The San Francisco call., 1898-03-19
Torpedoes Stored at Goat Island May Be Used for Harbor
 Defense.
ENGINEERCORPs RETICENT
Citizens Are Not Allowed to Visit the Station Nor to Land on
 the Island.

commanding the battle-ship Oregon,
 received orders from Washington to sail for CaiIao. The hour named in the order for sailingwas 10 o'clock last Isevening, but late last night the officers
 did not expect to steam out of the har-
 bor before o'clock this morning. The
 Oregon is deep in the water, having on
 board 1900 tons of coal, 400 tons of am
 munition and a full line or stores TOT
 a long cruise. The ship will probably make the run to Callao within sixteen
 or seventeen days.
 Despite the hurry and hustle incl
 dent on preparing for sea, there was time for merriment on board the bat
 tle-ship Oregon yesterday. Every of ficer off duty, every man on the sick
 list, every idler generally was laugh ing over a newspaper, and the cause for laughter was the large pictures of the Oregon's decks which were pub Iished yesterday. Every epithet of scorn which the exhaustive naval vo cabulary contains was heaped upon the head of the artist who perpetrated
 this stupendous blunder. Full of zeal,
 but knowing nothing of nautical af- 1dlIS, lllc pi1OlpSA H PAANi @ANNN -
 the fighting top, half way up the great
 military mast of the ship. From there he took two pictures, one of each end of the ship. Unfortunately, having taken the pictures, he was unable to
 tell which end was which. So the yell low faker came out with a great pie
 ture of the forward deck, and labeled it grandiloquently Below all grace
 fully sweeps the quarterback, the
 captains domain" In the same way
 the quarter deck, with it's clean, we'll
 holystoned blanks and orderly ar
 rangement, was mistaken for the
 store encumbered forecastle.
 Many of the crew, however, were too
 busy to laugh. It was a day of final
 preparation for sea. We are all
 ready now to go anywhere" remarked
 an officer. As soon as the telegram
 with our orders comes we can sail"
 Early in the forenoon the tug Una
 dilla came alongside, bringing num-
 Der of sailors and marines, who were
 added to the crew. The ships com
 plement, numbering over 400 men, IS
 now complete.
 The most important operation of the
 day was the exchange of the old Lee rifles, with which the crew has hither- to been armed, for a new and greatly
 improved magazine gun. The old
 weapons, with the ammunition belong ing to them, were passed on board the 1 Unadilla by a long string Of men and
 the new rifles slowed away in their racks on the battle-ship.
 This new rife, constructed on the magazine principle, embodieS all the most recent scientific improvements in small arms It is a good deal lighter than the old weapon, and the bore is extremely small, only about the size
 of oh ic hor olaa1> rod
 to receive a large charge of powder, and thus an enormous muzzle velocity is obtained. The gun is sighted for 2OOO yards, and the trajectory is so 1 low that the bullet would hit a man in the line of fire during the whole of
 that distance. Up to 800 yards the range is point blank, that is to say, the sights do not require elevating at all. It is terrible weapon, from which it is futile to run away, neither is it any use to hide behind tree, for the bull let will easily penetrate three feet of | timber. The magazine holds five charges, which are inserted at once by means of a metal clip. The marks man has only to pull the trigger and aim, the gun does the rest, and thus great rapidity of fire can be obtained. On the upper deck a whole host of men were busy cleaning the rapid-fir- ing and machine guns, others were polishing the brass rails of the super structure while sailors with paint pots
 were wiping out all traces of the coal dust which so recently enshrouded the ship. This is war paint. observed one humorous tar, as he carefully whit ened the base of a turret.
 The officers of the engineer corps of the United States army who are on duty in this division are reticent con- corning operations at the torpedo sta- tion on Goat Island. The Government has vast quantity Of torpedo material housed at this station, but the precincts are so carefully guarded against the in- trusion of n-combatants that definite information regarding war preparations Is difficult to obtain.
 It is the established policy to main-
 tain as much secrecy as possible con- corning the number, character and To-
 cation of torpedoeS. The engineer
 officers serving at this station strictly conform to the custom. Colonel Charles
 R. Suter, chief of the Pacific Division.
 and Major Charles E. l.. B. Davis firm ly but courteously decline to impart
 any intelligence concerning prepara-
 tions to plant torpedoes for the defense l of this harbor. Application for per-
 mission to visit Goat Island is denied. l Major Davis remarked yesterday that
 no one was allowed to land on the is | land without the consent of the mill>
 tary authorities having charge Of this | particular reservation. It was ex- i plained that the Government had to ex-
 ercise the utmost care to keep the preparations secret. The first order l forbddng civilians to land was issued
 because some careless picnickers start
 ed a fire which caused some damage to
 Government property. Since then the
 authorities instead of relaxing in the
 regulations have adopted additional
 rules against outside intrusion.
 1 The station at Goat Island contains several kinds of torpedoes, among them l the Semmes. the automobile and the or
 dinary fish torpedo. If great emer-
 gency for immediate preparation should
 arise, the engineers might be able with | in ten days to place effective torpedoes
 in position for instant use against an enemy's ship. The channel between
 Fort Point and Lime Point is so narrow
 that torpedoes could be readily launch 1 ed and cnntrolled from the shore.