The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-08-20
BIG FLEET Of WARSHIPS
Will Soon Be Brought Together in
Hampton Roads.
F1FTY-sEvEN ALREADY THERE.

The Orders Still to De Issued VIM
Bring tho Number Up to Seventy.
No Vessels Selected Us Yet For the
West Indies Coast Patrol.
Washington. Aug. .O.-One Of the
largest fleet Of warships ever as
sembled In an American port will be
brought together In the next few days
at Fort Monroe. Already 81 warships
are under orders to rendezvous there.
and the orders still to be issued will
raise the total to the neighborhood Of
70. Naval officials say It is difficult to
realize the extent of such marine ag-
gregaton in one harbor The orders
began issuing last Monday. when five
ships were ordered to Fort Monroe.
On the 10th another ship was added;
on the 18th eight more were SENT and
on the 18th II ships were added. Yes
terday's orders include 18 more ships
Before the orders began issuing there
were eight warships at Fort Monroe,
SO that the total up to today Is 81
Those included in yesterdays orders
are the Newport. Rodgers. Lebanon.
Wampatuck, Morris, Grim. Lancaster.
Machias, Osceola, Peoria, Massasoit.
Sioux. Cheyenne, Waban, Chickasaw.
Helena Detroit and Yankton. The
ships previously ordered are mainly
small craft, although there are num-
Der of large cruisers and gunboats. in
Guiding the San Francisco, Helena, De-
troit, Topeka, Marietta and Castine.
The movement of these ships north
ward is due to the close of hostilities,
and more particularly to the desire to
get the ships away from points of pos
sible fever infection. They will now be
put in thorough repair, and their crews
will be gradually changed from naval
mllitiamen to sailors of the regular
navy.
The navy department has not yet
determined what ships will go to Ha-
vana, San Juan and other points of
Cuba and Porto Rico. There Is felt to
be no hurry about this until the au-
thority of the United States is fully
established throughout the islands. In
the meantime the matter of policing the
shore points is being considered. and in
due time a number of the light draught
auxiliary craft and some of the single
luI1C HlDllltolS VIII w uo'A h'i NhiS
coast patrol 1t is found, however that
only four of the old monitors of the
civil war are fit for this service in
southern waters.
AS many naval vessels will be CEN
tered about the West Indies from this
time forward. the navy department will
send the new floating dock recently
bought in New York down the coast to
Pensacola, Fla. where it will be kept
for docking the warshiDs. AT that
point also there are good naval work.
shops to be used in conjunction with
the floating docks. The dock is now
being coppered, and will be towed to
Pensacola as soon as the September
gales are over.
There were few developments of i'm
portance in the post war situation yes
terday. The authorities are still wait
ing for General Merritt's report on the
list of casualties, and the state, war
and navy departments are interested in
knowing the exact terms on which
Manila was Observation-Disclosures the
city alone, or If the Philippines were
included. 1T was stated by officials
that nothing additional on this point
had been received up to the close Of
office hours yesterday
The efforts to restore the Manila
cable continue, but they have not prov
ed successful thus far. The claim made
in Madrid that the protocol, and not
the capitulation, controls the status of
affairs in the Philippines Will not be
discussed by state department officials.
The Madrid discussion is looked upon
as rather academic, as 1t is taken for
granted that claims will be made on
both sides, and that the Paris tribunal
will be the final arbiter of the case.