Arizona republican., 1898-06-08

attended to by the machinists on board.
This record is regarded as unparalleled in
the history of great fleet movements for
so extended a period, and confirms the
opinion of naval officials that the Amer
lean ships are better than any af1Oat of
their type and class from machinery to
guns and keelson to fighting tops.
The strain under which many of the
vessels have been placed has tested every
part of the machinery to its fullest work
ing capacity Forced draught has been
used on number of occasions by the
smaller cruisers, and the steam logs
show that in several instances the little
fellows have made better runs than they
were credited with on their official trials
Engineers of the navy attribute the alb
sence of serious mishapS to the machin-
cry of the ships during the period of I'M
usual activity to the superior Workman
ship and the attention given to the YES
sells before they were sent south. Hun
dreds of thousands of dollars, they say,
were expended in repairing every defect
and in Strengthening every part where
it was practicable during the last six
months, so that when the fleets went to
Key West soon after the Maine disaster
their machinery was in as fine trim as
it was possible to be.
The logs of the various ships indicate
that the navy has burned more coal in
the Gulf since March last than the whole
service consumed almost in the last six
being shipped monthly to Key West and
under contracts this will continue no
doubt for weeks yet. Just how mucn the
government has paid for coal so far is
not known to the engineers, but they eS-
innate that it is safe to assume not less
than s1,OOO.OOO worth has already been
purchased. The constant work required
of the vessels, however. cannot continue
Indefinitely, the officials know, without
the attention of a dOckyard being given
some of the ships.
AS all the vessels will undoubtedly be
retained in Cuban waters this summer.
the officers of the construction and steam
engineer bureaus are row specializing as
to when it will probably be necessary to
withdraw some of them for dry docking
and repainting their bottoms. The ma
rine growth of the tropical waters has
already had the effect of reducing the
speed of some ships by at least knot,
and within two months they will be IN
such condition that their speed will be
impaired unless the growth is removed
and the bottoms cleaned and painted.
The battleships are said to be suffering
more than the other vessels of the fleet,
all of which have been in docks since any
of the big fighters were.
The Iowa has never been docked since
she was commissioned, and the Massa-
chusetts has been afioat now over year
without having her bottom scraped, ex-
cept by divers, which is not regarded as
an entirely satisfactory method of get
ting the barnacleS off. The Ind. ana was
in dock at Halifax last autumn, and the
Oregon was in the Puget Sound dock
some months ago. The big armored
cruisers and many of the smaller cruis-
ers will suffer from foul bottoms this
summer, and the officials lhink it will be
necessary to bring some OF them to Port
Royal at any rate in order to maintain
the effectiveness of the fleets
The Port Royal station has now been
thoroughly equipped to handle the larg-
est ships and to make any repairs re-
quired. This station in the event of SER
ious damage being sustained by ships
around Cuba, would be the nearest to
which they could be sent and being the
only one where battleships can be dock
ed, becomes now of great Importance to
the navy. Repair shops, machine quar-
tiers, and all necessary equipment for
rendering prompt assistance to disabled
ships are there, with d naval constructor
in charge and large forces of skilled ma
chinists and men of the construction de-
partment.