The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1898-05-19
SENT To MANILA
Charleston Starts With
Ammunition for
Dewey.
ORDERED TO LOAD TO LIMIT

At Least One Hundred and Fifty Tons
of Ammunition Will BE Taken-The
City of Peking Will Follow Shortly
With Troops-Philippine Insurgents.
Washington, MAY 13.-The navy
department decided to have the cruz
ser Charleston start Immediately on its
relief mission to Dewey's feet at Ma
nilla. The Charleston will leave with
out waiting to convoy the City of Pc
king and other ships loaded with sup
plies. The orders to the commandment
of the navy-yard at Mare island are to
put on board the Charleston all the
ANN unition she will carry, SO long as
her steaming capacity is not retarded.
1t is the understanding here that at
least $50 tons Of ammunition can be
put on board. 1t is estimated that it
will take the Charleston two weeks to
reach Manila.
The rush orders to the Charleston
will have the result, possibly, Of oblig-
ing the department to send another ves-
sell, probably the Philadelphia, along
with the troop transports. which are
expected to go out from San Francisco
about the end Of the week, as it is very
unusual in time of war to send such
transports without warship for con-
voy.
By extraordinary efforts on the part
of the authorities here, all the powder,
shot and shell requisite for the relief
expedition have been assembled at San
Francisco already, though it was at
first thought it would take until the
10Th to draw these supplies from the
various points. The ammunition in
cludes 500 rounds of big projectiles for
the guns of the Olympia, and about
100000 six-inch shells, and 10, 900 FIVE
inch shells, as all the cruisers of Ad
miral Dewey's fleet mount five and six
inch guns. There is also an ample
supply of the smaller sizes of shot and
shell for the machine and rapid-fire
guns. The stock of powder will be in
three lots, aggregating over 10000
pounds.
The Charleston has crew of about
800 men, and this probably will be
augmented by marine guard of a few
hundred men. The Charleston is pro-
tected cruiser Of 3,730 tons displace-
ment, built of steel, and mounts eight
guns in her main battery. She has
twin screws, and an indicated horse
power of 5000. The authorities here
hardly expect her to make more than
Is knots, owing to her heavy stock of
coal, ammunition and supplies. Her
coalbunkers are rather limited, SO that
she will probably have to stop at Homo
lulu to recoal.
The City of Picking, which will fol-
low her, is very fast merchantmen,
capable of being pushed to 18 knots or
more, so that even with the handicap
she has of starting several days after
the Charleston, there is a prospect that
she may overhaul her in the race across
the Pacific and reach Manila first.
This will depend, however. on how
soon the City of Picking can be made
ready for a start. Saturday is the
earliest date mentioned.
The Charleston is commanded by
Captain Henry Glass. Aside from
carrying ammunition and supplies to
Admiral Dewey, the Charleston will
prove valuable addition to his squad
ron. She will come next to the Balti-
more in point of size and effectiveness.
In determining upon this speedy de-
parture of the Charleston, the
authorities here have had in mind not
only the need of giving early relief to
Admiral Dewey, but also have been
somewhat apprehensive of the attitude
of the Philippine insurgents. The
news reaching here from the Philip
pines, indicating that the insurgent
force might resort to massacres, is re-
ceived with serious attention by the
officials, as the present position in con-
trolling Manila bay imposes certain
degree of responsibility in seeing that
civilized methods prevail, and that the
insurrectionists do not resort to lawless
and incendiary measures.
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