The Portland daily press., 1898-05-02

oA W Hnslgn Sticht who has
peen IN Fortland several times and who
was very courteous to them. Conducted
below ana introduced into the ward room
OF the ship the newspaper men found as
sembled there about the LONG oak mess
table number of the officers whose first
words were demand for the latest news.
What little the newspaper men had was
soon related and nearly all of if was
known to the officers already for before
leaving Rockland Saturday morninr thev
had seen the morning papers. If then
became the turn of the reporters IN do a
little questioning but they got very little
information for their trouble
AS one of the officers expressed If. sswe
are moving with our eyes blinded and
can't see fifteen minutes ahead of no Va
don't know why we are here. how lone
we are to be here or anything about it
We left Rockland at ten o,olocle this
morning and made the run of seventy
miles or Whereabouts at about fourteen
knots getting Off Portland abont one
thirty o'clock or somewhere about that
time. We were obliged to Law off the
harbor for some time before picking m
a PILOT and after we had started 4jnto the
harbor 1T was found that we had made a
mistake and we had to run off shore again
to tegin once more. After time we got
in past the mine fields in the shin chan
mel without much difficulty and here we
are. sit
The officers said that.they did not know
whether they were to meet The Columbia
here or not. They said they rather ex-
pected to be ordered to sea early Sunday
morning. No general visitors will be
allowed on board the ship while she is in
this port. She is not here ON pleasure
cruise and visitors would be out Of place
on the lighting craft just at this time.
Many of the officers had been here be-
fore and had many pleasant things to
say of Portland "It Is one Of the incest
places along the coast said one. 81 have
been here several times in years past and
never come here but what have q good
time. I remember once they took the
officers of the fleet up to the White noun
tains and there we passed most delight
full day. Portland people are the incest
have ever met and we always like to get
here-that is, when we can get ashore
[ am afraid there won't be much of that
sort of thing this time, however"
How is the Cumberland club?" an
other officer asked 81 have the pleasant
est recollections of the Cumberland club
and though l might forget Portland J
could never forget the good fellows 1 met
there. -
And SO the talk went on. There was
a good deal said about tho past and
something about the future but little
about the present. 1t did ones heart
good, however, to see and talk with
pleasant officers, Americans in every
word and gesture, trimming over with
enthusiasm and eager for active service.
what are you people dodglng about
this coast for anyway" one of the report
ers asked.
''Go ask Secretary Long, one of them
replied And then with something like
anger one of the officers continued Here
Is this ship, one OF the fastest warships in
the world. She is meant for real business
and should be out playing havoc with the
Spanish commerce. Nothing can catch
her, nothing can run away from her and
she can fight vol if she gets the chance.
The Maine coast is a pleasant place-in
summer time. But in the month of April
it is fierce. OF Quoddy Head we had a
pretty rough time of it the other night
and some of those on board who are not
entirely familiar with the life on the ocean
blue spent about all the time we were out
| there feeding Spanish mackerel.' -
| The Minneapolis has about 40 men On
| board. She has been cruising about for
soEae weeks now and her crew is in the
L PIAh VI COlN1uiVd anu UOillI2 OfGI lOf u
| good scrap. From what was learned on
board the officers seemed to think that
| the Minneapolis time was being wasted
on this coast. They laughed at the idea OF
| a Spanish ship coming within q thousand
miles of Maine and said they supposed
| the people hereaboutS were feeling better
now they had two warships patrolline
alongssshore to brighten away all bug-a.
| boo Spanish privateers.
Have you seen anything of that long,
| rakish looking ship which has been re.
| ported in the papers down east?' one OF
| them asked with a laugh. "Strange isn't
it that all Ndangerous craft are low lying
| and rakish."
Soon after the cruiser dropped anchor
q big whale boat was dropped overheard
and was soon filed up with blue jackets
Some of them seemed to be taking theil
dunnage along with them but where they
were bound no one seemed to know or if
they did they had nothing to say about
| it. The mail orderly was also in the boat
and cadet was in charge with instruc.
lions to allow no one to go ashore and to
return to the Minneapolis inside half ar
hour. e
| When the PRESS reporter boarded the
Minneapolis he carried a large bundle Of
| daily papers which were distributed
among the officers and men and those
who were fortunate enough to get
| them Immediately disappeared from view
and were not to be seen as long as tbs
newspaper men remained on board.
1t was impossible to learn what the
plans of the Minneapolis were or what
she would do. 1t seemed to be the uni
versal opinion on board, however, thai
she would remain about this coast for
some time, but whether she was to start
| off on a longer cruise accompanied by the
Columbia no one could tell.
A pleasing incident of the afternoon
was the passing of a steamer of the Casco
Bay line loaded down to the waters edge
with men coming from the government
work at Great Diamond island. These
cheered the big cruiser wildly when they
passed under her stern but navy regula
lions would not allow the crew to RESPOND
SO they remained quiet but evidently ap
preciated the compliment
The following is a list of the officers o.
the Minneapolis:
Captain Theodore F. Jewell, Lieutenant
Commander Francis II. Delano, Lieuten
ant George L. Emmons, Lieutenant Ed
ward <. Wright, Lieutenant William P
! White, Lieutenant q. g. Andrew Z
/ Long, Ensign ClarkoD. Stearns, Ensign
John j.. Sticht. Cadet q. E. Briggs,