The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-10
FOR ACTIVE SERVICE AGAIN
Over 100000 Expended on the New
Hartford Plans for Her Future
Formerly Full Rugged Ship Now
Bark Rugged.

Formerly a Full Rugged Ship Now
Bark Rugged.
special despatch to The Evening
Post from Washington, says, after
having been laid up in ordinary at the
Mare Island Navy-yard, California,
since the expiration of her last cruise
in 1887, Farragut's famous dag ship the
Hartford is again to see active service
and will go into commission probably
in August or September, as training
ship for apprentices.
For some years the Hartford and
Kearsage were exempt from the provi-
sion of appropriation bills forbidding
the expenditure of current annual bu-
reau appropriations upon wooden Ves-
sells when the cost of repairs exceeded
~ per cent of the cost OF a new vessel
| of the same kind, but owing to the
large cost of properly repairing her and
the small size of the annual bureau APP
| preparations, it was impracticable ever
to rapair the Hartford,
| In 1893 the Navy Department took up
| question what could be done with the
Hartford to restore her to usefulness
| under the modern requirements of the
service, and at the same time to pre-
| serve as far as possible the outlines of
the ship which entered Mobile Bay.
1t was then decided that if repaired
| she should receive new machinery, and
a modern battery of rapid-fire guns,
| the hull at the same time being put
into thorough repair. With this end in
view, the Hartford was surveyed in
August, 1898, and was found that the
cost of hull work necessary, which in
cluded a light additional upper deck
would be $726,000 The cost of new
machinery was estimated at $l60,0
and of a modern battery at $l50,000
Finally the cost of equipment work in
connection with sails, rigging, etc, was
estimated at $4,000, making a grand
total of $696,000.
1t was also estimated that the cost of
hull alone, not including machinery,
armament, and equipment, of new
steel ship like the Hartford would be at
the present time about $550000, and the
board of survey stated In its report to
the Secretary of the Navy that after
the repairs contemplated, the Hartford
would be almost as good as new ship,
as far as the hull was concerned, and,
barring accidents, should be of service
in time of peace for fifteen or twenty
years without requiring extensive re-
pairs. This report of the board of sur
vey was embodied in the annual report
of Secretary of the Navy Hilary A.
Herbert for 1898, and on July g. 1894,
Congress appropriated 100000 for re-
pairs to the hull of the Hartford
This sum enabled the Bureau of Con-
struction and Repair to begin the work
of remodelling the old corvette, at Mare
Island towards the close of 1894 BY |
the subsequent acts of Congress of June
10, 1896, March 3, 1897, and May A. 1898, |
additional appropriations We're made |
for the continuance of the repairs to |
the hull, and for the purchase and in |
stallation of new machinery, modern |
ordnance, and the other necessary i'm
provements incident to the reconstruc-
ton of the ship.
The repairs to the Hartford were rap
idly Fastening to a conclusion last year,
when the war with Spain caused an in
terruption of the work for several |
months, the Navy Department utilizing
the force engaged on the ship for the |
preparation of the Philadelphia, Monad-
mack, and other ships for active war
service. The reconstruction of the ship,
however, has now reached the last
stage, and recruiting has been begun in
Chicago and several other western cit
les for three hundred able bodied lands
fc., tpy, 81 a,,Gi I,,tt In,
addition, one hundred and fifty able
seamen will be shipped
The old Hartford was built over forty
years ago and in her day was consd-
cred one of the finest sloopS of war ever
constructed, She was launched at Bos-
ton on November 90, 1858, her dimen-
sions being 225 feet on the water line, A
feet beam, and she drew IS feet of
water upon displacement of $3.50
tons. Her engines and boilers were con-
sidered the acme of perfection in their
day, although, in view of the extraor
binary andvance made In marine engi-
neering during the past few decades,
they are now, of course, hopelessly anti
quated. The Hartford carried in Far
raguts day fourteen nine-inch smooth
bore guns.
The Hartford, when originally placed
in commission, was a full-rigged ship,
with something like $4,000 square feet
of canvass in her plain sails. To-day
she is barf-rigged, without royals, and
in place of her old battery she carries
thirteen modern five-inch guns of the
rapid-fire type, together with four six
and one three-pounder, also
Of the quick firing order
The Hartford now displaces $500 tons,
will be able to steam at about twelve
knots an hour, and will have, in addi-
ton sufficient eail-power to enable her l
to work satisfactorily under sail in fair
winds. One important advantage the |
Hartford will possess over the modern /
steel cruiser, is, that she will be indie |
pendent of docks for long period, and '
will enable her to get along /
With very little coal. X
Commander John M. Hawley has h
1een designated by the Navy Depart e
nent to command the reconstructed C
when she is placed in commits g
zion in September at Mare Island, and c
{ is probable that he will receive in d
,tructions to bring the historic ship to l
SeW York via Suez Canal, touching at S
he Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines, r
nd the various Asiatic ports. With
ba n SSnpiatiOn of Farragut a bput her | il