel
that may be impressed from the merchant
service and requiring the larger type Of
rapid-fire gun in her battery.
The ST. Paul and the New York are to ba
equipped partly with modern guns and
partially with some of the muzZle-loading
Tif1ed eight-inch. The Paris and st. Louis
will not be ready under two weeks, and it
is expected now each of these will be
equipped with modern batteries through
out.
The Navy Department has purchased
Pierpont Morgan's steel yacht Corsair, the
yacht Penelope, owned by III. E. Converse,
of Boston, and the tug Philadelphia. The
CorSair is of 560.63 gross and 272.01 net
tonnage, PALS feet in length over all. %
feet beam, 10 feet draft and 1876 feet deep.
The Penelope is OF 541.45 gross and 272.0f
net tonnage, PIC feet over all. q. 6 feet beam,
1916 feet draft and 1876 feet deep.
The Government has bought the British
steamship AppOmattox, and the vessel
will probably be turned over to the Navy
in few days. As she is slow, she will be
used either as a collier or as transport
for the Army. With a few alterations, she
would be capable of carrying about three
thousand tons OF coal.
Various small vessels have been bought.
The Government will have no difficulty in
securing a sufficient number OF first-claSS
steam vessels of good speed for the tranS~
portation of the army to be sent to Cuba.
The new revenue cutter McCullOch,
whose first sea trip was one almost around
the world from Baltimore to this port,
arrived here to-day and reported to Com
modore Dewey, commanding the Asiatic
Naval squadron, to which the McCullOch
was assigned as an auxiliary cruiser. She
is a steel, Slngie-Screw steamer, with ram
bow, 219 feet long 80 feet beam, Ia feet
draft and $50 tons. She has tripleex-
pansiOn engines and her four boilers gave
her a speed of II knots on her trial. Her
armament comprises four SiX-inch rapid
firing guns, several of smaller cahber, and
torpedo tube. Her commander is Capt.
Daniel b. HOdgsOn, who has been in the
revenue marine for 35 years.
Rear-Admiral Sicard reported at the
Navy Department last week and was as
signed desk in the office of the Secretary
of the Navy to act as official adviser.
The ''moSkitO fleet is not destined for
shore guard nor attack, but, as explained
by one of the naval strategists, the prr-
mary use of the vessels of the fleet will be
to protect the battleships and other IRON
cIads from attack by torpedo boats and
destroyers. The purpose is to create in the
Navy something like the same system
that prevails in the Army in conducting
hostile operations. The battleShipS cor
respond to the heavy artillery, the mos
kitO fleet to the infantry and the torpedo
boats to cavalry.