The San Francisco call., 1898-03-21
TORPEDO BOATS
 AND DESTROYERS
 BADLY NEEDED
As Enough of These Vessels Can't Be Bought Abroad Long Will Place Emergency Cons
 tracts at Home.

q NEW YORK, March 20.-A O q Washington special to the Her . . aid says: In order to strengthen O
 q the navy where 1t is weakest . . Secretary Long is contemplating c
 . the placing of contracts for the .
 . rapid construction of torpedo . . boat destroyers and torpedo C q boats. This matter is under seri- t q ous consideration on account of . . the failure of efforts of represen- . q tatives of this Government . q abroad to purchase destroyers p q and sea-going torpedo boats. AL .
 . though the United States naval 0
 q attaches and diplomatic repre- . q sentatives have been negotiating [,
 . with ship builders and Govern . q ments for the last two weeks for Q
 . the purchase of vessels of this q . type no success whatever has at q q tended their efforts, and it Is D . apparent, according to state q . ments made by naval officials, q o that it is practically impossible q . to add such boats to the navy Q . by purchase from foreign ship . q builders. q
 In view of this fact and of the pos abilities of the future Secretary Long, in accordance with the recommendation of the Roosevelt strategic board, which completed it's work the first of last week, telegraphed on Friday to ship builders in all parts of the country re- questing that they inform him at once of their price for building destroyers and torpedo boats. Destroyers, the Sec retary stated, must be of $50 tons dis placement and capable of steaming at rate of thirty knots per hour, and must be finished within the shortest possible time. Torpedo boats, the Sec retary added, were to be of fifty tons displacement, each with a speed of twenty knots or more. These boats are to be for torpedo defense only.
 In response to the telegrams Lewis Nixon of the Crescent Shipbuilding Works of Elizabethport, N. J., and other representatives of shipbuilding firms, came to Washington yesterday and conferred with the Secretary and Assistant Secretary Roosevelt, but no contracts were let. I understand that Mr. Nixon offered to build torpedo DOdlS WlLllIl lliiI Iy udyS WOl hlllS ulSHL and day. This is considered a good proposition by the department and has been taken under serious advisement
 It is appreciated by the officials that it will take longer to build torpedo boat destroyers than torpedo boats. Chief Naval Constructor Hichborn es- inmates that by working night and day a ship-builder ought to finish a de- stroyer within four months, and tor pedo boats in less time. The Chief Con- structor is in favor of placing heavy penalties in all contracts made in case builders should fail to deliver on time, and offset this penalty to give high premium for every da- that the boat is delivered ahead of time. This matter has been brought to the attention of department officials and will, undoubt- edly, be adopted.
 Should Secretary Long decide to abandon entirely the efforts to get de- stroyers and torpedo boats abroad, it Is explained he will at once make con- tracts for these types of vessels. A de- partment official with whom I talked told me this Government ought to have at least fifteen destroyers and suff1- cient tOrpedo hoata fo nIace a p,,yphor