The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-27
Administration Officials Pleased at
the Reception Accorded the Battle
Ship and Its Omcers.
EXTRA PRECAUTIONS TAKEN
POLICE PREPARED TO PREVENT
COLLISIONS WITH YANKEE TARs.
Additional Guards Placed at the
tie Ship to Visit Our Ports.


received by the State Department and Navy
Department from Cuba to-day were salts
factory A cabiegram from Consul General
Lee, dated $50 last evening, said: Have
just received a visit from the commander
of the Maine and will return it tomorrow.
He has already returned official visits of
Spanish and other naval vessels. No disor-
ders of any sort
At o'clock this afternoon General Lee
reported that all was quiet and order pre-
vailed in Havana AT about the same hour
a cablegram came to the Navy Department
from Captain Sigsbee of the Maine, saying
that general interest was manifested on the
arrival of the Maine in Havana harbor, but
there had been no demonstration. He had
been ashore himself several times officially
and had been received with the greatest
&C urtesy He expected to visit the palace
tomorrow.
The officials here are pleased at the sue
cess attending their movement in dispatch
ing the Maine to Havana, and at the recep-
ton accorded the ship at that port The
report that British and Trench war ships
are to join the American and German war
ships are regarded here as highly favorable,
although no official notice of such inten-
tions on the part of the British and French
ence of these nations alongside of the
United States war ship will go far, it is
believed, to convince the people of Ha-
vera and Madrid that there is no sinister
purpose in the Names arrival, while it will
make it exceedingly difficult for the Span
ish government to find any reasonable
ground for complaint against the United
States government without laying itself
oIen to the charge of discrimination, since
the same objection must lie against the
presence of the war ships of any or all ma
items.
Secretary Long this morning received a
ca blegram from Admiral Sicard saying that
the North Atlantic squadron had gone into
the inner anchorage at Dry Tortugas. The
telegram was brought to Key West by the
Fern, which is serving as dispatch and
supply boat for the fleet. The torpedo
boats in the vicinity of Key West are under
Admiral Scard's orders while near the
squadron to serve also as dispatch vessels,
and to give the vessels some practice in the
drills for repelling torpedo attacks. This
does not, however, interfere with the stand
ing orders to Lieutenant Commander Kim
ball. the commanding officer of the torpedo
boat fiotilla, and the little lcraft will con-
tinue on the cruise along the coast as far
west as Galveston, and then returning go
up the Mississippi river in the early spring
The Porter, one of the fleet, sailed yester-
day from Port Tampa for Mobile, in COM
pany with the Ericsson, to be present at a
local celebration there, but they probably
will return to the squadron before resum-
ing their alongshore cruise.
Secretary Long said to-day that he had
received no notice from the Spanish min
men-of-war have been ordered to visit
United States ports. They were perfectly
welcome TO come and go as they pleased ne
said, and as far as he was concerned he
would be delighted to have them come
Spanish war ships have frequently visited
the United States since the insurrectionary
movement broke out in Cuba three years
ago without having excited the least UNI
friendly comment, and there was no reason
why any significance should be attached TO
their coming again whenever they felt dis
posed to 40 so. The Spanish flagship on this
station took part in the ceremonies con-
nected with the dedication of the Grant
monument in New York about year ago,
and also at the subsequent celebration in
Philadelphia last summer, after which the
Spanish admiral and his staff visited Wash
ington and paid their respects to the Presi-
dent and the members of his Cabinet. Sec
rotary Long said he recalled with pleasure
the visit OF the party 10 the Navy Depart
ment Secretary Sherman also said he saw
no reason why the Spanish ships should not
visit the United States, and, in fact he
would be glad If they did come. They
would be welcome.
The information from Madrid that the
Spanish government had decided to send the
war ship Vizcaya on a visit to American
ports caused no comments in official cir
cles She is a formidable craft, larger, fast
er and more powerful than the Maine Her
points as recorded here are as follows:
Length, $40 feet: BEAM IS feet; draft, q
feet inches, two propellers, 1900 horse
power with a twelve-inch armOr belt and
barbettes ten and a half inches, and an
armored deck varying in thickness from
two to three inches Her battery is made
up of two Observation-Disclosures, ten
fourteen-centimeters one nine-centimeter
(all Honoria guns made in SPAIN, eight
fifty-seven- milmeters, four thirty-seVen-
milimeters and two machine guns. There
are six torpedo tubes. The ship was
launched in 1881, cost So O00,0 900 and is capable
OF twenty-one knots, while the Maine is but
seventeen and half knots. Altogether the
Vizcaya is a formidable ship.