The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-11

nave Twelve or more snlpS lncluulng the
four big monitors, Puritan, Terror, Amphi-
trite and Miantonomoh Besides the fleet of
sixteen convoy vessels there will be from
thirty to fifty transport ships, making in
all a remarkable f1otlla of transports and
naval conveys.
WHERE TROOPS MAY LAND.
The first official confirmation OF the en-
gagement at Guantanamo last Tuesday
came to the Navy Department to-day and
was made the subject of a bulletin. The
terms in which Admiral Sampson described
the affair tended strongly to take away the
large Importance that had been given it in
the unofficial dispatches. There was a nota-
BILE failure on the part of the admiral to
mention anything like a landing, although
the statement that the Marblehead now
holds the lower bay by implication may car
ry with it the idea that her marines are
ashore. Elderly naval officers who have
been in Guantanamo bay describe it as adj
mirably suited to the reception of the trans
ports with plenty of water for the biggest
of the transports and enough for the small
er class of war ships that might be used to
convoy them. The locality is one that
would make a good base of operations
against Santiago itself, should it be de-
cided to attack the latter town by troops
statement coming from San Francisco
to the effect that the real object of the
Charlestons voyage was the seizure of the
Spanish Ladrone islands has small basis of
truth in it. When it was decided to send
the monitors Monterey and Monadnock
clear across the Pacific from Mare island
to Manila it was we'll known that this could
not be done without sending along golfers
because of the insufficient coal supply of
the monitors. 1t was not deemed practical
BILE to tow the big ironclads the four thou
sand miles of the voyage that would have
TO be traversed by them without COAL so it
became necessary to find places in the Pa
cifc where they could replenish their bunk
ers. study of the charts showed that
there were several groups of islands lying
between Hawaii and the Philippines which
might afford a harbor in which the Golfers
could lay alongside the monitors and fill up
their coal bunkers The officials do not
deem it prudent to name the particular
islands chosen for the purpose, but it is
obvious that, being barred by neutrality
laws from the possessions of neutral coun-
tries the first recourse of the Navy De-
parment would be to some of the Spanish
islands, such as the Ladrones or the Caro-
lines. Therefore, it is assumed that if the
islands it will be with the purpose of secur-
ing in advance a suitable harbor for the
use of the monitors.
A very substantial evidence of self-sac-
rifce for the sake of their country is af-
forded by the taking up of a military
nurses duties by the daughter of Secretary
Long Miss Margaret Long, with some of
her chums at the Johns Hopkins Medical
School of Baltimore The young ladies who
go with Miss Long are Dorothy Reid, Mabel
Austin, daughter of Ex-Governor Austin, of
Minnesota and Mabel Simis. They have
already reported to the naval hospital at
Brooklyn to nurse the wounded and sick
sailors who were sent up from SIMPSONS
fleet on the Solace.
PROBABLY A MISTAKE.
The Navy Department is at a loss to know
what ammunition was referred to in the Yo-
kohama advices to-day as having been seized
at that point while under consignment to the
Petrol, one of the gunboats attached to Adj
miral Dewey's squadron, now in Manila bay.
1t is stated at the Ordnance Bureau that
every particle of the ammunition sent to
the United States ships on the Asiatic sta
ton since the outbreak of the war has been
dispatched on naval vessels This has been
done because the mercantile lines are loath
was danger, also of the loss of ammunition
through the operation of neutrality laws.
There is reason to assume that if the ammu-
milton really belonged to the Petrol it was
some dispatched to that point before the
outbreak of the war, in which case it was
nothing more than saluting powder and
shells for the one-pound guns, whose loss
would be insignificant AS a matter of fact.
no "a
American Asiatic squadron will have a
larger supply of ammunition than it has
ever had before.
Up to this moment the American war
ships have had no occasion to draw to any
extent upon their stock of armor-piercing
projectiles, as these are not only very ex-
pensive, but are difficult to manufacture
and can be procured only in small quanti-
ties and after long delay The common
shell, however, with bursting charges,
which have been almost altogether used,
not only by Sampson in reducing fortitica-
tons in Cuba, but also by Dewey in his at
tack upon the Spanish ships in the battle
of Manila, are comparatively inexpensive,
and capable of being manufactured by al
most any well-equipped iron works.
No report has yet reached the Navy De-
partment of the killing of any American
marines, who were said to have participated
in the attack upon the Spanish batteries at
Caimeranera, near Santiago. The report of
the killing of these men that appeared in
the newspapers was based on private let
ter from a marine with the squadron. The
officials here say that their facilities for
gathering this information are more ex-
tensive than those at the command of a
marine on the squadron. and because no
official report has been made they are not
inclined TO believe the story to be true.