The record-union., 1898-05-22
Navy Department Pleased at the
Record Of the Oregon.
Steams Thirteen Thousand Miles, From
the Pacific to the Atlantic, Without
the Slightest Injury to Her
Machinery.

WASHINGTON, May 21-The news
event of the day with the Navy De-
partment was the dispatch of the order
to the Monterey to proceed to Manila
to reinforce Admiral. Dewey's squad
ron. The Monterey is a tower of
strength in herself, and her addition
to Admiral Dewey's force, together
with the dispatch of thousands of
troops to Manila, is ample evidence
that the Administration has assumed
no half hearted attitude toward the
Philippine question, and is determined
to take no chance of dispossession I'M
til such time as the United States it
self. has arranged for the disposition
of the islands The Monterey is prob
ably the most formidable monitor in
the world, yet she combines with the
enormous offensive and defensive quail
tiles of the monitor type a sea-
worthiness that is almost phenomenal.
The Monterey is described technically
as a barbette turret, low freeboard
monitor of 1000 tons displacement. She
is 256 feet long by 80 feet beam and
Il feet 6 inches deep. She carries in
two turrets surrounded by barbettes
two 12-inch and two 10-inch guns,
while in her superstructure between
the turrets are mounted six 6-pound
a,,c I Il u ~
The turrets are seven and one-half and
eight inches thick, and the surrounding
barbettes are fourteen inches and
eleven and one-half inches of steel, and
against the armor all the batteries in
Manila might thunder away without eff
fecting an entrance. The Monterey's
personnel is nineteen officers and 112
men, and once she is in the entrance
of Manila harbor nothing in the shape
of navy would be likely to bulge
her from her position. Her dispatch
may have an important bearing upon
the Spanish Government, which so
openly published the account of the
sending of reinforcements to Manila.
The only doubt as to the feasibility
of sending the Monterey is her small
coal capacity. She has bunker room
for only 200 tons of coal, and though
more might be stored on her decks. it
is doubtful whether she could at the
utmost carry more than enough coal
to take her to Honolulu, one-third of
the way to the Philippines. 1t is prob
able that the Monterey will go in con-
voy, and after exhausting the coal that
she will take on in Honolulu, she must
either be towed about 1000 miles Of
her trip, or perform the difficult OPP
Grafton of coaling at sea.
The Navy Department gave out no
news to-day touching the movements
of the American and Spanish squad
rons in the neighborhood of Cuba. It
is plainly to be seen, however, that the
officials are expecting great events to
occur at any moment What they most
duced upon our people by greatly ex-
aggerated and misleading reports from
Spanish sources Of some great naval
engagement, If the Spaniards should
claim the victory. 1t is realized that
the first news of an engagement in the
neighborhood of Cuba or to the east
ward may reach the United States
through the Spanish cables via Ma
drid, and these are almost certain, no
matter what the result may be, to
make such a claim of victory for the
Spanish. Obviously the only manner
now in which the truth could be dis
covered would be through our own Of
ficers.
The Navy Department is proud of
an engineering point of view. The re-
ports TO the department from the ship
show that she does not need ) cents
worth of repairs to her machinery after
her 13.O00-mile continuous run. The
record is said never TO have been
equaled since the building of the first
iron warships.
The Buffalo, which comes with the
Oregon from Brazil. is to be over
hauled at Newport News, furnished
with good armor, given good bat
terry of 5-inch guns, and altogether
made a very effective modern cruiser.
This win take about two months.
The Chicago naval reserve has come
to the aid of the Navy Department in
a most gratifying manner. They have