The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-26
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR
4 RUSH AT ORDNANCE OFFICE AND
 ENGINEERS' DEPARTMENT.


 Hopes of Obtaining Forty-six Rapid
 Fire Guns from AbroadAEvery Vessel
 Available for Service to be Assigned to
 Duty.
 Washington, March 25-Except in
 the office of Secretary Alger, who left
 the department early for the cabinet
 meeting, there was the usual activity
 around the war office to-day. Both
 the ordnance office and the engineers
 department are busily purchasing
 munitions of war; shipping them to the
 seacoast Notifications and putting the
 latter in effective condition. The ord
 nance office is much better off in the
 number of rapid fire and other guns of formidable character, ammunition and
 projectiles than in the number of car-
 riages for the guns. It is hoped to
 secure large number of carriages out
 of the allotments made to the bureau
 and from the money made available by the Notifications bill. Bids were open ed recently for supplying 8, 10 and 12 inch gun carriages and as soon as the officials know the precise amount of
 money at their disposal for this pur- pose awards will be made. Meanwhile the engineers bureau is at work on the building of supplements for the guns and this work is being pushed with all possible speed consistent with the force available for that purpose. It is ex- pected that the work on the fortiica- tions at Dry Tortugas, at which place the navy department Is to establish a coaling station will begin as soon as the plans for that purpose have been adopted It is thought that Captain Duval, the military aide to Secretary Alger, who left here last night and who
 is regarded as an expert in artillery
 matters, will make an investigation of the requirements of the service at Tor tugas. The ordnance bureau expects
 to obtain in all about forty-six rapid
 fire guns from abroad for the seacoast Notifications.
 Captain Shoemaker, chief of the rev.
 enue cutter service, was busily engaged to-day in making assignments of off, | cers to the revenue cutters detailed yesterday for defensive service along the Atlantic seaboard Every vessel in the service available for action has
 been, or will be, assigned to duty. Even the new cutter Gresham on the great lakes and the little cutter Calumet, located at Chicago, have been called on and in a day or two both the lake ships will be en route to the rendezvous at Hampton Roads. They will make | the trip to the Atlantic seaboard | through the St. Lawrence river. The commanders of the revenue cutters have been notified by wire to be in readiness to move as soon as their gen. eral orders are received, which proba-
 bly, will be issued to-day. The revenue l cutters which will be ordered into ser vice and their present stations are as follows The Woodbury, at Portland,
 Me Hamilton, Philadelphia; Hud- son, New York; Manning, Boston; Cal | ument, Chicago; Gresham, Milwaukee; Morrow, Wilmington, N. C., and Win | dom, Baltimore.
 | Captain Shoemaker was of the opin- | ion that it would require about week | for all of the vessels to reach Hamp- | ton Roads, or rather Norfolk, which will be their official rendezvous. At | the navy yard there the vessels will receive their equipment, guns, ammu- | milton, torpedoes and supplies, and will
 make such other preparations as are l necessary for fighting service. The ! new cutter Gresham, recently built at | Cleveland, in a brief time can be trans | formed into a formidable commerce de- | stroyer or torpedo-boat She was, built | expressly for such an emergency as she | is now called upon to meet. She is | equipped for a torpedo tube and can carry an ugly battery of rapid-fire guns. All of the vessels are first-rate | seagoing craft and all of them are fit | ted with small but effective batteries | Their speed varies from fourteen to | twenty knots.
 l All officers of the revenue cutter ser- vice now on duty with the life-saving service are being withdrawn to-day and assigned to duty on the vessels | ordered to Norfolk. Their orders are
 made immediately effective in every | case, and they will report to the com- l manding officers of the ships as soon as the vessels arrive at Norfolk. Or ders were issued from the navy de- | partment to-day to the commandant of the Norfolk navy yard directing him to prepare the revenue cutter vessels for service. He was directed to expedite | the work as rapidly as it could be done efficiently. As soon as they are pre- pared for service they will be dispatch l ed to Key West and placed at the dis posal of Commodore Sampson, in com- | mand of the naval squadron at that station. The cutters will be employed as scout or picket boats and will be | prepared for both offensive and defen- sive service.
 The new revenue cutter McCulloch left Baltimore several weeks ago for duty on the Pacific station, going by
 way of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez canal. She is now somewhere in
 the vicinity of Singapore and will be l used as a dispatch boat on the Asiatic station. Unless present plans are changed a cable message will be sent
 to her commanding officer at c' pore directing him to proceed to Hong Kong and place his vessel with officers and crew under command of Commo- dore Dewey, in charge of the naval forces on the Asiatic station.
 Russian Officials Arrested. |, C