Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-03-15
THE AMAZONAS.
BIG BIDS FOR PROJECTILES
Proposals Opened Yesterday by the Ord
nance Bureau.
Lrrge Supplies Of Ammunition Can
Be Procured at Short Notice.
The New Cruisers.

The bureau Of ordnance of the War De-
partment opened bids Yesterday for a large
supply of armor piercing prejectifes and
for 100000 rifle ball cartridges. The bid
ding brought together number of the
representatives of the large steel and am
munition companies, some of whom took
occasion to give assurances that in the
present emergency government work would
be given the preference over commercial
orders. The bidders for steel projectiles,
varying in size from the S-inch steel-capped
shot to the 1,O0O-pound shot, were the Mid
vale Steel Company, the B. Atha Illings-
worth Company. the Carpenter Steel Com
rany and the Furth Sterling Company.
The bids varied only slightly on the vari-
Gus classes of heavy shot, running from
SIG each for the S-inch shot to $3.50 each
for the 1,O00-pounders. The bids of all the
companies for the 800 and 1000 pound
shells were the same, namely, $1S1 and S235
each.
Although the department intends to ac-
cept only one bid or to divide the order be-
tween the bidders, it afforded satisfaction
to the authorities TO know that such large
supplies could be obtained from so many
sources on short notice.
The bids for rifle cartridges were in two
parts-1O,OOO,OOO being standard metallic
ball cartridges with brown powder, and
2,OOO,OO0 metallic cartridges with smokeless
powder. There were three bidders viz
the Union Metallic Cartridge Company, the
United States Cartridge Company and the
Winchester Repeating Arms Company. The
bids were the same in each case-S1S.5 SO for
the brown powder cartridge and S27 for
the smokeless powder ca fridge The
awards will be made within the next few
Gays, as the War Department wishes the
work to begin at once.
The New Cruisers
The Brazilian cruisers Amazonas and
Hbreuall, just purchased hy the United
States. are at Elswick England. The ANA
zonas Is complete in every respect has her
coal supply and ammunition on board and
steam can be. raised at any time. There
VIII be no trouble in bringing this shin
across, as an adequate force from the local
yards can be secured for service. 1t lis
said the coal and ammunition on board
passed with the sale to the United States
The ammunition is not all of the kind in
use by the United States navy, so that the
supply of ammunition is a necessary ad-
junct to the new ships. The other ship has
been launched, but it will take some time
to make her ready for sea. There will be
no difficulty in bringing her over imme-
diately, If 1t is desired to make the move
without delay. as the hull of the ship is So
well along that she could be towed and her
own sail power utilized for the trip across
A dangerous deficiency in the engineer
branch OF the navy has been brought to
light strikingly in the fact that it is
scarcely possible to secure a staff of engi-
reer officers to bring to the United States
any of the ships purchased abroad.
Department of Missouri
Because of a protest from some of the
western people, the Secretary of War has
modified his order of last week changing
the names of bounds of the military de-
partment SO as to retain the name of the
Department of The Missouri To do this,
however, 1t was necessary to abandon the
naming of 1.-The Department of the Platte"
and the territory included within the pres
ent limits of that department will be
known as the Department Of the Mis-
souri," The old Department of the Mis-
souri, has been named the Department Of
the Lakes.
Vessels at baltimore.
The United States coast survey steamer
Blake. at Baltimore, has been ordered to
Key West on duty in connection with the
movements of the North Atlantic squadron
now gathered in that vicinity. In case of
war the Blake would be found an able yes